Gary Lucas
Encyclopedia
Gary Lucas is an American
guitarist
, a Grammy-nominated songwriter, a soundtrack composer for film and television, and an international recording artist with over a dozen solo albums to date. He has been described as "one of the best and most original guitarists in America" (David Fricke, 16 Nov. 2006, Rolling Stone
); a "legendary leftfield guitarist" (The Guardian
, 24 Dec. 2005); "the thinking man's guitar hero" (The New Yorker
, 8 Jan. 2007), "perhaps the greatest living electric guitar player" (Daniel Levitin
) and one of "the most innovative and challenging guitarists playing today" (fRoots, March 2002).
Lucas tours the world solo, as well as with several different ensembles including his longtime band NYC-based group, Gods and Monsters
, a psychedelic rock
band based around Lucas's guitar playing and songwriting. The band completed a tour of Moscow
and St. Petersburg, Russia
, and the Netherlands
. Other regular members of the band include Ernie Brooks, Jason Candler, and Billy Ficca. Lucas also lectures on guitar and the music business in general. As of 2007, he has performed in more than 35 countries, including India.
Gary Lucas was born in 1954 in Syracuse
, New York USA. He obtained a degree in English
from Yale University
(1974), before establishing his career in music first as a college DJ and then as Music Director at his college radio station, WYBC FM. He presently lives in New York City
.
, with whom he later formed a strong friendship. From being a Beefheart fan Gary eventually became his co-manager and occasionally performed on stage during the 1980–81 tours – reciting a poem (usually "One Man Sentence", sometimes "Untitled") or performing the solo guitar piece "Flavor Bud Living".
After gaining his degree, Lucas played for a few years for "O-Bay-Gone Band" before gaining a significant step in his career during 1980–82, when he was engaged to record on two Beefheart albums released by Virgin Records
, on one of which he was full-time lead alongside Moris Tepper
. Lucas performed over a period of five years with the last incarnation of Beefheart's Magic Band. His solo guitar pieces on Doc at the Radar Station
(1980) and Ice Cream for Crow
(1982) featured his solo renditions of Beefheart's instrumental compositions, "Flavor Bud Living" and "Evening Bell." Of the latter, Esquire wrote "Gary Lucas apparently grew extra fingers in order to negotiate his way through it".
After Captain Beefheart retired in the 1980s, Lucas continued to be associated with the Magic Band's former members, and the band continues to be creatively active: several of Beefheart's former band members reformed the group, touring as the Magic Band from 2003 to 2006. Their 2007 double album and DVD, 21st Century Mirror Men, followed up their debut album Back to the Front which was chosen as one of the best albums of 2004 by The Wire
.
In 1988, Lucas mounted his first solo guitar show at New York's Knitting Factory
. Shortly after his first gig, he was invited to appear at the 1988 JazzFest Berlin
, where the Berliner Morgenpost raved in a banner headline after his performance, "It is Lucas!"
band Future Sound of London. He has been a regular visitor to London's Royal Festival Hall
(five appearances) and Amsterdam's famed Paradiso
(17 appearances since 1980).
Lucas recently returned from his fourth tour of Russia
, where he performed his original solo guitar adaptation of the Lucas/Horn score accompanying the silent classic German horror film The Golem
(1920) in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and appeared on national TV before an estimated 50 million viewers, as well as being feted in the Russian edition of Rolling Stone
. He's played with The Golem solo all over the world since the live debut of the duet score he and keyboardist Walter Horn wrote for the movie in 1989 at the BAM
Next Wave Festival—including performing at the Venice Biennale, London's Royal Festival Hall, the New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center, as part of a week long artist-in-residency at the Quebec City Summer Festival
, at the Alien artist H. R. Giger
's Retrospective in Prague (home of the Golem) this spring, at Atlanta's Dragon Con
, the largest science fiction festival in the world, and at this year's fifth annual Pop Montreal
music and film festival.
Other recent concert appearances include a concert at the Czech Embassy in Washington DC by invitation of the Czech ambassador to the US spotlighting Lucas's solo guitar arrangements of Czech classical music in honor of the 14th anniversary of the Czech Velvet Revolution
(Lucas is of Bohemia
n descent on his father's side). Lucas made an extensive solo acoustic tour of Spain
in 2007.
