GARY LUCAS AND NAJMA AKHTAR EUROPEAN TOUR Friday Sept. 17th 7:30pm, LSO/St. Luke’s, London England

Gary Lucas and Najma Akhtar perform their celebrated “Rishte” album with Shirish Manji, tabla as part of the Barbican Transcender Festival on a bill with Parvathy Baul http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=11121

Check out a new podcast interview with Gary and Najma about their upcoming Barbican Transcender Festival show in London: http://soundcloud.com/barbican-music/barbican-contemporary-music-podcast-september-2010

Read a review of Gary and Najma’s recent London Jazz Cafe show by Steve Hochman in Spinner.com http://www.spinner.com/2010/07/20/najma-akhtar-gary-lucas-rishte/

Sunday Sept.19th 3pm Hope Street Feast Festival. Liverpool England

Tuesday Sept. 21st 1pm Paris time 7am EST Gary Lucas and Najma Akhtar are interviewed on Radio France Internationale RFI by Laurence Aloir Listen live at http://www.english.rfi.fr/9pm New Morning, Paris France

Gary Lucas and Najma Akhtar perform their celebrated “Rishte” album wih Sirish Manji, tabla http://www.newmorning.com/ Friday Sept. 24th time tba Madame Guitar Festival, Tricesimo Italy

Gary Lucas and Najma Akhtar perform their celebrated “Rishte” album with Sirish Manji, tabla

Sunday Sept. 26th 8pm Paradiso (main hall), Amsterdam Holland Gary Lucas and Najma Akhtar perform their celebrated “Rishte” album with Sirish Manji, tabla

Read a 4 star review of “Rishte” by Mike Barnes from MOJO Magazine: http://garylucas.com/www/rvw/mojo0709.jpg

New Gary Lucas solo acoustic webpage:

http://garylucas.com/www/soloac

UPCOMING APPEARANCES:

Friday April 29th, 9pm
Gibson Guitars Showroom, NYC
Gary Lucas performs solo acoustic at the Virtue and Vice Party, sponsored by Limelight/Rights Flow

GARY LUCAS SOLO ACOUSTIC @

“Gary Lucas under the skin of Dracula”

Article and Interview by Michel Hernandez

The US guitarist Gary Lucas defied the gods and brought back to life one of the darkest and most terrifying creatures in the literature of horror. Sprung from the imagination of the Irish writer Bram Stoker, Count Dracula did not need to rise from his coffin in order to return from the [realm of the] dead, nor did he have to sink his fangs into any sensual female necks. He did it through the guitar of this legendary musician, who, like the most celebrated vampire from Transylvania, ha been “condemned” to immortality.

 Lucas, former member of the emblematic band Captain Beefheart, and co-author with Jeff Buckley of famous songs such as Grace and Mojo Pin, arrived last Friday at the Chaplin Cinema to provide music for the Spanish version of Dracula (1931), directed by the North American George Melford.

With more than 20 records, Lucas is one of the world-class cult guitarists. During his career, he has shared the stage with sacred monsters of rock and roll such as Patti Smith – the great punk poet –, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Frank Zappa, among many others. And if we’re talking about monsters, we can’t fail to mention his work at the head of the band Gods and Monsters, whose name was borrowed from the film The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Described by the New York Times as “the guitarist of a thousand ideas,” he has blended with a goldsmith’s passion different genres from all over the world, ranging from gospel music, to Indian music, blues, electronic and experimental.

His attraction to the legends of the creatures that inhabit the other world has led him to create movie sound tracks for live performance accompanying screenings of fantasy or horror movies that have made history. One of his most outstanding productions was the music elaborated for the film The Golem (1920), by the German director Paul Wegener, and he also created Sounds of the Surreal and Monsters of the Id. Nominated once for the Grammy, Lucas has added a “new chapter of horror” to his career, with his accompaniment to Dracula on his trip onto the screens of the Latin American New Cinema Festival.

What moved you to put music onto a mythical personality such as Dracula?

