Jack Gates is an extraordinary guitarist I worked with in the San Francisco Bay Area (and now, as of 2019, judging from his website, he seems to now be living in Santa Fe). He is a unique and virtuostic player steeped in jazz, classical, Brasilian and Indian music. He is certainly one of the finest musicians I ever had the privilege of working with. He seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of a number of very complex topics, whether it’s the guitar, recording, or Brazilian or Indian music. Any one of those could consume a lifetime of study, but astonishingly, Jack is well-versed in all of them. And it’s not only theoretical; he just sounds great.
OTHER PROJECTS WITH JACK
I had the pleasure of working with Jack in a number of different situations. I particularly love his great guitar work on my “House Music” CD as well as my composition “Sesenta Lagrimas” on “Canto al Poeta.” (sound clip below). Jack’s website says he mainly played bass on that record, but actually he does the very challenging guitar work on “Sesenta Lagrimas.” Jack is a great musician deserving much wider recognition.
NEW GEOGRAPHY
In the late 90s I was humbled and honored to be invited to play on a track of his excellent record New Geography; I think I did some pretty good tenor playing there, and I’m very proud to be on that record which has quite a number of great musicians on it. Unfortunately New Geography does not appear to be available on Jack’s website, although there are a number of other records available. Please contact Jack for more info.
PRODUCTION
New Geography was recorded at Canyon Recording, Desert and Valley Studios my Mark Lemaire, and at Cro-Magnon Studios by Mark Schleunes.
