My last post on young virtuoso Andreas Varady reminded me of this clip of Bireli Lagrene at age 12 -- already a monster player, but somehow seemingly unaware of the depth of his talent. Growing up in an isolated mountainous region where almost everyone is an amazing guitar player will do that to you..
Larry Coryell had this to say about his first encounter with the young Bireli Lagrene in 1978, at about the time of this video clip.
"Before the gig they brought this kid in. He was awkward-looking and kind of homely - this was before he had his teeth fixed. And he was real small, really dwarfed by the guitar. His dad was there -- I remember he was drunk. But Bireli took out his Django-style guitar and started to play, and I couldn't believe it. He sounded exactly like Django Reinhardt. It was incredible. I was traumatized."
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