RIP Tony Rice

[SkipBurz]

That was a good interview with Eldridge.

Rice was my original guitar hero. I discovered him as a freshman in college when I was hitting an Americana music phase, listening to him along with Doc Watson, Clarence White and Norman Blake. I caught him originally just as the first David Grisman Quintet albums were coming out, and got to see a few of the first original lineups of the band when Rice (and later Mark O'Connor) were in them. First time I saw them is still one of my most memorable shows.

He never made a bad and rarely even an average album, and his variety of styles and singing kept it all very interesting. Once in an interview I read that it all came down to tone, timing, and intonation for him, and yeah, that describes it pretty well. Such a rich tone from an acoustic guitar, only Doc Watson and Clarence White were in the same neighborhood in bluegrass.

Later, Tony and the DGQ led me into discovering more swing, bebop, and cool jazz among others, which I migrated towards, and guitar remained my favorite instrument as I focused more on jazz and classical, and less on folk, blues, and bluegrass. Still listen to and love them all though.

One quote from Tony in that article that I like follows:

"As a musician, you need to LOVE music: the sound of it, the flow of it, the humanity of it — everything about it. You should be able to listen to one note — one single long sustained note — and have it be a complete musical experience. It’s all in that one note if we’re open to it: timbre, dynamics, harmony… even rhythm! If you can hear the music in and truly love that one note, then just imagine how engrossing actual music can be.

This sort of reminded me of a quote by Jerry Garcia that I read once. He said Django Reinhardt was his favorite guitarist. Because every note he played had its own "specific personality".

Thoughtful stuff. As I moved on to liking a lot of jazz guitarists, some took over from Tony in my pantheon of favorites. But I always come back semi-regularly and play Tony's stuff, rotating among his many phases and styles. Definitely had a richness in his own homegrown soul.

Well said!

[citizenk74]

That was a good interview with Eldridge.

Rice was my original guitar hero. I discovered him as a freshman in college when I was hitting an Americana music phase, listening to him along with Doc Watson, Clarence White and Norman Blake. I caught him originally just as the first David Grisman Quintet albums were coming out, and got to see a few of the first original lineups of the band when Rice (and later Mark O'Connor) were in them. First time I saw them is still one of my most memorable shows.

He never made a bad and rarely even an average album, and his variety of styles and singing kept it all very interesting. Once in an interview I read that it all came down to tone, timing, and intonation for him, and yeah, that describes it pretty well. Such a rich tone from an acoustic guitar, only Doc Watson and Clarence White were in the same neighborhood in bluegrass.

Later, Tony and the DGQ led me into discovering more swing, bebop, and cool jazz among others, which I migrated towards, and guitar remained my favorite instrument as I focused more on jazz and classical, and less on folk, blues, and bluegrass. Still listen to and love them all though.

One quote from Tony in that article that I like follows:

"As a musician, you need to LOVE music: the sound of it, the flow of it, the humanity of it — everything about it. You should be able to listen to one note — one single long sustained note — and have it be a complete musical experience. It’s all in that one note if we’re open to it: timbre, dynamics, harmony… even rhythm! If you can hear the music in and truly love that one note, then just imagine how engrossing actual music can be.

This sort of reminded me of a quote by Jerry Garcia that I read once. He said Django Reinhardt was his favorite guitarist. Because every note he played had its own "specific personality".

Thoughtful stuff. As I moved on to liking a lot of jazz guitarists, some took over from Tony in my pantheon of favorites. But I always come back semi-regularly and play Tony's stuff, rotating among his many phases and styles. Definitely had a richness in his own homegrown soul.

[Greentone]

I must say, I have never heard a guitarist produce a better tone from a flat top guitar than Tony Rice. The most award winning flat picker, Scott Fore, is also in that elite group of flat top guitarists whose tone production is second-to-none...but Tony Rice was simply the best.

Rice recorded "I am a Pilgrim" many times. The tone production on the Tone Poems album with David Grisman, however, is awesome. I have been a long-time student of Rice's technique and sound. I learned a lot, right here:

[ooglybong]

So sorry to learn of Tony's passing. Wow...

I first learned of the great Tony Rice back when he was emerging from David Grisman's "Dawg Music" band of jazzier bluegrass virtuosity. He then began the Tony Rice Unit, and I still own their first two albums on vinyl, Mar West and Still Inside (both are entirely instrumental), and those are my favorites of his work, being really quite jazzier and SO melodic. Even now, so many years later, I still listen to them every now and then.

If you're interested, the content of those two LPs has also been released on one CD (albeit their song order shuffled around with one song deleted, IIRC). VERY highly recommended...

https://www.amazon.com/Devlin-Tony-R...=UTF8&qid=&sr=

[CarlD]

... The tone production on the Tone Poems album with David Grisman, however, is awesome.

That album is just sublime ... everything about it.