Lucas co-leads a jazz-oriented, all-instrumental Beefheart tribute
ensemble, Fast 'n' Bulbous: the Captain Beefheart Project, who have made appearances at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival and the Jazz Em Agosto Festival in Lisbon
during 2006. Their debut album Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind was profiled on NPR and charted on college radio in the US. In Fall, 2006, they toured Europe extensively, selling out shows at the London Jazz Festival, in Amsterdam's BimHuis, as well as playing in Bern, Vienna, Schwaz and Ljubljana Slovenia. The group has recently released its second album, Waxed Oop, on Cuneiform Records
.
In November 2006, Lucas toured Europe with Phillip Johnston and five other jazz musicians as the Gary Lucas and Phillip Johnston Septet. The group performed jazz arrangements of Captain Beefheart's work in London, Amsterdam, Bern, Vienna, Schwaz (Austria) and Ljubljana.
, Captain Beefheart
, Jeff Buckley
, Chris Cornell
, Lou Reed
, John Cale
, Nick Cave
, David Johansen
. He has also worked with Mary Margaret O'Hara
, Onetwo
, Peter Stampfel, Sebastian Doggart
, Fred Schneider (The B-52's
), Bob Neuwirth
, Geoff Muldaur
, John Sebastian
, John Zorn
, Bryan Ferry
, Patti Smith
, Kate
and Anna McGarrigle
, Matthew Sweet
, DJ Spooky
, Damo Suzuki
, Iggy Pop
, Dr. John
, Allen Ginsberg
, Graham Parker
, The Dark Poets
, Future Sound of London, Melissa Mars
, Van Dyke Parks
, Adrian Sherwood, Richard Barone
, Bob Weir
, Warren Haynes
(Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule
), Kristin Diable and many others. Jazz collaborations include Roswell Rudd
, Steve Swallow
, Joe Lovano
, Dave Liebman
, and Billy Bang
. Some of these collaborations appear on his retrospective album Improve the Shining Hour, which also features his film and TV music for ABC News, 20/20 and Turning Point. He has produced albums for composer/saxophonists Tim Berne
and Peter Gordon, and for the French avant-rock band Tanger. He co-wrote Joan Osborne
's Grammy-nominated song "Spider Web" from her triple platinum album Relish
.
Lucas co-wrote two of the songs, "Grace" and "Mojo Pin
", from Jeff Buckley's popular and critically acclaimed album Grace. Early collaborations can also be heard on the Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas album Songs to No One, which charted internationally with worldwide sales approaching 100,000.
Dutch lutist Jozef Van Wissem has collaborated with Lucas on several albums, which include "the Universe of Absence" and "Diplopia." They have appeared and performed live on Dutch national TV together.
In 2007 Lucas collaborated on an album with underground electronic producer James R Hunter's project The Dark Poets
. The album was produced by British label manager Stevo Pearce
of Some Bizzare Records
. The album, Gary Lucas vs the Dark Poets
- Beyond the Pale, features an eclectic mixture of moody drum and bass, techno and rock tracks (most notably 'Prime Time' - featuring vocals by Sarah Hilliard and James R Hunter) as well as many early collectable Gary Lucas tracks and collaborations (including "Procuress from Karmelitska Street" featuring UK vocalist Pat Fulgoni of Kava Kava and original sketches of songs which went on to be used on Jeff Buckley's Grace album' including 'Grace' and 'Mojo Pin
').
In 2009 Lucas collaborated on a new world music collaboration with an Indian vocalist from the UK, Najma Akhtar. Their album RISHTE combines rock, blues, folk, and raga, on Harmonia Mundi/World Village. It was listed #4 in the European World Music charts in 2009.
In 2010, Lucas collaborated with vocalist Dean Bowman on their "spiritual roots project" and gospel album, "CHASE THE DEVIL." The duo performed an amalgam of Hebrew and African American blues live in the U.S. and Europe.
In May 2011, Lucas released a new studio album with his band, Gods and Monsters
, entitled The Ordeal of Civility. It was produced by Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) and distributed by Sony/Red.
to The Wall Street Journal
to the Hong Kong Music Weekly. It was #1 on the World Music Charts in Canada and garnered international attention, England's Q magazine awarding it 4 Stars, and Mojo writing: "It is simply gorgeous." The album was chosen as one of the Best Discs of the year in France's Libération
newspaper. There was a lengthy profile for the album in The Wall Street Journal, as well as an NPR
interview.
. Gary has been performing DJ improv sets with Cosmo in a variety of far-flung locales, including high profile gigs in Romania and India. This year he released his second album with Dutch lutist
Jozef Van Wissem, The Universe of Absence, and the pair recently performed live on Dutch national TV network VPRO show, "Free Sounds."
