And that's without even knowning what country you lived in. Yea Baby!

i voted fred frith, but that whole list is good (of the 10 i know).

hans reichel's daxophone stuff is pretty funny

I'd love to add Joe Morris to the thread, but as usual, the edit poll function isn't working.

undoubtedly derek bailey
his playing completely changed people's opinion ons how the guitar should be played.

Had Seba not listed Keiji Haino as an option then I would have voted for Derek Bailey. His albums really make fascinating listens. Some of my friends claim 'open-mindedness' when it comes to guitar music. I use his albums to see how much they've entrenched themselves in guitar tradition.

One erstwhile calamine, I mean pal o' mine, played shit-hot Metal guitar but when he 'practised' he came out with the most fantastic FX-laden improv I'd heard. In those times I used to smoke 'wacky baccy' (don't smoke ordinarily but did do that then, and have long since given that up!) so never thought about recording his sessions: I contented myself with laying back and enjoying them. Now I wish I had made full use of that, perhaps introduce him to the 'public', or at the very least tape them for my own personal enjoyment.

Anyway, I brought him up because I played him some Keiji Haino and Derek Bailey, even going so far as to explain what I liked about those tracks I'd chosen to play to him. He dismissed them as needing to 'go back to guitar school and learn to play their instruments'.

Going back to what I said about guitar tradition in my 1st paragraph, to me Derek Bailey plays guitar with a knowledge of technique along with his own invented logic, and an almost childlike delight in its sounds. Almost as though guitars descended from outer space and had no previous history whatsoever! 'Fan-TAS-tic!', to quote Christopher Ecclestone as the new Doctor Who.

My favorites are Derek Bailey, Keiji Haino, and Fred Frith. I have to get more Fushitsusha and other Haino stuff before I vote.

A lot of Haino's best stuff involves guitar-less works, like his amazing albums for hurdy-gurdy: an absolute sonic orgasm called The 21st Century Hard-y Guide-y Man (obviously a reference to Donovan!) and the beautifully awesome hour-long drone piece Even Now, Still I Think.

As for guitar-based stuff get the seminal & utterly essential Watashi Dake?, and play it loud! Also very recommended: Affection and A Challenge To Fate. With Fushitsusha: for a relatively 'accessible' listen go for Withdrawe, This Sable Disclosure Ere Devot'd or Gold Blood. For something sky-scorchingly mind-blowing with frequent peaks & troughs over the space of more than an hour (a single performance! talk about endurance in keeping THAT up...) I'd say give The Wisdom Prepared a spin. Better yet, try their LIVE I and LIVE II (no real titles) discs on PSF, the first one even featuring Haino's fabulously coruscating harmonica playing!

Have fun

And King Crimson, one of my favorites.

I was tempted to add Robert Fripp to the list, as his solo works are really quite experimental and exploratory, but his association with more pop-oriented material might give him an unfair advantage.

You're both right. The title comes from both King Crimson and Donovan.


Now, that this has been settled Satchmo can get back to whatever it is he does.