Clive Carroll

Guitar

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  • Date:
    Friday 5 Mar 2010
  • Time:
    8:00 PM
Clive Carroll

A myriad of musical styles from this fantastic guitarist. Seamlessly moving from beautiful ballads and traditional Irish reels before swinging into Django Reinhardt style jazz and deepest blues, then onto numbers with South American or even classical influences, you'll be left wondering if there's a style that Carroll hasn't mastered. His breathtaking playing, ever impressive technique and friendly, relaxed manner has the ability to draw you in with surprising ease. Then soak up harmonies, melodies and rhythmic twists that few could conceive, let alone play.

'His breathtaking playing and ever impressive technique is never allowed to triumph over intense musicality and listenability' Froots

i Find out more about Clive Carroll

  • Tickets:
    £15
  • Senior Citizens:
    £14
  • Disabled:
    £14
  • Benefit Claimants:
    £14
  • Students:
    £14
  • Saver:
    £13
  • Under 18s:
    from £1 (call 01225 860100)
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Comments (4)

  • Joan Ward

    05/02/1014:26

    You've got to see Clive. You'll not be disappointed!

    Inappropriate?

  • Barry Mitchell

    06/03/1017:03



    Carroll admitted that even by his standards the programme was a very eclectic one: it contained Elizabethan and Romantic classical music, jazz, blues, bluegrass (two pieces played on the 5 string tenor banjo), Irish folk and film music. Carroll also demonstrated his mastery of the Chet Atkins thumb-picking style. Carroll played several of his own pieces.

    Apart from the two banjo pieces Carroll played all the music on a nylon-strung acoustic guitar with a pick-up, though in the intimate auditorium of the Wiltshire Music Centre only modest amplification was needed. Carroll also used a pedal-operated device that enabled him to record one part and then over-dub a second part. He only used this device once, in an arrangement of an Eastern European-style piece originally written for violin and piano. First Carroll played the accompaniment and then added the melody to brilliant effect.

    But Carroll doesn’t need the aid of music technology to impress. Segovia once said that the main point of the guitar is the instrument’s different tone colours and Carroll must be unsurpassed at coaxing a wide range of sounds out of the acoustic guitar. He is a master of every guitar technique and combines a wide range of techniques in a distinctive style. Finger-picking is the main element in his right hand technique but he also uses various picks and plectrums and is especially good at using the guitar as a percussion instrument. In Blue Moon he transformed himself into a one man band with bass, drums and brass section accompanying the melody. There was a certain tongue-in-cheek element to this, but it was brilliantly done.

    It is not just the range of sounds that Carroll used that is special: it is the way he combines them. His performance of the iconic Albeniz-Tarrega piece Asturias was a good example of how Carroll brings something new and distinctive to whatever he plays. Carroll has obviously given careful thought to what tone colours should be used in this piece and the middle section was especially varied in this respect. It is always a challenge to make a standard piece sound new and fresh, but Carroll has the imagination and technique to be able to do this.

    Carroll is rated by some aficionados as being among the top ten acoustic guitarists of all time. On the evidence of this concert it is easy to see why. Two pieces in particular showed Carroll’s invention and mastery. In the first half he played Oregon, a slow and atmospheric jazzy piece that makes much use of subtle percussive effects. Another Carroll piece, played as an encore, used effects such as plucking with the left hand and right hand plucking well up the guitar neck. The overall effect was a successful blend of different timbres.

    Carroll broke up the performance with short anecdotes about his career and other guitarists. In doing so he came across as an amiable person who is passionate about playing the guitar. There was an excellent rapport between Carroll and the audience. The Wiltshire Music Centre is the perfect venue for an event of this kind: the acoustic is perfect and the auditorium is small enough to create and intimate atmosphere. Carroll obviously enjoyed playing there and his performance was very enthusiastically received by the audience.



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  • Matt Grylls

    06/03/1021:51

    I had no idea who Clive Carroll was until I was invited to attend the Wiltshire Music Centre on Friday evening. Suffice to say, I was captivated. I've never seen such an incredible mix of passion, energy and raw talent, from such a seemingly casual gig. Except it was far from casual, Clive engaged the crowd and injected humour and life into his music - but his music is so good, and so refined that it could never be casual. There were times the audience were stunned into silence, absorbing the beautiful and subtle tones from Clive's guitar - and other times when we sat amazed at his incredibly creative talent. Please book him again!

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  • Pamela Loosmore

    10/03/1018:14

    Wow!!

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