Artist Summary
Artist Bio
The guitar has always been a deeply personal instrument for me as a composer, musician, and artist. I am continually striving to refine my own unique voice on the instrument. As a composer, I use my music to create vehicles for me to explore and play with rhythm and texture, to investigate and blur the boundaries of form, and to try and connect on a personal level with listeners through allowing myself to be vulnerable through my improvisations. For me, each piece I create serves as a photograph of a place in time. My favorite guitarists are musicians who create impacting, original statements using the instrument as a vehicle to express creativity, intelligence, soul, and other intangible elements.
Initially my relationship with the guitar provided me with a way to find my voice as a shy, introverted kid. Today, my work has developed into a rich connection hinged on the depth of experience generated from some three decades of dedicated musical study and experience with an eye towards the present and, at the same time, the future. I am continually striving to express through my playing and recordings that for which I am unable to find words. I like to think that by living music as a purposeful Way, one can initiate transformation, and in some way contribute to the lives of the people who may choose to listen. My work has been influenced by the places I have lived, the people who have touched me, and by an overwhelming desire to continually tap into the collective consciousness of the energy that drives us as a species to make music
As much as I can attribute the influence of rock, jazz, bluegrass, blues, and classical guitar players on my “sound” I am equally influenced by dreams, by nature, and by Eastern Philosophy. Many of my compositions are based upon ideas that have occurred in dreams. I am fascinated by the rhythms and cycles that occur in nature, and am always striving to allow things to unfold in my composing and improvisations in an organic way. The words of Lao Tzu inspire me just as much as the playing of Jimi Hendrix or the setting of the sun over the Western end of Lake Ontario or the pulse pattern work of Steve Reich.
For me, the visceral connection of fingertip to wood, graphite, nylon and steel coupled with an awareness of breath, silence, noise, and a faith in the magic of creativity has kept me an engaged student and teacher of the instrument for this last bunch of years, and when all is said and done, I am looking forward to the continuing process of personal growth through music.
Jason proudly endorses D'Addario strings.
