David Preston Interview

If you’re down London way then make sure you check out the David Preston’s monthly residency at The Cornershop
Great writing and flawless execution, these guys have really got their stuff together, have got a very hip sound and are great players. You can keep up with them via Youtube Soundcloud & Twitter

Make sure you do; ones to watch!

Q: What/who were your initial influences?

I started off listening to John Williams and the Beatles very early on, that led me to Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Zepplin and Cream.
My first big jazz influences however were Pat Metheny, Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass. Metheny’s Question and Answer and Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way are the records that gave me the jazz bug. I still remember exactly how I felt when I first heard Roy Haynes’ intro to the first tune ‘Solar’.
I also have a special place for Oasis, Noel Gallagher is an incredible songwriter and guitarist, an uncommon influence I know but I guess it had to happen sometime!

Q: Are you gigging much at the moment and any projects in the pipeline?

I’m really excited to be starting a monthly residency in April with Kevin Glasgow and Laurie Lowe. We’ll record an album this summer. I’m hoping to do some more gigs with Peter Ind this year as its always a blast playing with him and to tour my own group later in the year. Fingers crossed i’ll also be working again with Melody Gardot at some point too.

Q: What’s your ‘desert island’ guitar or have you got it!?

I play a Gibson cs356 and I’m pretty happy with it at the moment, she’s temperamental with the weather so a desert island might put her out of shape. If i had a choice between anything built by Gary Mortoro or Linda Manzer i’d be one happy guy.

Q: Best (jazz guitar) gig you’ve ever seen?

Its a tie between Metheny at the Royal Albert Hall, Speaking of Now Tour or Metheny at Hammersmith Apollo for the Way Up Tour.

He played really raw at the Albert Hall, really going for it, but I remember literally not being able to speak after seeing him at the Way Up show however, so maybe that one!

Q: Which guitarist(s) would you recommend for other people to check out?

Obviously all the greats, but some guys lesser heard and/or known playing on the scene now:
James Muller, Julian Lage, Joe Cohn, Greg Duncan, Nir Felder, Chris Thile (mandolin player but he’s awesome) and Jakob Bro to name a few. Alex Machacek & Bryan Baker are doing some really interesting things in the fusion area.
For classical guitar, Su Meng and Roberto Aussel, they both sound absolutely incredible.
As far as older guitarists, I recently came across a guitarist who (I think) is still alive called Bill Jennings who plays on alot of Jack McDuff albums whos great. Also George Van Eps, Ed Bickert, Tiny Grimes, Tony Rice and Billy Bauer are all awesome.
Ant Law is worth checking out here in London, he’s writing some really interesting music.
I really wish Stuart Hall, Steve Topping and Paul Stacey would play more in London too because they are ridiculously good players and I’d go to every show!

Gary Potter..

..is one of the best guitarists around, hopefully he’ll be at Wrexham in a couple of weeks as part of the jazz guitar weekend organised by the NWJS and Trefor Owen. Just take a look at this-

