Covers
The Active Schedule of Portland Guitarist John Stowell
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Bob Bakert talks to John Stowell in a video podcast and JGT contributor Joe Barth interviews John about some of his recent activities.
Audio only podcast
JB: Have you been playing some duets with Vermont guitarist Draa Hobbs?
JS: I’ve been playing duets with Vermont-base guitarist Draa Hobbs for over ten years, and I think that we’ve developed a nice rapport. Our styles are different but complimentary, and we have some shared values about harmony, melody and rhythm. I see Draa once or twice a year in Vermont, and I always look forward to our gigs together.
JB: Talk about the musical relationship you have with the guitarist Tom Remon.
JS: Tom Remon is a new friend. He booked some dates for us in the UK, Scotland and Austria in 2024 and 2025. We both enjoy guitar duos, and I had a ball with Tom. He sounds a bit like Peter Bernstein, but he’s not copying Pete. He has great time and a good sense of melody.
JB: What do you find so musically rewarding in working with vocalist Endra Shank?
JS: Kendra Shank I began playing in the early 1990’s when she lived in Seattle. Kendra began as a folk singer and shifted to jazz when she studied with Jay Clayton. She has a very personal style and likes to take chances as an improviser. Kendra has lived in New York for many years now and has really grown musically by hiring some great musicians there. We did a few tours on the West Coast and some gigs in New York, and we also recorded a duo CD, New York Conversations for the Swiss TCB record label. I look forward to some more collaborations with Kendra in the future.
JB: Have you been playing some duets with Seattle guitarist Tim Lerch?
JS: Tim Lerch and I have done some videos and online lessons together, and we hope to do a course on guitar duo strategies for Guitar Vivo. Tim is a great teacher, and he has a real command of harmony and chord melody that makes it fun to play with him. He studied with Ted Greene in Los Angeles in the 1980’s, and his time with Ted gave him a great foundation.
JB: Talk about how you met up with Korean vocalist Yunmi Kang.
JS: I met Korean vocalist Yunmi Kang and her husband Sangyeon Park in Italy in 2019 when Sangeon and I were part of a guitar summit quartet with Lorenzo Cominoli and Marko Cepak. I had the chance to play a few tunes with Yunmi when we were all together, and I was very impressed with her abilities. We stayed in touch, and Yunmi and Sangyeon invited me to Seoul for some concerts and a jazz festival. Yunmi and I recorded our duo CD during that visit.
JB: On that duo album, A Timeless Place, how did you go about selecting the material for this album?
JS: She selected all of the material for the project and title for the CD. With the exception of “The Peacocks”, all of the tunes are well known standards. We didn’t have any real arrangements for the songs. We wanted to be in the moment and create some conversations that were very open and full of space and implied time. I think that we accomplished our goals. I returned to Korea this year for some concerts and a recording session with Yunmi and Sangyeon
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