Eugene Chadbourne

Eugene Chadbourne (January 4, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York) is an American improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. Highly eclectic and unconventional, Chadbourne's most formative influence is free jazz. He has also been a reviewer for Allmusic and a contributor to Maximum RocknRoll. Chadbourne started out playing rock and roll guitar, but quickly grew bored with the form's conventions. He then studied other genres, including blues, country, bluegrass, free jazz, and noise—eventually synthesizing all those heterogeneous influences into a unique style of his own. He was also influenced early on by the experimental stylings of Captain Beefheart and the Mothers of Invention. A notable solo album, Songs (Intakt 026: 1993), features politically...