Albert Lee

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Albert Lee (2019)
Albert Lee (2005)

Albert William Lee (born December 21, 1943 in Leominster , Herefordshire ) is an English guitarist , singer , composer , songwriter and producer . He also plays the mandolin and piano and is one of the most influential instrumentalists, especially in country music and country rock , because of his extraordinary guitar playing ( hybrid picking ) . Nevertheless, his musical focus also includes rock and roll , rock , as well as rhythm and blues and rockabilly . His most famous number is the country rock track "Country Boy".

During his career, Lee has played as a popular " Musician's Musician " with numerous greats and superstars in the industry, including Bo Diddley , Joe Cocker , Jerry Lee Lewis , George Harrison , Bill Wyman , Earl Scruggs , Vince Gill , Dolly Parton , Jackson Browne , Marcel Dadi , Rosanne Cash , Dave Edmunds , Jimmy Page , Ricky Skaggs , Lonnie Donegan , Tommy Emmanuel , Rodney Crowell , Emmylou Harris , Eric Clapton , Gary Brooker , Linda Ronstadt , Leo Kottke , Tom Jones , Shakin 'Stevens , Gene Clark , Steve Morse , Guy Clark , Herbie Mann, and many others. His longstanding collaboration with The Everly Brothers should be emphasized here . He is still involved in many studio and live productions and his contributions can be heard on countless country and rock and roll productions. His reputation among colleagues earned him the nickname "Guitar Player's Guitar Player".

Between 1976 and 1980, Lee was voted Best Country Guitarist of the Year by Guitar Player Magazine readers five times in a row and is also a two-time Grammy Award winner. In 2010 he celebrated his 50th stage anniversary at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival .

Lee lives in California , United States with his wife Karen . His daughter Alexandra is a trained opera singer and occasionally can be heard on her father's productions.

biography

Lee grew up in the London borough of Blackheath and began to play the piano at the age of 7, guided by his father, who was also a pianist. In the late 1950s he got his first guitar, was interested in Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis and became a member of various bands. Rock and roll, country music, skiffle and rhythm and blues were played there. Guitarists like Jimmy Bryant , Cliff Gallup or Scotty Moore influenced him strongly and shaped his further musical life. He left school at 16 and became a professional musician with his first day appearances, including in Scotland.

Beginnings

At the beginning of his professional career, the formations in which Lee played changed frequently, not infrequently, depending on the respective order situation and number of engagements. In the early 1960s Lee came to Germany with various English bands ( The Nightsounds , Don Adams Band ). In 1963 he joined the German rock singer Mike Warner and his group The Echolettes with Barry Jenkins, and a year later his band The Fenders . In the meantime he played in England a. a. with Neil Christian . Eventually he moved to The Thunderbirds , the band of singer Chris Farlowe , with whom he stayed for four years and achieved greater notoriety. Further stations followed with Country Fever and Heads Hands & Feet . The latter produced three albums between 1971 and 1973, which was the breakthrough to international fame for Lee for his exceptionally fast and precise guitar playing. In 1971 he also worked on Jon Lord's solo album Gemini Suite as a substitute for Ritchie Blackmore .

Together with guitarists Alvin Lee from Ten Years After and Rory Gallagher , Lee took part in the 1973 recording of the London Sessions of Jerry Lee Lewis . That year Lee began performing occasionally with the Crickets , the former band of Buddy Holly . In 1974 her album Long Way From Lubbock was released .

International success

After that, Lee stayed in Los Angeles for some time , where he recorded the album Sunset Towers with Don Everly . In late 1974 and early 1975 Lee toured North America, Australia and New Zealand with Joe Cocker and signed his first solo artist contract with A&M Records . In 1976 he was the successor to the legendary James Burton in Emmylou Harris ' "Hot Band". With this line-up, the American country singer had her greatest successes such as Luxury Liner or C'est la vie . At the same time, Lee opened up many valuable contacts and the way to the American music market. During and after this time, Lee was voted best country guitarist by the renowned Guitar Player magazine for five consecutive years.

Albert Lee at a concert with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings in 2009

In 1979 Lee's first solo album, Hiding , was released, on which he had been working since 1975, and which contains a "Telecaster reissue" of the 1971 "Heads, Hands & Feet" track "Country Boy", which was originally recorded on a nylon-string concert guitar had been. He was now a member of Eric Clapton's band , with whom he stayed for five years. One of the best-known joint works from this period is the live album Just One Night . In 1982 the second solo album was released, Albert Lee .

