Sandy Bull was a composer and accomplished player of many stringed instrume… Read Full Bio ↴Sandy Bull was a composer and accomplished player of many stringed instruments, including guitar, pedal-steel, banjo and the middle-eastern oud. Sandy Bull's music and recordings are characterized by his blending of non-western instrumentation and improvisational traditions with the 1960's folk revival. His albums for Vanguard records often combined extended modal improvisations on oud with an eclectic repertoire of instrumental cover material. Bull is well known for his arrangement of Carl Orff's composition Carmina Burana for 5 string banjo on his first album, which was included on an album of R.E.M.'s favourite songs. Other such musical fusions include his adaptation of Luiz Bonfá's "Manha de Carnaval," and compositions derived from J.S. Bach themes.
Sandy Bull's approach to performance, composition and recording is notable for his extensive use of overdubbing and multi-track tape recording before such techniques became commonplace in music production. However, unlike the sophisticated, glossy aesthetic commonly associated with these techniques, Bull simply used overdubbing as a way to accompany himself and plays all the instruments on many of his recordings. As documented in the "Still Valentine's Day 1969" concert recording, Sandy Bull's use of tape accompinament was part of his live, solo performances as well.
Bull also played the oud on Sam Phillips 1991 album, Cruel Inventions. Bull primary played a fingerpicking style of guitar and banjo, and his style has been compared to that of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, of the early Takoma label in the 1960's.
He was the only child of Harry A. Bull, an editor in chief of Town and Country magazine, and Daphne van Beuren Bayne (1916-2002), a New Jersey banking heiress who became known as a jazz harpist under the name Daphne Hellman. His parents were divorced in 1941, shortly after his birth.
By his mother's second marriage to the New Yorker writer Geoffrey Hellman, Bull had one half-sister, the sitar player Daisy Paradis, and a half-brother, Digger St. John.
In the 1970s, Sandy Bull became involved with drugs. He died of lung cancer on April 11, 2001.
Sandy Bull's approach to performance, composition and recording is notable for his extensive use of overdubbing and multi-track tape recording before such techniques became commonplace in music production. However, unlike the sophisticated, glossy aesthetic commonly associated with these techniques, Bull simply used overdubbing as a way to accompany himself and plays all the instruments on many of his recordings. As documented in the "Still Valentine's Day 1969" concert recording, Sandy Bull's use of tape accompinament was part of his live, solo performances as well.
Bull also played the oud on Sam Phillips 1991 album, Cruel Inventions. Bull primary played a fingerpicking style of guitar and banjo, and his style has been compared to that of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, of the early Takoma label in the 1960's.
He was the only child of Harry A. Bull, an editor in chief of Town and Country magazine, and Daphne van Beuren Bayne (1916-2002), a New Jersey banking heiress who became known as a jazz harpist under the name Daphne Hellman. His parents were divorced in 1941, shortly after his birth.
By his mother's second marriage to the New Yorker writer Geoffrey Hellman, Bull had one half-sister, the sitar player Daisy Paradis, and a half-brother, Digger St. John.
In the 1970s, Sandy Bull became involved with drugs. He died of lung cancer on April 11, 2001.
Improvisation For Oud I
Sandy Bull Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by Sandy Bull:
Memphis Tennessee Long distance information Give me Memphis Tennessee Help m…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
More Genres
No Artists Found
More Artists
Load All
No Albums Found
More Albums
Load All
No Tracks Found
Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Search results not found
Song not found
Ipac Merc
Sandy Bull was the Greatest!!! when he'd come out to preform.... which wasn't often but then you'd have your mind blown by his talent.
Keith Palmer
The underappreciated master of stringed instruments . Thanks to You Tube for making his music available for mass consumption .
Terry Frazho
I lived in Greenwich Village during the early and mid-60's...I saw Sandy many times and watched the "greats" just put their guitars back in their cases and go home...
Jessica Higgins
The only reason for computers to come into existence is so you could hear Sandy Bull
wurlitzer78
this music is great. but the first picture is the coolest photo I've ever seen
Aet Singer
Amazing
Mr Mook Records
totally cool photo (collage?) for sure. which lp or which edition of his records is it from, do you know?
Emilson lim1981
People from ethnic backgrounds all over the world and especially in Australia are afraid to play this music in acoustic guitar. Because of 9/11 it's just music to me. It's sounds metal. Metal guitarist tune their strings low too.