Jonathan Kalb

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Jonathan Kalb is a dynamite bluesman.  He fronts his own band on guitar, harmonica, and vocals, performing classic blues tunes as well as original compositions.  He’s an amazing solo performer too. 

Jonathan has been a blues guy for forty years.  He’s been on the same bill with blues greats like B.B. King, Luther Allison, Dr. John, Mike Bloomfield, and Johnny Copeland—and he’s worked with Steve Miller, Otis Rush, Lightning Hopkins, Bo Diddley, Solomon Burke, Sunnyland Slim, Evelyn Champagne King, Tracy Nelson, Honeyboy Edwards, and Gary U.S. Bonds. 

He’s got a Jimi Hendrix connection too—Jimi’s signature fuzz-tone sound was inspired by hearing Jonathan play.  Jimi admitted it.  At the age of nineteen Jonathan was the musical director for The Fugs.  They played in the Village, next door to the Café Wha where Jimi got his start—so the stage was set for cross-fertilization.

Jonathan plays regularly at venues in the New York/TriState area.  I made a pilgrimage to Roosevelt Island a few weeks ago, where he was performing solo on the patio of the Trellis Restaurant.  Summer in the city isn’t pleasant, but a sizeable audience had gathered to be distracted from the heat by Jonathan’s cool renderings of blues (and jazz) standards.

He also performs at blues festivals, most recently in South Carolina—and he tours frequently in Europe.  Last fall took him to the UK for the twelfth time, with a side trip to Norway.

Jonathan is also a great teacher.  I should know–I’ve studied guitar with him since 2002.  His lessons are a cool mix of theory and demonstration, plus a good dose of jamming.  What a thrill to jam with a master! 

Here’s an excerpt from a review that appeared in the magazine Blues in Britain:

“WOW!… That’s all I have to say about Jonathan Kalb … this guy is the real deal, that indefinable sound, phrasing, confidence and just all around X factor that makes the greats stand out from others. Few have it, Jon is one of those few. As he played a borrowed Fender, pickless, I could not help thinking of an early Stevie Ray Vaughan. Bending, vibrating and manipulating the guitar to produce a sound of his own. Vocally, Jon is very powerful, but subtle too, with perfect phrasing. The overall sound produces excitement and makes for an intoxicating cocktail for the audience to enjoy… You must hear him live.” — Captain Pat  

I asked  Jonathan for some words of wisdom and here’s what he said: “Success has to do with how much desire you have and how committed you are to what’s in your heart—it’s 20% talent and 80% hard work, passion, and tenacity.”  Great advice for anyone!

Visit Jonathan’s website at www.JonathanKalb.org for much more information about this very cool bluesman—including some great videos of his live performances.

Posted in showcase | No Comments »

Heth and Jed

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

Heth and Jed are Heth and Jed Weinstein, a guitar and bass duo who make a living busking in the New York City subway.

In 2006 they earned a spot in the MTA’s Music Under New York program out of a field of more than 400 applicants. MUNY continues to provide them with sanctioned performance locations within the subway system. Busking isn’t for the faint of heart though. I caught their act under Herald Square a few weeks ago, watching as the Peruvian pan pipes guys who had the spot before them packed up, then watching—with a certain amount of apprehension—as Heth and Jed eyed a couple of sinister-looking dudes lurking nearby. Apparently the New York underground can be a very territorial place and, despite the MTA’s sanction, Heth and Jed have had to fight for their spot on occasion.

Their sound is like nothing you’ve ever heard before. What you see is a guitar and bass. What you hear—what they call their “Jambient sound”—uses live looping and an array of effects to explore sonic textures never before heard in the streets or subways of New York City.

Recently Gothamist.com asked them to write about their exploits in a feature called “Tourist” (a tour diary). As a result of that article, the duo has just signed a contract with Soft Skull Press for Buskers: The on the Streets, in the Trains, off the Grid Memoir of Two New York City Street Musicians. So now they’re writers too!

There’s lots more, including videos, on their website. And if you live in the NYC area, check out their performance schedule there too.

I asked Heth and Jed for some words of wisdom to pass along and here’s what Heth told me:

“In terms of inspiration, Jed and I feel most alive when we are sharing our music with the community. The mere presence of art in public areas changes the temperature of the room. The connection to audience (our neighbors) is what inspires us.”

Posted in showcase | No Comments »

Steve Tarshis

Monday, December 7th, 2009

It’s my great pleasure to introduce my friend and teacher, Steve Tarshis.  Here’s a picture of Steve at the launch party for Sweet Man Is Gone, where the entertainment was provided by the Steve Tarshis Trio.

Steve is a New York City guitar guy with an impressive resume: he’s got a BA in composition from the Berklee College of Music and has worked with artists as varied as Bo Diddley, John Sebastian, Chico Hamilton, Carl Wilson, Robert Lamm, the Mamas and the Papas, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Nora York, and the Joffrey Ballet. His Broadway credits include Rent, Tick Tick Boom, Johnny Guitar, They Wrote That, People Be Heard, and Up in the Air.

His current band is an instrumental trio with Steve on guitar, of course. They gig around New York City and have just completed their second CD.   Steve was a founding member of Nine Below Zero, known to many blues enthusiasts in the eighties and nineties, and he lent his guitar skills more recently to Bucktooth Johnson, which I listened to with delight many times at Scotland Yard in Hoboken.

For the past few years he’s had an ongoing collaboration with singer-songwriter Hope Nunnery, who creates beautiful tunes that evoke gospel and Appalachian folk songs.  Their collaboration resulted in a stunning album called Wilderness Lounge, and they’re at work on a second album.

Steve’s also currently working with composer Jamie Lawrence–playing guitar on a documentary film about Sean Penn’s work in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. 

Steve’s the author of over fifteen books published by the likes of Music Sales Inc. and Hal Leonard, and till its recent closing he was a multi-faceted teacher at the New School’s Guitar Study Center.  I first met him there when I signed up for the wonderful Blues Ensemble course. Steve’s been giving private lessons for over twenty years, and his website gives a terrific glimpse of the wide variety of students who study with him.

I asked Steve what he’d advise people pursuing creative goals of all kinds, and here’s what he said:

Number one: just do the work and don’t worry so much about the result. It’s a cliché, but the hardest steps are the first ones. Don’t wait around for permission to do it, or until you think you are “good” enough. Just start and see what happens.

Number two: Role model the things you like. Borrow, copy, steal. All the greats have. Inevitably your own voice will shine through anyway. In my mind “art” is more cultural than individual. Think of yourself as part of the great universe of creativity, instead of a lone voice. Be part of the culture. You don’t have to invent it.

Number three: Don’t take anyone else’s rules and numbers and advice too seriously. It may help you—or not!

Visit Steve’s website for lots more information about his projects, as well as video and audio links.  You can buy copies of his CDs there too!

Posted in showcase | No Comments »