A CONVERSATION WITH LEO KOTTKE (continued)

PM: So it's a cliche question, but people still like to know: what are you listening to, and what are you reading?

LK: Well, reading, let's see. At the moment I'm reading a Paul Auster book called Timbuktu. It isn't quite ringing my bell. I just read The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. It's really good. I've read a lot of his stuff, but I missed that one. I don't know how I've missed it all these years. I guess I thought, "Well, man, it was one of his first books. It's probably not too hot compared to Herzog and some of the others." But it's fantastic. It's different. He's much more wordy. Actually, wordy is the wrong word. He really indulges himself in the language a lot more, and he does it beautifully. It's not as spare as he can be.

PM: And he came to be.

LK: Yeah, yeah. And it's a pretty long book, and a lot of his stuff now is pretty lean. I just read somewhere that he likes short now.

PM: Do you make much time to listen?

LK: I don't. Musically, I am still hooked and just hypnotized by the sound of the guitar itself. I mean, a guitar sounds good if you drop it on the floor.

PM: [laughs]

LK: And that seems to be what I have to do. As far as what recorded music I listen to, these days I keep going back to Bill Evans a lot.

PM: Wow. Not every guitar player will tell you that.

LK: Yeah--although there's a pretty good stretch of them, at least there used to be. Lenny Breau, for example, he was a big Bill Evans freak. And a lot of his harmonies come from trying to approximate some Bill Evans.

But yeah, Bill Evans, and specifically, for me, his last record, You Must Believe in Spring. Probably his most depressed as well, but it's just great.  
continue

print (PDF)    archives     puremusic home