Chet Atkins
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Burton Chester "Chet" Atkins (20 giugno 1924 - 30 giugno 2001) è stato un influente chitarrista e produttore. Il suo stile, ispirato da Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes e Les Paul, lo portò ad imporsi negli Stati Uniti e a livello internazionale. Come produttore ha lavorato con Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Connie Smith, Waylon Jennings, ed altri. Ha creato, insieme con Owen Bradley, il più morbido stile musicale americano, noto come il suono di Nashville, che ha contribuito notevolmente alla diffusione della musica musica country nella musica popolare.
Indice [nascondi] 1 Biografia 2 Carriera 2,1 Primi anni 2,2 RCA Victor firma Atkins 2,3 Performer e manager 2,4 Atkins si ritira dalla gestione 3 Legacy 4 Discografia 5 Riferimenti 6 Collegamenti esterni
[Modifica] Biografia Chet nacque il 20 giugno 1924, nel Luttrell, Tennessee, vicino alla Clinch Montagne, e crebbe con la madre, due fratelli e una sorella. I suoi genitori divorziarono quando aveva sei anni. Il suo primo strumento fu l' ukulele, ma passò al più tardi al violino. Il primo contatto con la chitarra avvenne a nove anni, quando suo fratello Lowell ne barattò una con un negoziante in cambio di una vecchia pistola. Costretto a trasferirsi in Georgia a vivere col padre a causa dell'aggravarsi delle condizioni di salute di quest'ultimo per l' asma, Chet era un giovane sensibile che fece della musica la sua ossessione.
Le storie raccontano di un Chet molto giovane che, durante le visite dei parenti, se uno di questi sapeva suonare la chitarra, seguiva ad orecchio l'esecuzione e poi con molta accuratezza cercava di riprodurre gli stessi suoni, riuscendoci talmente bene che alla fine diveniva difficile poi suonare allo stesso suo modo. Questa fu una delle prime dimostrazioni della sua affinità per lo strumento che diventerà in seguito la sua vita, e che porterà in giro per il mondo. Così divenne un affermato chitarrista mentre era all'università.
Atkins non ebbe un proprio stile fino al 1939, quando sentì suonare Merle Travis in radio. Questo ascoltò lo influenzò drammaticamente il suo modo di suonare, che ben presto divenne unico. Mentre Travis utilizzava il dito indice per la melodia e il pollice per suonare le note basse, Chet Atkins ampliò questa tecnica utilizzando ben tre dita per la melodia, con il pollice al basso. Il risultato fu una chiarezza e una complessità che si tradussero nel suo inconfondibile suono.
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[Modifica] I primi anni di carriera . Dopo l'abbandono precoce della scuola superiore nel 1942, trovò un posto di lavoro presso la WNOX radio a Knoxville dove suonò violino e chitarra con il cantante e comico Bill Carlisle Archie Campbell.
Dopo tre anni, si è trasferì a WLW di Cincinnati, Ohio, dove Merle Travis aveva precedentemente lavorato. Dopo sei mesi si trasferì a Raleigh e lavorato con Johnnie e Jack, prima di dirigersi verso Richmond, Virginia, dove suonò con Sunshine Sue Workman. Atkins dovette dapprima combattere la sua timidezza, che lo ostacolava, così come il fatto che il suo stile sofisticato ha portato molti a dubitare che fosse stato veramente "country". Fu licenziato spesso, ma seppe sempre trovare un altro posto di lavoro in altre stazioni radio a causa della sua capacità di suonare unica.
Viaggiando a Chicago, dove tenne un audizione per Red Foley, Atkins fece la sua prima comparsa al Grand Ole Opry nel 1946 in qualità di membro del gruppo di Foley. Registrò anche un singolo per Nashville-bases of Bullet Records nello stesso anno. Questo singolo, "Guitar Blues", fu abbastanza progressivo, compresa come venne eseguito, con un clarinetto solista suonato dal musicista olandese McMillan e con Owen Bradley sul pianoforte.
