Steve Masakowski
| Steve Masakowski | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Born |
September 2, 1951 New Orleans, Louisiana, United States |
| Genres | Jazz, post-bop, jazz fusion, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, teacher, clinician |
| Instruments | Seven-string guitar, keytar, electric bass |
| Years active | 1970s-present[1] |
| Labels | Blue Note |
| Associated acts | David Liebman, Bobby McFerrin, Astral Project, Rick Margitza |
| Website |
stevemasakowski |
Steve Masakowski (born September 2, 1954) has been recognized as one of the leading modern-jazz musicians in New Orleans, Louisiana since the 1970s. A highly accomplished guitarist and composer, he is also a distinguished jazz educator, the inventor of the guitar-based keytar, the inventor of the switch pick, and the designer of three custom-built 7-string guitars. He is best known for his work with the contemporary jazz groups Mars, Astral Project, Los Tres Amigos, Nova NOLA, and the Masakowski (MAZ) Family band. Steve’s primary early guitar influences include Larry Coryell, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Lenny Breau, and Pat Martino. Steve was a guitar student of the New Orleans-based guitarist and educator Hank Mackie, and of Larry Senibaldi at the Berklee College of Music. He also studied composition and orchestration with Dr. Bert Braud in New Orleans. Steve has developed a unique approach to playing the guitar by using his special pick design, allowing him to switch seamlessly from finger picking to flat picking.
Steve has performed, recorded, and learned from some of the greatest New Orleans musicians including Alvin ‘Red’ Tyler, Ellis Marsalis, Jr., Earl Turbinton, Jr., Willie Tee, and James Black. He has also performed with the Grammy Award-winning artists Bobby McFerrin, Nicholas Payton, Allen Toussaint, Dianne Reeves, and others at major festivals around the world.
As a recording artist, Steve has released nine CDs, including two on the prestigious Blue Note label, appeared with Astral Project on nine albums, and served as a sideman with such notable musicians as Johnny Adams, Mose Allison, Harold Battiste, Dr. John, Alvin ‘Red’ Tyler, and Johnny Vidacovich.
Since 1987, Steve has been an active member of, and composer for, the award-winning New Orleans jazz group Astral Project. He has twice been voted ‘Best Guitarist’ and included as a member of Astral Project in the ‘Best Contemporary Jazz Group’ three times by Gambit and Offbeat magazines in their annual reader's polls. He has published lessons in Guitar Player magazine and wrote the book Jazz Ear Training – Learning to Hear Your Way Through Music for Mel Bay Publications. He has also been recognized by Down Beat magazine as ‘Guitar Talent Deserving Wider Recognition.’[2]
Steve has participated in numerous jazz concerts and workshops at major universities including The University of Chicago, Indiana University, and Princeton University. He is currently on the faculty at the University of New Orleans, where he holds the position of Coca-Cola Endowed Chair of Jazz Studies.
Biography
Stephen Alphonse Masakowski was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 2, 1954.[3] He became seriously interested in music at the age of 14, when he took up the bass guitar in order to play rock ’n’ roll in a band he co-founded called Truth, loosely based on the concept of Cream. In high school, having become attracted to composing, he also started to play guitar in order to learn harmony. At age 17, and having been exposed to the recording Spaces by Larry Coryell, he began taking lessons with Hank Mackie, the leading guitar teacher in the city, who introduced him to the work of such influential jazz guitarists as Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, and Pat Martino. A fellow student of Mackie’s, Phil deGruy, also introduced him to the work of Lenny Breau.
Steve worked primarily as a bass guitarist into his mid-20s, playing with a variety of acts. At the same time, he started getting called for gigs as a guitarist, including at the once famous jazz club Lu & Charlie’s, usually instead of a pianist. ‘I started developing more of a pianistic approach to comping, so people felt comfortable having me sub for a piano player.’[4]
In 1974, Steve went to the Berklee School of Music (now Berklee College of Music), studying jazz theory, arranging, and composing. After obtaining a professional diploma in a year and a half, he returned to New Orleans, taking with him his then girlfriend, jazz guitarist Emily Remler. Steve and Remler founded a group called Fourplay (two guitars, bass, and drums; not to be confused with the later jazz group of the same name), which played around the city featuring mostly original and guitar-based music. From 1976 to 1978, Steve studied classical composition and orchestration with Dr. Bert Braud, a teacher at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts who also taught Terence Blanchard, Harry Connick, Jr., Branford Marsalis, and Wynton Marsalis.