An important phase in Lee's career was the 20-year collaboration with the Everly Brothers , for whose reunion concert he was responsible in 1983 as producer and musical director. His next solo albums were Speechless (1987) and Gagged But Not Bound (1988). Since 1987 he has been touring regularly with Gerry Hogan's "Hogan's Heroes". Over the years the formation became "Albert Lee & Hogan's Heroes", with whom he has released 7 albums to date.

Two other groups that Albert Lee occasionally appeared in afterwards were Sterling Ball's "The Biff Baby All-Stars" and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings . On November 29, 2002, Albert Lee took part in the Concert for George to mark the first anniversary of George Harrison's death , held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. A year earlier, Lee received his first Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance, Foggy Mountain Breakdown ., And in 2008 his second in the same category, Cluster Pluck .

Playing technique

Lee's guitar playing is characterized by enormous speed and precision. He usually uses picks and uses a combination of flat picking and finger picking (hybrid picking ). In contrast to short phrased tone sequences with sustained notes, Lee prefers a more fluid style of playing that extends over many frets. According to his own statement, he is not sure whether this is an advantage or a disadvantage. Lee also uses the little finger of his right playing hand, which most guitarists usually only use to support the hand on the guitar.

A specialty of Lee's game is the use of a B-bending technique. With this mechanism, constructed in 1965 by Gene Parsons and Clarence White , it is possible to play licks on the guitar that can mimic the sound of a pedal steel guitar . He developed this technique to perfection.

Lee already used an "Echoplex" on his first solo production "Hiding" to double the notes he played. To this day he still uses the appropriate equipment for such effects.

Equipment

Lee is friends with Sterling Ball, the owner of Ernie Ball Incorporation , which makes guitars and strings. He is an endorser for the guitar manufacturer Music Man , a subsidiary of Ernie Ball, and also prefers to play a 1950 Fender Telecaster B-Bender (which earned him another nickname: Mr. Telecaster ) and a 1958 Fender Stratocaster . He owns over 25 guitars, including a Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar made for Don Everly and a Gibson Les Paul Custom gift from Eric Clapton.

Lee uses a 100 W Fender Tonemaster as a guitar amplifier in combination with a 4x12 cabinet, as well as various Music Man amps.

Lee uses a Lexicon PCM 42 delay device and a Korg A3 for sound processing .

Nota bene

Albert Lee 2017

Emmylou Harris said of her guitarist Albert Lee: " When Saint Peter questions me about my time on earth, I can proudly say that I played rhythm guitar in a band with Albert Lee for a while. "

Lee is considered to be a humble and reserved musician who focuses exclusively on the quality of a production and never plays himself in the foreground. His colleagues Jimmy Page and Ritchie Blackmore described him as a complete gentleman to whom the meaning of the word "ego" was completely alien.

Band member

Awards

  • Grammy Award, 2001 - Best Country Instrumental Performance
  • Grammy Award, 2008 - Best Country Instrumental Performance
  • Best Country Guitarist, 1976–1980 - Guitar Player Magazine

Discography

abstract

Solo albums
  • "Hiding" - 1979
  • "Albert Lee" - 1982
  • "Speechless" - 1987
  • "Gagged But Not Bound" - 1988
  • "Heartbreak Hill" - 2003
  • "Road runner" - 2006
Heads, Hands & Feet
  • "Home From Home - The Missing Album" - 1970 (only released in 1996)
  • "Heads, Hands & Feet" - 1971
  • "Tracks" - 1972
  • "Old Soldiers Never Die" - 1973
Albert Lee & Hogan's Heroes
  • "In Full Flight! Live at Montreux" - 2003
  • "Tear it up" - 2003
  • "Live at the New Morning" - 2007
  • "In Between the Cracks" - 2007
  • "Like this" - 2008
  • "On the Town Tonight" - 2011
  • "Frettening Behavior" - 2014

Web links

Commons : Albert Lee  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Sources and literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unsung heroes: session musicians are given their own Hall of Fame
  2. ↑ Interview by David Petie on Entertainment Scene 360 ( Memento from July 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ a b c Guitar Player Magazine - Albert Lee Celebrates 50 Years of Guitar Glory, January 2014
  4. ↑ Albert Lee State of the Art Country-Rock Guitar on Guitar Player Online ( Memento from January 23, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Archive of the Grammy Awards 2001
  6. ↑ Archive of the Grammy Awards 2008
  7. Jump up ↑ Music Man - Albert Lee - Hogan's Heroes
  8. ↑ Peter S. Sakas in Rock Chicago Magazine, Jan. 21, 2013
  9. ↑ Discography on allmusic.com
personal data
SURNAME Lee, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lee, Albert William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British rock guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Leominster , Herefordshire