[Modifica] RCA Victor firma Atkins Mentre lavorava con una banda a Denver, Si Siman incoraggiò Steve Sholes, della RCA a firmare Atkins, in quanto il suo stile (con il successo di Merle Travis), divenne improvvisamente in voga. Sholes, direttore musicale per la musica country della RCA, rincorse Atkins fino a Denver. Chet fece la sua prima registrazione per l'RCA a Chicago nel 1947.They did not sell. He did some studio work for RCA that year but had relocated to Knoxville again where he worked with Homer and Jethro on WNOX's new Saturday night radio show the Tennessee Barn Dance and the popular Midday Merry Go Round. Still, it was a hard way to make a living for a family man for by then he had a wife and daughter. He even contemplated tuning pianos as a sideline. In 1949 he left WNOX to join Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters back at KWTO. This incarnation of the old Carter Family featured Maybelle Carter and daughters June, Helen and Anita. Their work soon attracted attention from the Opry. The group relocated to Nashville in mid-1950. Atkins began working on recording sessions, performing on WSM and the Opry.
While he hadn't yet had a hit record on RCA his stature was growing. He began assisting Sholes as a Session Leader when the New York-based producer needed help organizing Nashville sessions for RCA artists. Atkins's first hit single was "Mr. Sandman," followed by "Silver Bell," which he did as a duet with Hank Snow. His albums also became more popular. In addition to recording, Atkins became a design consultant for Gretsch, who manufactured a popular Chet Atkins line of electric guitars from 1955-1980. Atkins also became manager of RCA's Nashville studio eventually inspiring and seeing the completion of the legendary Studio 'B'. This studio was the first studio built specifically for the purpose of recording on the now famous 'Music Row'.
[edit] Performer and manager When Sholes took over pop production in 1957 - a result of his success with Elvis Presley - he put Atkins in charge of RCA's Nashville division. With country music record sales in tatters as rock and roll took over, Atkins and Bob Ferguson took their cue from Owen Bradley and eliminated fiddles and steel guitar as a means of making country singers appeal to pop fans. This became known as 'The Nashville Sound' which Chet said was a label created by the media attached to a style of recording done during that period in an effort to keep country (and their jobs) viable. Atkins used the Jordanaires and a rhythm section on hits like Jim Reeves' "Four Walls" and "He'll Have to Go" and Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Blue Blue Day." The once rare phenomenon of having a country hit "cross over" to pop success became more common. He and Bradley had essentially put the producer in the driver's seat, guiding an artist's choice of material and the musical background.
Atkins made his own records, which usually visited pop standards and jazz, in a sophisticated home studio, often recording the rhythm tracks at RCA but adding his solo parts at home, refining it all until the result satisfied him. Guitarists of all styles came to admire various Atkins albums for their unique musical ideas and in some cases experimental electronic ideas. In this period he became known internationally as "Mister Guitar", also the name of one of Atkins's albums. His trademark "Atkins Style" of playing, which was and is very difficult for a guitarist to master, uses the thumb and first two - sometimes three - fingers of the right hand. He developed this style from listening to Merle Travis occasionally on a primitive radio. He was sure no one could play that articulately with just the thumb and index finger (which actually was exactly how Travis played) and he assumed it required the thumb and two fingers - and that was the style he pioneered and mastered. He enjoyed jamming with fellow studio musicians which led to them being asked to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960. That performance was canceled, however, due to rioting. Atkins performed by invitation at the White House for presidents Kennedy through George H. W. Bush.
Before his mentor, Sholes, died in 1968, Atkins had become vice president of RCA's country division. He had brought Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Connie Smith, Bobby Bare, Dolly Parton, Jerry Reed and John Hartford to the label in the 1960s and inspired and helped countless others. He took a considerable risk during the mid-1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement sparked violence throughout the South by signing country music's first African-American singer Charley Pride, who sang rawer country than the smoother music Atkins had pioneered. But Atkins's hunch paid off. Ironically, some of Pride's biggest fans were from the most conservative country fans, many of whom didn't care for the pop stylings Atkins had added.
