Jazz Articles about Paul Santa Maria

Paul Santa Maria: Johnny Speaks

by Scott Andrews
November 25, 2004

Paul Santa Maria is a jazz guitarist, composer, and longtime bassist and studio engineer for Larry Coryell. In an ode to his 1961 Gibson Johnny Smith, Santa Maria plays eleven tracks of unaccompanied jazz guitar on his self-released 2002 CD Johnny Speaks.

The round tone of Santa Maria's vintage hollow-body guitar shimmers through these eleven tracks. The tunes are mostly short inventions and improvisations, running between one and two minutes each. Santa Maria makes full use of the ...