BIO
TOULOUSE ENGELHARDT, the celebrated guitar virtuoso, composer and humorist was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but has lived the majority of his years in Southern California beach culture. Toulouse Engelhardt, has earned accolades from serious critics of the guitar and the listening public alike for his lightning fast guitar stylings and colorful,cinematic melodies. After a musical career that spans more than 40 years, he has reached a level of cult status among the guitar fandom world. He was the last original member of the “Takoma Seven”, the highly celebrated innovators of finger-style steel string guitar that recorded for Takoma Records from (1959-1976). His label mates include John Fahey, Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, Peter Lang, Rick Ruskin and Michael Gulezian. It was this elite group of seven innovative, finger style guitar virtuosos that brought about the current renaissance in acoustic guitar that we are witnessing today.
“Toulouse Engelhardt is a master of fingerstyle guitar and he was mentored by none other than John Fahey, who recognized Engelhardt’s amazing combination of speed, soul, and dexterity. Engelhardt’s music is an exciting, virtuosic amalgam of musical styles, ranging from blues and folk to classical and surf.”…Acoustic Guitar Magazine
Toulouse began playing the guitar at an early age of six. His earliest influences were the wet, driving instrumental sounds of surf music, but he soon found this limiting his musical scope and vision so he proceeded to search out more sophisticated musical stylings.
“I grew up with a Mosrite Ventures Model guitar in my hands” offers the guitarist, who chose to purchase Dick Dale’s “The Wedge” over the Beatles “She Loves You”. The only two guitar lessons I’ve ever had in my life were from two jazz guitar greats; Larry Carlton; who taught me how to play “Walk Don’t Run” by the Ventures and Wes Montgomery; who gave me a few tips in technique at the backstage door of the famous “Lighthouse Café” in Hermosa Beach, California back in 1967.”
Compositions by Toulouse Engelhardt are hard to classify. For years music critics have tried in vain to classify the “Toulouse Sound” as a vibrant collage of musical styling based in traditional Americana, jazz idioms, devotion, classical motifs and the wet surf sounds of the early 1960’s.
“A bit of a visionary himself, it’s his lyricism and picturesque quality of his solo phantasmagorias that sets Toulouse apart from his erstwhile label mates.” said “Critic’s Choice,” writer Kirk Silsbee...Los Angeles New Times.
Compositions by Toulouse Engelhardt tell a definite story. His palette is a mixture of colorful melodic lines and rhythmic space that paints cinematic images in the listener’s mind. He calls his signature compositions “Acoustic Visualizations”, Claude Debussy used this same concept to create “Tone Poems” in the 1890’s. Denny Bruce, the co-owner of Takoma Records and the former producer and manager of guitar legends John Fahey and Leo Kottke sums this up perfectly;
“Toulouse is a master of his craft. His inventions are timeless, kaleidoscopic and spatial as Oceania and Interstellar Space. He knows how to create visual imagery through the idiom of music. His music sounds or maybe I should say looks like constant Northern Lights, as the listener transcends through stained glass, falling from the sky through a prism.”
Today, Toulouse Engelhardt is expanding his musical evolution from a career as an award-winning finger style guitar soloist into a composer of the outre’. He has just completed recording; “Three Novellas for Guitar & Orchestra”; a series of three acoustic visualizations based on mythological stories of the past and nature phenomena. This effort, 3 years in the making premiered on August 25, 2023 to resounding critical reviews!
“ Three Novellas for Guitar & Orchestra” is a superlative collection of imaginative tone poems. Without a doubt one of 2023’s best albums.”… Sound Express 9/01/23
Toulouse Engelhardt has a long and impressive musical pedigree. He has received many nominations and critical praise for his virtuoso guitar playing. In the period from 1976-1980; he was listed ever year in Guitar Player Magazine’s Readers Poll under “Best Fingerstyle Guitarist”. In 1978 his contributions to the movie soundtrack “Winter Equinox” won him the “Silver Medal” at the Virgin Islands Film Festival and in 1997 his composition for 12 String guitar “Lavender Ascension” was placed in the soundtrack to the BBC’s Emmy award television presentation, “The Gardening Hour”. He was nominated for “Best Jazz Artist” at the Orange County Music Awards in 2011 and he has been featured in articles in many of the top guitar fandom magazines including: Guitar Player, 20th Century Guitar, Acoustic Guitar and Vintage Guitar Magazine. In 2014 he was acknowledged as one of the “100 Most Gifted Guitarists” and his album “Martian Lust” was listed as one of the “10 Essential Guitar Albums” by 80’s hit maker Marshall Crenshaw.
“Toulouse Engelhardt’s Kottke-inspired 12 string-guitar playing is dazzling and then some.”…George Varga; San Diego Union Tribune
In 2019 he was acknowledged as one of the “Top 100 Fingerstyle Guitarists” in the world today.
He has performed and recorded with some of the most influential artists in the music world; including:The Byrds, Jack Bruce,Ry Cooder, Gene Clark & the Dillards, Bob Weir and Kingfish, Kenny Rankin, Chris Darrow & David Lindley of Kaleidoscope, Remi Kabaka of Ginger Baker’s Air Force, George Winston, Tony Rice, Dave Mason, John Stewart, George Thorogood, Vernon Reid, John Sebastian, Country Joe McDonald,Todd Rungren, Adrian Belew and the list goes on and on! He even performed twice with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Zubin Mehta!
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