Atkins's own biggest hit single came in 1965, with "Yakety Axe," an adaptation of his friend saxophonist Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax". He rarely performed in those days, and eventually had to hire other RCA producers like Bob Ferguson and Felton Jarvis to alleviate his workload.
[edit] Atkins retires from management In the 1970s, Atkins became increasingly stressed by his executive duties. He produced fewer records but could still turn out hits such as Perry Como's pop hit "And I Love You So." He recorded extensively with close friend and fellow picker Jerry Reed, who'd become a hit artist in his own right. A 1973 bout of colon cancer, however, led Atkins to redefine his role at RCA, to allow others to handle administration while he went back to his first love, the guitar, often recording with Reed or even Homer & Jethro's Jethro Burns (Atkins's brother-in-law) after Homer died in 1971.
By the end of the '70s, Atkins's time had passed as a producer. New executives at RCA had different ideas. He first retired from his position in the company, and then began to feel stifled as an artist because RCA would not let him branch out into jazz. At the same time he grew dissatisfied with the direction Gretsch (no longer family-owned) was going and withdrew his authorization for them to use his name and began designing guitars with Gibson. He left RCA in 1982 and signed with Columbia Records, for whom he produced a debut album in 1983. While he was with Columbia, he showed his creativity and taste in jazz guitar, and in various other contexts. Jazz had always been a strong love of his, and often in his career he was criticized by "pure" country musicians for his jazz influences. He also said on many occasions that he did not like being called a "country guitarist", insisting that he was a guitarist, period. Although he played 'by ear' and was a masterful improviser he was able to read music and even performed some classical guitar pieces with taste and distinction. He did return to his country roots for albums he recorded with Mark Knopfler and Jerry Reed. On being asked to name the ten most influential guitarists of the 20th century, he named Django Reinhardt to the first position on the list, and placed himself at fifth position.
In later years he even went back to radio, appearing on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, and even picking up a fiddle from time to time.
[edit] Legacy Atkins received numerous awards, including eleven Grammy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993), and nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards. Billboard Magazine awarded him their Century Award, their "highest honor for distinguished creative achievement", in December 1997.
Atkins expanded the universe for guitarists - and lovers of guitar music - in a way no one did before, nor likely will again. His love for numerous styles of music can be traced from his early recording of stride-pianist James P. Johnson's "Johnson Rag," all the way to the rock stylings of Eric Johnson, an invited guest on Atkins's recording sessions who, when Chet attempted to copy his influential rocker "Cliffs of Dover," led to Atkins's creation of a unique arrangement of "Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)."
Chet's recordings of "Malaguena" inspired a new generation of Flamenco guitarists; the countless classical guitar selections peppering almost all his albums were, for many American artists working in the field today, the first classical guitar they ever heard. He could certainly play as jazzy or bluesy as he wanted, even recording smooth jazz guitar still played on American airwaves today.
And gauging his influence on the sound of country music in the later 20th century - and beyond - would be as hard to calculate as counting the number of guitar picks in Nashville today - flatpicks and thumbpicks combined.
While he did more performing in the 1990s his health grew frail as the cancer returned and worsened. He died on June 30, 2001 at his home in Nashville.
Atkins was quoted many times throughout his career, and of his own legacy he once said:
“ Years from now, after I'm gone, someone will listen to what I've done and know I was here. They may not know or care who I was, but they'll hear my guitars speaking for me. ”
A stretch of Interstate 185 in southwest Georgia (between LaGrange and Columbus) is named "Chet Atkins Parkway".
In 2002, Atkins was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Fame. His award was presented by Marty Stuart and Brian Setzer and accepted by Atkin's Grandson, Jonathan Russell. The following year, Atkins ranked #28 in CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music.
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