Interview: Kevin Breit.

Kevin Breit is an upsetting guitar player.  He upsets traditional notions of what is possible on the guitar.  He upsets the received wisdom of how the guitar should be played.  And he just plain upsets other guitar players, who after witnessing a Kevin Breit performance, may be inspired to slide the guitar under the bed and find something else to do.

I first became aware of Kevin Breit because of this video for "Slow Train" by the Breit Brothers. It got a lot of play on MuchMusic (Canada's answer to MTV) in the eighties. You didn't hear resophonic guitar played with a slide too much in those days, so I made note of Kevin Breit. But for the last ten years Breit and his band the Sisters Euclid have held court at the Toronto muso venue the Orbit Room (part-owned by Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson) every Monday night.  That residency ended a few months ago, but lately the Sisters are back on selected Monday nights.

Over those ten years, Breit worked with Norah Jones and Cassandra Wilson, recorded two albums with blues singer/guitarist Harry Manx, and pursued multiple recording projects at once, including the Sisters, the acoustic trio Folk Alarm and his own singer-songwriter work with his recent collection Simple Earnest Plea. Kevin kindly agreed to answer a few questions via email.

You're not a conventional jazz guitar player, but you've played with some artists that are considered to be on the jazz side of the music business, like Cassandra Wilson and Norah Jones, and you've recorded versions of jazz standards like "Donna Lee" and "Giant Steps."  How do you see yourself as a musician in regards to jazz musical culture?

I try to serve a song the best I can. I don't know how other musicians see themselves when they embark on playing over a well worn chestnut like "Donna Lee" or "Giant Steps." I'd like to think that i belong to some sort of tradition. I love jazz. I respect those who have come before me. Am I a 'jazz' musician? I don't know. I love making noise whenever/wherever i can.

Your latest recording project, Simple Earnest Plea, is more of a singer-songwriter effort than your previous work with the Sisters Euclid and Folk Alarm.  How do you approach your guitar parts and the parameters of improvisation differently for a project of this type?

Simple Earnest Plea is my first, all-out singer songwriter recording. I tried to serve the songs the best I could without stepping on the singer's feet...I have big feet so I was careful.

Your solo tone on electric guitar, especially with the Sisters Euclid on tunes like "Perry Garcia", often has a stark, saxophone-like quality.  Are you influenced by sax players or other instruments besides the guitar?

I love all those sustaining instruments. So expressive. Of course the person playing it has everything to do with inspiration and influence. Bandoneón makes me weak in the knees.

Is Jerry Garcia an influence on your playing? I hear a lot of his approach, refracted, in your playing. Which other guitar players do you hear in your own playing?

To tell you the truth, I don't own a single Grateful Dead record. It's really hip and would be hip for me to say I am a Dead Head but truth be known, I grew up not knowing a single thing about them or Jerry. A couple of years ago, I purchased Sirius radio for my car. There is a 24 hour Grateful Dead station. On my long trip between cities, I'd tune in and think that i missed out on something cool..very cool. I really liked Jerry's style. Very thoughtful and unique sound. There are so many guitarists I love, Chet, Django, Johnny Winter, Frank Zappa, Pat Martino, Cornell Dupree, B.B. King, Jeff Beck, Michael Bloomfield, Santana, Ry, Lowell George, Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, James Burton, Ray Gomez, Albert Lee, Hank Garland....more.

You have an unusual approach to slide, as we see in the YouTube video of "Tongue." You combine slide and fingered notes so seamlessly that your approach seems almost to be at a perfect middle ground between the two techniques. After seeing you play once, I went home and tried it for a while and it was very difficult to get going. Can you explain your hybrid slide/finger approach a bit?

I love playing the slide guitar. I play chords with the slide and fingers and mix the two up when i solo. I started doing this when i was young as way of staying in tune. I'd fret a note, hold it and play a harmony with the slide. This made me play in tune. It kind of stuck, fretting  and sliding at the same time.  

In that same performance, you build to a frenzy that reminds me of later Coltrane.  What is going through your head when you are at a high level of playing intensity, as from 5:30 on in the video?

I am so unaware of things when I get all wound up. Usually I am most clever in the first couple of bars then I go off on tangents. The Sisters Euclid really dictate what I play on a solo. Gary (drummer) may 1/2 time or double up on the time. This has a huge effect on me. Ian (bassist) will suggest other root notes, which again will make me go down another road. All of this isn't premeditated, so it keeps me on my toes. It's easy for some players to play what they've rehearsed but I am pitiful at it. I have a hard time playing the same thing twice.

How do you conceive of your improvised ideas as they come to you - are they abstract musical constructs, or are they framed by the structure of the guitar itself?

I like being aware of the melody and harmony of the song i'm soloing over. I like stretching the harmony as much as I can. So the prerequisite is I have to know the chords of the tune. Saying that though, playing over songs and not knowing its inner workings, can be a lot of fun. It may not be good, but so what.

Thanks very much to Kevin Breit for taking the time to answer my questions.  Kevin keeps a busy live schedule and you can follow him here.