In the
era ruled by the electric guitar, British-born, LA-based Peter White reigns
supreme as one the world’s greatest masters of the nylon-string acoustic
guitar. From the time he burst on the scene with rock legend Al Stewart in the
seventies and singer Basia in the eighties to his session work with Richard
Elliot, Jeff Golub, Lee Ritenour, Kirk Whalum and Boney James, White’s fabulous
fingers continue to showcase the timeless tones and timbres that come from
wood, skin and an expansive musical imagination.
Smile,
set for release October 7, 2014 on Heads Up, a division of Concord Music Group,
is White’s fourteenth recording as a leader, and his scintillating,
contemporary jazz sound is buttressed by his equally-impressive command of
several instruments and augmented by an impressive array of special guests,
including vocalist Mindi Abair, trumpeter Rick Braun, soprano saxophonist Euge
Groove, keyboardist Philippe Saisse, bassist Nate Phillips, violinist (and
daughter) Charlotte White, Ramon Yslas on bongos and vocalist Stevo Theard.
(International release dates may vary)
“This CD
is my third recording for Concord of all original songs,” White says. “It
started with Good Day (2009) and continued with Here We Go (2012). What I try
to do on every single album is produce a story that has adventures; that has
different styles that take you to different places.”
The ten
tracks on Smile reflect the wide reach of White’s musical horizons, which
emanate from contemporary jazz and branch out into R&B, classical and world
music vistas. White’s nuanced and nimble fingers take the listener on an aural
movie, set in a multitude of musical places and spaces.
The
title track kicks off with some spirited vocals from Abair. “I’ve done hundreds
of shows with Mindi – she’s a great friend,” White says. “So I asked her to
sing the lead part. And she did a great job.” Abair also sings on “Hold Me
Close,” which features Stevo Theard’s jazzy vocals. “On that song, Stevo and
Mindi were singing in unison,” says White. “Then Stevo started scatting and
improvising, and I thought – this is great, something new for me that I haven't
recorded before.”
Smile’s
other tracks, “Head Over Heels,” “In Rainbows,” “Floating In Air,” “Coming
Home,” “Nightfall” and “Awakening (Jordan’s Song),” written to mark the
twenty-first birthday of a friend’s daughter, all have equal and evocative
doses of quiet storm, anthemic, atmospheric, Latin, Motown and uptempo musical tableaus, showcasing
White’s poetic and piercing plectral prowess.
Two
selections stand for their special subject matter. “‘Beautiful Love’ is my
tribute to Barry White,” the guitarist fondly recalls. “I was sixteen or
seventeen when I heard him back home in England. He did those long intros…So
this was my attempt to do something like that – to have the intro just build. I
wrote ‘Don Quixote’s Final Quest’ (co-written with keyboardist Freddie Ravel) a
long time ago, but I almost didn’t put it on the album, because it was so
different. It took us three days to mix the song – there are so many elements
in it. It’s my tribute to ‘Classical Gas’ by Mason Williams, which influenced
me to take up the Spanish guitar when I was a kid. I was heavily into rock and
roll. But this guitar being played finger-style had so much power, I said,
‘Wow! I want to play guitar like this.’”
Born in
1954 in Luton, and raised in Letchworth – both suburbs of London, White played
the clarinet, trombone, violin and piano before settling on the electric
guitar, and, like most kids of his era, he fell under the electric spell of
Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, before he crossed over into the
acoustic realm, which was also encouraged when his brother, pianist Danny
White, accidently destroyed his electric axe.
White
started his professional career at the age of nineteen. The next year he joined
Al Stewart and stayed with him for two decades. Originally hired as a pianist,
White’s first big break was on Stewart’s 1976 hit “The Year of the Cat,” and he
also co-wrote many songs on Stewart’s 1978 LP, Time Passages. White later moved
to Los Angeles and formed the band Shot in the Dark. His brother Danny was one
of the founding members of the British pop group Matt Bianco, which included
singer Basia. When she went solo, the guitarist and his brother recorded several
albums with her, including her 1987 debut, Time and Tide, and the 1990
follow-up, London Warsaw New York.
“I
learned a whole lot from Al Stewart,” White says. “How to write a song; how to
record a song, how to perform onstage and talk to the audience…It’s impossible
for that not to rub off after being with him for twenty years. He was very big
on songs having an instrumental motif that runs through the music, and I have
that same concept in my music now. With Basia, there was a lot of jazz in the
music; a lot more saxophone, a lot more jazzy chords and playing in flat keys.
I realized that there’s a lot more to music than just 1-2-3-4 rock ‘n’ roll.”
After
years of session work with some of the best contemporary jazz stars, including
Richard Elliot, Warren Hill, Marc Antoine and Boney James, White struck out on
his own in 1990 and recorded his debut album, Reveillez-Vous, that same year.
His previous recordings as a leader include Glow (2001), Confidential (2004),
Playin’ Favorites (2006), Good Day (2009) and Here We Go (2012), featuring Kirk
Whalum and David Sanborn, all of which ranked at the top of the Billboard Jazz
charts. He also participates in the critically acclaimed Guitars and Saxes
tours, and he created his annual Peter White Christmas Tour, which grew out of
the success of his two holiday albums, Songs of the Season (1997) and A Peter
White Christmas (2007).
On his
latest CD Smile, Peter White proves yet again that he doesn’t have to plug in
to electrify audiences. “People have told me that when I play electric guitar,
it sounds good,” he says. “But as soon as I play acoustic guitar, it sounds
distinctive. And that’s because I put what I learned from playing the electric
guitar and apply it to the acoustic guitar. It’s very easy for me to go that
route. My musical voice speaks on the nylon-string guitar.”
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