Gary Lucas

Broadway World wrote that the album, "offers ample Evidence of this maverick artist's trailblazing and unique career.... a truly epic body of work that spans psychedelic rock, film music, classical, electronica, jazz, blues, avant-garde, and world music excursions through 1930s Chinese pop, Hungarian folk, raga, and more, all unified by Lucas's virtuosic guitar and ceaselessly questing spirit."

Gary Lucas (born June 20, 1952) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and composer who was a member of Captain Beefheart's band.

According to his website, Lucas was encouraged by his father to try the guitar at the age of nine, while simultaneously studying the French horn, and played in jazz and rock groups during his teens in the 1960s.

His next album, The Essential Gary Lucas (Knitting Factory Records), a 36-track, two-CD anthology was released in January, 2021, spanned 40 years of Lucas's music.

In 1971, he traveled from New Haven to New York City to see his childhood hero Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) make his NYC concert debut, and later became close friends.

He obtained a degree in English from Yale University (1974), before establishing his career in music first as a college DJ and then as music director at the college radio station, WYBC FM.

From being a Beefheart fan, he eventually became his co-manager in 1980 with his then wife Ling Lucas, and occasionally performed on stage all over Europe and the U.S. during the 1980–81 tours with Beefheart's band, performing the difficult and complex solo guitar piece "Flavor Bud Living".

After gaining his degree, Lucas played for a few years with the O-Bay-Gone Band in Taipei, Taiwan while working for his father after college.

He played with them for a few years before gaining a significant step in his career during 1980–82, when he was engaged to record on two Beefheart albums released by Virgin Records, on one of which he was full-time lead alongside Moris Tepper.

Lucas performed over a period of five years with the last incarnation of Beefheart's Magic Band.

He performed as a special guest—his first appearance on an album—on Beefheart's 1980  Doc at the Radar Station, which had put him on the musical map with critics and fans.

He also read one of Van Vliet's poems (“One Man Sentence” or “Untitled”), and joined the Magic band on guitar (“Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles”) and bass (“Making Love to a Vampire with a Monkey on My Knee”).

After Captain Beefheart retired in the 1980s, Lucas continued to be associated with the Magic Band's former members.

On 1982's Ice Cream for Crow, he was a full Magic Band member playing twin lead guitar alongside Tepper.

In 1982 he became Van Vliet's sole manager as well as a full member of Beefheart's Magic Band.

In 1988, Lucas performed at New York's Knitting Factory.

Shortly after, he was invited to appear at the 1988 JazzFest Berlin.

He formed the band Gods and Monsters in 1989.

Lucas has released more than 50 albums to date as a solo artist or band leader in a variety of genres, touring internationally.

Lucas has collaborated with Leonard Bernstein, Jeff Buckley, John Cale, Nick Cave, David Johansen, and Lou Reed.

He has also worked with Chris Cornell, Najma Akhtar, DJ Spooky, Dr. John, Amanda Palmer, Bryan Ferry, The Future Sound of London, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Hammill, Warren Haynes, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Geoff Muldaur, Bob Neuwirth, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Graham Parker, Van Dyke Parks, Iggy Pop, Roswell Rudd, Fred Schneider, Richard Barone, John Sebastian, Adrian Sherwood, Patti Smith, Peter Stampfel, Damo Suzuki, Steve Swallow, Bob Weir, John Zorn, Nona Hendryx, Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra, Hal Willner, Kip Hanrahan, Elli Medeiros, Haydee Milanes, Suylen Milanes, Los Van Van, and Alabama Three.

Some of these collaborations appear on his retrospective 2000 album Improve the Shining Hour, which also features his film and TV music for ABC News, 20/20, and Turning Point.

He has produced albums for composer/saxophonists Tim Berne and Peter Gordon, and for the French avant-rock band Tanger.

He co-wrote Joan Osborne's Grammy-nominated song "Spider Web" from her triple platinum album Relish and co-wrote Jeff Buckley's anthems "Grace" and "Mojo Pin" from Jeff's 2 million selling Grace album, often cited as one of the Top 50 Albums of All Time.

During his last year in high school, Lucas played for the documentary film unit of the Upstate Medical Center and wrote the musical score on his first film assignment.

Several of Beefheart's former band members reformed the group, touring as the Magic Band from 2003 to 2006.

Their 2007 double album and DVD, 21st Century Mirror Men, followed up their debut album Back to the Front, which was chosen as one of the best albums of 2004 by The Wire.

In 2020, instead of doing live performances, which was not possible due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Lucas started a Pandemic Live Streaming every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 3pm EST on his Facebook page, which has gathered fans from all over the world.

Lucas was born in Syracuse, New York.

In late October 2020, Lucas was invited with the authorization of the Dutch government to play the So What's Next?

Festival in Eindhoven in the Netherlands with his live solo score accompanying the legendary Spanish Dracula on Halloween, and a new duo project with Dutch acoustic bassist and singer Peter Willems.

Lucas successfully overrode the travel ban on Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic to journey to the Netherlands, the first country in Europe to get behind his music in a big way, and his shows were live-streamed on social media from the Eindhoven Muziekgebouw.

While there, he recorded a new album with Willems, scheduled for 2021 release.

On July 1 2021, Lucas released a new electronica collaboration, Le Beast Concrète, with producer/DJ David Sisko.

First was the digital single "Realize It", with accompanying psychedelic animated clip by 3XA.

About their new single, La Ruta (Spain) wrote: "Always surprising and unfathomable, Gary Lucas presents a new single with producer and engineer David Sisko combining Gary's signature guitar riffs and lines with Sisko's deep 808 trap and relentless dancefloor beats with a result that reflects the guitar player's complexity mixing genres such as blues, rock, dance, trap and avant-garde".

More positive reviews followed in UnCut magazine and elsewhere.

Lucas also published several articles at Please Kill Me.com during the pandemic, including an extensive piece about his relationship with Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, a memoir of working on a rap record with Vin Diesel and Arthur Russell, and an appreciation of the Bonzo Dog Band's Vivian Stanshall, the original Fleetwood Mac's leader Peter Green, and the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones.

On September 11, 2021, Lucas celebrated his 40th anniversary in music at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC with a 2 hour show featuring Ernie Brooks, Jerry Harrison, Thurston Moore and other special guests.

On September 15, 2021, Rolling Stone magazine published their revised list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time which included Lucas and Jeff Buckley's "Grace", as featured on Buckley's two million selling 1994 album Grace.