Lucas has played at the UK's Glastonbury Festival
, at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire and at the All Tomorrow's Parties
festival in LA and Camber Sands in the UK.
In 1996, Gary Lucas played Fireman Sam
in Fireman Sam in Action
.
A number of UK DJs have featured Lucas in their radio shows, including Charlie Gillett
and John Peel
, as well as Verity Sharp and Fiona Talkington on their BBC experimental music program, and Rob Da Bank, also on BBC.
In Fall 2009, Gary Lucas debuted his new live program of solo guitar arrangements of famous film music at the 5th International Jecheon Film and Music Festival in South Korea. He was also invited by the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamerica to preview his score for the Spanish version of Dracula (1931) at the 31st Havana Film Festival in Havana, Cuba. Lucas performs the European premiere of his Spanish "Dracula" project at the 9th Transylvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca Romania on May 30, 2010 in the open-air outside the Banfi Botzida Castle.
In the summer of 2009, he collaborated with new up-and-coming Latin American artist Juan Galeano on his album El Peregrino, which debuted April 2010.
Lucas returned to Cuba December 2010 for the 32nd Havana Film Festival, and debuted a new live score accompanying a Brazilian horror classic, "Esta Noite Encarnerei no teu Cadaver" (Tonight I will Possess Your Corpse).
(his alma mater), the University of Hawaii
, New York University
, and Columbia University
. He has given guitar master classes at the Amsterdam Music Conservatory and in Honolulu at the University of Hawaii
. He has also lectured at Rogers State University
in Oklahoma
, and McGill University
in Montreal
, Canada.
, Libération, and featured on the cover of The Forward
as well as the national Dutch newspaper Het Parool
. According to the Beefheart website:
In the early 2000s, he performed a guitar
rendition of the theme music to BBC1 soap opera EastEnders
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, a Grammy-nominated songwriter, a soundtrack composer for film and television, and an international recording artist with over a dozen solo albums to date. He has been described as "one of the best and most original guitarists in America" (David Fricke, 16 Nov. 2006, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
); a "legendary leftfield guitarist" (The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 24 Dec. 2005); "the thinking man's guitar hero" (The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, 8 Jan. 2007), "perhaps the greatest living electric guitar player" (Daniel Levitin
Daniel Levitin
Professor Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D. is a prominent American cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, record producer, musician, and writer...
) and one of "the most innovative and challenging guitarists playing today" (fRoots, March 2002).
Lucas tours the world solo, as well as with several different ensembles including his longtime band NYC-based group, Gods and Monsters
Gods and Monsters (band)
Gods and Monsters is an American psychedelic rock band from New York City, known for once having singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley as a member in the early 1990s....
, a psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
band based around Lucas's guitar playing and songwriting. The band completed a tour of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and St. Petersburg, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. Other regular members of the band include Ernie Brooks, Jason Candler, and Billy Ficca. Lucas also lectures on guitar and the music business in general. As of 2007, he has performed in more than 35 countries, including India.
Biography
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
, New York USA. He obtained a degree in English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
(1974), before establishing his career in music first as a college DJ and then as Music Director at his college radio station, WYBC FM. He presently lives in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Early career
According to his website, Lucas was encouraged by his father to try the guitar at age 9, and briefly dabbled with other instruments at school, and played with various groups and combos in the 1960s, during his teens. During his senior year at high school he played for the documentary film unit of the Upstate Medical Center and scored on his first film assignment. In his sophomore year he travelled on what he calls a "pilgrimage" to see childhood hero Captain BeefheartCaptain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
, with whom he later formed a strong friendship. From being a Beefheart fan Gary eventually became his co-manager and occasionally performed on stage during the 1980–81 tours – reciting a poem (usually "One Man Sentence", sometimes "Untitled") or performing the solo guitar piece "Flavor Bud Living".
After gaining his degree, Lucas played for a few years for "O-Bay-Gone Band" before gaining a significant step in his career during 1980–82, when he was engaged to record on two Beefheart albums released by Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, on one of which he was full-time lead alongside Moris Tepper
Moris Tepper
Moris Tepper, sometimes credited as Jeff Moris Tepper, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and artist.Tepper first came to prominence in the late 1970s with Captain Beefheart. He has also worked with singers Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Robyn Hitchcock and Frank Black. He has recorded several solo...
