He still hasn’t reached his fortieth birthday, but blues guitarist, singer/songwriter David Gogo has twice been named Maple Blues Guitarist of the Year in his native Canada. This spring his current album Acoustic: Official Bootleg Series- Volume 2 was nominated for a Juno Award, the nation’s equivalent of a Grammy. In 2004, the blues man was named as the recipient of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s, Great Canadian Blues Award for his lifetime contribution to blues music i …

John Abercrombie has created one of the more elegant jazz guitar albums that you will hear. He refers to his new CD, The Third Quartet, as chamber jazz that incorporates the violin, guitar and drums. For the most part, The Third Quartet represents a departure in musical style from some of Abercrombie’s more recent projects such as Cat ‘N’ Mouse (2002), Class Trip (2004) and Open Land (1999) which made liberal use of improvisation and less structur …

Jay Soto is rapidly becoming one of the hottest smooth jazz guitarists in America. His sophomore album, Stay Awhile, fulfills all the promise of his debut CD Long Time Coming. The talented guitar maestro, who in 2004 was one of six finalists in a national guitar competition, is riding the recent success of his single "Slammin’," which during the first week of May, took the top spot on the smoothjazz.com most added list, and held the number two spot for most added on the prestigi …

More than any other song on Will Call, the title of the song, "Whatcha See is Whatcha Get," defines the personality of jazz saxophonist Will Donato. There is a lot about this CD that gives the listener insight to this gifted, smooth jazz musician, take for instance the back cover of the CD where the beautiful woman whom he is leaning into is his wife Diana. His conversation is peppered with glowing references to his wife and daughter. You get an opportunity in this business to …

When you talk to blues guitarist, songwriter and singer Bob Margolin, you get the sense this is a man who deeply cares about family, friends, those he meets and animals. Those who know him use words like, "He is a very nice man," to describe him. It is perhaps those sensitivities that have infused the sensibilities that he brings to his music, and have made him a highly regarded musician and songwriter. He has shared the stage with music legends such as, Muddy Waters, "Pinetop" Perkins, The B …