Leonard Harold Breau was born on August 5, 1941, and died on August 12, 1984. He was an American-Canadian musician who played the guitar. He combined different types of music, such as jazz, country, classical, and flamenco. He was influenced by country guitar players like Chet Atkins and used fingerstyle methods that were uncommon in jazz guitar. By playing a seven-string guitar and treating it like a piano, he created new ways to use the instrument.

Biography

Breau was born on August 5, 1941, in Auburn, Maine, USA. In 1948, he moved with his family to Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. His parents, Harold Breau and Betty Cody, were professional country musicians who performed and recorded music from the mid-1930s until the mid-1970s. From the mid-1940s to the late 1940s, they played summer shows in southern New Brunswick. They advertised their performances by playing free music on the radio station CKCW in Moncton. Lenny began playing the guitar at age eight. When he was twelve, he started a small band with friends. By age fourteen, he was the lead guitarist for his parents’ band, which was called "Lone Pine Junior." He played instrumentals by Merle Travis and Chet Atkins and sometimes sang. At fifteen, he made his first professional recordings in Westbrook, Maine, at Event Records with Al Hawkes. He worked as a studio musician at the time. Many of these recordings were later released on the album Boy Wonder after his death.

In 1957, the Breau family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Their new band performed around the city and province as the CKY Caravan. Their shows were broadcast live on Winnipeg’s CKY radio station on Saturday mornings from remote locations.

Around 1959, Breau left his parents’ country band after his father hit him for adding jazz improvisation to his playing. He then performed with local jazz musicians at venues in Winnipeg, such as Rando Manor and the Stage Door. He met pianist Bob Erlendson, who taught him more about jazz.

In 1961, Breau had his first professional jazz recording session at age twenty at Hallmark Studios in Toronto. He was accompanied by future members of The Band, bassist Rick Danko and drummer Levon Helm. This recording was not released until 2003. In 1962, Breau briefly performed in the Toronto-based jazz group Three, which included singer and actor Don Francks and acoustic bassist Eon Henstridge. The group performed in Toronto, Ottawa, and New York City. Their music was featured in the 1962 National Film Board documentary Toronto Jazz. They recorded a live album at the Village Vanguard in New York City and appeared on television shows hosted by Jackie Gleason and Joey Bishop.

After returning to Winnipeg, Breau became a session guitarist, recording for CBC Radio and CBC Television. He contributed to shows such as Teenbeat, Music Hop, and his own The Lenny Breau Show, which was filmed in Winnipeg. During this time, he met his partner, Judi Singh, and they had a daughter. In 1963 and 1964, Breau performed at David Ingram’s Fourth Dimension, a club in Fort Garry, a suburb of Winnipeg. Every Sunday night, the club hosted parties open to the public. Other regulars included Neil Young and his band The Squires, and Randy Bachman, who was influenced by Breau’s style, especially in his jazz guitar work for The Guess Who’s song "Undun."

In 1967, recordings from The Lenny Breau Show reached Chet Atkins. Their friendship led to Breau’s first two solo albums, Guitar Sounds from Lenny Breau and The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau – Live!, released on RCA. He worked with fellow Winnipeggers Ron Halldorson and Reg Kelln. Breau did not record again for nearly ten years, though he continued session work in Winnipeg.

In 1976, Breau left Winnipeg and spent his final years in the United States, living in Maine, Nashville, Stockton, California, and New York City. He eventually settled in Los Angeles in 1983. During these years, he performed, taught, and wrote for Guitar Player magazine. Additional solo albums and recordings with fiddler Buddy Spicher and pedal steel guitarist Buddy Emmons were released during his lifetime.

Breau struggled with drug and alcohol problems starting in the 1960s. He managed to control these issues during the last years of his life.

Death

On August 12, 1984, his body was discovered in the swimming pool at his apartment complex in Los Angeles, California. The coroner said that Breau was strangled. Breau's wife, Jewel, was the main suspect, but she was not charged. He is buried in an unmarked grave at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

Posthumous honors

Since Lenny Breau passed away, many live and previously unknown recordings have been released. Most of his earlier albums have also been released again. Because of the work by Randy Bachman of Guitarchives, Paul Kohler of Art of Life Records, Tim Tamashiro of CBC Radio, and others, more people today can listen to his music.