. Lucas performed over a period of five years with the last incarnation of Beefheart's Magic Band. His solo guitar pieces on Doc at the Radar Station
Doc at the Radar Station
Doc at the Radar Station is the eleventh studio album by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band, released in August 1980 to favorable reviews. The painting on the album cover is by Don Van Vliet himself...
(1980) and Ice Cream for Crow
Ice Cream for Crow
Ice Cream for Crow is the twelfth and final studio album by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band, released in September 1982. It is the last Don Van Vliet recorded before abruptly retiring from music as Captain Beefheart to devote himself to a career as a painter...
(1982) featured his solo renditions of Beefheart's instrumental compositions, "Flavor Bud Living" and "Evening Bell." Of the latter, Esquire wrote "Gary Lucas apparently grew extra fingers in order to negotiate his way through it".
After Captain Beefheart retired in the 1980s, Lucas continued to be associated with the Magic Band's former members, and the band continues to be creatively active: several of Beefheart's former band members reformed the group, touring as the Magic Band from 2003 to 2006. Their 2007 double album and DVD, 21st Century Mirror Men, followed up their debut album Back to the Front which was chosen as one of the best albums of 2004 by The Wire
The Wire (magazine)
The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
.
In 1988, Lucas mounted his first solo guitar show at New York's Knitting Factory
Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory is a music venue and concert house with locations in Brooklyn, Boise, Reno, and Spokane. The club originally specialized in jazz and experimental music and has expanded to showcasing all genres of music, performing arts and comedy....
. Shortly after his first gig, he was invited to appear at the 1988 JazzFest Berlin
JazzFest Berlin
JazzFest Berlin is a jazz festival based in Berlin, Germany. Originally called the "Berliner Jazztage" , it was founded in 1964 in West Berlin by the Berliner Festspiele. It is considered one of the world's premier jazz festivals...
, where the Berliner Morgenpost raved in a banner headline after his performance, "It is Lucas!"
Concerts and tours
His Australian debut was made in the company of UK electronicaElectronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
band Future Sound of London. He has been a regular visitor to London's Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
(five appearances) and Amsterdam's famed Paradiso
Paradiso
Paradiso is the Italian or Latinized version for Heaven or Paradise. It may also refer to:* Paradiso , the third part of Dante's Divine Comedy* Paradisio, a Belgian dance act* Paradiso , a music venue in Amsterdam...
(17 appearances since 1980).
Lucas recently returned from his fourth tour of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where he performed his original solo guitar adaptation of the Lucas/Horn score accompanying the silent classic German horror film The Golem
The Golem: How He Came Into the World
The Golem: How He Came Into the World is a 1920 silent horror film by Paul Wegener. It was directed by Carl Boese and Wegener, written by Wegener and Henrik Galeen, and starred Wegener as the golem. The script was adapted from the 1915 novel The Golem by Gustav Meyrink...
(1920) in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and appeared on national TV before an estimated 50 million viewers, as well as being feted in the Russian edition of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
. He's played with The Golem solo all over the world since the live debut of the duet score he and keyboardist Walter Horn wrote for the movie in 1989 at the BAM
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
Next Wave Festival—including performing at the Venice Biennale, London's Royal Festival Hall, the New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center, as part of a week long artist-in-residency at the Quebec City Summer Festival
Quebec City Summer Festival
The Festival d'été, or Summer Festival , has been taking place annually since 1968. It is organized by groups of businesspersons and artists of Quebec City in order to show the artistic, economic, and tourist potential of the region...
, at the Alien artist H. R. Giger
H. R. Giger
Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger is a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer. He won an Academy Award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects for his design work on the film Alien.-Early life:...
's Retrospective in Prague (home of the Golem) this spring, at Atlanta's Dragon Con
Dragon Con
Dragon*Con is a North America multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place once each year in Atlanta, Georgia...
, the largest science fiction festival in the world, and at this year's fifth annual Pop Montreal
Pop Montreal
Pop Montreal is an annual music festival occurring in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the early fall, usually at the end of September or the beginning of October. More than 400 acts are scheduled to play in more than 50 venues across the city, mostly located in the Mile End area...
music and film festival.
Other recent concert appearances include a concert at the Czech Embassy in Washington DC by invitation of the Czech ambassador to the US spotlighting Lucas's solo guitar arrangements of Czech classical music in honor of the 14th anniversary of the Czech Velvet Revolution
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
(Lucas is of Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
n descent on his father's side). Lucas made an extensive solo acoustic tour of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 2007.
