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Bluegrass guitar legend, Tony Rice, has just died. He could wander into jazz areas on occasion, and not embarrass himself at all. I'm sure there must be some here who appreciate his genius.
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12-26-2020 07:33 PM
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These great musicians are passing at about the same age I am and it is getting mildly depressing. My Mom who will be 95 in a few months has passed through the other side where there is hardly anyone left. I wasn't a big fan of Tony Rice because I'm not a big fan of Bluegrass in general but I certainly respect and admire his talent and hard work he put into being a musician at the very top of his genre. Fair Winds and Following Seas Mr. Rice.
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Sad news indeed.
Here is one of my favorites—Norman Blake, Tony Rice and Doc Watson on this one. Love it when Doc eggs him on.
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Tony Rice, in my top 10 favorite guitarists list (if I had such a list). Such great tone and feel, and note choices.
Everything on this album is great... 1st cut here, Tony's solo is at 2:30, then solos more trading fours, also tasty improv. in the intro. Pretty jazzy including some outside playing.
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rip tony rice
always liked the idea that tony used nickel derived strings on his acoustics instead of the classic bronze type...he had a signature string deal with d'aquisto strings...they were nickel plated...and at present had the martin monel signature strings
cheers
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Tony was just about the only bluegrass guitar player that could make this smart-ass kid from the lower east side of Manhattan sit up and say omg what the heck was that. What an amazing, beautiful, rare, genre-spanning talent. One for the ages.
RIP, Mr. Rice.
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Very sad news.
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Sad news. Tony Rice was part of that stage where I moved from Allman Bros and Santana to a broader world. I will always enjoy listening to his music.
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He was a BIG hero to many of us. You could tell he was a big Wes fan as well.
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Originally Posted by guido5
cheers
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Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
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Oh, so sorry to hear that. He was on a lot of amazing recordings and disproved the existence of categories of music.
One of my musical regrets is not having heard him play live. Had tickets for a show he was supposed to be on but he canceled his part of the tour due to illness (David Bromberg, Angel Band and the Tony Rice Unit were the scheduled performers; Peter Rowan trio was the sub and were awesome, but were just not Tony...).
Thank you, Tony, for all the years of great music! Rest in peace.Last edited by Cunamara; 02-05-2021 at 04:36 PM.
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Sad. I saw him in the late ‘80s with his brother Wyatt and Alison Krauss at the Great American Music Hall in SF. There were others too, but I wouldn’t know who they were. Great show. It was swinging.
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Another big fan here who will be raising a few toasts to Tony and listening to plenty of his music over the coming days. I only have a half a dozen licks in my repertoire, and a couple of those are Tony's.
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Oh no. What a crap year it’s been.
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I had a friend who produced a bluegrass festival (Musicians against Childhood Cancer) who introduced me to Tony on a tour bus. "Hey Mike, play some guitar for Tony" as he handed me a '37 Martin Herringbone. I knew Tony was into jazz and started playing "Nardis". He had been eating a pre show meal and stopped and asked me to start again discussing the song as I played. This went on for awhile when I heard him tell my friend "sounds like someones been woodshedding". When he left the bus to go perform in front of about 5,000 people, he looked back and said "Don't ever stop". I will never forget that moment.... RIP Tony, truly a Southern Gentleman and brilliant musician...
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Oh, Man, sad news. One of my favorite players. RIP Tony. Jazz, blues, folk and Country all melded in his most adventurous improvisations. In folk and Bluegrass material he was unique and untouchable.
His fills and back-up were so beautiful on this tune.
Last edited by AndyV; 12-27-2020 at 12:14 PM.
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Sad news indeed. I was just listening to some of his stuff over the last couple of days. This one, from a Darol Anger session has become a favorite:
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One of the most beautiful songs that Tony decorated. Check out how avant garde his playing really was ... dissonance, harmonics, modal riffs, etc.
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ps://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/58957-tony-rice-and-his-holy-grail-martin-d-28/
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^ wow what a great tale..anything with clarence white provenance is gonna be good!
58957: Tony Rice and his Holy Grail Martin D-28 | Fretboard Journal
cheers
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One of those people you simply have to like.
My Band camp
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Originally Posted by AndyV
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Nice tribute in Vanity Fair w/ tweets from "friends, fans, and collaborators"
Bluegrass Guitarist Tony Rice Dies at Age 69 | Vanity Fair
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End of an era.
