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LAWSON
ROLLINS |
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I switched
from playing the drums to classical guitar at age 15 much to my parents’
and neighbors’ pleasure. The drums did give me solid rhythmic
foundation, which has helped tremendously with my guitar playing over
the years. One of the benefits of starting with classical guitar is
you quickly appreciate the importance of achieving a good tone and
of course good technique. I can’t imagine anything more demanding
(and unnerving) than playing a classical guitar recital before a small
discerning audience when you are a teenager! The smallest imperfections
become glaring. After a few years of this, I discovered jazz and Latin
guitar styles and shifted my focus to composing and improvising my
own music. In 1998 I started the Latin guitar fusion group, Young
& Rollins, comprised of two dueling nylon string guitarists back
by bass and Latin percussion. We recorded four albums together while
touring the world. Our last album Mosaic from 2006 really captures
what we were about in terms of composition and performance. New
CD On my
new album entitled Espirito my goal was simply to raise the
level of what we achieved on Infinita in all aspects of the
music, composition, performances, and even recording quality. On Espirito
I offer 13 original compositions that meld an eclectic mix of Latin
and Middle Eastern musical influences with my Spanish-tinged guitar
style. The album features an ensemble of internationally recognized
musicians. I co-produced the album with the same producers from the
Infinita album, Persian-American musician and producer Shahin
Shahida and multi-platinum producer Dominic Camardella . The cast
of performers includes some of the same names from Infinita, singer
Flora Purim, percussionist Airto Moreira, Grammy winner Charlie Bisharat
on violin, along with some new faces such as Iranian kamancheh master
Kayhan Kalhor and Cuban drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez.
Espirito’s wide-ranging musical palette spans continents and
cultures. I love the hybrid quality of World Music and how it allows
for cross-cultural communication and exchange. The Spanish guitar
is a true manifestation of the commingling of cultures with its ties
to the Arabic oud, the Persian tar, even the Indian sitar, so drawing
on those connections seems natural to me. The players on Espirito
are connected to traditions from India, Persia, Afghanistan, Spain,
Brazil, Cuba and the United States. Together we took a far-ranging
musical journey of our own in the recording of the album.
The main
guitar I used on Espirito was my custom Pedro Maldonado nylon
string guitar, made according to my specs. It has a narrow 50mm neck,
a particularly deep cutaway, a rounded off heel, and a beautiful tone
due to the cedar top and rosewood sides and back. I always use hard
tension strings - LaBella 2001 Concert Series is my brand of choice.
My guitar was recorded by Dom Camardella at his Santa Barbara Sound
Design studio using a Klaus Heyne modified Neumann mic and an older
AKG 414EB, which were run through two vintage Neve 1064 mic preamps
directly into a ProTools 192-HD interface and recorded at 88.2kHz
with a sample rate of 24 bit resolution using the new Ruper Neve 5088
high resolution mixing console. No compression was used during the
recording phase. The final mix was then recorded onto analog tape
using a vintage ATR-102 half inch stereo tape machine. Bernie Grundman
personally mastered the album from the analog tape. The result is
to my ears the best guitar tone I’ve achieved on a recording.
In my
teen years, my musical appreciation was shaped by constant exposure
to music across many different genres. Three albums that directly
inspired my guitar playing at an early age were The Segovia Collection,
Vol. 3: My Favorite Works, a compilation of the great Spanish
classics, several of which I learned; secondly, the world-fusion album
Fragments of a Dream by Inti-Illimani, which blended in some
wonderful flamenco guitar by Paco Pena, who I consider an inspiration;
finally, I can’t leave out Yngwie Malmsteen’s “Rising
Force” album, which raised the bar so high for virtuoso neoclassical
electric guitar. Though I play with my fingers, I learned many of
Malmsteen’s signature arpeggios and single note runs which I
still use to this day. Currently, I listen less to guitar music and
more to music in the World category where you find some very adventurous
fusion taking place. The numerous albums of Flora Purim and Airto
Moreira, for example, represent a truly inclusive musical perspective
which I find inspirational as an artist.
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One
of the preeminent acoustic guitarists in America today, Lawson
Rollins released his CD debut Infinita back in 2007 and
he follows up in 2010 with the CD release of Espirito.
In the spirit of Infinita, Lawson’s latest CD is
a full-fledged production featuring a number of gifted players including
violinist Charlie Bisharat, whose excellent work graced Infinita
too. When it comes to nylon string neoclassical flamenco work,
few can touch Rollins and that practice continues moving forward with
Espirito. The CD features key contributions from Randy Tico
(bass), Dave Bryant (percussion) as well as further guitar
performance from the album’s co-producer Shahin Shahida (electric
guitar) and Joseph Ehtesham-zadeh (on slide guitar). Also like
Infinita, famed Brazilian musicians Airto Moreira and
Flora Purim make some impressive appearances here. Commenting
on incorporating such a wide range of colorful World Beat influences
into his mix, Rollins adds, ‘I love the hybrid quality of World
Music and how it allows for cross-cultural communication and exchange.
Centuries ago, travel, trade, and migration created new forms of musical
expression. The Spanish guitar is a true manifestation of the commingling
of cultures with it's ties to the Arabic oud, the Persian tar, even
the Indian sitar, so drawing on those connections seems natural to
me.' Also in the spirit of Infinita, the colorful multi-panel
CD packaging and artwork of Espirito is outstanding and enhances
a thoroughly enjoyable hour or so of instrumental music magic. 
In
2008, I released my first solo cd, Infinita, which incorporated
a much more diverse spectrum of instrumentation and represented a
significant departure from the Young & Rollins sound. I wrote
all the music and recorded the guitar tracks first, then spent several
months adding in the performances of about 18 different musicians
and vocalists from South America, Europe, and the Middle East. My
goal was to broaden the musical canvas beyond what I did with Young
& Rollins and create more of a large scale world fusion album
rather than a guitar-centric Latin sound. To help me assemble the
different artists on the album, I brought in two co-producers - Shahin
Shahida of the Persian-American group Shahin & Sepehr and Dom
Camardella, who has produced Flora Purim, Ottmar Liebert, and others.
We put together quite a cast of players, including some amazing Persian
musicians, the legendary Brazilian singer Flora Purim, percussion
master Airto Moreira, and jazz fusion bassist Randy Tico. It was a
thrill to hear these artists working their magic throughout my compositions
and quite humbling to hear Grammy winning virtuoso Charlie Bisharat
instantaneously doubling some of my most speedy guitar lines on his
violin. As for the guitar playing on the album, there is the keen
focus on melody and solid composition that you would hear in my work
with Young & Rollins, but now with a greater regard for bringing
out the best in the ensemble and never letting the guitar fireworks
overwhelm the music. But even though Infinita is very much
an ensemble effort, the guitar is always there to weave everything
together and create a consistency in the melodic voice heard throughout
the album.