Inspired by a visit to New Orleans by the renowned 7-string guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, Steve began to explore the 7-string guitar, first finding an early Gretsch, and later designing his own models, which have the expanded range of a normal guitar and bass guitar combined. Steve’s custom-designed guitars were crafted by the luthiers Jimmy Foster and Salvador Giardina.
Steve also began teaching the guitar, at first privately, then around 1980 at the University of New Orleans at the request of Charles Blancq, developing his first jazz guitar ensemble. Around 1984, he switched to serving as an adjunct instructor at Loyola University New Orleans, also teaching a variety of courses, including jazz improvisation, theory, and combo; his students included the jazz drummer Brian Blade, Jon Cowherd, and Matt Lemmler.
In 1981, after Fourplay dissolved along with his relationship to Remler, Steve founded the group Mars with Larry Sieberth (keyboards and synthesizer), James Singleton (bass), and James Black (drums). The band played a mixture of jazz and electronic music, sometimes combined with visual art created by the visual artist Jon Graubarth. Mars played at every Jazz Fest through 1990 and also at Snug Harbor.
In the early 1980s, Steve also played regularly at Tyler’s Beer Garden, a successful modern-jazz club on Magazine Street, along with local musicians such as Earl Turbinton, Jr., Alvin ‘Red’ Tyler, and Willie Tee. Along with Singleton and the drummer Johnny Vidacovich, he also accompanied visiting musicians such as Randy Brecker, Tom Harrell, Art Baron, and David Liebman. Steve formed an instant friendship with Liebman, who played on the first Mars album (Mars, 1983) and continues to use Steve on his frequent concerts in New Orleans.
Also at Tyler’s, between 1982 and 1985, at the suggestion of the club owner Fred Laredo, Steve formed a successful duet collaboration with the renowned pianist Ellis Marsalis, Jr. He told the News Orleans Times-Picayune about that duet: ‘Ellis and I tend not to think of structured roles of each instrument. We always tried to take a more holistic approach to the way we played together. I tend not to think in terms of playing guitar. I think more in a compositional sense.’[5]
Steve also played with the Afro-Cuban jazz-fusion band Caliente, with the leader, Mark Sanders (percussion), Hector Gallardo (percussion), James Singleton (bass), Ricky Sebastian (drums), and such saxophone players as Earl Turbinton, Jr., Tony Dagradi, and Rick Margitza. Steve feels that Caliente taught him a great deal about Cuban music and ‘really helped me to develop a rhythmic style of playing.’[6]
In 1982, Steve founded the Composers Recording Studio, along with the harpist Patrice Fisher, the guitarist Jimmy Robinson, and the violinist Denise Villere; Steve often acted as recording engineer and sometimes as producer. The studio lasted about ten years and recorded such local musicians as Harry Connick, Jr., Tony Dagradi, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the pianist James Drew, and Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
In 1978 Steve invented an instrument he called the keytar. His keytar was a guitar-like instrument that had seven rows of keys instead of strings: one key at each fret location. This pre-MIDI controller was hard-wired to a Moog polyphonic synthesizer. One advantage of such an instrument was that it allowed you to play more than one note in a row of keys at the same time: the equivalent on the guitar of playing multiple simultaneous notes on one string. Steve’s song ‘Stepping Stone’ was composed on the keytar, which allowed for the cluster-type chord voicings. The keytar ‘opened up a whole new realm of possibilities, sonically.’[7] For the duration of the Mars era, Steve’s rig included a Gretsch seven-string guitar, with the keytar fastened to the top. He chose not to pursue a patent for the keytar, opting to concentrate on a revised prototype of the instrument that failed for lack of funding.
