Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Eugene Chadbourne was born January 4, 1954 in  Mount Vernon, New York but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar when he was eleven or twelve, inspired by the Beatles and hoping to get the attention of girls. Although he was initially drawn to Jimi Hendrix and played in a garage band, he found rock and pop music too conventional. Gravitating to the avant-garde jazz of Anthony Braxton and Derek Bailey, it was the former musician who persuaded him to abandon his journalism endeavors and pursue music.

During the early 1970s, he lived in Canada to avoid military service in the Vietnam War. Returning to the United States, he moved to New York City and played free improvisation with Henry Kaiser and John Zorn. Around this time, he released his first album, Solo Acoustic Guitar. In the early 1980s, he led the avant-rock band Shockabilly with Mark Kramer and David Licht.

He explored other genres, playing with a Cajun band, a Russian folk band and mixed country, western, and improvisation in the band LSD C&W. For many years Eugene was in a duo, and then worked with Han Bennink, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, and Charles Tyler..

Chadbourne invented an instrument known as the electric rake by attaching an electric guitar pickup to a rake. He played a duet of electric rake and classical piano with Bob Wiseman on his 1991 album Presented by Lake Michigan Soda. He also played the instrument on a Sun Ra tribute album.

Banjoist, guitarist and music critic Eugene Chadbourne, who has recorded 39 albums as a leader, continues to perform and record.

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