PETER WHITE, MINDI ABAIR, VINCENT INGALA

Over the years, Peter White has maintained a reputation as one of the most versatile and prolific acoustic guitarists on the contemporary jazz landscape. Armed with an unparalleled combination of lyricism and energy, he combines elements of jazz, pop and classical guitar to create a sound that is singular and at the same time accessible to a broad audience.

Born in 1954 in Luton, a small town north of London, White and his family moved to nearby Letchworth shortly after he was born. As a child, he learned to play several musical instruments, including the clarinet, trombone, violin and piano. And of course, like so many youngsters growing up during the heyday of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, he gravitated to the guitar.

He learned his first chords on an acoustic guitar, then bought his first electric guitar in his early teens and studied the recordings of the reigning guitar gods of the day – Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. But his musical aspirations ultimately veered back in an acoustic direction following an accident that doomed his beloved electric guitar. The axe was destroyed in a fire, one that White’s younger brother Danny – an aspiring pianist – accidentally started.

“The funny thing is that Danny didn’t actually admit to setting that fire for at least twenty-five years,” says White. “I had been kind of obsessed with the electric guitar at that point in my life, so that episode kind of forced me to go back to playing the acoustic. In retrospect, that’s a good thing.”

Indeed, White’s interests after the accident shifted more toward the music of acoustic artists like Crosby, Stills and Nash, James Taylor, and Joni Mitchell. Plugged or unplugged, he had decided by his late teens that music was his calling, and his first professional gig was at a holiday resort in England when he was 19 years old.

Barely a year later, he was invited to join Al Stewart’s band as a keyboardist for a tour of England, Scotland, and the U.S. in 1975. In addition to opening for artists like Linda Ronstadt, Billy Joel and Queen, White worked with Stewart in the studio in the making of Year of the Cat, which became a huge hit for Stewart in 1976. The tour and the album marked the beginning of a twenty-year association with Stewart. In that time, the two musicians co-wrote numerous songs, including Stewart’s 1978 hit, “Time Passages.”

By the beginning of the ‘80s, White and Stewart had relocated to Los Angeles, formed a band called Shot in the Dark, and established a music publishing company called Lobster Music. Around the same time, Danny White – he of the burning guitar incident several years earlier – formed a group called Matt Bianco, which included a talented Polish singer named Basia Trzetrzelewska. Danny White and Basia splintered off to launch the singer’s solo career with the 1987 debut album, Time and Tide, which featured Peter White on guitar.

After fifteen years as a backup musician and a session player, White launched his solo recording career with the 1990 release of Reveillez-Vous (French for “Wake up,” a title chosen by White in honor of his French mother). The album included several unused songs that White had written for Stewart, and it became a favorite among contemporary jazz radio stations.

He followed with three records on the Sindrome label – Excusez-Moi (1991), Promenade (1993) and Reflections (1994) – before signing with Columbia for the 1996 release of Caravan of Dreams. He maintained an ambitious release schedule through the ‘90s and beyond, but also found time to appear on recordings by many of his friends, including Dave Koz, Rick Braun, Richard Elliot, Jeff Golub, Lee Ritenour, Kirk Whalum, Boney James and many others.

On the road, he has participated in numerous “Guitars and Saxes” tours with the aforementioned players, and has established an annual “Peter White Christmas Tour” – the latter enterprise fueled by the success of his two highly regarded holiday albums, Songs of the Season (1997) and A Peter White Christmas (2007).

Good Day, released in 2009 on Peak Records, a division of Concord Music Group, was White’s first collection of original songs in several years. “I just started going through my backlog of material – songs that I’d never finished, some going as far back as ten or fifteen years – and I discovered that I had a lot of gems that I really wanted to show to the world,” he says. “I wanted to record them in my own time and in my own way, without any outside influence or interference.”

White released Here We Go in 2012 on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group. The 11-song set, produced by White and DC (George Benson, Larry Carlton, Bob James, Patty Austin), featured several high-profile guest musicians, including saxophonists David Sanborn and Kirk Whalum, and pianist Philippe Saisse, and included a range of original material written in the recent and distant past. “I wanted variety,” says White. “I wanted songs that moved me, in the hopes that they’ll move the listener as well. I’m on a journey, and I want to bring with me anyone who’s willing to follow.”

Smile, released on October 7, 2014, is the final CD in White’s trilogy of albums consisting entirely of his own material. Co-produced with DC, the recording features ten tracks – some were written recently, some White wrote along the way with close friends and some were from the vault. Special guests include Mindi Abair (vocals), Rick Braun (horns), Euge Groove (soprano sax) and Philippe Saisse (keyboards, piano and orchestra programming). White’s daughter, Charlotte, plays violin on one song.

In a career that spans nearly four decades, over a dozen solo recordings and countless performances, White insists that it’s the faces in the crowd and the fans that keep the experience fresh. “I’ll play a live show, and someone will come to me afterward and say, ‘Oh, I loved this CD,’ or ‘This song helped me through a bad time,’” he explains. “Or I get emails from people saying, ‘Oh, I love the way you covered one of my favorite songs on your record back in 1994.’ The idea that someone can write me an email and tell me about something I did on a record that was released fifteen years ago – you can’t buy that. That’s priceless. That’s what keeps me going – the idea that people out there really care about what I do, the idea that I’ve made a difference for someone.”

