lang and johnson guitar duets

Subject: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Feb 20 - 01:33 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q2YWl8GwQU lovely guitar duet

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: Stanron
Date: 24 Feb 20 - 01:43 PM

Great track. Thanks.

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 24 Feb 20 - 04:55 PM

Yes, these guys were bigger than Hendrix and Clapton back in the day, but you don’t see their records around any more. Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti on violin also gave Rheinhardt and Grappelli a run for their money. Thanks for the reminder.

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: The Sandman
Date: 25 Feb 20 - 04:51 AM

this is good too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iPA7oNRr5o

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: GUEST,big al whittle
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 04:29 AM

Thankyou Dick that was quite wonderful. I knew about Laing, because I love him on Singing the Blues by Bix. I bought Laing's album but never really warmed to his playing. But I didn't know much about LJ.
i spent the last half hour with him!

Apparently he died broke , despite a lot of success. you wonder what went wrong?

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: Nick
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 12:49 PM

Excellent. I doubt Ry Cooder's Paradise and Lunch (which I've always liked) would have been the same without some of that input.

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: Nick
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 12:53 PM

... but guitar - piano rather than two guitars

Ry Cooder and Earl Hines

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 29 Feb 20 - 06:00 AM

Al Whittle

"Apparently he died broke , despite a lot of success. you wonder what went wrong?"

He chose to be a musician.

You know the belief "How do you finish a career in music with 10,000 dollars"?

Start with 20,000 dollars.

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: GUEST,Pseudonymous
Date: 29 Feb 20 - 08:57 AM

I've mentioned Johnson a couple of times on Mudcat. Lang took a nickname to disguise the fact that he was white. It wasn't done for black and white musicians to record together. I mentioned Johnson's 'duets' with Victoria Spivey. Lonnie Donegan is said to have got the 'Lonnie' from Lonnie Johnson. Johnson's career had several parts. Along with Spivey he had a come-back career in the 70s. Some of the lyrics from their earlier songs are worth a look. Johnson is said to have been a pioneer of the guitar solo, but he was also rated as a singer. He played different styles through his career. He does several versions of 'Careless Love' and the phrasing in the 1965 one is magnificent.

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: GUEST,Guest RS
Date: 29 Feb 20 - 09:06 AM

Eddie Lang is my all-time favourite guitarist, his tone & eloquence have never been matched IMO, & his accomplishments are all the more remarkable considering he pretty much invented jazz guitar - I know Django gets all the attention, but to my ears he doesn't have anywhere near the appeal of Lang, he's too florid, Lang is more understated - besides which, I reckon Joe Venuti is way more listenable than Grapelli; buy the JSP boxset of Lang/Venuti & give yourself a treat!

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: GUEST,Jim Ward
Date: 29 Feb 20 - 10:18 AM

Ed Lang certainly did not die broke. In the early 30's when Bing Crosby began his rise to fame Ed Lang was his big buddy and he took him with him and used him on all his record dates, broadcasts, public appearances and films, in which he had speaking parts. By 1933 he was the highest paid guitarist in the country but he had always suffered from laryngitis and it began to effect his voice and Bing Crosby advised him to have a tonsillectomy, a routine operation. Sad to say he never recovered from the operation. He was only 30 years old.

Subject: RE: lang and johnson guitar duets
From: GUEST,Jim Ward
Date: 29 Feb 20 - 10:40 AM

I seem to have misread Al Whittle's post. He was talking about Lonnie Johnson not Ed Lang who died broke. I saw LJ with the American Folk & Blues show at The Fairfield Halls, Croydon in 1963. I don't think he died broke either as he was working regular up till he was 69 years old and he died the following year after a nasty accident, hit by a car that mounted the pavement.