Lucas co-leads a jazz-oriented, all-instrumental Beefheart tribute
Tribute band
A tribute act is a music group, singer, or musician who specifically plays the music of a well-known music act - sometimes one which has disbanded, ceased touring or is deceased. Probably the largest class of tributes acts are Elvis impersonators, individual performers who mimic the songs and style...
ensemble, Fast 'n' Bulbous: the Captain Beefheart Project, who have made appearances at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival and the Jazz Em Agosto Festival in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
during 2006. Their debut album Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind was profiled on NPR and charted on college radio in the US. In Fall, 2006, they toured Europe extensively, selling out shows at the London Jazz Festival, in Amsterdam's BimHuis, as well as playing in Bern, Vienna, Schwaz and Ljubljana Slovenia. The group has recently released its second album, Waxed Oop, on Cuneiform Records
Cuneiform Records
Cuneiform Records is an independent record label based in Silver Spring, Maryland.The label releases a mixture of musical styles, including progressive jazz, modern fusion music, progressive rock, the Canterbury Scene and electronic music...
.
In November 2006, Lucas toured Europe with Phillip Johnston and five other jazz musicians as the Gary Lucas and Phillip Johnston Septet. The group performed jazz arrangements of Captain Beefheart's work in London, Amsterdam, Bern, Vienna, Schwaz (Austria) and Ljubljana.
Projects and collaborations
Lucas has played and collaborated with Leonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
, Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley
Jeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley , raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician...
, Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell is an American rock musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Soundgarden and as the former lead vocalist for Audioslave. He is also known for his numerous solo works and soundtrack contributions since 1998...
, Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
, Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
, David Johansen
David Johansen
David Roger Johansen is an American rock, protopunk, blues, and pop singer, as well as a songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal protopunk band The New York Dolls and also achieved commercial success under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter.-Early life:Johansen was born in...
. He has also worked with Mary Margaret O'Hara
Mary Margaret O'Hara
Mary Margaret O'Hara is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress, who has been hailed as one of the greatest cult heroines in rock music despite having released very few of her own recordings. She is best known for the critically acclaimed album Miss America, released in 1988.-Early stages:O'Hara...
, Onetwo
Onetwo (band)
Onetwo is a synth pop group formed in 2000 by singer Claudia Brücken and keyboardist/singer Paul Humphreys . Their collaboration had no name until 2004....
, Peter Stampfel, Sebastian Doggart
Sebastian Doggart
Sebastian Doggart is an English and American producer, director, writer, translator, cinematographer and human rights activist.-Education:...
, Fred Schneider (The B-52's
The B-52's
The B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
), Bob Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and visual artist. A mainstay of the early 1960s Cambridge, Massachusetts, folk scene, he subsequently became a friend and associate of Bob Dylan alongside whom he appears in D.A...
, Geoff Muldaur
Geoff Muldaur
Geoff Muldaur is an American founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band of Cambridge, Massachusetts; a member of Paul Butterfield's Better Days; and an accomplished solo guitarist, singer, and songwriter....
, John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...
, John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
, Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...
, Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
, Kate
Kate McGarrigle
Kate McGarrigle, CM was a Canadian folk music singer-songwriter, who wrote and performed as a duo with her sister Anna McGarrigle....
and Anna McGarrigle
Anna McGarrigle
Anna McGarrigle, CM is a Canadian folk music singer/songwriter who wrote and performed as a duo with her sister, Kate McGarrigle, until Kate's death in 2010.-Musical career:...
, Matthew Sweet
Matthew Sweet
Sidney Matthew Sweet is an American alternative rock/power pop musician. He was part of the burgeoning Athens, Georgia music scene in the early and mid-1980s before gaining commercial success during the early 1990s...
, DJ Spooky
DJ Spooky
Paul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
, Damo Suzuki
Damo Suzuki
, universally known as Damo Suzuki , is a singer best known for his membership in the German krautrock group Can.-Biography:As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 1960s wandering around Europe, often busking....
, Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
, Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Graham Parker
Graham Parker
Graham Parker is a British rock singer and songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the popular British band Graham Parker & the Rumour.-Early career :...
, The Dark Poets
The Dark Poets
Dubbed "Drum and Bass for Goths" The Dark Poets are an electronic [Rock]/breakbeat outfit from the UK.-Background:The Dark Poets originally rose to prominence with their soundtrack for Alex Chandon's cult Cradle of Filth horror movie 'Cradle of Fear'. - Which gained the attention of Some Bizzare...
