This morning, hundreds of Paul Reed Smith Guitars enthusiasts checked in to the Experience PRS 2010 trade show before lining up to grab a hot breakfast, some OJ and a cup of Joe, before finding seats in the Main Event tent housing the stage with it’s PRS backdrop, and master of ceremonies Paul Reed Smith who welcomed the PRS distributors, dealers, guitar enthusiasts and music media folks.
Today, Matt Warnock, Editor, Guitar International and I focused most of our time on the operations and production side of the PRS guitar equation.
Almost by pure coincidence I found myself in Belo Horizonte, Brazil during the first week of August, 2010, just as the city’s annual Savassi Jazz Festival was fully under way.
One of the coolest aspects to being a musician, educator and writer, is that I get to work with and meet countless amazing people during the course of my work week.
During my week long course on jazz-guitar improvisation, I meet with the students for four hours each afternoon on the University’s newly built campus extension which houses the music department. The students came from a wide variety of backgrounds, and were at various levels in their musical development, but one thing that they all shared was an eagerness to learn and an enjoyment of all things guitar.
Remarkable virtuosity intertwines with a firestorm of ferocity in this astounding self titled debut album from four rock titans, blues guitar virtuoso and wizard Joe Bonamassa, the iconic Glenn Hughes who lended his searing vocals and thundering bass to the likes of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, Jason Bonham, Led Zeppelin’s drumming heir apparent to his legendary father John, and Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian.
For today’s hard rock fans, the release of Black Country Communion has been a greatly anticipated supergroup event. And now that the self-titled CD is about to drop (Sept. 21), they’ll finally get to hear the assortment of solid recordings from this melting pot of influences.
A seemingly insignificant event happened last weekend: two touring bands from the Bay Area played in the basement of the Double Door in Chicago to a measly crowd of about twenty people. To anyone not in the “Dirtroom,” this paltry concert might as well have not happened at all, and this truth is incredibly unfortunate.
During the second half of the 20th century, the guitar has overtaken the piano as the instrument of choice for households and individuals across America. Gone are the days when the family gathered around the piano after dinner to sing their favorite songs. Now, if there’s an instrument in the house, or if you ask anyone if they play an instrument, odds are that it’ll be a guitar. With the guitar’s popularity skyrocketing, it is no coincidence that an entire industry has grown out of teaching people how to play the instrument.
On a cool, rainy fall evening in downtown Chicago, the kind of day that painfully reminds the city’s residents that the long, cold winter is fast approaching, the Paulinho Garcia Quartet featuring Art Davis took the stage at the Auditorium Theater and warmed the crowd with two breathtaking sets of Brazilian standards and arrangements of American jazz classics.
