Leo Abrahams: The Conversation

When an artist and session player like Leo Abrahams is continually involved in so many varied and interesting musical endeavors, it is essential to catch up. For the first time we actually spoke rather than emailed and an interview turned into a conversation, starting with a discussion of another wide-ranging guitarist we both love, Chris Spedding (Elton John, Bryan Ferry, John Cale, Robert Gordon et al), before getting into gear and aleatory music concepts.

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JamOrigin MIDI Guitar 2 Out of Beta and Awesome

If you haven’t got JamOrigin’s MIDI Guitar yet, all I can say is, “What are you waiting for?” From the start, it has been an amazing way to use your guitar to control synths, samplers, and all things MIDI—without any special hardware or pickups. With the finalization of Beta 14, JamOrigin has put the icing on the cake, adding the ability to split the fretboard, an awesome sustain pedal, and a new GUI, among other things. I especially like the way the new Deep Expressor effect allows me to turn my guitar into a banjo. Whether standalone, plug-in, app or all three, you need this product.

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Spotlight: Crème Douche

Rob Jackson A/K/A Crème Douche bypasses pedals, amps, and even laptops, pushing the modern guitar envelope into a world of pure iPad apps. His gorgeous soundscapes are all guitar generated initially, but are morphed by the latest iOS technology into luscious orchestral sounding opuses (opi?) (opera?). As to the provocative name: it just means shower gel.

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Spotlight: Avi Bortnick

Every now and again it seems best to record a video interview with a musician who has something to demonstrate that might be lost in print. A video interview appeared a good idea with Avi Bortnick because, aside from being devilishly handsome (sorry about failing to notice we were cutting off the top of your head Avi), it let him show Guitar Moderne readers some of the laptop techniques and plugins he has been employing in the second guitar chair in John Scofield’s Überjam band. We also covered a wide range of other topics including the cool apps he has developed: Time Guru, and Voxbeat. Be sure to check out the videos below for demonstrations of his rhythm guitar genius and laptop effects in action, as well more info on his gear.

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Spotlight: Gunnar Geisse

It was discovering a video of Jan Bang playing with Marc Ducret that ultimately led to an interview with the third member of the trio: Gunnar Geisse.

Losing the two middle fingers on his right hand in a mountain climbing accident in 1992 may have led Geisse towards composition during his recovery, but, on the evidence of his latest video, it has not slowed down his playing. Check out how he employs Jam Origin’s MIDI Guitar to its full potential and read here about the setup he uses to do it.

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