Robert Fripp
(born 16 May 1946 in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England) is a guitarist, composer and a record producer best known for being the guitarist for, and only constant member of, the progressive rock band King Crimson. His work, spanning five decades, encompasses a variety of musical styles. Fripp was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" (published August 2003). [1]
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ROBERT FRIPP TICKETS
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Career
Early career
Fripp's earliest professional work began in 1967, when he responded to an ad looking for a singing organist for a band being formed by bassist
Peter Giles and drummer
Michael Giles, despite being neither a singer nor an organist. Though unsuccessful as a live act,
Giles, Giles and Fripp did manage to release two singles, as well as an album,
The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp
.
Early King Crimson
Following the band's breakup, Fripp, along with drummer Michael Giles, made plans for the formation of King Crimson in 1968, with
Greg Lake,
Peter Sinfield and
Ian McDonald. Their first album,
In the Court of the Crimson King
, was released in late 1969 to great success, and is now known as one of the most influential albums in the history of
progressive rock. Because of musical differences with Giles and McDonald, King Crimson broke up shortly after the release of the first album, to be re-formed again several times over the years. Initially Fripp offered to leave the group; however, Giles and McDonald announced that they were going to leave regardless, and so Fripp remained instead in order to keep Crimson going. He has remained the only consistent member of the band since. Crimson went through a number of line-ups before Fripp disbanded the group for the first time in 1974.
Side projects and collaborations
During King Crimson's less active periods, Fripp has pursued a number of side-projects. He worked with
Keith Tippett (and others who appeared on King Crimson records) on projects far from rock music, producing ''
Centipedes
Septober Energy in 1971 and
Ovary Lodge
in 1973. During this period he also worked with Van der Graaf Generator, playing on the 1970 album
H to He, Who Am the Only One, and in 1971, on
Pawn Hearts. Collaborating with Brian Eno, he recorded
(No Pussyfooting) in 1972 and
Evening Star'' in 1974. These two albums featured experimentation with several novel musical techniques, including a
tape delay system utilizing dual reel to reel Revox tape machines that would come to play a central role in Fripp's later work. This system came to be known as "
Frippertronics". Fripp and Eno also played several live shows in Europe in 1975.
Fripp spent some time away from the music industry in the later 1970s, during which he cultivated an interest in the teachings of
Gurdjieff via
J. G. Bennett (studies which would later be influential in his work with
Guitar Craft). He returned to musical work as a studio guitarist on
Peter Gabriel's first
self-titled album in 1976, released the following year. Fripp toured with Gabriel to support the album, but remained in the wings and used the pseudonym "Dusty Rhodes".
[2]
In 1977, Fripp received a phone call from Eno, who was working on
David Bowie's album
"Heroes"
. Fripp agreed to play guitar for the album, a move that initiated a series of collaborations with other musicians. Fripp soon contributed his musical and production talents to Peter Gabriel's
second album, and collaborated with
Daryl Hall on
Sacred Songs
. During this period, Fripp began working on solo material, with contributions from poet/lyricist
Joanna Walton and several other musicians, including Eno, Gabriel, and Hall, as well as
Peter Hammill,
Jerry Marotta,
Phil Collins,
Tony Levin and
Terre Roche. This material eventually became his first solo album,
Exposure
, released in 1979, followed by the
Frippertronics
tour in the same year. While living in New York, Fripp contributed to albums and live performances by
Blondie and
Talking Heads (
Fear of Music
), and produced
The Roches' first album, which featured several of Fripp's characteristic guitar solos. A second set of creative sessions with
David Bowie produced distinctive guitar parts on
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
(1980).
Fripp's collaboration with bassist
Busta Jones, drummer
Paul Duskin, and vocals by
David Byrne (Byrne credited as Absalm el Habib) produced
God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners
in the following year. He simultaneously assembled what he called a "second-division touring new wave instrumental dance band" under the name
League of Gentlemen, with bassist
Sara Lee, keyboardist
Barry Andrews and drummer
Johnny Toobad (later replaced by Kevin Wilkinson) . The LOG toured for the duration of 1980.
