TECH TALK

TECH TALK

THE CARLOS ALOMAR RHYTHM METHOD

Billy Cioffi

Carlos Alomar dedicates his LP, Dream Generator, "to all rhythm guitarists." In a musical world that, for the most part, is dominated by athletic exhibitions of tasteless fret meandering by moussed meatgrinders, Alomar is an enigmatic guitar hero. As an instrumentalist, he’s as hard to define as his main man and chief artistic champion, David Bowie. As you read this, Bowie’s Glass Spider extravaganza will be making it’s way through the States with Alomar in his familiar role as the Thin White Duke’s MD (That’s Musical Director). Carlos and Bowie have been working together for more than a decade, beginning in 1974 with Bowie’s landmark Young Americans album.

It is on Young Americans that the public first knew Carlos was hearing his chops. Before that, Alomar had been plying his trade in the recording studios of New York and touring with R&B legends such as Wilson Pickett, Ben E. King and others. It was, in fact, while he was working with The Main Ingredient—a popular recording group with plenty of soul charttoppers in the early ’70s—that Alomar received a call from Bowie, who at the time, was producing Lulu and felt that guitarist would add some rhythmic edge to the tracks. Even then Alomar was somewhat of a legend in the studio dungeons of New York, and it was love at first funk for the Harlem-raised son of a Pentecostal Minister and the avant garde darling of rock. The secret to Bowie’s creativity is his awareness of what’s going on outside of his particular sphere. Unlike many pop kingpins who inbreed and double back on their earliest influences until their ideas are flaccid, Bowie is an idea vampire always looking to transfuse another source or influence. With the addition of Alomar, he gained a rich heritage of backbeat and street, as well as musical common sense that allowed both to reach down to the least common denominator of rhythm (there’s that word again!). In doing so, Bowie had his biggest seller to that date with Young Americans.

Post-Americans, Bowie, with Carlos as his prime musical minister, embarked on a trilogy of albums that were at once controversial and groundbreaking. The impact of Low, Heroes and Lodger are still being felt, and, while they may not have sold as well as some of Bowie’s other offerings, they opened the door and set a sonic trend that is reflected in some of today’s most successful audio art.

This is particularly true in New Age music. Alomar feels the whole idea of labeling music is useless and reacts strongly to the suggestion that his instrumental solo LP, Dream Generator, has any relation to what many consider the yuppie mind candy of New Age.

"I don’t particularly care for the handle ‘New Age’,” the guitarist says. “It’s just another term people use to categorize other people. They weren’t calling it New Age when we were doing very much the same type of thing with the textures back on the Low LP, and on Heroes and Lodger. What were they calling it then? I think the tefm was ‘experimental’ music. If people want to categorize it, OK. I mean, it’s got some rock things, it’s got some orchestral movements and textures and it has some of that New Age ambience. There’s a lot of labels you can give it, it just depends on what track you’re listening to. I’m not really worried about how people are going to label it. If people want to buy the record, they will.”

While Alomar bristles at the labeling or categorizing of his music, he’s proud to be known as a rhythm guitarist.

"I love being a rhythm guitarist and I’ve always advocated that I am, but it is certainly true that everybody wants to be a lead guitar player. As far as rhythm guitar goes, people hear it and they don’t know what they are listening to, because it’s always buried in the background. You feel it and you have the chord part of the song, but you don’t recognize it. With a band’s budget,” he laughs, “It usually gets down to who goes first, the conga player or the rhythm guitar player.”

Alomar does feel that the role is completely underestimated and finally being brought into its own by technology.

“Do you remember when Hendrix first came out? I remember first hearing him and there were two things I just couldn’t believe: The first was, is that a guitar? It was the contemporary tinny pop sound that guitars had at that time. The second was, is that only three pieces? Those are the elements that really got to me. What I try to exemplify in my playing with Bowie, and particularly on my own album, is exactly the same thing. Is that a guitar? Doesn’t that sound like a synthesizer? Isn’t that an orchestra? Is that only one guitar? Which, in many cases, it is. This is the nature of the beast, and the rhythm instrument is capable of doing just that. Technology is more of an advantage to the rhythm guitar player than it is to the lead player—you no longer have to limit yourself to being one who goes chickachicka-bang-bang in the background—the locomotive effect. Now you can have an orchestra back there.’’

Alomar also feels that many of today’s young players are missing the boat when it comes to turning their craft into an art.

“The one thing that a lot of young players don’t realize is that before you play lead, you’ve got to play good rhythm—the lead actually starts from rhythm. A lead guitar player who plays three fantastic notes is the best lead guitar player. They shouldn’t let you know where they’re going to play them, but they will instinctively know when to play them. If you overplay on lead guitar it sounds horrible. It’s the timing of when you play, and that’s essentially rhythm guitar theory.”

In terms of instruments, this year Carlos is playing Kramer guitars.

“Right now I have a Photon guitar synthesizer pick-up on my Kramer guitar. This year I’m using Kramer because I’ve been experimenting with them and talking to their people about the different things I feel I need in an instrument. I’ve been working with their designers and they’ve been customizing some instruments for me. I also have a prototype Casio guitar that I’ve been trying out, and it looks and sounds pretty good. So on the (Bowie) tour I’ll be using them both. As amps I use the Roland JC-120’s.”

We ain’t exactly talking chicka-chickabang-bang any more. With Alomar holding down the groove as well as trading licks with Peter Frampton, the Bowie tour should be a treat for guitar players—a chance to see a wide spectrum of the instrument’s many facets.