musician questionnaire: frederik leroux

Frederik Leroux is a guitarist. Last year, he released his quartet's debut album on his own label. Angular is a careful, Downtown jazz kind of album, throwing in incongruous hard rock riffs. He actually sent me this way back in February...

GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OR TWO OF AN ESPECIALLY GOOD OR INTERESTING:

1. Movie score : Ennio Morricone stuff for the Sergio Leone spaghetti trilogy, Bernard Hermann scores for Hitchcock (ex. Vertigo), Eraser Head (more for the crazy sounds, I don't know the name of the guy that did the sound effects)

2. TV theme : Twin Peaks (I don’t know who wrote it actually...), Black Adder (first series with the very silly voice and lyrics, makes my day every time)

3. Melody : "My One and Only Love" (Wood/Mellin), "My Heroics Part 2" (Absynth Minded)

4. Harmonic language : Bill Evans, Claude Debussy

5. Rhythmic feel : "It's all around you" by Tortoise (on the album It’s all around you)

6. Hip-hop track : "Runnin'" (The Pharcyde)

7. Classical piece : Bartok String Quartets, "Le Sacre Du Printemps" (Stravinsky)

8. Smash hit : 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' by Michael Jackson

9. Jazz album : The Science Fiction Sessions (Ornette Coleman)

10. Non-American folkloric group : Gamelan Jegog Wedi Sentana, I think this is the name of the artist (probably without 'Gamelan' in front of it). This is Gamelan music of Bali. Very hypnotic stuff and a lot of dynamics. Not if you’re having guests over, they might get a tad nervous...

11. Book on music : Style an Idea (Arnold Schoenberg), Silence (John Cage)

BONUS QUESTIONS:

A) Name a surprising album (or albums) you loved when you were developing as a musician: something that really informs your sound but that we would never guess in a million years: Passion and Warfare by Steve Vai , where did you think I got those monsterchops from ?

B) Name a practitioner (or a few) who play your instrument that you think is underrated: Nels Cline, he’s a very versatile musician but few people know him. He plays in free impro settings like for example with Tom Rainey, but also in the rock band Wilco.

C) Name a rock or pop album that you wish had been a smash commercial hit (but wasn't, not really): Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco

D) Name a favorite drummer, and an album to hear why you love that drummer: John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), oh yeah, he's good. I love his playing on all of the Led Zeppelin albums I have.