HENRY KAISER tribute to ELLIOT INGBER (Winged Eel Fingerling)

 HENRY KAISER'S memorial for 

ELLIOT INGBER 

If you watch one vid today make it this one! Extraordinarily brilliant tribute to Elliot and from Henry Kaiser fellow guitarist and all round staggering iconoclast genius of the fretboard!

Henry Kaiser and his pals Scott Colby, Morgan Ågren, Jimmy Ågren, and Max Kutner play in tribute to the amazing Elliot Ingber, who joined the Great Ancestors on January 21, 2025.

Plus a classic performance of ALICE IN BLUNDERLAND with HK, Mike Keneally, Prairie Prince, and Andy West from 1995.

0:00  INTRO + FUNERAL HILL JAM  HK lead guitar and bass  Scott Colby keys + rhythm guitar Jimmy Ågren drums and harp

7:17  I’M SO GLAD I WAS BOOGLARIZED IN BLUNDERLAND  Henry Kaiser

11:36  YOUR BLUE GUITAR REALLY SHOOK ME  Scott Colby

15:10  PINWHEELS   Morgan Ågren & Jimmy Ågren

17:47  TOWER OF SILENCE  Max Kutner

22:27  ALICE IN BLUNDERLAND  The Mistakes

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Elliot Ingber & The Guitar Solo That Changed My Life

By Henry Kaiser

condensed from: https://cymbalpress.com/guitar

Back in October of 1971, I went to see Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band in a gymnasium at Tuft’s University in Medford, Mass. This gig was prior to the early 1972 release of their THE SPOTLIGHT KID album. I was 19 years old and I had seen earlier incarnations The Magic Band, going back to 1967. Something was different at this show; there were new songs and there were unprecedented improvised blues-rock guitar solos - from a guy with long hair and a bushy beard; who reminded me, in his looks, of a 1940’s image of King Neptune. This was Elliot Ingber, stage-renamed by Beefheart as Winged Eel Fingerling. Back in 1971, I was sitting on the floor of the gym, enjoying the show, when they suddenly played a 7 minute instrumental with a long solo from Elliot. The floor fell away from underneath me during his solo. I was transported to a musical spaces and dimensions that I had never visited before. I was a fan of Bay Area psychedelic bands, Indian Music, Blues, African Music, post WW-II classical composer, Zappa, etc. But nothing had ever taken me to the place that Elliot’s improvisation suddenly moved me to. I was not a musician; I had never played any instrument. At one moment during the solo I knew that I had to go buy a guitar the next day. So I purchased a Fender Telecaster at nearby Tavian Music. Oddly enough, today I can listen to the live audience recordings of the Tufts show on YouTube and I can identify the exact moment when I realized my destiny to go buy a guitar. I had my own cassette recording that I had made at the show. I listened to it hundreds of times during my first years of playing; ALICE IN BLUNDERLAND was the first tune that I learned to play on guitar. In 1972 THE SPOTLIGHT KID was released with a studio version of ALICE on it. Elliot’s solo on ALICE was the first solo that I learned from a record, lifting the turntable needle up and down to learn it phrase by phrase and slowing it down to 16 RPM to figure out the fast flurries of notes. I have played the song live with more than twenty different bands. Now, 54 years later in 2025, I have a discography of more than 450 albums that I have played on. I’ve recorded in many idioms: free improv, jazz, blues, rock, Hindustani, Korean, contemporary classical, Malagasy, electronic music, etc. In all those genres I catch myself channeling things that I learned from Elliot’s ALICE solo. It’s not licks, or harmonic ideas, or melodies, though - it is narrative modes and storytelling + connection to some external spirit world + heart & soul. As well as internal visual patterns in my brain of synesthetic clouds of notes in space. Everything I do on guitar connects back to that moment in 1971 being transported by Elliot in the Tufts Gym. It’s a strange thing to have your most significant guitar guru be somebody that folks have not heard or have heard of. I’ve played and recorded with so many lifetime musical heroes who had been with me before I ever touched a guitar: Derek Bailey, Jerry Garcia, Sonny Sharrock, Cecil Taylor, Richard Thompson, David Lindley, Terry Riley, Freddie Roulette, John French, Wadada Leo Smith, Evan Parker, Ray Russell, Harvey Mandel, Amos Garrett, John Abercrombie, Fred Frith, Thomas Mapfumo, Bob Weir, Sylvestre Randafison, Barry Melton, Zakir Hussain… plus many more. What’s important for me is that Elliot Ingber has always been where guitar began for me as a guitar player. Some spark jumped from Elliot to me back in 1971, and things have never been the same since. He’s a man who is very difficult to discover historical and personal information about. There are very few great examples of his unique playing on released recordings. If you want to know more – you won’t find much on the internet. The best advice that I can give you today is go listen to his playing on THE SPOTLIGHT KID album right now.    • Captain Beefheart - Alice In Blunderland      • I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby      • When It Blows Its Stacks