Nominated for 1 JUNO Award
“I think if Chopin had played guitar, he would have sounded like Lenny Breau.” That tribute was paid to the late jazz guitarist by Chet Atkins, just one in a long line of guitar legends who lauded Breau’s contributions to the instrument over the years.
The son of Winnipeg-based country and western performers Hal “Lone Pine” Breau and Betty Cody was initially billed as “Lone Pine Jr.-The Guitar Wizard”. Breau’s fingering and chording techniques were used to stunning effect in giving a multi-layered voice to the guitar and opening it up to a world of new sonic possibilities. As the Washington Post once noted: “Breau’s ability to accompany himself gives playing a sense of interior dialogue that makes other jazz guitarists sound incomplete by comparison.”
In August of 1984, the jazz world lost one of its greatest innovators when Breau, age 43, was murdered in Los Angeles by an unknown assailant.
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