What Is Man And What Is Guitar?: Keith Rowe

From the directors Bob Burnett and Alan F Jones: Keith Rowe has spent a lifetime exploring the relationship between sound and physical objects through what can only be loosely described as the guitar. “What Is Man And What Is Guitar? Keith Rowe” is a short film that probes the thinking of Keith Rowe and the fascinating way he approaches art, the guitar and himself. The film documents passages of Rowe’s ongoing journey, from playing jazz through early years of poverty in Britain, to exploring the unexplored with the ensemble AMM, to his groundbreaking solo, duo and ensemble work from beneath the small umbrella of fringe music. Across six decades, Rowe’s body of work has functioned as a signal for the parameters, signposts, and permissions for the unorthodox in improvised music.