In 1987, Steve joined the leading New Orleans modern-jazz group Astral Project, which had already been in existence for nine years and is still working at present. He effectively replaced the percussionist Mark Sanders, who left in 1986. The other members of the group are Tony Dagradi (soprano and alto saxophones), James Singleton (bass), and Johnny Vidacovich (drums). David Torkanowsky, the original keyboardist, dropped out in 2001, leaving Steve as the sole chordal member of the rhythm section.
In 1987, Steve came up with another innovation, to aid him in switching from fingers to plectrum. ‘I invented something I call a switch-pick, which is a sort of thumb pick.... [made] in such a way that if I slide it up my finger, the support part doesn’t come in contact with my thumb, so it feels like a normal pick. And then if I want to use it as a thumb pick, I just slide it up my finger, and I can play finger style with the thumb pick using all five fingers.’[8] He told an interviewer, ‘The pick is more efficient and has a better sound on fast lines where I need swing drive, but certain ideas, like fast diatonic-fourth runs, are easier to play fingerstyle.’[9]
In 1988, Steve was part of the residency program at Virginia Commonwealth University, directed by Ellis Marsalis, Jr., who was quoted as saying: ‘I think Steve is better than all those people making all that money up in New York. Plus, he’s a good teacher. There are a lot of guitar players around here, and they know about Larry Coryell and they know about Pat Metheny. They don’t know about Steve. When they see Steve come in and he blows ’em out the window, and he’s accessible to them, it gives them a shot in the arm.’[10] Two years later, Steve was hired by Marsalis as a part-time instructor for the new jazz program he was heading at the University of New Orleans. In 1991, Steve became a full-time faculty member there. After the retirement of Ellis Marsalis, Jr., and a short tenure by Terence Blanchard, Steve assumed the position of Coca-Cola Endowed Chair of Jazz Studies and director of the jazz program in 2004.
In 1991, as a member of Rick Margitza’s group, Steve played at the Mount Fuji Jazz Festival in Japan. Margitza remarked: ‘I do remember Steve sounding great, and feeling proud and happy that I was able to introduce him to a wider audience, especially since he had given me so much musically.’[11] A sponsor of the festival, Blue Note had encouraged its artists to play there, and Steve got to work with Rachelle Ferrell and in a group jam session. In a classic discovery, he was then approached by Bruce Lundvall, the owner of Blue Note, and the manager Eric Kressman. The ensuing deal led to Steve making two critically acclaimed albums for Blue Note: What It Was (recorded 1993, released 1994) and Direct AXEcess (recorded 1994, released 1995).
Because he was now teaching full-time, Steve found it difficult to book his own tours to follow up on the albums, so he gained more exposure by touring with the jazz singer Dianne Reeves in the United States and Europe for about three years, starting in 1994.
The New Orleans guitarist, banjoist, and historian Danny Barker, a great admirer of Steve, wrote the liner notes for the album What It Was. When Barker passed away in 1994, he bequeathed his acoustic guitar to Steve, who paid tribute to Barker on Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘New Orleans’ on the album Direct AXEcess.
The Steve Masakowski Trio’s Live at Snug Harbor (recorded 1997, released 1998), with Bill Huntington (bass) and Johnny Vidacovich or Jason Marsalis (drums), also attracted critical attention. The Chicago critic Howard Reich wrote of the album: ‘guitar aficionados know who’s the Crescent City player to hear, and some of his most spontaneous work has been captured on Live at Snug Harbor.... Masakowski produces guitar lines of considerable fluidity and originality on this session, recorded in New Orleans’ top jazz club. The performance attests to the guitarist’s musicianship and creativity, with not a note wasted in the name of ostentation, grandiosity, or virtuoso display.’[12]
(For Joe) (2000) is another trio recording, this time made in the studio with Bill Huntington and Johnny Vidacovich throughout. As its name suggests, the album is a tribute to one of Steve’s main influences, Joe Pass, punning on Pass’s album For Django and including two of Steve’s punning tunes, ‘Pass Presence’ and ‘I’ll Pass.’
