JGT Spotlight: Guitarist Will Sellenraad
JGT contributor Joe Barth talks with Will Sellenraad – a vibrant, innovative guitarist at the forefront of the New York music scene.
He came from a very artistic home, as both of his parents were painters. The continual creativity of the jazz art form appealed to Sellenraad early on. His fluid improvisational style draws on jazz, soul, rock, and funk.
JB: Growing up in New York, your dad was a painter. Talk about when you started to play guitar and what inspired you to play jazz guitar.
WS: Both of my parents are painters, actually. Growing up in lower Manhattan in the 1970’s was really different than it is now; that is for sure. I originally started playing the guitar when I was about seven. I didn’t really get into trying to figure it out until I was fifteen or so. Like most guitar players, I started with the blues. Funny enough, I feel like I’m still going for that feeling more than anything. As complex as things can get, if it doesn’t tap into human emotion, it is missing the whole point.
JB: You studied with John Abercrombie as well as Jim Hall. What did you appreciate about those two men?
WS: I didn’t really study formally with either of them. I was around them a fair amount, though, and they provided countless lessons. Two of the titans of the jazz guitar world; there is no question about that. I can’t really put them in the same group; what makes them both so special is their individuality. Mr. Hall, for instance, would say things like… play to the person in the back of the room, reach them. Mr. Abercrombie was just so natural. Both of them were so undeniably themselves. That is what I’m really trying to be. Of course I have influences, and those two are at the top of the list, but I can only be a better version of myself.
JB: To you, in shaping your sound and approach, what are three of the most influential jazz guitar albums and why?
WS: Just three is pretty tough. It is also always changing. I can say 3 records I spent a lot of time with are… Jimmy Smith’s Standards record featuring Donald Bailey and the best sound in the universe that is Kenny Burrell. Guitar On The Go by Wes Montgomery and The Complete Quartets by Grant Green featuring Sonny Clark. Kenny’s sound is one to die for on most of his recordings; he is the gold standard of tone. Wes, well, he is Wes and the extension of Charlie Christian, just pure gold all around. Grant, maybe my biggest influence. He is the most lyrical of them all and has such a strong connection to the blues. I also have to mention Mr. Jim Hall as he is the link to all of the modern guitar players. There is a hard-to-find recording of him playing standards Trio with Don Thompson and Terry Clarke that is so incredible; they stretch so beautifully. If you can find it, check that one out.
JB: What do you find most rewarding in recording your Greene Street Vol. 1 album, and how is it different from your new Greene Street Vol. 2?
WS: Greene Street Vol. 1 was recorded in my apartment in NYC, where I grew up. We played a lot of sessions there, and I was lucky enough to capture some of what we were getting into. It was really beautiful and challenging to just have the three of us in the room without a recording engineer to record. It’s a lot to record and play at the same time, but it is very intimate. Our bass player, the great Rene Hart, also used some effects, which added a whole new dimension to the music we weren’t used to hearing. That record was a collaborative effort between the three of us, and that is the most rewarding part of capturing what we were doing. I have the utmost respect and love for both Rene Hart and Eric McPherson, two of my favorite people.
Greene Street Vol.2 was an entirely different process. We still play a ton of sessions on Greene Street; that is a constant thing that is crucial to developing and growing as musicians. Eric McPherson and I were playing a lot with Elam Friedlander, and we thought it would be good to record. We were lucky enough to spend an afternoon at the beautiful studio GB’s Juke Joint in NYC. So Colin Mohancs recorded Vol. 2 to tape. It is always great to go into a studio and focus on playing and listening, rather than making sure the mics are working properly, etc. Vol. 2, like Vol. 1, came from playing a lot of gigs and sessions together; we just captured it differently. We look forward to doing Vol.3.
JB: Tell me about one of your most memorable performance experiences.
WS: The most memorable one is always the next one. There is always so much that goes into playing, wherever that may be, so… next up is the only way I can think of it.
JB: What do you appreciate most about the guitars that you use?
WS: Words cannot express my feelings about my great friend and master luthier, the incredible Bryant Trenier. I would not be the musician I am without him. He has taught me so much about the archtop guitar. If you don’t know him, please look him up. There is no one on earth making better-sounding guitars than Mr. Trenier.