, Future Sound of London, Melissa Mars
Melissa Mars
- Biography :Born in Marseilles, France, Melissa Mars began acting at the age of thirteen, at the Chocolat theater. Two years later, she began taking singing lessons....
, Van Dyke Parks
Van Dyke Parks
Van Dyke Parks is an American composer, arranger, producer, musician, singer, author and actor. Parks is perhaps best known for his contributions as a lyricist on the Beach Boys album Smile....
, Adrian Sherwood, Richard Barone
Richard Barone
Richard Barone is a rock musician born in Tampa, Florida who gained attention as frontman for The Bongos. He works as a songwriter, arranger, author, director, and producer, releases albums as a solo artist, tours, and has created major concert events at Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl and New York's...
, Bob Weir
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
, Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes is an American rock and blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work as long time guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan Coe and The Dickey...
(Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule
Gov't Mule
Gov't Mule is a Southern rock jam band formed in 1994 as an Allman Brothers Band side project by Warren Haynes and Allen Woody.The band released their debut album Gov't Mule in 1995...
), Kristin Diable and many others. Jazz collaborations include Roswell Rudd
Roswell Rudd
Roswell Rudd is a Grammy Award-nominated American jazz trombonist and composer....
, Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow is a jazz double bass and bass guitarist and composer born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.One of the leading bassists in jazz, Swallow is noted for collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton and Carla Bley...
, Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
, Dave Liebman
Dave Liebman
Dave Liebman is an American saxophonist and flautist. In June 2010, he received a NEA Jazz Masters lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.-Biography:...
, and Billy Bang
Billy Bang
Billy Bang was an American free jazz violinist and composer.-Biography:...
. Some of these collaborations appear on his retrospective album Improve the Shining Hour, which also features his film and TV music for ABC News, 20/20 and Turning Point. He has produced albums for composer/saxophonists Tim Berne
Tim Berne
Tim Berne is an American jazz saxophone player and composer.Described by critic Thom Jurek as commanding "considerable power as a composer and ... frighteningly deft ability as a soloist," Berne has composed and performed prolifically since the 1980s...
and Peter Gordon, and for the French avant-rock band Tanger. He co-wrote Joan Osborne
Joan Osborne
Joan Elizabeth Osborne is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her song "One of Us". She has toured with Motown sidemen the Funk Brothers and was featured in the documentary film about them, Standing in the Shadows of Motown.-Biography:Originally from Anchorage, Kentucky, a suburb...
's Grammy-nominated song "Spider Web" from her triple platinum album Relish
Relish (album)
Relish is the second album by Joan Osborne, released on September 8, 1995. It is her first studio album. It was nominated for Album of the Year at the 38th Grammys.-Background:...
.
Lucas co-wrote two of the songs, "Grace" and "Mojo Pin
Mojo Pin
"Mojo Pin" is the first song on Jeff Buckley's 1994 album Grace. It was written by Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas, and was first introduced on his EP, Live at Sin-é. Buckley stated that the song was about a dream of a black woman. Through a wash of bizarre images, the lyrics convey a feeling of...
", from Jeff Buckley's popular and critically acclaimed album Grace. Early collaborations can also be heard on the Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas album Songs to No One, which charted internationally with worldwide sales approaching 100,000.
Dutch lutist Jozef Van Wissem has collaborated with Lucas on several albums, which include "the Universe of Absence" and "Diplopia." They have appeared and performed live on Dutch national TV together.
In 2007 Lucas collaborated on an album with underground electronic producer James R Hunter's project The Dark Poets
The Dark Poets
Dubbed "Drum and Bass for Goths" The Dark Poets are an electronic [Rock]/breakbeat outfit from the UK.-Background:The Dark Poets originally rose to prominence with their soundtrack for Alex Chandon's cult Cradle of Filth horror movie 'Cradle of Fear'. - Which gained the attention of Some Bizzare...
. The album was produced by British label manager Stevo Pearce
Stevo Pearce
Stephen John Pearce, commonly known as Stevo, is the owner of British record label, Some Bizzare Records.-Biography:Pearce was born in 1962 and came from Haverhill. He left school at sixteen without any qualifications and entered a work training placement with ‘Phonogram Records’...
of Some Bizzare Records
Some Bizzare Records
Some Bizzare Records is a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of Some Bizzare Album, a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The The, Neu Electrikk and Blancmange.-1981-1989:One of the first bands that...