In the early and mid 1990s Fripp contributed guitar/soundscapes to
Lifeforms (1994) by
The Future Sound of London and
Cydonia (released 2001) by
The Orb, as well as
FFWD, a collaborative effort with the latter's members. In addition, Fripp worked with Brian Eno co-writing and supplying guitar to two tracks for a CD-ROM project released in 1994 entitled
Headcandy created by Chris Juul and Doug Jipson. Eno thought the visual aspects of the disc (video feedback effects) were very disappointing upon completion, and regretted participation. During this period, Fripp also contributed to albums by
No-Man (a band featuring
Porcupine Tree's
Steven Wilson) and
The Beloved (1994's
Flowermouth and 1996's X, respectively).
King Crimson again
1981 saw the formation of King Crimson's fourth incarnation, along with
Adrian Belew,
Bill Bruford, and
Tony Levin. The group was conceptualized under the name Discipline, but it came to Fripp's attention that the members thought the name King Crimson was more appropriate. For Fripp, King Crimson had always been a way of doing things, rather than a particular group of musicians, and the group felt that their music captured that methodology. After releasing three albums, this new King Crimson broke up in 1984.
During this period Fripp made two records with his old friend
Andy Summers of
the Police. On
I Advance Masked
, Fripp and Summers played all the instruments.
Bewitched
was more dominated by Summers, who produced the record and collaborated with other musicians in addition to Fripp.
In 1982 Fripp produced and played guitar on the
Keep On Doing
album by
The Roches. Similar to his previous guesting on
David Bowie's
Scary Monsters
(which also boasted
Pete Townshend and
Chuck Hammer on infinite sustain guitar), the "skysaw" guitar style which characterized this period of Fripp's pedagogy is featured alongside the sisters' songs and harmony.
Guitar Craft
Fripp was offered a teaching position at the
American Society for Continuous Education (ASCE) in Claymont Court,
West Virginia in 1984. He had been involved with the ASCE since 1978, eventually serving on its board of directors, and had long been considering the idea of teaching guitar. His course,
Guitar Craft, was begun in 1985, an offshoot of which was a performance group, "
The League of Crafty Guitarists," which has released several albums. In 1986, he released the first of two collaborations with his wife,
Toyah Willcox. The members of the
California Guitar Trio are former members of The League of Crafty Guitarists, and
Gitbox Rebellion includes several former Guitar Craft students. The California Guitar Trio has also toured with King Crimson.
In February 2009, Fripp recommended that Guitar Craft cease to exist on its 25th anniversary in 2010.
[3]
Soundscapes
Fripp returned to recording solo in 1994, using an updated version of the Frippertronics technique that creates loops employing digital technology instead of analog tapes. Fripp has released a number of records that he called "
Soundscapes," including
1999
,
Radiophonics
,
A Blessing of Tears
,
That Which Passes
,
November Suite
,
The Gates of Paradise
,
Love Cannot Bear
and
At the End of Time
, as well as numerous download-only live recordings. (The sampler
Pie Jesu
consists of material compiled from
A Blessing of Tears
and
The Gates of Paradise
.) On the Soundscapes recordings, the inner workings of the music are not as clearly laid bare as they are on
Let the Power Fall
, perhaps because of the greater possibilities offered by the new technology.
Sylvian / Fripp
Fripp's collaborations with
David Sylvian feature some of his most exuberant guitar playing. Fripp contributed to Sylvian's twenty minute track "Steel Cathedrals" from his
Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities
album of 1985. Then Fripp performed on several tracks from Sylvian's 1986 release,
Gone to Earth
.
At some point in late 1991, Fripp had asked Sylvian to become the vocalist for the reforming King Crimson. Sylvian declined the invitation, but proposed a possible collaboration between the two that would eventually become a tour of Japan and Italy in the spring of 1992.
In July 1993, Sylvian and Fripp released the collaborative effort
The First Day
. Other contributors were soon-to-be King Crimson member
Trey Gunn on
stick and nearly-was King Crimson member
Jerry Marotta on drums. When the group toured to promote the CD, future King Crimson member
Pat Mastelotto took over the drumming spot. The live document
Damage
was released in 1994, as was the joint venture,
Redemption - Approaching Silence
, which featured Sylvian's ambient sound sculptures (Approaching Silence) accompanying Fripp reading his own text (Redemption).