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Tony, in his prime, does an interesting Q&A. What a kind and generous guy to spend an hour answering questions from fans.
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A remarkable musician. His inventiveness was deep, with new directions in every recording.
He hadn't been able to sing for quite some time due to muscle tension dysphonia, and lateral epicondylitis ended his guitar-playing career before 2014. But until it stopped his singing was assured and pleasing, and his guitar mastery was breath-taking.
What a gift to the world of music his life turned out to be. We are fortunate to have so much of his artistry recorded.
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Here's a full concert, if that interests. But you only need to hear the first two numbers to get Tony at his best.
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Very sad to hear. RIP
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Tony is gone from this Earth, hopefully he's some place enjoyable and not resting in peace in nothingness...
Last edited by BFrench; 12-31-2020 at 08:56 AM.
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I am sorry to hear Tony Rice passed. I dont know of anyone better who ever lived. I was just checking YT and saw him playing with Mark O Conner. I got to meet Mark once and I asked him if he used any charts when he played with The Dixie Dregs and said no he did not need any. The Nashville Cats album with Brent Mason is also very good pickin. Mountain View Arkansas is a Bluegrass center. In the warm weather they have lots of really good players on the court house lawn on weekends. Anyone serious about this style would enjoy it. There is also a Folk Music center which has national caliber acts. It is beautiful Ozark Hill country! Yall show up when you are ready to pick some Bluegrass. Old Martins extra welcome!
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A beautiful and moving essay by Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz guitars.
Prodigious at four, incredible at 12 and... - Santa Cruz Guitar | Facebook
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Tony is my guitar hero. I was privileged to see him play several times. His Homepsun instructional tapes continue to provide inspiration and joy.
Here are some live performances:
Error 400 (Bad Request)!!1
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A great loss. Tony Rice is one of my top five guitar players of all times. I had the pleasure of running sound and recording him live in a small listening room setting on a a couple of occasions in Charlottesville, VA in the late-90s/early-00s. On the first occasion he was with Norman Blake and the other with his brother Wyatt. Tony had incredible jazz chops (chord voicings, lines, etc.). During one of the sounds checks, we had a long talk about Wes Montgomery. That night he did an incredible version of Four on Six. If you've never heard it, it's on his album Acoustics. Here's a link:
Also, when you think of iconic guitars - Stevie Ray's "SRV" Strat, Clapton's 335, BB King's Lucile, etc., you have to put Tony's (formerly Clarence White's) Martin D-28 (#58957) on that list.
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Originally Posted by steve burchfield
Originally Posted by SkipBurz
BTW Norman Blake grew up and currently lives about 30 minutes away from my mother. My old neighbor occasionally plays bass with him when there are music get-togethers in the area. He is one of my favorite players and singers, and is one of the best flatpickers in the old traditional style. He had a stroke a year or 2 ago which slowed him down some.
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This afternoon at 12:00 PST / 3:00p EST ArtistWorks is doing a tribute to Tony Rice on FaceBook Live. Bryan Sutton and others will host. Included in the line-up is Chris "Critter" Eldridge. If you don't know his work, I highly recommend you listen to one of the duet albums he did with Julian Lage - especially their first, Avalon.
ArtistWorks
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Great version of Four on Six, Skip. Glad to have heard it.
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Here's a wonderful eulogy for Tony Rice by Chris Eldridge published in Variety magazine. About halfway through, he discusses Rice's love and appreciation for jazz.
Punch Brother Chris Eldridge Salutes Bluegrass Guitar Hero Tony Rice - Variety
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Of all that's been written about Tony since Christmas day, this remembrance by Chris Eldridge is my favorite.
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Originally Posted by AndyV
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Here's a nice piece by Béla Fleck.
https://tidal.com/magazine/article/t...1-2020/1-76154
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Originally Posted by CarlD
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A little Tony Rice inspired noodling on my Single 0
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'Cheering-up' required, so:
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I never heard Tony play on Round Midnight until today. This is from Mike Marshall's album Gator Strut.
Great solo and great comping.
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Originally Posted by Cunamara
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Yeah, I really liked the slight bluegrass-ish/swing-grass groove they played, not as suicidally mournful as is often the case. Monk's music seems to sometimes get encased in amber with a tendency to not deviate from orthodoxy when approaching it, which is ironic considering how much his music deviated from orthodoxy!
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Originally Posted by SkipBurz
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.
Prelude for Guitar and Bass
Today, 08:31 AM in Showcase