Phil Robson Interview

Phil is one of the top jazz guitar players in the UK and has an amazing CV including stints with Big Jon Patton, Charles Earland, David Liebman, Steve Lacy, Mark Turner, Billy Hart, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, Marc Copland, Wayne Krantz, Mike Gibbs, James Genus, Peter Herbert, Bob Brookmeyer, Tim Garland, Tommy Smith, Django Bates, Tom Rainey, Drew Gress, Stan Sulzmann, Jeff Williams, John Hebert, Ben Street, Duane Eubanks, Bobby Wellins, Denys Baptiste, Iain Ballamy, Donny McCaslin, Ingrid Jensen, Jean Toussaint, Cleveland Watkiss, Julian & Steve Arguelles, Gary Husband, Mike Figgis (film director), Jason Yarde, Jiggs Whigam, Sir John Dankworth & Dame Cleo Laine, & as member of BBC BB with: Joe Lovano, Patti Austin, Maceo Parker, Eliane Elias, Giavanni Hidalgo, Rufus Reid, Vince Mendoza, Madeline Bell, Horatio El Negro Hernandez, John Riley, Barbara Dennalin, Anne Hampton Callaway, Mark Murphy, Georgy Fame, Martin Taylor, Michael McDonald, Pee Wee Ellis, Sammy Nestico & Bud Shank. Lalo Shiffron, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ken Peplowski e.t.c….!!!! Check out his website and in particular have a listen to his latest release “The Immeasurable Code” EDIT: JUST NOMINATED FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY JAZZ AWARDS 2012 or catch him on tour this year. I hear a rumour he may be opening up for Pat Martino at Ronnie Scotts soon as well…!
Q: What/who were your initial influences?
My initial influences which made me really want to play guitar were rock bands, particularly Black Sabbath, Hendrix & Led Zep. The 1st people who inspired me to play jazz were Miles Davis & Barney Kessell.
Q: Are you gigging much at the moment and any projects in the pipeline?
I am doing various gigs at the moment but my big projects for 2012 are a UK CD launch tour with my band ‘The Immeasurable Code Quintet’ in September & gigging throughout the year with Christine Tobin’s amazing ‘Sailing To Byzantium’ & ‘A Thousand Kisses Deep’ projects. I will post full details on my website www.philrobson.net & there is info about all my projects up there.
Q: What’s your ‘desert island’ guitar or have you got it!?
My desert island guitar would be the Gibson L5 which Pat Martino played around the late sixties/early seventies.
Q: Best (jazz guitar) gig you’ve ever seen?
4. That’s a tough one! Have seen so many great ones (Frisell, Martino, Bernstein, Scofield, Kessell, Rosenwinkle, Eubanks, Metheny etc etc). I think Kenny Burell trio was very special in Nottingham sometime around the late eighties.
Q: Which guitarist(s) would you recommend for other people to check out?
All of the ones I’ve mentioned already but I would say Kevin Eubanks to pick 1 as many people are not really aware of him. Seeing him play in trio setting with Dave Holland & Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith many times in the early nineties really changed my own direction. Ralph Towner is also very interesting. There are also many ones here in the UK which I admire such as Mike Outram, Mike Walker, Alan Weekes, Mark Ridout, Dave Okumu, Colin Oxley to name just a few & there are many really exciting young guys coming up.

Another Rare Johnny Smith Cut

I was sent some tapes years ago from a guy in the US (Bill Kozakewich) and it’s taken a fair while but I’ve managed to get the cream of them onto Youtube. The latest I put up is the standard “Stella by Starlight” and he burns on it!

Feel free to click through to my YT channel and there is a playlist of the ones I’ve put up on the right hand side (just called Johnny Smith) Don’t forget to subscribe to me while you’re there and I will follow back.

Enjoy!

Sheryl Bailey Visiting UK in May 2012

I’m very pleased to announce that the fantastic musician and composer Sheryl Bailey is coming over and here’s a list of engagements so far:

Tues 22nd May Dexters Club in Nottingham with BoHoP Trio
Thursday 24th May With Tony Kofi at Chesterfield Jazz
Sunday 27th May The Brewery Tap in Derby with Dan Johnson (gtr) and Geoff Pearson (bass) and guests Gary Reader (sax) and Ian Beestin (drum)

Monday 28th – 31st Spain

Check back as other dates and details may change.

Jim Mullen in Nottingham

Thoroughly enjoyed the gig in Nottingham at the Bonnington Theatre despite the inclement weather! The band consisting of Jim Mullen (guitar), Gareth Williams (piano), Mick Hutton (bass) and Gary Husband (drums) effortlessly did 2 sets packed with a great range of feels, tempos and textures to a thrilled audience. In particular I was really struck with the interpretation of John Lennon’s “Love” which worked really well as a jazz ballad.
I managed to get a sneaky bit of footage of Jim’s solo on “All The Things You Are”. Enjoy!

