Hi Fly
In September Whaling City Sound released John's new recording Hi Fly. It contains 5 of John's swinging and sophisticated compositions, plus imaginative re-conceptions of 5 standard tunes. Hi Fly is a follow-up to 2010's successful quartet CD Raising The Roof. Along with John's graceful guitar, the album features virtuosic contributions from Jake Sherman on piano and Hammond organ; John Lockwood on bass; and Zé Eduardo Nazario on drums. Click on the Hi Fly link to check the new recording out!
Composing Music For Jazz Performance - now available!
John has been writing columns for Just Jazz Guitar Magazine for a number of years and has compiled the educational materials into two books that are now available. One book concentrates on writing Blues Tunes and the other concentrates on Standard Songs and Jazz Tunes. Each book includes a CD featuring performances of the musical examples. These books provide an opportunity to learn some of John's great tunes, and will help musicians learn to compose their own songs. Click the Books link!
Raising The Roof
Last year, Whaling City Sound released John's recording Raising The Roof. It remained in the top 10 on the JazzWeek Radio Chart in spins in the USA for more than 2 months, reaching the Number 2 position! For the year 2010, Raising The Roof achieved a final chart position of Number 8, which means that the recording was played on jazz radio throughout the year more than all but 7 other CDs. The recording features the virtuosic musicians who collaborated on Encounterpoint, John's successful 2008 release: John on guitar from Boston; Koichi Sato on keyboards from Japan; John Lockwood on bass from South Africa; and Zé Eduardo Nazario on drums from Brasil. Click on the Raising The Roof link to check it out!
Turn Up The Quiet
John has recorded a collaboration with the wonderful jazz vocalist Ron Gill entitled Turn Up The Quiet. It was released by Whaling City Sound in May 2010 and features Ron's voice in duet with John's sensitive guitar on half of the tunes, and with piano and acoustic bass accompaniment on the other half of the tunes. John plays the acoustic bass on those songs and the pianist is Gilad Barkan. We have copies now so click on the Turn Up The Quiet link to check it out!
Becoming a musician is an organic process, a matter of natural growth over one's lifetime. If you love the process, you keep doing it. If you keep doing it, you keep getting better at it. The fact is, I love the challenge of trying to play some little tune better, the challenge of hearing music and understanding what I hear better, the challenge of making little black dots on a piece of paper blossom into sound. I love to compose music that is both sophisticated and accessible, music that I put in front of a good player and that person can do great things with it almost without effort. The key for me, when it comes to what makes something musical and attractive, is interactivity and communication. I hope my music is able to demonstrate my moods and feelings, and I hope it inspires people to experience their own moods and feelings.
