LP (180 Gram)
Original Artwork by Eugene Chadbourne
Numbered edition of 25 ex.
d’or086
Date of Publication: 20 July 2025
Price: 120 euro.
Eugene Chadbourne was born in Mt. Vernon, New York, USA in 1954. He grew up in Boulder, Colorado where he was exposed to an incredible range of music including locally based composers and performers such as avant garde composers Tod Dockstoder and George Crumb and guitarist Tommy Bolin. He began playing guitar in bands as a teenager, at first garage rock and then strongly influenced by Jimi Hendrix and the Mothers of Invention. He released his first album of solo guitar in 1977 and became a professional musician shortly thereafter. He performs and records an unparalleled range of styles–jazz, rock, country and western, classical from Bach to Messiaen–on guitar and banjo and as a vocalist.
“My practice routine is a favorite aspect of my life, contributing to both mental and physical health. These hours of sight reading that begin each morning are more difficult to maintain on a concert tour but perhaps less necessary considering the amount of creative and physical activity that takes place at the usually nightly concerts.
With the international pandemic a few years ago and subsequent events, my life changed radically in terms of the amount of travel and the amount of time at home free to pursue musical study in more detail.
Messiaen was a key element from the beginning based on the existence of financial support from the USA Small Business Administration. With these funds I greatly expanded my library of scores including the purchase of all the Messiaen Catalog of Birds score books as well as his book of piano pieces in honor of Jesus Christ. The latter I had already downloaded off a free web site but I also wanted a legitimate score book.
Now for some months Messiaen has framed my practice day with Jesus at the beginning and birds at the end. In between I hit piano pieces by Jelly Roll Morton, the piano score for Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring, a Hindemith chamber score, a book of Miles Davis trumpet solos and Morton Feldman’s works for solo piano. I use a simple rotation system to bring in a new book once I have read through something, for example today June 20 2025 I once again completed the Stravinsky and in the random series of replacements in comes a book of Bach piano pieces.
As my sight reading ability improves–the most difficult part of it being able to figure out chording fingerings for 10 (or more!) piano keys to strike–what I play sounds more and more like music. A section or a page will flow well enough that I wonder when the time will come that I can just whip through a whole Messiaen bird book. I look forward to that day, whenever it may come.
As a young guitarist, like many of my peers I was greatly influenced by the improvisations of the late Derek Bailey. We all wondered, what are those chords he is playing? Knowledgeable types dropped names from the Viennese school; adding Berg, Webern and Schoenberg piano scores to my rotation has undoubtedly helped my sight reading but as to what extent it has cleared up the Derek Bailey mystery I am not so sure. Nowadays many of Messiaen”s harmonies make me think of Bailey, but once again it is not so much the act of recognizing something as recognizing what something isn’t.
Here’s to the mysteries of music–what it is, what it brings out of a loyal subject such as I. Music is my kingdom of heaven, with plenty of room for birds and even a nook for Jesus Christ. “
Eugene Chadbourne, June 20, 2025
Eugene Chadbourne ~ Catalogue d’oiseaux II
A side:
La parole toute-puissante (Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus) (13:12)
Courlis Cendré (8:08)
B side:
La Bouscarle (22:07)
Artwork description:
Oil paintings on linen by Eugene Chadbourne
