His work at the intersection of guitar and technology makes Jonathan Crossley an ideal interview for Guitar Moderne. If you are interested in looping, processing, guitar synthesizers, and other guitar-related modalities, don’t miss this one.
Here is the maestro as a youngster at the beginning of his tenure with the greatest musical aggregation I have ever seen. A year before this concert, he came into Rudy’s Music in New York, where I worked. He had a Gibson SG Junior and wasn’t happy with the noise from its single-coil P-90. For my sins, I convinced him to replace it with a Seymour Duncan JB and arranged for the installation. He must have also had this regular SG or purchased it later.
Cut to 1991—Bill was celebrating his 40th birthday playing with Robin Holcomb at the Great American Musical Hall in SF. I had lobbied hard for the opening slot with my band because I knew Bill would be in Robin’s band. Bill had a cold that night and wasn’t having the best birthday, nevertheless he was kind enough to help me carry my gear to my car. He is not only one of the all-time guitar greats, he is a helluva guy. Happy Birthday Bill.
For over two decades of world touring, nine solo soundscape albums, and collaborations including over 100 albums of credits, Tim Motzer has been known for his distinctive textural acoustic-electro guitar voice utilizing looping, bowing, electronics, and prepared techniques. He has collaborated with numerous musical luminaries including David Sylvian, Burnt Friedman, poet Ursula Rucker, King Britt, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Vernon Reid, David Torn, Markus Reuter, J.A. Dino Deane, and Pat Mastelotto, among others. Since 2016, Tim has toured the world playing prestigious venues and jazz festivals with Bandit65, an improvising trio he co-leads with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and drummer Gintas Janusonis.
Tim has brought his projects together under his own 1k Recordings imprint. We talk about that and much of the above as well.
Mulit-effects/amp sim floor pedals are not new. What makes the Neural DSP Quad Cortex Quad-Core Digital Effects Modeler/Profiling Floorboard (say that three times fast) newsworthy is its incorporation of an iPad type touch screen and its capture technology. From Mitch Gallagher’s concise, comprehensive demo, the device seems well thought out and elegantly simple. Unfortunately there seems to be no info on the onboard effects, but the board does allow you to capture the sound of both amps and effects. From the Anderton’s video, the effect capture seems pretty impressive. What do you think?
Leo Abrahams has led what is possibly the ideal modern guitarist’s life: touring Russia performing improvised solo shows through a laptop; playing with Brian Eno AND Bryan Ferry, not to mention Imogen Heap, Jarvis Cocker, and Paul Simon; as well as co-writing or arranging a variety of film soundtracks, including Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones and Steve McQueen’s Hunger. Last year he was part of two terrific recorded projects, Visitations, a series of guitar duets with Shahzad Ismaily; and Krononaut (listen to tracks below), a record of improvisations with drummer Martin France, bassists Tim Harries and Shahzad Ismaily, Arve Henriksen on trumpet, and Matana Roberts on saxophone. For more background I recommend our first interview here, and our later conversation here .