A self taught guitarist from the marshlands of coastal Georgia, Jack
West has been leading bands and performing solo for over 17 years. His
early career spanned everything from touring with the Athens based rock
band White Buffalo to sharing the stage with Afro-pop star Yousou N'dour
at the Fillmore. For the last 5 years West has focused primarily on
writing, performing, and recording with his band, Curvature.
Curvature's continual evolution over the last five years has included a
roster of the best musicians in the Bay Area: Mike Marshall, Calder
Spanier (of the Charlie Hunter Quartet), Scott Amendola, Jon Evans,
George Brooks (of Zakir Hussein's Rhythm Experience), Jenny Scheinman,
Joel Davel (from Kaila Flexer's band), Mark Summer (of the Turtle Island
String Quartet), and many others.
Curvature performances of note to date include several concerts at the
Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, several full houses at Yoshi's in
Oakland, a full house at Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz, and a double bill with
Charlie Hunter at the Great American Music Hall.
As a guitarist, what sets Jack West apart is his unique finger-style
technique on his unusual expanded range 8 string guitar (it's the same
as a regular 6 string with the addition of an extra high string and an
extra low string). His playing is characterized by unusual rhythmic
figures, percussive hammer-ons, outrageous slide improvisations, and
simultaneous execution of counterpoint bass and melody lines.
A prolific composer, West has just completed his fifth release for the
small Oakland based label Ahead Behind Music. Two of these recordings
have received national recognition for their exceptional quality as
independently produced CD's. As We Know It was recently chosen over
thousands of entries as winner of the Acoustic Guitar Magazine
Self-Released CD Award for its "superb quality and originality."
Well respected in both the jazz and folk communities for his innovative
approach to writing tunes, West has an uncanny ability to write
instrumental compositions that are musically complex, strikingly
original, and totally accessible--all at the same time. While it is
clear that West's compositions draw from general influences like jazz,
folk, funk, Afro-pop, and blues, the end result is absolutely not a
simple collage of standardized stylistic elements: it is a "whole new
sub-genre of jazz" (NPR, Perspectives in Jazz).
Discography
As a band leader:
- Big Ideas--Jack West & Curvature
Produced by Lee Townsend
Ahead Behind Music ABM 014 ©2001
- As We Know It--Jack West & Curvature
Ahead Behind Music ABM 013 ©1999
- Big Comet Headed for Earth--Jack West & Curvature
Ahead Behind Music ABM 012 ©1998
- Continuum--Jack West & Curvature
Ahead Behind Music ABM 011 ©1996
- Sound Pulling Curves in Time--Jack West
Ahead Behind Music ABM 010 ©1994
As a side man:
- The Calder Project--Calder Spanier
Ahead Behind Music 1998 ABM 510
