By: Mark Rabuffo
Photo Courtesy of Greg Howe
Mention the name Greg Howe to an aficionado of contemporary electric guitar music and aural visions of smooth legato runs, wah-laden solos and funky, syncopated rhythms will run through his or her head. Greg has garnered a well-deserved reputation as a guitar virtuoso with one of the most recognizable voices in the instrumental electric guitar pantheon.
Greg has been making records since 1988 after Mike Varney heard the Howe demo submitted for Varney’s Spotlight column in Guitar Player magazine. The album, Greg Howe
I spoke to Greg about his upbringing, working as a sideman and what his dream band looks like.
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Mark: You started off as a “shredder” but have expanded into the fusion genre. Was that a conscious transition or did it just happen?
Greg Howe: I think it just happened. Surprisingly, I never went through the whole ’70s Mahavishnu/Return To Forever fusion thing when I was a teenager. When I first started playing guitar, my influences were strictly rock players, Jimmy Page and then Van Halen. It wasn’t until later that I started listening to other types of guitar players.
But even as I expanded and started listening to people like John Scofield, Pat Metheny, and George Benson, simultaneously I was listening to people like Yngwie Malmsteen. My influences were always from these extremely different places.
After my first album, I got into really wanting to expand and push the envelope wherever I could. And if that meant getting better technically, then I did that. If it meant investigating different harmonies, I did that too. I’m always intrigued by things I haven’t done, there’s always brand new territory for me to personally explore.
The only things that are different about my music now than what was on my first album, is that it’s gotten a little more sophisticated harmonically and rhythmically. So it really wasn’t a conscious thing. I just sort of walked into this territory that is reminiscent of what was happening in the mid-’70s.
I really, really don’t write songs with a specific genre in mind, ever. I just write the song, and the only criterion is that I like it. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated. It doesn’t have to be simple, or in odd time. I just have to like it.
It’s funny, but I was never really heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix. When I was young and learning these Van Halen solos, I remember people saying “What about Hendrix?” To my ears then, I wasn’t educated or sophisticated yet, I was only hearing technique. I didn’t understand what the big deal was.
It wasn’t until I got older and re-visited his music and listened to it from a completely different place that I heard it differently. I heard the richness and innovative qualities in his music that had just gone completely over my head earlier.
When we’re young we sometimes think, “I can execute this lick faster and cleaner than that person, therefore I am better than him.” That’s how we think when we’re young. We haven’t expanded ourselves to understand how a guy who plays just one note can just floor you. I had to grow up before I could hear the other qualities that Hendrix had that are just so incredibly powerful. Now I am just a huge Hendrix fanatic.
Photo Courtesy of Greg Howe
Mark: Did you take lessons or are you self-taught?
Greg Howe: I took about three lessons when I was roughly ten years old. I didn’t learn anything because they were teaching me things like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” I had good ears, and when I was told to learn the song for the next lesson, I would come in without ever having practiced it. But I knew that all I’d have to do is remember the song right before I walked in and I’d be able to pretend to read it, and that’s what I did.
It doesn’t make any sense to teach someone to read music by showing them something they already know, because there’s no reason to really read it. So I didn’t learn anything, because during the week I was figuring out bar chords. I wanted to play The Who. I wanted to play stuff that was on the radio.
I was actually more interested in chords than in melodies because, to me, the guitar was what Pete Townshend was doing. My older sister had friends, who played guitar, and they showed me chords, and once I learned chords I just went from there. Beyond that I just started listening and figured out stuff off of records.
Mark: How did you hook up with Tetsuo Sakurai for the Gentle Hearts
Greg Howe: Tetsuo contacted me. He was working on an album and he had already decided who he wanted on this record. He knew of my playing and had some of my albums, and wanted me to play guitar on it and Dennis Chambers to pay drums on it. So he contacted me and we worked out a deal. His record company had a nice budget and we ended up tracking the music at my house when I lived in Pennsylvania. It was easy because Dennis is based out of Baltimore, so he just drove up to my house and Tetsuo flew over.
We went over the songs and tracked the drums, for the most part, during the first three days. Tetsuo did a lot of writing in the studio, and I was doing a lot of “Can I get you some more coffee?” kind of stuff just waiting for the songs to become more defined.
Once they did, we sat down and worked out some of the guitar parts. It was great because it wasn’t that much work, it just kind of fell into place. Most of the lead guitar work I only had only one day to do, and sometimes, when I don’t think too hard, it comes out better. It was a great album. It came out really nice and went down real smooth.
Mark: What is it that you look for in players when putting a band together? Obviously, the chops have to be there, and personality, but is there anything in particular that you look for?
Greg Howe: It’s a combination of everything, including the two points you brought up. Obviously they have to be good players, but after a player becomes really good, it’s always tough to determine exactly who’s better. I don’t really listen to musicians once they attain a certain level of ability. I’m listening for style, does it fit with what I’m doing? That’s what I look for.
Personality is also part of it. I’ve been out on the road enough to know that personality is a huge part of what’s going to make a band click. The better we like each other, the better we’re going to play together, and the more we’re going to enjoy playing together.
That’s when those magical moments happen, when everyone is clicking. A lot of times it has nothing to do with a single person’s ability. It’s more the collective energy of the band. It’s really important that there’s that chemistry.
