John Stowell anyone?

[aniss1001]

Just heard John Stowell live the other night. It was great. I always really liked he's style even though it's quite different from what I usually fall for.

I am having a lot of trouble determining his style though? (not that this is a bad thing). How would you caracterize his playing? The closest I can come would be like "Bach on meth" or something (pardon me for quoting myself).

Anyhoo just curious as to what some of you guys would think of his playing/style..

[David B]

Great player. Very underappreciated.

He has a couple of instructional video courses available through Truefire.com if you wanted to get a handle on his approach.

[Dark Star]

Can't stand his playing. I'd guess he's a nice guy, & he is certainly is skilled, but listening to him is like watching someone do calculus.

[docbop]

I love Stowell's playing so inventive and soulful. Guess you could just call him avante garde pushing the envelope of harmony and melody. I love the intervals he pulls out of scales that create his unique sound.

[Dark Star]

I do dig his playing on that fretless guitar, but I'd never admit it in public.

[marcwhy]

Incredibly deep player, and a helluva nice guy.

[msr13]

I love this video of him.

+

[JakeAcci]

Great video, thank you.

[paynow]

Great player with an outstanding and individual style. That video is great.

+

[Spirit59]

Great player - great guy. I had the pleasure of sitting down and playing with him a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

I remarked to him that I noticed that he and I both have a tendency to gravitate towards the whole-tone part of the melodic minor scale, this can make your lines sound more on the angular side. And since he tends to use MM a lot (he has an application for each mode), his playing has a pretty modern, often angular sound.

John is also a testament to the fact that you don't need large hands to play knuckle-busting chords - his hands are pretty small. As you can see in his videos, he cocks the neck up really high, which facilitates chording.

Definitely a unique voice on the instrument and should be recognized more.

[jster]

He's got one instructional video where he talks about mixing minor scales. I didn't work through it. Does anybody know what that means? Is that just an eight note scale with a b7 and a 7? I've never heard anybody else talk about "mixing" scales.

[Jake Hanlon]

John is fantastic a wonderful player and teacher and all around human being. I'm playing a concert with him as part of a visit to where I teach end of November. He's one of the true unsung heros of the music in my opinion. Brilliant player

[aniss1001]

Good to see some love for John here

Personally I had never heard about him until a year ago when I was checking out some video lessons on youtube. I remember I heard him play a minor blues that really impressed me.

And I always thought he had a very "angular" sound (as Spirit59 mentions) which always made me think of the whole tone scale somehow. I know he uses MM a LOT so it's probably a correct observertion you (Spirit59) made there. I never actually transcribed/analyzed his stuff but I think I will now

Anyhoo thanks for the comments and the vids (nice ones).

[AmundLauritzen]

Good observations on the melodic minor and whole tone connection! The seventh mode, superlocrian or altered, is also known as diminished whole tone because the first part of the scale is from symmetrical diminished and the second part is whole tone.

That's the fun thing about this superimposition business, because you can find these unique interval patterns and superimpose them on different chords according the modal applications to get nice colors. Yeah, lydian augmented - there's a good use of the whole tone part of melodic minor on major chords. The whole tone part functions also as #7 sound(augmented is an usual way to get this) when used on minor chords(regular melodic minor mode 1).

[Jim Soloway]

John's a friend. He's probably the most dedicated musician I know and a real inspiration to me to push myself a bit harder and dig a bit deeper.

[henryrobinett]

I love his playing. I think he's one of the "best in the world" players in his modern harmonic concept. I played a clinic with him in Vienna, Austria about 10 years ago. Great musician.

[Jazzpunk]

Check out 'The Banff Sessions' and 'Scenes'. Some really tasty playing from Stowell on both of those recordings.

[docbop]

Check out 'The Banff Sessions' and 'Scenes'. Some really tasty playing from Stowell on both of those recordings.

Big plus one to that.

Those new to John this is good CD he's doing a few realbook tunes so you can hear him in context of tunes you're familiar with.

[yebdox]

I have known and listened to John for years and love his playing. He is one of the most gracious and unassuming human beings you will ever meet and one lesson will leave you with enough material to work on for a year. He is always pushing the bounds of harmonic knowledge, and knows the guitar and its possibilities cold... open string voicings and melodies, those amazing tight voicings he's so good at... Seems most great players know of him and respect him hugely, but his music isn't as approachable as some, which keeps him out of the limelight. But, he will NEVER compromise. He hears things a certain way, and will simply not "dumb down" his music.

That being said, sometimes you don't appreciate the level he plays at until you hear him on a standard. Amazing comping skills, as well. Just an amazing human being, all around. I wish I could instantly make him famous, he deserves it.

Some great choices for listening to John: the first ''Scenes" album, Banff Sessions, duo album with Frank (?) Haunschild, Resonance, the older stuff with Dave Friesen..... Take any 5 minutes of John's playing and transcribe and analyze it, incorporate it and it will move you ahead musically 10 times faster than most other studies of jazz, I think, even if you never try to sound like him. Try it!

[Spirit59]

I have known and listened to John for years and love his playing. He is one of the most gracious and unassuming human beings you will ever meet and one lesson will leave you with enough material to work on for a year. He is always pushing the bounds of harmonic knowledge, and knows the guitar and its possibilities cold... open string voicings and melodies, those amazing tight voicings he's so good at... Seems most great players know of him and respect him hugely, but his music isn't as approachable as some, which keeps him out of the limelight. But, he will NEVER compromise. He hears things a certain way, and will simply not "dumb down" his music.

That being said, sometimes you don't appreciate the level he plays at until you hear him on a standard. Amazing comping skills, as well. Just an amazing human being, all around. I wish I could instantly make him famous, he deserves it.

Some great choices for listening to John: the first ''Scenes" album, Banff Sessions, duo album with Frank (?) Haunschild, Resonance, the older stuff with Dave Friesen..... Take any 5 minutes of John's playing and transcribe and analyze it, incorporate it and it will move you ahead musically 10 times faster than most other studies of jazz, I think, even if you never try to sound like him. Try it!

Well said!

[Foulds Jazz Guitars]

Well said!

+1