Julian Bream, The Classical Guitar Giant With The Soul Of A Jazz Player
Guitarist Julian Bream, who died Friday at the age of 87, was as important to the history of classical guitar as Andres Segovia.
Andres Segovia popularized the classical guitar. Julian Bream took it to the next level.
Bream, who died Aug. 14 at the age of 87 in his native England, stepped into a guitar world in which everything had to be done just so ... and didn't do it that way. By the time he was a teenager, Bream was asking contemporary composers to write for him. He took an old lute his father bought from a sailor for 2 quid and went on to help revive interest in the instrument and play an important role in launching the early music movement. But again, he didn't do it quite the way he was supposed to.
He was a Cockney, born in Battersea in central London on July