Parking: $30.00 advanced purchase | $35.00 day of

Valet: $40.00 advanced purchase | $45.00 day of (if not sold out)

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GEORGE BENSON

Ten-Time GRAMMY-award-winning artist, George Benson, has the rare distinction of being in the pop consciousness while remaining in the pantheon of jazz greats. With 36 studio albums and 8 live albums, Benson has emerged as a household name best known for the 1976 three-time GRAMMY-winning album, Breezin’, boasting the pop-jazz vocal smash “This Masquerade,” which topped the jazz, pop, and R&B charts. The album remains one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time and has since been certified 3x platinum. His 1980 soul-pop gem, “Give Me The Night,” produced by Quincy Jones and written by Rod Temperton (Michael Jackson), summited to the top of the soul single charts. In 2009, Benson was awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship— the highest honor that our nation bestows on jazz artists.

Benson is a consummate performer and an adventurous instrumentalist who remains an annual must-see artist. He regularly packs and, o_en sells out, such hallowed venues as The Hollywood Bowl, Royal Albert Hall, Hampton Court Palace, and Sydney Opera House. Benson is also a marquee artist at many U.S. Jazz and international festivals, including Montreux Jazz Fest.

Benson’s recent accomplishments are varied and aplenty. He collaborated with subversive art-pop band, Gorillaz, featuring Blur’s Damon Albarn, to co-write and perform on the track “Humility,” which has amassed over 100 million YouTube views and counting. In 2021, DJ Steve Aoki remixed Benson’s hit “Give Me The Night,” with a rugged house beat introducing the irresistible R&B-pop gem to a whole new audience. His recent albums have earned features and rave reviews in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, American Songwriter, Forbes, and Newsweek. In 2020, Benson was inducted into jazz bible DownBeat Magazine’s Hall Of Fame. The following year he was inducted by music legend Quincy Jones into New Jersey’s Hall Of Fame— an honor from which he received a personal congratulatory note from President Obama.

Parking: $30.00 advanced purchase | $35.00 day of

Valet: $40.00 advanced purchase | $45.00 day of (if not sold out)

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THE SWING QUARTET

The evening features a tribute to the era of American but also Italian swing. Immortal songs such as “Why don’t you do right?”, “On the sunny side of the street” but also “Looking for you”, “Ma l’amore no” and many others, for an evening with an exquisitely vintage flavor.

Tramjazz — Piazza di Porta Maggiore (parking platform, at the tram terminus)

Located at Artour Sas of Rossella Taverna & C. – Via Giorgio Vasari 14, 00196 Rome – P.I. 16376741001.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mick Hutton was born on June 5, 1956 in Chester, United Kingdom. Making a name for himself in the British jazz scene, he worked with a number of musicians and groups including but not limited to Harry Beckett, Julian Argüelles, Iain Ballamy, Django Bates and Ken Stubbs of First House, the Chris Biscoe Sextet and Bill Bruford’s Band Earthworks.

A hand injury forced Mick to abandon the upright bass and he started working as bass guitarist, percussionist, and synthesizer player and as a composer. He works with his own band of saxophonist Andy Panayi, pianist Barry Green, and drummer Paul Robinson. With his quartet, including saxophonist Iain Ballamy, pianist Ross Stanley and drummer Paul Robinson, he frequently visits venues around the world.

Throughout his career Hutton has performed with Alan Barnes, Peter Erskine, Tina May, Jim Mullen, John Scofield, Alan Skidmore, Tommy Smith, John Taylor, Stan Tracey, and Kenny Wheeler. In 2002 he recorded on Robin Williamsons album Skirting the River Road, and the same year he played in a trio with Martin Speake and Paul Motian, recording Change of Heart.

Bassist, guitarist, percussionist and composer Mick Hutton, who also plays synthesizer, continues to perform and record.

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The Jazz Voyager

So after a jazz packed holiday weekend in Atlanta, this Jazz Voyager is leaving the gateway to the South and the States for destinations across the pond. It’s time to see how those on the continent and in other parts of the world are doing post pandemic.

It’s off to Italy to hang at one of my favorite spots TramJazz in Rome. It’s 7 days out of 7, a lively sound with carioca nuances alternating with passionate romantic ballads. The evening features Camilla Noci on Vocal & Percussion, Dario Troisi on piano and harmonium, and guitarist Gianluca Figliola.

What I love about this venue is it offers an evening of entertainment combining a jazz concert and an excellent candlelit dinner with a night tour in the center of Rome, all aboard a historic tram from the ATAC collection, restored and rearranged as a traveling restaurant and concert hall.

Tramjazz is located at Artour Sas of Rossella Taverna & C. – Via Giorgio Vasari 14, 00196 Rome – P.I. 16376741001. Tickets range from €75.00 ~ €90.00. You can reach the venue by phone at +39 342 072 0089 and can always get ticket information at https://tramjazz.com.

As the saying goes, When in Rome…

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