For most of this year, I've continued my guitar studies with a local teacher, Margaret Slovak, who eventually moved Upstate. Margaret recommended another teacher, John Stowell, who'd then sent me lessons via correspondence while we made study plans when he next visited NY. Unfortunately, events these past few months had caused me to take a respite from playing but I still had to meet John in person. Last night John arrived in NY and invited me to catch his gig at "The Bar Next Door,", a small, quaint club in Greenwich Village that seems to be a hotbed for a lot of guitarists and musicians who've yet to gain big marquee.
Leaving Miss Y at home, I caught a few tunes of John's first set with Jeff Hirschfield on drums, and playing "6 string baritone" guitar/bass was another "lesser known" guitarist, Ben Monder. There were only a few people in the audience but by the end of the first set, it was just me and a couple others in the bar. I took the seat of the leftmost guy on the picture below and throughout the entire second set, it was a treat! One of those rare moments of magic that couldn't happen anywhere else but then, if it weren't Thanksgiving night this place would've been packed.
John's playing is unique in that he comps and voices like a piano player. Ben's playing is also unique but difficult to describe. After the gig I told him I do have his CDs but that-- it took me a while to "get" you Considering their trio was technically a "pick up" band, the drummer Jeff impressed me with his ability to anticipate the directions both guys were taking, making them sound like they'd been playing together much longer.
I tried taking this video, but the backlighting made it difficult to see the musicians so I didn't continue. Otherwise, if you haven't heard of Ben Monder or John Stowell or even, Margaret Slovak, please check them out!
Thanks for reading!