Archive for September, 2010
New at GSI: Bernd & Lucas Martin Guitars
I’ve known Bernd Martin (everyone in Granada just calls him Martín) since I lived in Granada back in the early 90′s, so I’m particularly happy that GSI is now the exclusive US dealer for his and his son, Lucas’, guitars. Back in the day I used to buy inexpensive guitars and have Martin fix up the action or refret them as necessary and turn ordinary little guitars into really good ones (then I’d sell them in NY to pay for the trip). Now his son, Lucas is making some really great guitars as well, and they have a shop in Sacromonte with the most spectacular view of the Alhambra, in case they needed any inspiration. Anyway, here are some photos I took when I last saw him this past May. We just received three guitars from them, so look for them on our site in the next few days.
In part three Dominique Field tells us how he got his start (have I mentioned that they’re all frustrated guitarists?) and how he got some much needed help from Daniel Friederich.
Here’s our friend Ed Trybek playing Cadiz from Suite Espagnola by Isaac Albeniz on a Teodoro Perez Especial model.
Here’s part 2 of Tao Ruspoli’s flamenco documentary.
For those of us who love flamenco and have devoted a good part of our lives to it, it’s hard to explain what we mean when we say that it’s a way of life. Of course most of us aren’t filmmakers. But Tao Ruspoli is, and he’s done an amazing job in his flamenco films of capturing moments that express perfectly what flamenco is outside of the tablao or the concert stage. Shown here is part 1 of his 2005 film “Flamenco: A Personal Journey”. I find these movies not only fun, but inspiring and a great reminder of what flamenco is all about.
Here’s part 2 of David Collett’s interview with French luthier Dominique Field, in which Field tells us a bit about how Daniel Friederich, the great French luthier of the previous generation, got his start making guitars – So far none of these guys contradicts my theory that guitar makers are either born into it or start out wanting to be guitarists themselves (ok, there are some exceptions, but not that many that I know of).
While on a recent trip to France, David Collett sat down with French luthier Dominique Field to discuss the history and future of French guitar making. Here’s part 1 of that interview, in which Field gives us a brief overview of the history that led to the current generations of French luthiers.
The 2nd annual Dominguez Hills Guitar Festival is going on this weekend and features master classes, panel discussions and a concert by Line Forms Hear with Scott Morris, Julian Corryell and Steven Thachuk. You can get more info at www.myspace.com/csudhguitarfest.
This past weekend David Collett, our managing director, flew to Paris, France to pick up a new guitar built for us by the great master Daniel Friederich. While there, he also met with Dominique Field and was able to get a sneak peek at his next guitar being built for us now. He also traveled to Strasbourg to visit with Jean-Noel Rohe who Friederich, Field and we at GSI believe is the next pivotal and important emerging builder in the history of the French school. So we’re very excited that we’ll have one of his guitars coming soon, and to announce that Jean-Noel has agreed to work exclusively with GSI in the USA. These are some photos of David’s trip.
We were lucky enough to have guitarist Ed Trybek come in and play some guitars. I had never heard this piece before, and I was pretty impressed by both the piece and the playing. And that 1971 Friederich was no slouch, either. If you want to see more videos of Ed you can check them out on our YouTube page.
