It’s summer time, and the living is on the road. Last week I was serving as Logistics Director of the National Guitar Workshop’s McLean, VA campus, located at the beautiful Madeira School, home to one of the greatest views of the Potomac River that I’ve ever seen:
This is always a great campus to work at because our campus contact, Kim Newsome, is friendly and helpful, and has made setting up camp far from home a delight.
Both of this week’s guest artists were guitarists I admire: jazz legend Pat Martino and shred legend (not to mention new jazz guitar hero) Alex Skolnick (of Testament/TSO fame).
It was my first time meeting Pat Martino. Jason Shadrick (my head director), Tom Dempsey (Legends of Jazz Guitar Instructor), and John Horne (Rock Core Instructor) went to the famous Blues Alley jazz club in Washington, DC to hear Pat play with organist Tony Monaco (who I am convinced is a long-lost cousin of mine), saxophonist Eric Alexander, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts. What a set! They were recording for an upcoming live CD, and the band was on fire.
We spent a bit of time talking to Pat afterwards, and I’ve gotta say, you’ll never meet a warmer individual. He arrived at NGW a few days later to give a phenomenal master class, and taught some private lessons the following day. All three times I was able to spend some time with him and his wife, Aya, and it was a real treat. They are beautiful people, really deep and great to talk with. Aya also plays guitar, and accompanied Pat on guitar during his clinic (which I’m sure was amazing, but I was stuck in the office because my Assistant Director was MIA…aargh). I tried Aya’s Benedetto guitar after the clinic, and I loved it so much I felt like I had cheated on my guitar. What is it about nice guitars that guitarists have a zillion needs for them, or so they feel like they had a zillion needs for them? As soon as I gave the guitar back I was thinking about how I could get a Benedetto guitar eventually, if I was really frugal and saved all my pennies…though that’s a lot of pennies!
As for Alex Skolnick, he’s an old friend of mine. We met at NGW in 1994 at the John Scofield Master Class; he was just starting to get into jazz after years of playing in a very successful metal band (Testament). I was able to attend Alex’s Master Class, and it was about as thorough as one can get, and very easy to understand. Alex is such a phenomenal player in that his knowledge is so vast, and he explains the guitar and the music in a way that is inviting and inspiring.
All in all, a fantastic week. On Thursday I leave for Chicago…stay tuned!
[...] few of our teachers have already wrote about their experience at McLean. You can check them out here and [...]