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Eugene Chadbourne

Eugene Chadbourne (January 4, 1951 in Mount Vernon, New York) is a USA composer, improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. He has also been a reviewer for the All Music Guide (AMG), and a contributor to Maximum RocknRoll.

Chadbourne started out playing rock and roll guitar, but quickly grew bored with the form's conventions. He started studying other genres, including blues, country, bluegrass, free jazz, and noise - eventually synthesizing all those heterogeneous influences into a unique style of his own. He was also influenced early on by the experimental stylings of Captain Beefheart and the Mothers of Invention.

He is also known as the inventor of the electric rake. This instrument (some would hesitate to call it "musical") is made by attaching a microphone or an electric guitar pickup to an ordinary lawn rake.

Chadbourne has worked with numerous artists including John Zorn, Fred Frith, Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Carla Bley Band, Paul Lovens, Camper Van Beethoven, Jello Biafra, Aki Takase, Zu,and Jimmy Carl Black.

While in Canada in the 1970s, he produced and hosted a radio program on Radio Radio 104.5 Cable FM in Calgary, Alberta. His show was notorious for obscure and remarkable music. Radio Radio is now the last quasi-pirate station in Canada.

Chadbourne also fronted Shockabilly (1982-1985) with Mark Kramer (bass/organ) and David Licht (drums), releasing four eclectic albums.

Chadbourne currently resides in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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64
Album Review

Eugene Chadbourne and Warren Smith: Odd Time

Read "Odd Time" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose


All art is activist; or at least it should be when it challenges established and accepted forms that play to the laissez-faire, the reactionary and the antisocial--and the greater good of the greater number of people experiencing (or trying to experience) it. The music of Beethoven was just so, the composer cancelling the dedication of his mighty Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") to Napoleon Bonaparte after the Frenchman declared himself Emperor. So, too, has some of the finest music of modern ...

535
Interview

Eugene Chadbourne: Beauty Out of Chaos

Read "Eugene Chadbourne: Beauty Out of Chaos" reviewed by Kurt Gottschalk


Over more than thirty years of a seemingly endless variety of recordings and playing situations, Eugene Chadbourne has made himself into about as eclectic a performer as you could ask for. In addition to his own composing and improvising, he's devoted entire albums to the music of such artists as Albert Ayler, J.S. Bach, Jimi Hendrix and Phil Ochs, and has worked with Derek Baily, Han Bennink, Frank Lowe, and John Zorn, to name but a few. His devotion to ...

143
Album Review

Eugene Chadbourne: The Hills Have Jazz

Read "The Hills Have Jazz" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


Among the interesting anecdotes in the liner notes to The Hills Have Jazz, Eugene Chadbourne includes one about Wes Craven and his movie Cursed. Chadbourne was on the set, and his observations are both acute and humorous. When this record was to be released, Chadbourne dedicated it to Craven, whose movie actually lived up to its name, but not in the way he imagined.

Chadbourne's music is quirky, not limited by the straitjacket of categorization. He fills it ...

307
Album Review

Eugene Chadbourne: The Hills Have Jazz

Read "The Hills Have Jazz" reviewed by Kurt Gottschalk


Since starting his homegrown label a few years back, Eugene Chadbourne has had no end of opportunities to digitize his whims and send them to market. Among the many projects on his Chadula label has been a series (eight at present) of “horror CDs that run the gamut from arrangements of horror movie themes to unnerving found sound. So what terror to expect when Herr Doktor dedicates a disc to director Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street)?

Chadbourne and ...

396
Album Review

Eugene Chadbourne: The Hills Have Jazz

Read "The Hills Have Jazz" reviewed by John Kelman


Only the most committed of “B horror movie fans would catch guitarist and erstwhile eccentric Eugene Chadbourne's reference to Wes Craven's early low-budget flick The Hills Have Eyes. With titles in his immense catalogue including Terror Has Some Strange Kinfolk, Horror, Pt. 1: Tribute to Horror Monsters and Bad Luck and Shockabilly Baby, it's clear that horror movies and Chadbourne have more than a passing acquaintance. But the title to his new release is even more significant. After sending Shockabilly ...

188
Album Review

Chadbourne/Dresser/Ibarra/Morris: Pain Pen

Read "Pain Pen" reviewed by Mark Corroto


There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but there is free-jazz and Eugene Chadbourne has been one of its stars for many years. He has worked with every free jazz musician, plus Camper Van Beethoven, They Might Be Giants, and John Zorn. Likewise, Boston guitarist Joe Morris has been making waves of late with his own group for AUM, Knitting Factory, and Omnitine records. Bassist Dresser is a veteran of recording dates with John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, ...

93
Album Review

Eugene Chadbourne & Paul Lovens: Young At Heart/Forgiven

Read "Young At Heart/Forgiven" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


When guitarist/vocalist/improviser Dr. Eugene Chadbourne sings a ballad or standard he certainly won’t erase memories of Nat King Cole or Sinatra yet Chadbourne melds his acerbic wit and time-honored sense of humor with his often-stunning technical finesse as a slick picking guitarist. With Young At Heart/Forgiven Chadbourne aligns himself with drummer Paul Lovens for 2 CDs worth of original material and unlikely covers of such familiar pieces as Johnny Mercer’s “Skylark”, Willie Nelson’s “I Let My Mind Wander” and others. ...

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119

Festival

Jazz This Week: Peter Martin, Terence Blanchard, Eugene Chadbourne, Belleville's Wine Dine and Jazz Festival, and More

Jazz This Week: Peter Martin, Terence Blanchard, Eugene Chadbourne, Belleville's Wine Dine and Jazz Festival, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

There's quite a bit of notable jazz and creative music on tap this week in St. Louis, including several free events that should help stretch your live music-listening and/or entertainment dollars a bit farther, certainly a good thing in these tight-money timesThe first of those freebies is tonight, when pianist Peter Martin opens this year's Whitaker Music Festival with a free outdoor concert at Missouri Botanical Garden. The St. Louis native is known for his work backing major ...

169

Video / DVD

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Musical Worlds of Eugene Chadbourne

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Musical Worlds of Eugene Chadbourne

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week, we've got some video clips featuring Eugene Chadbourne, the guitarist, banjo player, composer, improviser and occasional inventor who's coming to St. Louis on Thursday, June 4 to perform two free shows at the Schlafly St. Louis Brewery and Tap Room downtown.Chadbourne is difficult to categorize, as his music contains elements of psychedelic rock, free jazz, punk, folk, noise, and country as well as influences from various cultures outside ...

191

Performance / Tour

Eugene Chadbourne to Perform Wednesday, June 4 at the Tap Room

Eugene Chadbourne to Perform Wednesday, June 4 at the Tap Room

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This just in: Eugene Chadbourne (pictured) is coming to St. Louis to perform on Wednesday, June 4 at the Schlafly St. Louis Brewery and Tap Room.The email sent by the Tap Room's Brett Underwood says, “We don't have all the particulars set yet, but I do know that Eugene Chadbourne will perform two sets (the first one probably starting around 7:30 p.m.) on Wednesday, June 4th in the Club Room at the Schlafly Tap Room. It will either ...

121

Performance / Tour

Eugene Chadbourne and A.C. Unit

Eugene Chadbourne and A.C. Unit

Source: All About Jazz


Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Odd Time

Engine Studios
2012

buy

Odd Time

Leo Records
2011

buy

Live, Silke Arp...

Leo Records
2009

buy

The German Horse

Leo Records
2007

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