What It Was had contained one track that in effect constituted the first recording of the Cuban-based group Steve formed called Los Tres Amigos, with James Singleton (bass) and Hector Gallardo (bongos). The trio has continued a sporadic existence to the present, and made an album, Moon and Sand, in 2001 (released 2002). David Lasocki commented, ‘Friends the three of them may be, but in this relationship Steve takes the lead. He produced and mixed the album, took the lion’s share of the solos, chose the repertoire, and above all, played his heart out. He has never been in such a consistently inspired mode on any recording.’[13]
In 1982, Steve married the German pianist Ulrike Antonie Sprenger. The couple have two children, both of whom have become professional musicians: Alexandra (‘Sasha’) (b. 1986) and Martin (‘Tino’) (b. 1990). They have also been honored with compositions by Steve: ‘Alexandra’ (on What It Was) and ‘Tino’s Blues’ (on What It Was and (For Joe)). Since 2007, the Masakowski family have been playing gigs together, including as the basis of the group Nova NOLA, which fuses New Orleans and Brazilian music. The group’s CD Wetland celebrates both Steve’s love of Brazilian music and the rebirth of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Steve’s most recent album, Things I Like (recorded 2012, released 2013), features Rex Gregory (alto sax), Peter Harris (bass), and Julian Garcia (drums). This piano-less quartet explores some of Steve’s more recent compositions as well as standards by Thelonious Monk and Billy Strayhorn.
Steve has been voted Best Guitarist three times by Gambit and OffBeat magazines in their annual readers’ polls. In 1999, he placed sixth in the Down Beat Annual International Critics Poll in the category ‘Guitar Talent Deserving Wider Recognition.’[14] Four years later, he was named in a Down Beat list of ‘66 guitarists in the worlds of jazz, blues, and beyond whose work is innovating, invigorating, and perpetuating the guitar tradition.’[15] He has published lessons in Guitar Player magazine and wrote the book Jazz Ear Training: Learning to Hear Your Way Through Music (Mel Bay Publications, 2004).[16]
Awards
| Date | Award | |
|---|---|---|
| 1982 | New Works composition competition, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans | |
| 1991 | Voted ‘One of the 10 best guitarists,’ Wavelength magazine | |
| 1992 | Astral Project won Cognac Hennessy Best of New Orleans Jazz Search | |
| 1993 | Astral Project won Big Easy award | |
| 1994 | Astral Project won Big Easy award | |
| 1994 | Voted Best Guitarist, People’s Choice Awards, OffBeat magazine; Astral Project voted Best Contemporary Jazz Group | |
| 1995 | Voted Best Contemporary Guitar Player, Best of the Beat Awards, OffBeat magazine; Astral Project voted Best Contemporary Jazz Group | |
| 1996 | Voted Best Contemporary Guitar Player, Best of the Beat Awards, OffBeat magazine; Astral Project voted Best Contemporary Jazz Group | |
| 1997 | Voted Best Guitarist, Best of the Beat Awards, OffBeat magazine; Astral Project voted Best Contemporary Jazz Group; Elevado voted Best Contemporary Jazz Album | |
| 1998 | Voted Best Guitarist, Best of the Beat Awards, OffBeat magazine; Astral Project voted Best Contemporary Jazz Group | |
| 2000 | Astral Project voted Best Contemporary Jazz Group, Best of the Beat Awards, OffBeat magazine; Voodoobop voted Best Contemporary Jazz Album | |
| 2000 | Astral Project won Big Easy Award | |
| 2001 | Astral Project voted Best Contemporary Jazz Group, Best of the Beat Awards, OffBeat magazine | |
