Take Five With Jamie Rosenn

Meet Jamie Rosenn:

Jamie Rosenn is a jazz guitarist living in Los Angeles. He co-leads the organ trio Option 3 and the bass-less trio JoE-LeSs shOe. Jamie teaches guitar and jazz improvisation at the Musician's Institute, the Los Angeles Music Academy and Saddleback College.

Instrument(s):

Guitar.

Teachers and/or influences? Teachers include: Mick Goodrick, Charlie Haden, Jimmy Giuffre, George Garzone, Ran Blake, Larry Koonse, Bob Moses, John McNeil.

I knew I wanted to be a musician when... my first guitar teacher showed me the blues scale. I don't I've ever smiled as hard.

Your teaching approach: I have no single approach to teaching. I try to show students how to teach themselves. Students can only really learn a concept when they are ready and I try to guide them through that process.

Favorite venue:

Currently the Baked Potato is my favorite venue in Los Angeles. It's a great sounding room from the stage which is rare. And where else can you get a baked potato the size of a Chihuahua? But I really miss Rocco in Beverly Glen. There was a great vibe, Rocco and Matt Piper treated the musicians with respect and admiration, and they booked creative, vibrant music. LA needs a club in that mold now more than ever.

The first Jazz album I bought was: Technically, it was John Handy's Hard Work in fourth grade, when I was trying to learn alto sax. Later on in high school when I decided I want to check out jazz I got three albums: Gary Burton, Live at Carnegie Hall, with Larry Coryell, Steve Swallow and Bob Moses; Al Di Meola, Elegant Gypsy and Wes Montgomery, Impressions: Live in Paris. The Wes was just what I was looking for.

Desert Island picks: Let me preface this by saying this is an impossible question but right now at this second it would be something like this:

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue (Columbia Jimmy Giuffre, Jimmy Giuffre 3 (Atlantic);

Sonny Rollins, Live at he Village Vanguard;

Glenn Gould, Plays Bach (Columbia);

The Beatles, White Album (Apple).