Toulouse Engelhardt, (born April 14, 1951,

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

, Wisconsin) is an

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

ist and the last member of the Takoma Seven, a group of fingerstyle guitarists who recorded for Takoma Records from 1959 to 1976. The group included John Fahey, Peter Lang, and Leo Kottke.

Biography

Thomas Lloyd Engelhardt is the younger of two sons of Alan and Arlene Engelhardt. After moving to the west coast, first to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 1953, his family migrated south to Hermosa Beach, California, and in 1956 settled in Palos Verdes Estates, California, where he graduated from Palos Verdes High School in 1969. Engelhardt developed his first interest in guitar at the age of six when he heard surf music. Although he lacks formal training in guitar technique and music theory, Engelhardt did receive impromptu lessons from two established jazz guitarists of the 1960s:

Wes Montgomery John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for an unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a dist ...

and

Larry Carlton Larry Eugene Carlton (born March 2, 1948) is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. He has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorde ...

. His first guitar lesson was from Carlton, who taught him how to play " Walk, Don't Run" by The Ventures. In the summer of 1966, at the age of fifteen, Engelhardt was given tips in technique by Montgomery while they were at the backstage door of the

Lighthouse Café The Lighthouse Café is a nightclub located at 30 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, California. It has been active as a jazz showcase since 1949 and, under the name "The Lighthouse", was one of the best known West Coast jazz clubs from the 1950s throug ...

in Hermosa Beach.http://www.easyreadernews.com/.../Guitarist Legend West Montgomery mentors 15-year-old Toulouse Engelhardt at the Lighthouse Jazz Café. Engelhardt's break came in 1973 when he was booked as a support act for

The Byrds The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...

' final American tour.Kubernik, Harvey (November. 2020)."Strength of Strings". Shindig In 1975, he signed with Briar Records, a subsidiary of Fahey's Takoma label. After the release of his first album, he became disillusioned by his experiences in the music industry. He took a ten-year sabbatical and returned to college to pursue two academic degrees in the natural sciences. In the early 1990s he was awarded a master's degree from

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

. He has been adjunct professor of biology at community colleges in Southern California. Although he left his solo career in those years, he played as an occasional sideman for Adrian Belew, Jack Bruce,

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, an ...

, Dick Dale, and David Lindley and many others. In 1994,

Sierra Records Sierra Records is an independent record label based in Etiwanda, California. History Sierra Records founder John Delgatto first launched Briar Records, which released folk and bluegrass music by artists including Leslie Keith; the Doc Watson Fa ...

in affiliation with

Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label focuses in pop, rock, alternative, hip hop, and country genres, as well as specializing in mature recordings not suitable for the flagship Walt Disney Records l ...

; a division of Walt Disney Productions Inc, reissued ''Toullusions''. He was rediscovered by guitar fans and returned to performing, composing and recording works for solo guitar. Engelhardt's compositions are arranged for six-string or

twelve-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...

acoustic or Mosrite electric guitar, written in a tone poem style. His style combines

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

acoustic blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...

, and surf music. Engelhardt has been noted for his work by '' Guitar Player'' magazine in their Reader's Poll nomination for ''Best Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitarist''. At the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Croix ...

Film Festival, he won a silver medal for contributing to the soundtrack "Winter Equinox". He was awarded "Best Jazz Artist"

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

Music Awards and is recently acknowledged in numerous "Best of the best" guitar fandom articles: ″100 Gifted Guitarists-You Should Know″ (TrueFire.webarchive) and ″100 Greatest Finger Style Guitarist″ 2018' (entertainment.expertscolumn.com)

Discography

* ''Toullusions''

Sierra Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range i ...

/Briar/ Takoma, 1976) * ''Winter Equinox'' (

Festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

, 1978) * ''Toullusions'' (

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

, 1994) * ''Acoustic Guitar Highlights Vol. 3'' ( Solid Air, 1995) * ''A Child's Guide to Einstein'' (Lost Grove Arts, 2004) * ''Martian Lust'' (Lost Grove Arts, 2006) * ''Lubbock Lights" EP (Lost Grove Arts, 2008) * ''Perpendicular Worlds'' (Lost Grove Arts, 2009) * ''Acoustic Guitar Highlights'' (Solid Air, 2011) * ''Toulousology'' (Lost Grove Arts, 2012) * ''Mind Gardens'' (Lost Grove Arts, 2015) * ''Three Novellas for Guitar and Orchestra'' (Five & Dime Universe Inc, 2023)

References

External links

Official site

The Legend of Toulouse Engelhardt

Engelhardt 11/2010

Engelhardt 12/2010
* {http://www.easyreadernews.com/.../Guitarist legend Wes Montgomery mentors 15-year-old Toulouse Engelhardt at the Lighthouse Jazz Cafe * {http://www.shindig-magazine.com/.../"Strength of Strings" Acoustic Guitar Virtuoso Toulouse Engelhardt recalls a life changing visit by THE BYRDS to his high school in the autumn 1965. Issue #109 Pg. 71 Nov. 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Engelhardt, Toulouse Fingerstyle guitarists 1951 births Living people