Philip Catherine has been called the "Young
Django" by none other than Charles Mingus, and upon hearing
his elliptical, rapid-fire, expressively melodic acoustic guitar,
there can be no doubt as to whose records he was absorbing as
a youth.
Born to a Belgian father and English mother living in London during
World War II, Catherine went back with his family to Brussels
after the war, where he learned guitar and turned professional
at 17. The examples of Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin led Catherine
into jazz-rock; he played with Jean-Luc Ponty's Experience from
1970 to 1972 before taking a year off to study at Boston's Berklee
School.
Back in Europe in 1973, he founded the band Pork Pie, which recorded
into the mid- and late '70s; he also formed a duo with Niels-Henning
Ørsted Pedersen and worked with such musicians as Mingus
and Stephane Grappelli.
If anything, Catherine is best-known in America for his duets
with Coryell, which began spontaneously in Berlin in 1976, triggered
some lovely duo albums for Elektra, and helped steer Coryell back
to the acoustic guitar.
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