A documentary titled The Genius of Lenny Breau was made in 1999 by Breau's daughter, Emily Hughes, and directed by Hughes and John Martin. This film, which won a Gemini Award, includes interviews with musicians such as Chet Atkins, Ted Greene, Pat Metheny, George Benson, Leonard Cohen, and Randy Bachman, as well as family members. In the film, George Benson says, "He dazzled me with his extraordinary guitar playing… I wish the world had the opportunity to experience his artistry." A follow-up documentary, The Genius of Lenny Breau Remembered, directed by Hughes, was released in 2018.

A biography titled One Long Tune: The Life and Music of Lenny Breau, written by Ron Forbes-Roberts, was published in 2006. It includes interviews with nearly 200 people and a detailed list of Breau's music.

CBC Radio produced a documentary about Lenny Breau called On the Trail of Lenny Breau. The title refers to a song by Breau's parents titled "On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine." The documentary first aired on September 13, 2009, as part of a weekly program called Inside the Music. It was narrated by Breau's son, Chet, and produced in Montreal by John Klepko.

Lenny Breau was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1997.

Technique and guitars

Breau's fully developed guitar style combined techniques from Chet Atkins and Merle Travis, who used fingerpicking, and influences from Sabicas's flamenco music. His playing was known for using the right hand to play many notes at once and creating fast, special high notes called artificial harmonics. His ability to use harmonies came from his background in country music, classical music, modal music, Indian music, and jazz, especially the work of pianist Bill Evans. Breau often changed Evans's songs, like "Funny Man," to play on the guitar. He once said, "I play the guitar like a piano. I have learned to go beyond the usual limits of the instrument. Many of the things I play on my seven-string guitar are supposed to be impossible, but I spent over twenty years learning how to do them. I think about melody and background at the same time. I use the low strings to play the accompaniment."

Breau had two special seven-string guitars made, one classical and one electric. At the time, no company made a string that could be tuned to the high A note on his classical guitar. He used fishing line with the right thickness until the La Bella company created a string for him. The electric guitar was built by Kirk Sand, and it also had a high A string as the first string.

Discography

• Guitar Sounds from Lenny Breau (RCA Victor, 1969)
• The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau – Live! (RCA Victor, 1969)
• Minors Aloud, Buddy Emmons with Lenny Breau (Flying Fish, 1978)
• Five O'Clock Bells (Adelphi, 1979)
• Lenny Breau (Direct Disk Labs, 1979)
• The Legendary Lenny Breau… Now! (Sound Hole, 1979)
• Standard Brands with Chet Atkins (RCA Victor, 1981)
• Mo' Breau (Adelphi, 1981)
• When Lightn' Strikes (Tudor, 1982)
• Legacy with David Young (Relaxed Rabbit, 1984)
• Quietude with Dave Young (Electric Muse, 1985)
• The Living Room Tapes, Vol. 1 with Brad Terry (Livingroom, 1986)
• Last Sessions (Adelphi, 1988)
• The Living Room Tapes, Vol. 2 with Brad Terry (Musical Heritage Society, 1990)
• Live at Bourbon St. with Dave Young (Guitarchives, 1995)
• Chance Meeting, Tal Farlow with Lenny Breau (Guitarchives, 1997)
• Cabin Fever (Guitarchives, 1997)
• Boy Wonder (Guitarchives, 1998)
• Live at Donte's (String Jazz, 2000)
• Pickin' Cotten with Richard Cotten (Guitarchives, 2001)
• The Hallmark Sessions (Art of Life, 2003)
• The Complete Living Room Tapes with Brad Terry (Art of Life, 2003)
• At the Purple Onion with Don Francks and Eon Henstridge (Art of Life, 2004)
• Mosaic (Guitarchives, 2006)
• LA Bootleg 1984 (Linus Entertainment, 2014)