Leo Kottke

When Leo Kottke was 15, he would walk down the steps to the basements of his trombone instructors (all of their studios were in basements), where he’d take an insult about his embouchure, play songs only worthy of state recitals and hear the ploinks of the instructors’ leaky shower heads (they all had DIY basement bathrooms). Kottke, now a guitar virtuoso, has moved on from brass—although he still owns that trombone—but in these depressed teachers’ basements the musical seed was planted, he writes in an essay at LeoKottke.com, which is an unexpected and well-written joy. After reading it, you get a sense of Kottke’s humility and grace, which doesn’t come across the same in his primarily instrumental compositions for six- and 12-string guitars. His unique “musical” voice in the classical-music vernacular can be heard on his 14 recordings.