The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau - Live! is a live album by Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 jazz guitarist Lenny Breau

Lenny Breau

Leonard Harold "Lenny" Breau was a musician, guitar player, and music educator. He was known for blending many styles of music including: jazz, country, classical and flamenco guitar...

, first released in 1969.

History

After Breau's major-label debut, Guitar Sounds From Lenny Breau was issued the previous year on RCA, producer Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins

Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...

 arranged for this live recording in Los Angeles. Session bassist Carol Kaye

Carol Kaye

Carol Kaye is an American musician, best known as one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists in history, playing on an estimated 10,000 recording sessions in a 55 year career....

 was in the audience and stated in an interview: The tapes from the three-night engagement were taken back to Nashville where Atkins, Danny Davis

Danny Davis (country musician)

Danny Davis was a band leader, trumpet player, vocalist and producer and founder/leader of the Nashville Brass.-Early life and career:...

 and Ronnie Light prepared them for release.

Despite the enthusiasm for the live show, the album sold poorly and was barely mentioned in the music press at the time. Breau was later quoted as saying, "When I initially recorded, I didn't feel ready—I wanted to practice for another 10 years first." He also felt RCA did not sufficiently promote the release. It was 10 years before Breau released another solo album.

The Velvet Touch was re-released on CD by One Way Records in 1994. It is currently out of print.

Reception

Music critic Paul Kohler of Allmusic wrote "His ability to play chords, melody, and a bassline simultaneously has to be heard to be believed."

Track listing

1. "Tuning Time" (Lenny Breau) – 1:49
2. "No Greater Love
   There Is No Greater Love
   "There Is No Greater Love" is a 1936 jazz standard composed by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Marty Symes. It was the last hit song for Jones's orchestra before the bandleader turned the orchestra over to Woody Herman, beginning the latter's 50 year career as a bandleader.The song is often played as a...
   
   " (Isham Jones
   Isham Jones
   Isham Jones was a United States bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.-Career:Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, to a musical and mining family, and grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, where he started his first band...
   
   , Marty Symes
   Marty Symes
   Marty Symes was an American lyricist.Symes was born in Brooklyn New York in 1904. His first significant collaborator was composer Jerry Livingston. In 1932 they wrote "Darkness on the Delta", which became a hit for Mildred Bailey. The next year the Casa Loma Orchestra recorded their "Under the...
   
   ) – 6:37
3. "The Claw" (Jerry Reed Hubbard
   Jerry Reed
   Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...
   
   ) – 4:23
4. "Indian Reflections for Ravi" (Breau) – 3:12
5. "That's All
   That's All
   "That's All" is a 1952 song written by Alan Brandt and Bob Haymes. It has been covered by many jazz and blues artists. The song is part of the Great American Songbook...
   
   " (Bob Haymes
   Bob Haymes
   Robert Haymes , also known under the stage names Robert Stanton and Bob Stanton, was an American singer, songwriter, actor and radio and television host. He is best remembered today for co-writing the song "That's All", considered part of the Great American Songbook...
   
   , Alan Brandt) – 5:42
6. "Blues Theme" – 1:01
7. "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" (Watson, Joe Zawinul
   Joe Zawinul
   Josef Erich Zawinul was an Austrian-American jazz keyboardist and composer.First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with...
   
   ) – 5:30
8. "Spanjazz" (Breau) – 5:19
9. "Bluesette" – 6:00
10. "A Taste of Honey
    A Taste of Honey (song)
    "A Taste of Honey" is a pop standard written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow. It was originally an instrumental track written for the 1960 Broadway version of the 1958 British play A Taste of Honey . Both the original and a cover by Herb Alpert in 1965 earned the song Grammy Awards...
    
    " (Ric Marlow
    Ric Marlow
    Ric Marlow is an American songwriter and actor, best known for co-writing with Bobby Scott the song "A Taste of Honey" which won a Grammy in 1962. The song has been recorded by many artists including Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Herb Alpert, and The Beatles...
    
    , Bobby Scott
    Bobby Scott (musician)
    Bobby Scott was an American musician, record producer, and songwriter.-Biography:He was born Robert William Scott in Mount Pleasant, New York, and became a pianist, vibraphonist, and singer, and could also play the accordion, cello, clarinet, and double bass...
    
    ) – 4:43
11. "Blues Theme, No. 2" – 2:40

Personnel

• Lenny Breau – 6-string and 12-string guitar
• Reg Kelin – drums
• Ronnie Halldorson – bass