When I write a tune - and it's been like this for many years - I always hear in the back of my head some sort of vague, orchestrated, fully fleshed-out big-band version of the song with other parts going on.
From John Scofield
It turns out kids today still learn that four-chord progression when they're just picking up the guitar.
The Meters are, I think, the most influential group in our time to come out of New Orleans, to have changed and introduced us all to a way of playing, and to a groove and a level of feel in playing funk-jazz.
Who isn't a fan of Ray Charles?
I find as much inspiration from the forerunners of jazz as I do the modern-day innovators of jazz.
Generally, when a record label suggests album ideas for you, you smile politely, and then proceed to shoot it down, because it's never what you as an artist feel is right for you.
I like forms that are flexible, that can let you feel creative.
It's one thing to sit at home and write a piece with your guitar, and quite another to have it performed by four people. For me, it's always trial and error.
I have to work at tunes to get them to come out. Sometimes I'll sit there for four or five hours and get absolutely nothing.
It's really good to be forced to get away and try something else, find something that's exciting.
5 perspectives
3 perspectives
2 perspectives
1 perspectives