. The album, Gary Lucas vs the Dark Poets
The Dark Poets
Dubbed "Drum and Bass for Goths" The Dark Poets are an electronic [Rock]/breakbeat outfit from the UK.-Background:The Dark Poets originally rose to prominence with their soundtrack for Alex Chandon's cult Cradle of Filth horror movie 'Cradle of Fear'. - Which gained the attention of Some Bizzare...
- Beyond the Pale, features an eclectic mixture of moody drum and bass, techno and rock tracks (most notably 'Prime Time' - featuring vocals by Sarah Hilliard and James R Hunter) as well as many early collectable Gary Lucas tracks and collaborations (including "Procuress from Karmelitska Street" featuring UK vocalist Pat Fulgoni of Kava Kava and original sketches of songs which went on to be used on Jeff Buckley's Grace album' including 'Grace' and 'Mojo Pin
Mojo Pin
"Mojo Pin" is the first song on Jeff Buckley's 1994 album Grace. It was written by Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas, and was first introduced on his EP, Live at Sin-é. Buckley stated that the song was about a dream of a black woman. Through a wash of bizarre images, the lyrics convey a feeling of...
').
In 2009 Lucas collaborated on a new world music collaboration with an Indian vocalist from the UK, Najma Akhtar. Their album RISHTE combines rock, blues, folk, and raga, on Harmonia Mundi/World Village. It was listed #4 in the European World Music charts in 2009.
In 2010, Lucas collaborated with vocalist Dean Bowman on their "spiritual roots project" and gospel album, "CHASE THE DEVIL." The duo performed an amalgam of Hebrew and African American blues live in the U.S. and Europe.
In May 2011, Lucas released a new studio album with his band, Gods and Monsters
Gods and Monsters
Gods and Monsters is a 1998 drama film that recounts the last days of the life of troubled film director James Whale, whose homosexuality is a central theme. It stars Ian McKellen as Whale, along with Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave, Lolita Davidovich, and David Dukes...
, entitled The Ordeal of Civility. It was produced by Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) and distributed by Sony/Red.
The Edge of Heaven
The Edge of Heaven, an album of Lucas's lush arrangements of classic Chinese pop tunes from the 1930s, has a distinctly bluesy feel. It received positive international reviews from Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
to The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
to the Hong Kong Music Weekly. It was #1 on the World Music Charts in Canada and garnered international attention, England's Q magazine awarding it 4 Stars, and Mojo writing: "It is simply gorgeous." The album was chosen as one of the Best Discs of the year in France's Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
newspaper. There was a lengthy profile for the album in The Wall Street Journal, as well as an NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
interview.
Other
Lucas is also working with the female UK-based DJ Cosmo on a new dance-oriented project called Wild Rumpus, a track from which parts have been previewed already on the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. Gary has been performing DJ improv sets with Cosmo in a variety of far-flung locales, including high profile gigs in Romania and India. This year he released his second album with Dutch lutist
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
Jozef Van Wissem, The Universe of Absence, and the pair recently performed live on Dutch national TV network VPRO show, "Free Sounds."
Lucas has played at the UK's Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire and at the All Tomorrow's Parties
All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)
All Tomorrow's Parties is a music festival which takes place at Camber Sands holiday camp in East Sussex and Butlin's holiday camp in Minehead, Somerset, England....
festival in LA and Camber Sands in the UK.
In 1996, Gary Lucas played Fireman Sam
Fireman Sam
Fireman Sam is a Welsh animated children's television series about a fireman called Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other townspeople in the Welsh town of Pontypandy . The original idea for the show came from two ex-firemen from Kent...
in Fireman Sam in Action
Fireman Sam In Action
Fireman Sam In Action is a 1996 live-action stage play and a 61-minute film featuring three stories, Fire Station Flood Alert, Dilys’ Attic Fire and Pontypandy Fireworks Party. It was especially filmed for video, based on the Welsh stop-motion TV series, Fireman Sam. The film was released on 1...
.
A number of UK DJs have featured Lucas in their radio shows, including Charlie Gillett
Charlie Gillett
Charlie Gillett , was a British radio presenter, musicologist and writer, mainly on rock and roll and other forms of popular music...
and John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
, as well as Verity Sharp and Fiona Talkington on their BBC experimental music program, and Rob Da Bank, also on BBC.
