Keith Jarrett is also someone who has had a massive influence on how I approach music. I have definitely learnt and continue to learn from these aspects of his musical world. Specifically, his albums from the late 70s/early 80s made a huge impact upon me – I was taken aback by the originality and uniqueness of his voice as an improviser and the remarkable presence of melody in both his improvisation and compositions. Pat Metheny was the first guitarist I seriously listened to. MMCK: If you had to plot the construction of your sound as an improviser through 3 influences, who/what would those be?īE: It’s difficult for me to narrow it down to three but in this case I would say Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett and John Coltrane. As far as pedals go, it changes pretty constantly but the ones that stay on my board are: I play through a Mesa Express 5:25 amp and use it on all of my gigs – it’s proven to be a really perfect combination with my Strat. I’ve tried many different brands of strings over the years but I randomly tried Ernie Ball 11-48 gauge strings for the first time last year and have been using them ever since. I’ve used it on everything from gigs at Jazz clubs here in town, to performances in concert halls around the world, to various Jazz, R&B or Pop recording sessions and it really does the job.

I preferred semi-acoustic 335-type guitars for many years but around 2 years ago I walked into a guitar shop here in New York City and played this particular Strat – somehow it was the most comfortable I’d felt playing on any guitar in a long time. MMCK: Can you us give a brief rundown of your set up?īE: For a while now I’ve been using a Fender Stratocaster from 1986 as my main guitar.

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