Meet Jack DeSalvo | Jazz and Classical guitarist, composer, multi-instrumenalist (besides guitar he also performs on cello, mandolin, mandola, banjo and piano) record producer and educator.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jack DeSalvo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jack, we’d love to hear what makes you happy.
There are, of course, many things that make me happy, but in terms of what I do as a musician and artist it is the actual process of composing music, learning and rehearsing the music with a group of improvisers and performing it to an audience that can appreciate it and hopefully are enriched by it. An alternate parallel trajectory is to record the music.

This is why I started, along with my brother, the late recording engineer Jim DeSalvo and also music business veteran Gene Gaudette, the record label Unseen Rain Records. The current managing partnership of the label is vocalist Julie Lyon, drummer Tom Cabrera and bassist and recording engineer Larry Hutter.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started writing songs in my early teens to play with my garage rock band. At 15 I began studying classical composition with Ariadna Mikéshina, who in turn studied with Richard Strauss.

At the same time I started listening to jazz. While at Berklee College of Music in Boston I studied privately with the author of the Lydian Chromatic Concept, George Russell. This had proved to be profoundly influential on my composing. I primarily focused on writing for small group jazz ensembles.

Not long after I began the process of writing a piece of music every day, inspired by the poet William Stafford, who wrote a poem every morning. Of course I worked simultaneously on my development as an instrumentalist.

Initially I played both classical and jazz guitar but played them as completely different instruments with their different idiosyncratic techniques, specifically using a plectrum (pick) on a steel-string guitar for jazz and right hand finger-style on a nylon-string classical guitar.

I was convinced to use classical technique when playing jazz by my teachers Mick Goodrick and Bill Connors, so one aspect of my subsequent career has been championing classical technique for jazz guitarists.

I’ve played all over the world, primarily at jazz festivals with many great jazz musicians and have been a leader or sideman on over 100 record albums. Currently I am focusing on recording and performing my own music on Unseen Rain Records and producing recordings of like-minded musicians on the label.

I’ve written several music related books, including Composing for Improvisers, which is available on my website, jackdesalvo.com and have a Substack, also called Composing for Improvisers which I write about composing and analyze the music of great jazz and other composers including my own. Little by little I am publishing my music on Substack as well at jackdesalvo.substack.com.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
In New York City: The Village Vanguard, John’s Pizza in Bleecker St.,

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Pianist Keith Jarrett, Poet Robert Bly, Philosopher George Gurdjieff and Record Producer Manfred Eicher

Website: jackdesalvo@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackdesalvo/

Linkedin: jackdesalvo@gmail.com

Twitter: jackdesalvo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jackdesalvoguitar/@jackdesalvo

Youtube: @jdesalvo

Other: https://linktr.ee/jackdesalvo https://bit.ly/GuitarNexus

Image Credits
Maria Carmichael