John Stowell photo courtesy of the artist
Veteran guitarist John Stowell walked through the door of the Seattle Jazz Fellowship with the last of his equipment required for that evening’s performance with Scenes, a musical collective he has been touring and recording with periodically over the course of the past 25 years. His well-traveled, red Toyota Corolla was parked out front, resting after a six-thousand-mile road trip that brought the guitarist to his usual array of concerts and workshops that have dotted his now fifty year career in the United States and countries all over the world. Over what amounts to the past half-century, Stowell has gained legendary status for his ultimate virtuosity, technical brilliance, and stick-to-it-ness that has resulted in a litany of recordings as a leader and co-leader. Scenes, his chosen partners for the evening, have recorded seven albums for the Seattle-based Origin Records label.
Typically, Stowell’s in-demand status as a performer and clinician has kept him on the road for up to nine months a year, down to six or seven since the pandemic. There is no agency prompting his journeying: it is simply a network of friends acquired over decades that have facilitated his career with gigs, workshops and friendly places to stay in over 25 countries since 1983. His musical meandering has taken him all over Europe, as well as Argentina and Russia. One contact at a time, leading to new contacts–that has been the credo, so to speak, and it has worked for Stowell.
“It’s a network of friends that I travel around to teach and play with. I stay with my friends, they do the booking for me if I’m in other countries. It’s real grass roots, but it’s something I can continue with the help of my friends,” he says.
Stowell’s journey began in his native Connecticut, with guitarist Linc Chamberland being the catalyst that led the guitarist to seek out his own way and find his original voice. His highly visible technique, one in which he holds the guitar in an upright position to facilitate easier access to piano-like voicings, is an original idea in itself.
“I made up my own technique,” cites Stowell. “I just discovered it when I wanted to play voicings that were more pianistic, involving stretching the hand.” It was especially useful for him in solo guitar performances that involved extended chord voicings. In any environment, the diagonal position of the instrument eases intervoice movement, counterpoint, and use of open strings.
His right-hand technique is a hybrid as well, holding a plectrum between his thumb and index finger while using his other three fingers to create voicings. Stowell mildly shrugs it off stating, “Everyone’s right hand is a little different in jazz.”
Trying to compare Stowell to other jazz guitarists is an inexact science, to say the least. His genius for harmony and penchant for hearing and creating new melodies while improvising is facilitated by a historically unique approach, one that could possibly be comparable stylistically to the great Jim Hall–but not quite. Hall himself took the time to listen to Stowell’s earliest recording in 1977, leading to a legendary meeting at Beefsteak Charlie’s in Greenwich Village. Eventually, Stowell was able to play a few duos together, an early pat on the back from the grand master of jazz guitar.
In 1976, Stowell met bassist David Friesen at a place called The Surf Maid in Greenwich Village, across Bleecker Street from the Village Gate, where the bassist was performing. Friesen invited Stowell out to his digs in Portland, Oregon, to play a few gigs. They continued to play regularly together until 1983, with the guitarist deciding to take up permanent residence in Portland. That pivotal, chance meeting in Gotham not only led to a creative partnership between two compatible musical souls, but to a lifestyle on the road that found its place of repose in the Pacific Northwest. While the two have played a handful of dates together since ‘83, a recent reunion promises to bear fruit of a more extensive nature. A recent date at Christo’s in Salem, Oregon has reignited a kinship with the now 82- year-old Friesen.
The guitarist himself has just passed the seventy-year mark in his life, but plans to continue to stay on the road, doing what he loves, what he knows best and what the jazz world will continue to benefit from. His extraordinary jazz guitar approach and the music theory that accommodates it were made available in 2005 with the publication of his book, Jazz Guitar Mastery.
Stowell has lived a lot of life since the mid-70s, in the process unwittingly creating a position in the jazz guitar universe that has achieved legend status. He is a master creator who has done things his own way, avoiding the numerous cliches of the jazz guitar legacy along the way. The road has spoken to him on his journey, inevitably impacting his musical persona.
“It’s a summation of these life experiences that may have somehow informed my playing,” he quips modestly. “I think my best playing may still be ahead of me.”
