From City Pages, The News & Arts Weekly of the Twin Cities, April 30, 1997

The A List: Zen Guitar

In his book Zen Guitar, Macalester-grad-turned-Maui-guitar philosopher Philip Toshio Sudo cooks up a loose study course that draws as much from Buddhist spirituality and martial arts as from Guitar Player magazine. In addition to usual suspects like Steve Vai, he quotes offbeat guitar heroes such as Joe Strummer, Brian Eno, Neil Young, Chet Atkins, Joe Pass, and Henry Kaiser. The guy's got a rock orientation, as you can tell from the accompanying CD, which, surprisingly for this sort of thing, ain't half bad--it's full of shiny, noisy, layered space jams and a cover of "Tomorrow Nevers Knows," which is sort of an aesthetic manifesto.

 

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