“He said ‘Would you please tell them that you don’t hang it around your neck like a canoe paddle?’” Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter recalls Andrés Segovia’s reaction to Frank Zappa and Mike Bloomfield playing the guitar
What do you get when you put Andrés Segovia, Frank Zappa and Mike Bloomfield in the same room? An unforgettable jam session, a masterclass in guitar virtuosity, and one heck of a crossover moment among guitar heroes, as recounted by ex-Steely Dan guitarist Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter.
Speaking with Rick Beato, Baxter says that the encounter took place during his early days of working at a guitar store in Manhattan: “One day Andre Segovia comes in because he’s playing at Carnegie Hall and one of the tuning machines on his Ramirez had broken.”
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With no suitable replacement in stock, Baxter had to run to another shop across the street to find a matching set of tuning machines. After securing the parts, he returned to the store, repaired Segovia’s guitar, and strung it up.
“Meanwhile it was Frank Zappa, Mike Bloomfield — I’m trying to think of the other guitar player — it might have been Sam Brown and they’re all rocking away. All standing up and they’re all having a great time,” says Baxter.
“Mr Segovia is just sitting there on the couch in the front room very quiet so I brought the guitar out and I said ‘hold on guys, hold on a second.’ So I handed him the instrument. Sitting there he tunes it up, he plays the first 64 bars from The Concierto de Aranjuez by [Joaquín] Rodrigo and it sounds stupid but it’s like all the photons left the room except for Andrés Segovia.”
“I mean this man — whatever was going on with this guy — there was something going on,” Baxter says of the magical moment. “He had an aura about him and everybody, just the place got completely quiet and then afterwards he said ‘thank you very much’.”
“And then he turned to me, in Spanish, he said ‘would you please tell them that you don’t hang it around your neck like a canoe paddle you hold it next to your body because it’s a part of you. It’s right next to your heart.’ and I thought ‘yeah I’m sitting down,’” he recalls.
The guitarist continues: “I did have a knee injury and I had to do that for a little while and when B.B. King had his knee operation he said ‘Skunk if I’d only known I would have never stood up to play.’”
“And it’s the way to play! I mean, Mr Segovia knows — I think — what he’s talking about.”
Watch the full interview below.
The post “He said ‘Would you please tell them that you don’t hang it around your neck like a canoe paddle?’” Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter recalls Andrés Segovia’s reaction to Frank Zappa and Mike Bloomfield playing the guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