“Though it’s about a horrible personality trapped by destiny, I like Dracula because since i was a little boy, I was attracted by vampires. I saw them as very exciting and I loved vampiresses because they seemed to me very erotic. The horror movies they make today, unlike the cinema of another time, are unpleasant, too graphic and bloody. They show everything and leave nothing to the imagination.”

What is the moment in your career that you remember with most satisfaction?

“The collaboration with Jeff Buckley was my most exciting because with Lou Reed and Iggy Pop I was mainly an advisor. But with Jeff, I was creating something new in the world. Many people still come up to me and talk about the tunes we made together. This is the most important feeling I can have as a musician and a human being: to find people whom I have been able to influence through my songs.”

A group of well-known US musicians has recently demanded from Obama that they stop using music as a form of torture in the Guantanamo Naval Base…

“I fully support that demand. It’s outrageous that songs that have been designed to bring pleasure should be converted into instruments of torture. It’s really diabolical. The blockade of Cuba is also terrible. I hope that that policy changes. Hopefully, Obama will know to do the right thing, and end it.”

What do you find attractive in Cuban music?

“I have listened to Buena Vista Social Club a lot, and I love Company Segundo, apart from this presentation at the Festival, I would love to perform a concert in Cuba.”

What are you principal creative concerns?

“I want to continue my work. I have been on this path a long time and I love this life of creating spectacles. That’s my happiness. Recently I made a blues record with an Indian artist (Najma Akhtar). I am always interested in knowing new musicians from every country and seeing how the music evolves.”

Excerpt: “She liked it — I was the brash American!” says Lucas, who had been a fan of Akhtar since hearing her 1990 album ‘Atish‘ and seeing the ‘UnLedded’ MTV telecast. “And she is Muslim, very devout. As a Jewish artist — I’m not a professional Jewish musician but have been doing Jewish music — I’m trying to break down the barriers of religious groups and cultures. Best way the world has a chance of hanging together is celebrating the differences, and there is no better way to do it as a musician than collaborate with other musicians.”

Now why can’t politicians and diplomats do this sort of thing with such ease and grace?! Maybe we should replace all those folks with musicians!

We’ll let Gary Lucas tell you in his own words, as lifted from his blog:

Coming up–the fabulous Gods and Monsters 20th Anniversary gala on Thursday June 11th to be held at the sumptuous Gramercy Theater, a great venue on 23rd Street in Manhattan reminiscent of the old Fillmore East at its best…alongside my Gods and Monsters guys Ernie Brooks, Billy Ficca, Jason Candler and Joe Hendel (New York’s finest) will be special guests the legendary Alan Vega (Suicide), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith), Peter Stampfel (Holy Modal Rounders)–and–omigod–rangy blues twanger Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion), who will join me in a sick pas de deux on the Johnny Burnette/Yardbirds classic “The Train Kept a’ Rollin’” (they got it right there) (looked so good Jack couldn’t let her go)…Mike Edison will add appropriate frissons on his theremin during “One Man’s Meat”.. Dean Bowman, one of the best singers on the planet, will put his pipes in the service of the anniversary with a couple numbers from Chase the Devil… and the whole evening will be emceed by the erudite Mr. Dusty Wright…it’s only 20 bucks too, such a deal!!…gonna kick-off the evening solo, then move into duos with some of these guys, and then–my excellent band will take the stage…it was 20 years ago today (or thereabouts–mid-July 1989 to be precise) that Gods and Monsters first raised its barbaric yawp ‘oer the rooftops of the world (well, under the arch in Prospect Park) when we blew out the PA during the second number at the Welcome Back to Brooklyn Festival–Yardbirds producer Giorgio Gomelsky was there to video the proceedings in all their glory, and he promised to give me a quicktime archival clip to put up just in time for this anniversary show on the garylucas YouTube channel–so very very soon you then witness me, Tony Thunder Smith, Paul Now and Jared Nickerson kick it live in the first incarnation of the Gods and Monsters Beast–

What a long strange trip it’s been indeed

But, ever onward, the “legendary left-field guitarist” continues to perform:

SATURDAY MAY 16th

8:45pm

GARY LUCAS HEADLINES THE JAZZ CAFE LONDON SOLO

with his special guests
The Dark Poets
sitting-in