HK Recommends...

Listed below are some pages loaded with stuff that HK likes and thinks is important for people to know about. Click on a highlighted heading to explore the associated list.

A Brief Listening/Viewing/Reading Guide

This page provides a quick rundown of HK's favorite musics, musicians, directors and writers. A Brief Introduction is a brief glimpse into HK's influences and artistic disposition. For a more thorough treatment of this topic, please see the viewer guide for HK's instructional video, Eclectic Electric.

HK's Personal Favorites

Here you will find a listing of what HK considers to be his own best work, whether solo guitar improvisations, composed instrumentals, or cover versions.

Recommended Listening : Derek Bailey

I suspect that I have spent just about as much time listening to Derek Bailey CDs & LPs as anyone else. He is my favorite guitar hero and I do have a pretty complete collection. I don't listen that much to free improvisation recordings for pleasure - maybe just 2 or 3 times per week or about 15% of my total listening time. I do listen to recordings with Derek Bailey or Evan Parker the most often.

East Bay Express Reviews

These consist of a series of annual "top ten" lists which HK wrote for a San Francisco periodical. They represent a sort of guide map to adventures in good music...Unfortunately, none have been published since 2000.

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

 

The Visionary Art of Jordan Belson

An article written for the San Francisco Bay Guardian by HK discussing the new film MYSTERIOUS JOURNEY by Jordan Belson and showing how Belson's earlier works were a primary influence on HK's musical development.

Tisziji Munoz

HK talks about a creative genius of the guitar who is "criminally obscure and unknown in the USA" in this article written for Guitar Player Magazine.

Foreword to Bill Harkleroad's LUNAR NOTES

This is the foreword HK wrote for Bill Harkleroad's autobiography of life in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band.

On the Excellence of Jim Copp

Jim was a genius in the making of children's records and one of the greatest creators of entertainment for children to work in any medium. The world is poorer for the loss of a creative artist of extraordinary wit, imagination, humor and integrity. The recordings he made with Ed Brown (who died in 1978) will live forever.

 

Site content Henry Kaiser and Michael Piper, 1997-2003
Site design Michael Piper, 2003
Last update January 5, 2004