| 2002 | Voted Best Guitarist, Best of the Beat Awards, OffBeat magazine; Astral Project voted Best Contemporary Jazz Group; Big Shot voted Best Contemporary Jazz Album | |
| 2003 | Keeping the Music Alive Award, Danny Barker Estate | |
| 2005 | Global Excellence Award, Summers Multi-Cultural Institute | |
| 2014 | Germaine Bazzle Award for Music Education and Performance |
Discography
As leader
| Date | Album title | Personnel | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Mars | David Liebman, Kent Jordan, Patrice Fisher, David Torkanowsky, Larry Sieberth, James Black, Ricky Sebastian, Mark Sanders | Prescription | |
| 1991 | Friends | Rick Margitza, Ellis Marsalis, Jr., Michael Pellera, Bill Huntington, Herlin Riley | Nebula Records | |
| 1994 | What It Was | Rick Margitza, Michael Pellera, Larry Sieberth, David Torkanowsky, James Genus, Bill Huntington, Ricky Sebastian, Don Alias, Hector Gallardo | Blue Note | |
| 1995 | Direct AXEcess | Hank Mackie, David Torkanowsky, Bill Huntington, James Singleton, Brian Blade | Blue Note | |
| 1998 | Live at Snug Harbor | Earl Turbinton, Bill Huntington, Jason Marsalis, Johnny Vidacovich | Marzian | |
| 2000 | (For Joe) | Bill Huntington, Johnny Vidacovich | Compass | |
| 2002 | Los Tres Amigos, Moon and Sand | James Singleton, Hector Gallardo | Mirliton Records | |
| 2009 | Nova NOLA, Wetland | Sasha Masakowski, James Westfall, Martin Masakowski, Ricky Sebastian, Hector Gallardo, Scott Myers, Nick Solnick, Ulrike Masakowski | privately published | |
| 2013 | Things I Like | Rex Gregory, Peter Harris, Julian Garcia | privately published |
With Astral Project
| Date | Album title | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Tony Dagradi and Astral Project, Dreams of Love | Rounder | |
| 1994 | Acoustic Fusion | Dorn Publications | |
| 1995 | Astral Project New Orleans LA | Astral Project | |
| 1997 | Elevado | Compass | |
| 1999 | Voodoobop | Compass | |
| 2002 | Big Shot | Astral Project | |
| 2004 | The Legend of Cowboy Bill | Astral Project | |
| 2006 | Astral Project Live in New Orleans | Astral Project | |
| 2008 | Blue Streak | Astral Project |
As sideman
Albums listed alphabetically by group or artist’s name.
| Date | Artist | Album title | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | compilation | Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill | A&M | |
| 1987 | Christopher Mason | Sakura | GSR Records | |
| 1987 | Damon Short | Penguin Shuffle | Blue Room | |
| 1987 | Alvin ‘Red’ Tyler | Graciously | Rounder | |
| 1988 | Ramsey McLean & the Survivors | The New New Orleans Music: Jump Jazz | Rounder | |
| 1989 | Rick Margitza | Color | Blue Note | |
| 1989 | David Tornakowsky | Steppin’ Out | Rounder | |
| 1990 | compilation | Just Friends: A Gathering in Tribute to Emily Remler (Volume One) | Justice | |
| 1990 | Mose Allison | My Backyard | Blue Note | |
| 1990 | I migliori | Live at Gino’s | Chromatose Productions | |
| 1991 | compilation | Just Friends: A Gathering in Tribute to Emily Remler (Volume Two) | Justice | |
| 1991 | Rick Margitza | Hope | Blue Note | |
| 1992 | Phillip Manuel | A Time for Love | All For One | |
| 1992 | Harry Sheppard | Points of View | Justice | |
| 1992 | Harry Sheppard | This-a-Way That-a-Way' | Justice | |
| 1994 | Tony Dagradi Trio | Live at The Columns | Turnipseed Music | |
| 1995 | Johnny Adams | The Verdict | Rounder | |
| 1995 | Denise Mangiardi | Fine Tuning | Crow Hill | |
| 1995 | Betty Shirley | Unveiled | Summit Records | |
