Jazz Articles about Jack West

About Jack West

Album Review

Jack West/Walter Strauss: Guitars on Life

Read "Guitars on Life" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
February 9, 2026

Emerging from the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1990s, acoustic guitarist Jack West forged a new style on 6-and 8-string instruments that integrates percussive use of the strings and guitar body with melody and harmony. Spicing his tunes with repeated harmonics and slide flourishes and incorporating influences from jazz, folk, rock and Americana music, West has released several albums, both solo and with his group Jack West & Curvature in which his guitar was complemented by percussion, saxophone, cello, ...

191

Album Review

Jack West & Curvature: Big Ideas

Read "Big Ideas" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
February 1, 2001

8-string acoustic guitarist Jack West melds organically induced homespun themes with blues and jazz overtones on his fifth release, titled Big Ideas. Here, “Jack West and Curvature” renders subtle intimacy along with pumping beats and atmospheric propositions as the guitarist makes every note count whether pursuing bluesy bottleneck slide choruses or jazzy lines amid enticing harmonic relationships with cellist Mark Summer and marimba performer Joel Davel. Drummer Scott Amendola, primarily known for his ongoing affiliation with guitarist Charlie Hunter, rounds ...