New Ibanez Jazz Guitars

Launched last week in NAMM we have news of some Ibanez models that will be hitting the shores soon and they look great. There’s 3 new jazz guitars AFJ81 AFJ85 and a new George Benson signature guitar a LGB300. The price on the AFJ81 and AFJ85 are likely to be around £400/450 which is amazing, that’s a lot of guitar for the money. Although the spec sheet doesn’t say it they look to both be 17″ bodies as opposed to the others in the Artcore range which are around 16″ which makes them more comfortable to play for some and should have a positive effect on tone as well. For me I would (predictably) say that they have cut corners with the pickup though, a cheap ceramic which comes with it just doesn’t cut the mustard; a Bare Knuckle in the neck and you’d have an absolutely stunning guitar!

The Great Wes Montgomery

Love his version of “Round Midnight”.

Matthew Warnock Interview

Matthew Warnock is a great guitarist and educator with a impressive CV which includes stints teaching and studying in many US universities. Matthew is coming over to teach in the UK at Leeds College of Music and I hope we can meet up at some point to hang out. You can check out his playing on his Youtube channel.

Q: What/who were your initial influences?

I first got interested in guitar by listening to classic rock and blues, so my earliest influences were Jimmy Page, David Gilmour and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Once I got hooked into jazz, I was influenced by some of the usual suspects, like Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino and Mike Stern, but I have always been drawn to cats like Lenny Breau, Ed Bickert and Ted Greene.

Q: Are you gigging much at the moment and any projects in the pipeline?

I spent most of 2011 living in Belo Horizonte, Brazil where I was performing 10-15 times a month, so I was gigging a lot and getting the chance to play with some great Brazilian musicians. I recently relocated to Manchester, and have decided to gig a bit less right now because I want to really focus on finishing my first record. The album will be all solo-guitar, and I’ve got the tunes worked up already. I just need to get into the studio and begin the recording process.

Q: What’s your ‘desert island’ guitar or have you got it!?

My desert island guitar is the Koentopp Telecaster that I own. It’s a custom build by Dan Koentopp, a Chicago luthier who makes the most beautiful sounding guitars I’ve ever played. So, I’m lucky in that I searched for years for a guitar that really brought my personality and musical intentions out in the sound of the instrument, and I finally found those qualities in Dan’s guitar.

Q: Best (jazz guitar) gig you’ve ever seen?

I would have to say that it was a tie between the first time I ever saw Ben Monder in Montreal, he was playing with his quartet and they absolutely killed it, and a Mike Stern show I saw this summer in Brazil, where he played with a Samba trio. Both of these shows were full of energy, the bands were interaction at a very high level and the intensity was just electric. Two shows I will never forget.

Q: Which guitarist(s) would you recommend for other people to check out?

A few of the guitarists that I really like that I think more people should check out are Lenny Breau and Ed Bickert. Two Canadian guitarists, well Lenny was a transplanted Canadian, who I grew up listening to and two of the best chord players in the business. I will never get tired of hearing either of those guys play, in any ensemble, and I always try and turn people on to their records whenever I get the chance.

New Affordable Jazz Guitar Amps…

One from Fender which I’m sure will be a fantastic home/studio/small gig amp. A 15″ speaker will ensure a warm full response and the pure valve amp section will give a classic tone. Look at the spec on this:

No reverb may be the only slight issue for some people and maybe it’ll break up at higher volumes but who knows, it may be surprisingly loud as there’s no gain control, just a master.
Oh yeah….and it’s going to be under £300!!

From Ibanez there’s the Wholetone WT80 which looks to be kinda based on a Polytone and delivers a clean 80w of solid state goodness. Reverb on this as well as chorus for those Sco/Metheny moments.

Oh yeah….and it’s also going to be under £300!!

Click through to our shop (Fender one not released yet, Ibanez one coming soon)