| 1995 | Johnny Vidacovich | Mystery Street | Record Chebasco | |
| 1996 | Denise Mangiardi | A River of My Own | Crow Hill | |
| 1997 | Michael Pellera | Cloud 9 | Pajacis Music | |
| 1999 | Leigh Harris | House of Secrets | Deeva Records | |
| 1999 | Phillip Manuel | Swingin’ in the Holidays | Glad-Man | |
| 2000 | Phillip Manuel | Loved Happened to me | Maxjazz | |
| 2001 | Albert–Ankrum Project | Albert–Ankrum Project | Lakefront Digital | |
| 2001 | Olivier Bou | Boo-Shah-O-Ray | Olga | |
| 2001 | Kevin Clark and the Crescent City Moonlighters | Big Band Music | KC | |
| 2002 | Samirah Evans | Give Me a Moment | Misha Records | |
| 2003 | Ricky Sebastian | The Spirit Within | STR Digital | |
| 2004 | Harold Battiste | Lagniappe: the 2nd 50 Years: The Future of our Past | AFO Foundation | |
| 2004 | James Black | (I Need) Altitude | Night Train | |
| 2004 | Phil deGruy | Just Duet | Heard Instinct Records | |
| 2004 | Dr. John | N'Awlinz: Dis Dat or D’Udda | Blue Note | |
| 2005 | Dorothy Doring | Southern Exposure | Quarter Note Records | |
| 2005 | John Ellis | One Foot in the Swamp | privately printed | |
| 2006 | Colleen Porter | Faith in New Orleans | Independent | |
| 2006 | Colleen Porter | I Love my City New Orleans | Independent | |
| 2007? | Mary Jane Ewing | I Love Bein’ Here with You | privately published | |
| 2008 | Samirah Evans | My Little Bodhisattva | Misha Records | |
| 2008 | Sasha Masakowski | Musical Playground | self-produced | |
| 2008 | TriFunctA | Hangin’ | self-produced | |
| 2009 | Kaya Martinez | Emergence | Polyamorous Music | |
| 2011 | documentary, dir. Darren Hoffman | Tradition is a Temple | Tutti Dynamics | |
| 2011 | Sasha Masakowski and Musical Playground | Wishes | Hypersoul Records | |
| 2012 | Stephanie Jordan Big Band | Stephanie Jordan Sings a Tribute to the Fabulous Lena Horne | Vige Music | |
| 2013 | Clarence Johnson III | Watch Him Work | Like Father like Son | |
| 2014 | Charlie Dennard | From Brazil to New Orleans | self-published | |
| 2015 | Mary Jane Guiney | Stay True | Moxiemuzic | |
References
- ↑ David Lasocki, Steve Masakowski, Big Easy Innovator: The Life and Work of the New Orleans Jazz Guitarist and Educator (Portland, Oregon: Instant Harmony, 2014).
- ↑ ‘Down Beat 47th Annual International Critics Poll Results 1999,’ Down Beat 66, no. 8 (August 1999): 50, 54.
- ↑ Unless otherwise stated, all the material in this article is taken from David Lasocki, Steve Masakowski, Big Easy Innovator: The Life and Work of the New Orleans Jazz Guitarist and Educator (Portland, Oregon: Instant Harmony, 2014).
- ↑ Lasocki, Steve Masakowski, 6.
- ↑ Vincent Fumar, ‘Masakowski Takes the Guitar One Step Beyond,’ Times-Picayune, 4 August 1989, section Lagniappe, L6.
- ↑ Lasocki, Steve Masakowski, 15.
- ↑ Lasocki, Steve Masakowski, 17.
- ↑ Lasocki, Steve Masakowski, 19.
- ↑ Andy Ellis, ‘Profile: Steve Masakowski: Baritone Bop, Midnight Blues,’ Guitar Player 29, no. 12 = no. 312 (December 1995): 35–36.
- ↑ ‘Jazz Guitarist Masakowski to Join Marsalis in Concert,’ Richmond Times–Dispatch, 25 February 1988, section Richmond Weekend, A.
- ↑ Lasocki, Steve Masakowski, 41.
- ↑ Howard Reich, review in Chicago Tribune, 9 August 1998, section Arts & Entertainment, 6.
- ↑ Lasocki, Steve Masakowski, 63.
- ↑ ‘Down Beat 47th Annual International Critics Poll Results 1999,’ Down Beat 66, no. 8 (August 1999): 50, 54.
- ↑ David Adler, Jason Koransky, and Dave Zaworski, ‘Guitars in Focus: 66 Hot 6-Stringers,’ Down Beat, 70, no. 7 (1 July 2003): 59.
- ↑
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