King Crimson redux
In late 1994, Fripp re-formed the 1981 lineup of King Crimson for its fifth incarnation, adding
Trey Gunn and drummer
Pat Mastelotto in a configuration known as the "double trio" (the lineup included two guitars, two bass/Stick players and two drummers). This lineup released
Thrak
in 1995; also in 1994 he supplied guitar textures on the track
Flak
on
The Future Sound of London's album
Lifeforms.
From 1997 to 1999, and again in 2006, the band King Crimson "fraKctalised" into five sub-groups known as
ProjeKcts.
2000 saw the release of a studio album,
The ConstruKction of Light
, from a sixth lineup of King Crimson (Fripp,
Adrian Belew,
Trey Gunn,
Pat Mastelotto) with
The Power to Believe
following in 2003. At the end of the year Gunn decided to leave the band. In March 2004, a seventh lineup had been formulated and practiced with
Tony Levin returning to replace
Trey Gunn, although nothing happened beyond a few studio rehearsals and the band remained inactive again until 2007.
In 2007
Gavin Harrison joined the group to perform as a second drummer, and this new lineup played a short tour in the eastern US in August 2008. As yet there has been no definite word on anything further.
Recent work
During 2004, Fripp toured with
Joe Satriani and
Steve Vai as the guitar trio
G3.
Robert Fripp worked at
Microsoft's studios to record new sounds and atmospheres for
Windows Vista.
[4] [5]
“
| this interesting factoid: in addition to 200 million Vista users with the 4 note splash, an extract from the Soundscapes’ Vista sessions is estimated to strike up 91% of 32 trillion times on the new MS Mail programme this year. So, one of the planet’s least popular music forms will also be the planet’s most sounded in 2008. This has to be some kind of a record.
| „
|
—"ref">[6]
|
In late 2005 and early 2006, Fripp joined
Bill Rieflin's improvisational Slow Music project, along with guitarist
Peter Buck, Fred Chalenor (acoustic bass),
Matt Chamberlain (drums) and
Hector Zazou (electronics). This collective of musicians toured the west coast in May 2006.
In October 2006, ProjeKct Six (Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew) played at select venues on the east coast of the U.S., opening for
Porcupine Tree.
Fripp has contributed soundscapes to two songs for
Porcupine Tree's
Fear of a Blank Planet
. He is featured on the tracks "Way Out Of Here" and "Nil Recurring", the second of which was released in September 2007 as part of the "Nil Recurring" EP.
Fripp also played a concert with the band
The Humans
, which consists of his wife
Toyah Willcox,
Bill Rieflin and Chris Wong. The performance in
Tartu marked the release of
The Humans's first album "We are the Humans".
Fripp (along with Pat Mastelotto and others) appears on Judy Dyble's (Giles, Giles & Fripp; Fairport Convention; Trader Horne) album Talking With Strangers released August 2009.
Fripp will be opening for Porcupine Tree during their European tour of the fall.
Guitar technique
Fripp began playing guitar at the age of eleven.
[7] He says he was
tone deaf with no sense of rhythm when he started.
[8] His comment on dealing with the obstacle is "Music so wishes to be heard that it sometimes calls on unlikely characters to give it voice."
While being taught guitar basics by his teacher Don Strike
[9] (who Fripp described as "a very good player in the thirties style"), he began to develop the technique of
crosspicking, which would later become a significant technique taught in Guitar Craft.
In 1985, Fripp began using a tuning he called "
New Standard tuning"
[10], which would also become the official tuning of Guitar Craft.
Fripp's guitar technique, unlike most rock guitarists, is not blues-based but rather influenced by
avant-garde jazz and
European classical music, combining rapid
alternate picking with motifs in
whole-tone or
diminished tonalities, continuous
cross-picked (and
polka-influenced)
sixteenth-note patterns for long stretches in a form called
moto perpetuo
(perpetual motion)
.
Fripp is
left-handed, but plays guitar right-handed.
Personal life
He married
Toyah Willcox in 1986 in
Poole, Dorset.