Photo Courtesy of Greg Howe
Mark: You’ve played on some tribute CDs, such as A Guitar Supreme: Giant Steps in Fusion Guitar. Tell us about that.
Greg Howe: The record company contacted me and asked if I want to participate. The project is based on having a cool concept and getting as many well-known players together as possible to market it.
Mark: How were the songs chosen? Your version of “Giant Steps” is very cool.
Greg Howe: Jeff Richman oversaw the whole thing. Jeff and I had a conversation, and I was surprised the song was still available. I thought that would be really cool for me, because playing over “Giant Steps” is a pretty big mission. I thought it would be a great challenge, so we talked about arrangement concepts that would enable me to do it.
I don’t think I could do what Coltrane does, or what a lot of other guys have done with that song, where they can just solo all day over it! I had a limited number of measures, and it was just enough that I could be interesting and work some things out that were cool, and at least show that side of me.
I also didn’t want the tempo to be as fast as the original, so we decided to slow it down a little bit, and Jeff thought it would be cool to merge that into a Hendrix/funk kind of thing. I thought that was a great idea because it sounded like something I would do.
It was just great. He put the arrangement together and sent it to me and I remember thinking “Wow. This is really cool. It actually sounds like something I might’ve done.”
Mark: You’ve done some work as a hired gun for Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Enrique Iglesias, and *NSync. Tell me about those gigs.
Greg Howe: Those gigs were great. It’s bizarre. You’re playing this intense music that’s just crazy, and you’ve got to really work to put a tour together and get your albums sold. You really have to be out there doing it and making things happen professionally. Then, you go from that to a situation where you’re getting paid an enormous amount of money and hardly doing anything, and hardly being asked to do anything.
These gigs are great. You’ve got to know three chords, a couple of presets on a pedal you’ve got to hit. You’re just vibing with the band. Yet, you’re getting this enormous amount of money and traveling the world, meeting different people. It’s kind of out of balance.
For a guy coming out of a typical musician mindset, to get compensated monetarily you’ve really got to do a lot. To go instantly from that to make sure you’re in the lobby on time and get along with people. It’s like going on a big vacation, and at some point during the day, and not even every day, you’ve got to jump up on stage to play a show. Then you continue on with your vacation. It’s really weird.
Photo Courtesy of Greg Howe
Mark: What is your take on the state of guitar these days? Who are you listening to, and are there any new players who’ve caught your ear?
Greg Howe: I don’t listen to guitar players that much, to be honest with you. Not that I’m against them, there are a lot of phenomenal players. I’m kind of a weird person. Inspiration for me always comes from places that are unrelated to what I’m doing.
When I’m preparing for an album, I’m not listening to anything that’s even remotely close to what I’ll probably be recording. I’ll listen to Chris Daughtry or Beyonce. I’ll listen to pop music a lot.
It’s easy for me to think outside the box, it’s very natural for me to think strange or bizarre. I can write instrumental songs that are weird or in odd times. I can write that stuff all day long. It comes very easy for me. What I need is to be reeled in so that I can somehow have something, a hook, which keeps it understandable in a mainstream context.
There has to be something that people can latch on to. No matter how complex your tastes are, or how advanced you are musically, everybody responds to a hook or a memorable theme. Everybody wants that. That’s what’s great about pop music. It’s based around only that and that’s what I need, the weird stuff is easy for me.
There aren’t any guitar players at this point in time that I’ve been listening to for the sake of inspiration or even for enjoyment. I just haven’t been listening to guitar music, not that there aren’t guys out there.
Mark: Of all the albums you’ve recorded as a leader, do you have a particular favorite?
Greg Howe: Interesting question. I guess the way that I can try to be as honest as possible is if I were asked to pick one of my albums for a desert island disc. I think, not so much sonically or for production value, but there’s something that I really liked about Five
Collectively it has this fusion feel to it, but I think it leans a little bit towards rock than jazz, and realistically I lean a little bit more towards rock than jazz. I come from a rock background. I never did the whole Real Book thing, never did the standards thing. I love jazz, I’m always influenced by it and have been heavily influenced by the players from that world, but I am at heart a rock player.
And I think Five comes as close to what I would consider a Greg Howe representation as I can imagine. If someone asks “Who’s Greg Howe? I’ve never heard him. What does he do?” I might whip out Five but I’m not 100% percent positive about that.
Mark: I’d like to ask you just one more question, just for fun. If you could put together a dream band with anyone, alive or dead, who would you choose?
Greg Howe: Wow. I don’t know; I guess it depends on the context of what I was attempting to do. There are so many different kinds of musicians I like. I will say this, I would love to play with Dave Weckl. He is one of my favorite musicians. I think he’s incredible, and I think he’s accurate. His pocket is crazy deep, to me, it doesn’t get much better than that.
I would also love to play with Gary Willis. He’s a monster bass player, and he has a unique pocket. What I love about him is that it’s almost like having another percussionist in the group because he’s got so much ghost-note percussion stuff happening in his groove. The band can just be simmering on some vamp, and it just feels busy, and all the smaller time parts are filled in. As a soloist, I can really vibe off that because you’re not as afraid to let notes ring for a couple of bars and worry about it becoming too empty. I love that element that he’s got, so when I think about those two guys in the same band it’s pretty interesting to me.
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