Solos – The Jazz Sessions – John Abercrombie

SOLOS: the jazz sessions is a 39 part television music profile/performance series. Each episode features complete musical pieces, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage with some of today’s most notable jazz artists. Shot in HDTV with multiple moving cameras and a medley of elegant, cinematic lighting designs, SOLOS: the jazz sessions showcases an exciting and dynamic variety of jazz styles – from the blues and boogie-woogie to bebop and beyond.

Guitarist John Abercrombie combines bop and free jazz stylistic elements with electronics utilizing phase shifters, guitar synthesizers and the good old volume pedal. What has kept his playing fresh is his refusal to be chained to these digital devices. As he told Down Beat writer Bill Milkowski, “I try to adjust my playing to the timbre and learn something about how to play that sound, yet at the same time I have to try and force the instrument to play with me a little bit. In other words, I sometimes try to overplay the instrument.”

Tracks:

Open Land, Improvisation #3, Alice In Wonderland, Jazz Folk, Convolution, A Nice Idea