[11]
Discography
- 1968 The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp
- 1973 (No Pussyfooting)
(with Brian Eno)
- 1975 Evening Star
(with Brian Eno)
- 1979 Exposure
- 1981 God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners
- 1981 The League of Gentlemen
(with the League of Gentlemen)
- 1981 Let the Power Fall: An Album of Frippertronics
- 1982 I Advance Masked
(with Andy Summers)
- 1984 Bewitched
(with Andy Summers)
- 1985 Network
- 1985 God Save The King
(with the League of Gentlemen)
- 1986 The League of Crafty Guitarists Live!
- 1986 The Lady or the Tiger
(with Toyah Willcox)
- 1990 Show of Hands
(with The League of Crafty Guitarists)
- 1991 Kneeling at the Shrine
(with Sunday All Over The World)
- 1993 The First Day
(with David Sylvian)
- 1993 Darshan
(with David Sylvian)
- 1994 The Bridge Between
(with the California Guitar Trio)
- 1994 1999 Soundscapes: Live in Argentina
- 1994 Damage: Live
(with David Sylvian)
- 1994 Redemption-Approaching Silence
(with David Sylvian)
- 1994 FFWD
(with The Orb)
- 1995 Intergalactic Boogie Express: Live in Europe...
- 1995 A Blessing of Tears: 1995 Soundscapes, Vol. 2
(live)
- 1995 Radiophonics: 1995 Soundscapes, Vol. 1
(live)
- 1996 That Which Passes: 1995 Soundscapes, Vol. 3'
(live)
- 1996 Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx
(with the League of Gentlemen)
- 1997 November Suite: 1996 Soundscapes - Live at Green Park Station
- 1997 Pie Jesu
- 1998 The Gates of Paradise
- 1998 Lightness: for the Marble Palace
(for Brian Eno)
- 1999 The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior
(with Bill Rieflin and Trey Gunn)
- 2000 A Temple in the Clouds
(with Jeffrey Fayman)
- 2004 The Equatorial Stars
(with Brian Eno)
- 2005 Love Cannot Bear (Soundscapes - Live In The USA)
- 2006 The Cotswold Gnomes
(with Brian Eno)
- 2007 At the End of Time (Churchscapes Live in England and Estonia)
- 2007 Beyond Even (1992 - 2006)
(with Brian Eno)
- 2008 Thread
(with Theo Travis)
Notes
- The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time
- Robert Fripp Discography: Other Unauthorized Releases
- "Robert Fripp's Diary", ''DGM Live!''
- Robert Fripp - Behind the scenes at Windows Vista recording session
- Making Windows Vista Sing: Robert Fripp and the Vista Melody
- "Robert Fripp's Diary for Saturday, 8th November 2008
- http://www.dgmlive.com/rf/index.htm?bio=true
- http://www.elephant-talk.com/wiki/Interviews#Robert_Fripp
- "History of the Guitar Craft Plectrum", by Steve Ball, ''SteveBall.com''
- Baldwin, Douglas (November 2007). "Guitar Heroes: How to Play Like 26 Guitar Gods from Atkins to Zappa", edited by Jude Gold and Matt Blackett, ''Guitar Player'', p.111.
- Marriages England and Wales 1984-2005
The band
Catherine Wheel named a song "Fripp" after Robert Fripp on their 1993 album
Chrome
.
References
- The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time
- Robert Fripp Discography: Other Unauthorized Releases
- "Robert Fripp's Diary", ''DGM Live!''
- Robert Fripp - Behind the scenes at Windows Vista recording session
- Making Windows Vista Sing: Robert Fripp and the Vista Melody
- "Robert Fripp's Diary for Saturday, 8th November 2008
- http://www.dgmlive.com/rf/index.htm?bio=true
- http://www.elephant-talk.com/wiki/Interviews#Robert_Fripp
- "History of the Guitar Craft Plectrum", by Steve Ball, ''SteveBall.com''
- Baldwin, Douglas (November 2007). "Guitar Heroes: How to Play Like 26 Guitar Gods from Atkins to Zappa", edited by Jude Gold and Matt Blackett, ''Guitar Player'', p.111.
- Marriages England and Wales 1984-2005