Guitar solo

A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music written for a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular music such as blues, swing, jazz, jazz fusion, rock and metal guitar solos often contain virtuoso techniques and varying degrees of improvisation. Guitar solos on classical guitar, which are typically written in musical notation, are also used in classical music forms such as chamber music and concertos.

Guitar solos range from unaccompanied works for a single guitar to compositions with accompaniment from a few other instruments or a large ensemble. The accompaniment musicians for a guitar solo can range from a small ensemble such as a jazz quartet or a rock band, to a large ensemble such as an orchestra or big band. Unaccompanied acoustic guitar music is found in folk and classical music dating as far back as the instrument has existed, and the use of an acoustic guitar as a solo voice within an ensemble dates back at least to the Baroque concerto.

Guitar Solos

Guitar Solos is the debut solo album of English guitarist, composer and improviser Fred Frith. It was recorded while Frith was still a member of the English experimental rock group Henry Cow and was released in the United Kingdom on LP record by Caroline Records in October 1974. The album comprises eight tracks of unaccompanied and improvised experimental rock music played on prepared guitars by Frith without any overdubbing.

Guitar Solos was voted one of the best albums of 1974 by NME critics. AllMusic called it a landmark album because of its innovative and experimental approach to guitar playing. It also attracted the attention of Brian Eno, resulting in Frith's playing guitar on two of Eno's albums, and spawned two follow-up albums, Guitar Solos 2 (1976) and Guitar Solos 3 (1979). Guitar Solos was remastered and released on CD on Frith's own record label, Fred Records in 2002.

Background

Fred Frith was a classically-trained violinist who turned to playing blues guitar while still at school. In 1967 he went to Cambridge University where he and fellow student, Tim Hodgkinson formed Henry Cow. While at University, Frith read John Cage's Silence: Lectures and Writings, which changed his attitude to music completely. He realised that "sound, in and of itself, can be as important as [...] melody and harmony and rhythm." This changed his approach to the guitar, "just to see what I could get out of it" and initiated a long period of experimentation that continued throughout Frith's musical career.

Guitar Solos 2

Guitar Solos 2 is the second in a series of three albums of improvised guitar solos by various musicians. It was released in the United Kingdom by Caroline Records in 1976, and consists of two guitar solos by Fred Frith, three by Derek Bailey, three by Hans Reichel and one by G. F. Fitzgerald. Frith coordinated and produced the series, which began with his 1974 debut solo album, Guitar Solos.

The two Fred Frith tracks on this album were later included in the 1991 CD reissue of Frith's, Guitar Solos.

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Personnel