Artist Features
Jazz Guitar in Tasmania… and New York City
Josh Dunn grew up in Tasmania, one of the most remote places on earth, but is now an “in-demand” player in the jazz capital of the world, New York City.
Committed to early-20th-century jazz guitar, Josh is also a great banjo player. He has worked with filmmaker Woody Allen’s Dixieland Band as well as the High Society Band at Birdland Jazz Club.
JB: Talk about what inspired you to play jazz guitar.
JD: I grew up in a remote part of Tasmania and picked up the guitar when I was about six. I started out mostly playing folk music, before eventually getting into rock and shreddy guitarists like Eddie Van Halen when I was a teenager. I think I was around fourteen, getting more and more into guitar, and my teacher introduced me to Django’s music: I was hooked. It was like the perfect meeting point between the virtuosity of all the guitarists I was into and the melodicism of the music I grew up playing. So that was my pathway into jazz. From there, I really enjoyed digging into the history of the music, particularly jazz guitar. I love jazz and am an eternal student of that music. I guess I am a “jazz” guitarist, but I
also feel that term doesn’t quite fit because I’m nowhere near as schooled in the world of bebop and modern jazz as a lot of my peers. I was on a gig recently with Pasquale Grasso, and it left me thinking, “Damn, that’s what real jazz guitar is,” and I don’t play like that.
JB: Did you study music in college and talk about the musical things you appreciated most about those years of your life?
JD: I started taking university music courses while I was finishing high school in Tasmania, then did an undergraduate degree at the University of Tasmania.
UTAS was a great conservatorium, but upon graduating, I found that there weren’t a lot of playing opportunities in Tasmania for someone with my interests. While living there, I met an American on a Fulbright Scholarship studying Tasmanian folk dancing. I thought, if the Fulbright were willing to fund someone to do something as obscure as that, maybe they’d fund a Tasmanian coming to America to study their music, and they did. So, I moved to the USA to do a master’s in jazz at William Paterson (WPU) in New Jersey. WPU was great, I learned loads and got to meet and play with so many great musicians, both fellow students and the faculty. Overall, I look back at my time in school fondly. I didn’t appreciate it in the moment, but this was the main time in your life where
you get to just practice and work on music without economic or commercial pressures. Your one job is to get better at your craft.
JB: To you, what are three of the most influential jazz guitar albums in your own personal development, and why?
JD: Django Reinhardt, Djangology 49 — this was one of the first Django records I got into and still one of my favorite collections. These are the recordings that he and Grappelli made in Rome, where he was back playing acoustic guitar. His playing is just so fiery, dynamic, and interesting; it still blows me away.
Joe Pass, Virtuoso —I recently interviewed someone doing their PhD on the development of solo jazz guitar, and he asked for albums that had influenced me. After I named this one, he laughed and said nearly every other person he’d interviewed had mentioned it as well. It’s the gold standard for perfect jazz guitar playing, the way he can orchestrate for the guitar while improvising perfect bebop lines.
Julian Lage, World’s Fair — This album came out like 10 years ago now, and I
remember listening to it for the first time and just being completely floored. I was already a big fan of Julian; I used to take lessons with him occasionally, and this album just instantly became one of my favorites. It sounds like a solo jazz guitar album written by a singer-songwriter. Julian is able to use his virtuosity to serve the music in a way that very few others can.
JB: Talk briefly about what you enjoy by playing older, more traditional jazz.
JD: I’m drawn to early jazz because to me it’s more song-focused than a lot of more modern jazz. When played well, the repertoire is treated like songs that have words and intention, not just vehicles for long solos that have little connection to the original tune. It also feels like the whole endeavor is more collaborative than a lot of other styles — the way the horn front line improvises together, there’s a sort of collectivity to it that I really love. I also gravitate towards acoustic music, and, for the most part, traditional jazz still has a strong connection to its acoustic roots. The other part is the repertoire itself; there are so many beautiful, obscure tunes that only get played in that style.
JB: Tell us about your musical relationship with The High Society Band. You also occasionally play in Woody Allen’s Dixieland band.
JD: This band primarily lives its life as the High Society Band and has a weekly residence at Birdland. I was asked to join in 2021 after the death of legendary banjoist and musical director, Eddy Davis. They were big shoes to fill, and they have an incredibly large repertoire of obscure tunes that I had to memorize. The group also had a previous existence as the backing band for Woody Allen. My experiences with that side of things have been minimal and a little bizarre, as you might imagine. The gig at Birdland is one I feel very lucky to have. Each week, there’s a different set list sent out, and there are no charts on the bandstand, so we’re constantly learning new tunes and developing as a band. I play both acoustic archtop and plectrum banjo on the gig, so it also forces me to keep my banjo chops in check.
JB: I’m sure you do a lot of accompaniment work. Tell me what you need to be mindful of as an accompanist to a singer or a saxophone.
JD: Yes, I find myself playing in duos and small groups a lot with singers and horn players; it’s one of my favorite settings. I feel like working on accompanying singers has made me a far better musician. You have to know your repertoire, and you have to be very comfortable changing keys. The other part is having a strong perception of what sort of information you might need to give to the singer in your accompaniment. Simple things like: if the melody is the major 7th, then you probably don’t want the root on the top of your chord. And that requires you to be able to hear that, so ear training is crucial. The other thing is that on a duo gig with a horn player or vocalist, you end up finding yourself pretty exposed. For your solo, you have to supply everything — harmony, rhythm, melody. Playing a lot of these gigs has really helped me be comfortable in supporting myself while improvising. It forces you to engage with the guitar in a whole different way than in a band. They’re the best sort of gigs you can do to develop.
JB: Tell us about the primary guitar you play.
JD: I primarily play two guitars, a 1953 Gibson L7 and a 1947 L5. The L5 is my main acoustic guitar; I keep it with pretty high action and phosphor bronze strings (La Bellas, 13-56) It’s a guitar that you have to work a bit to get a big sound out of, but to me, the payoff is incredible. On my L7, I have nickel strings and a TK Smith floating pickup. I use it for all other gigs where I have to amplify. I got that pickup recently. I used to use a Dearmond FHC or an old Johnny Smith, but this has been a game-changer for me. It’s so big and even-sounding.
JB: How do you divide your work between New York and Tasmania?
JD: I live in Brooklyn, but usually end up visiting Tasmania once a year for a month or so. Tassie’s an extraordinary place, and I would love to spend more time there, but all my work is in NYC, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. When I visit, I usually play a few gigs, maybe head over to Melbourne. I’m in Tasmania right now, but this time I’m spending all my time working on a solo guitar recording project.
JB: New York is a town with scores of good guitarists. You’ve been there for over ten years, so what’s the best piece of advice you’d give younger guitarists for building a career in music?
JD: This is something that I often need to remind myself of: music is based around community. If you want to be a working musician, then you need to be an active participant in the music community. People need to know who you are, they need to know how you play, and they ideally need to like spending time with you. So going to gigs, setting up hangs and sessions, etc., is essential. I moved to New York from Tasmania, knowing literally no one, but I just went to people’s shows and sessions until I started getting hired. Sometimes I have a bit of a lull where the phone isn’t ringing as much, and the solution is always going out and being more present in the music community.
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