In Fall 2009, Gary Lucas debuted his new live program of solo guitar arrangements of famous film music at the 5th International Jecheon Film and Music Festival in South Korea. He was also invited by the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamerica to preview his score for the Spanish version of Dracula (1931) at the 31st Havana Film Festival in Havana, Cuba. Lucas performs the European premiere of his Spanish "Dracula" project at the 9th Transylvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca Romania on May 30, 2010 in the open-air outside the Banfi Botzida Castle.
In the summer of 2009, he collaborated with new up-and-coming Latin American artist Juan Galeano on his album El Peregrino, which debuted April 2010.
Lucas returned to Cuba December 2010 for the 32nd Havana Film Festival, and debuted a new live score accompanying a Brazilian horror classic, "Esta Noite Encarnerei no teu Cadaver" (Tonight I will Possess Your Corpse).
Style
Gary Lucas' work draws strongly from the blues tradition, but it has increasing international range (see Edge of Heaven above), and includes styles such as psychedelic rock, world music, and jazz, as well as classical works.Lectures and master classes
Lucas has spoken widely on his life and career. He also lectures widely on the mechanics of songwriting, extensive collaborations, composing for film, and the music business at the Amsterdam Music Conservatorum, Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
(his alma mater), the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He has given guitar master classes at the Amsterdam Music Conservatory and in Honolulu at the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
. He has also lectured at Rogers State University
Rogers State University
Rogers State University is a public, co-educational university located in Claremore, Oklahoma with branch campuses in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and Pryor Creek, Oklahoma. Since it began offering bachelor's degrees in 2000, it has outpaced the growth of all other public universities in Oklahoma...
in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, and McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada.
Composing for film and television
Soundtracks and scores:- Spanish DraculaDraculaDracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
(soundtrack for the 1931 silent film) - Cinefantastique (solo guitar arrangements of famous film music)
- Sounds of the Surreal (live solo guitar score)
- American Faust: From Condi to Neo-CondiAmerican Faust: From Condi to Neo-CondiAmerican Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi is a documentary film by British filmmaker Sebastian Doggart that portrays the life and career of former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.-Style:...
an award-winning documentary on Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
, directed by Sebastian DoggartSebastian DoggartSebastian Doggart is an English and American producer, director, writer, translator, cinematographer and human rights activist.-Education:...
, additional scoring - Trust Me (a Showtime documentary, original score)
- Bed and Breakfast 9/11 (an award-winning documentary shown on PBS)
- The Legacy of JedwabneJedwabneJedwabne is a town in Poland, in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, in Łomża County, with 1,942 inhabitants .- History :First mentioned in 1455, Jedwabne received city rights on July 17, 1736, from the Polish king August III, including the right to hold weekly markets on Sundays and five country fairs a...
(documentary by Slawomir Grunberg) - Lalee's Kin: The Legacy of CottonLaLee's Kin: The Legacy of CottonLaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton is a 2001 American documentary film directed by Deborah Dickson, Susan Frömke and Albert Maysles. It was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 74th Academy Awards.-Content:...
(an Oscar-nominated Maysles Films documentary for HBO, screened at the Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York as part of their Maysles Films 50 Year Retrospective; VarietyVariety (magazine)Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
wrote: "Gary Lucas' Delta bluesDelta bluesThe Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The...
guitar music adds vivid color to this report from America's forgotten underbelly") - The Golem (soundtrack for the 1920 silent film)
- The Unholy Three (original solo guitar score for the 1925 Tod Browning film of the same name, commissioned by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. To premiere at Walter Reade Center, NYC, April 2009.
- J'Accuse (live solo guitar score for Abel Gance's anti-war film of the same name) in collaboration with Dutch-Iranian composer Reza Namavar, commissioned by the Netherlands Holland Festival. To premiere in the Amsterdam Stadtsshouwburg, June 2009.
- Dragon Boys (Canadian "movie of the week") 2007.
- For Love and Honor (Erik Greenberg Anjou's documentary about American Ivy League collegiate football).
Other recognition
In the last few years Lucas has been profiled in the International Herald TribuneInternational Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
, Libération, and featured on the cover of The Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
as well as the national Dutch newspaper Het Parool
Het Parool
Het Parool is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was founded as a resistance paper during World War II by Frans Van Heuven Goedhart and Jaap Nunes Vaz...
. According to the Beefheart website:
- "Since the end of the Magic Band, he has been very prolific in his own right, solo and within a band, releasing almost an album a year since 1991. His virtuoso solo live shows are awesome in the sounds he extracts from his guitar."
In the early 2000s, he performed a guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
rendition of the theme music to BBC1 soap opera EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
.
Discography
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