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Jazz soothes the soul
After a high-profile rock career, guitarist Jeff Golub returns to his true love, jazz. For him, the tour is a chance to perform with other talented musicians.
By PHILIP BOOTH
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 7, 2000
Remember the traveling package concerts so popular during the '50s? Headliners, typically R&B and early rock 'n' roll artists hand-picked by big-time promoters such as Alan Freed, teamed up for maximum audience appeal. Talent overhead was minimal, since a core group of back-up musicians was kept on stage.
Smooth jazz's version of the package tour has been a hit in the Tampa Bay area -- consider attendance at the recent local stops of the Montreux Festival on Tour and Boney James/Rick Braun concerts. Guitars and Saxes, one of the first and most successful such tours, returns to Ruth Eckerd Hall on Saturday with a lineup featuring six-stringers Jonathan Butler and Jeff Golub, and horn men Richard Elliot and Kim Waters.
Elliot, a former Brandon resident now based in Southern California, is the sole holdover from the 1995 debut of the tour and has been on all but one of the treks. South African-born Butler is making his second appearance, and Golub and Maryland native Waters are the rookies of the bunch.
"It's inspiring to see other people play every night, people you respect, and to be part of a show like this," says Golub, who might be familiar to rock audiences as the right-hand man for pop star Rod Stewart and '80s metal merchant Billy Squier.
"The band (including Tampa Bay area keyboardist and Elliot sideman Ron Reinhardt) stays the same all night," Golub, a New Yorker, says from his vacation home in the Hamptons. "Each one of the bandleaders plays for half an hour, and we all play together at the end. We also come on and off during the sets, jamming with each other while another person is the leader."
Once an aspiring bluegrass player, Golub soaked up the work of British Invasion and Chicago blues guitarists before attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston and setting his sights on mainstream jazz.
Then along came Squier, and a six-week tour turned into a multiyear engagement. Stewart offered Golub a job that put him before big arena crowds as the guitar foil to the raspy-voiced Stewart -- a position once held by Jeff Beck.
"When I started playing rock gigs, my interest was totally in jazz," Golub says. "I wasn't really looking at it as a career move. I am happy that that happened, though. I think it helped me to develop my own voice in jazz. It reminded me that I really loved rock music and blues and pop music, that that was a big part of my musical upbringing."
Golub released his debut CD, Unspoken Words, in 1988, formed his jazz-blues outfit Avenue Blue in 1994 and got his big smooth-jazz break in 1995. That year, he backed pianist Bob James at the Blue Note in New York, and joined James and saxophonist Kirk Whalum for the Grammy-nominated Joined at the Hip disc and subsequent tour.
Dangerous Curves, Golub's first release for the GRP label, offers a break from the sound of many smooth-jazz productions: snappy covers of Grover Washington Jr.'s Mr. Magic, King Curtis's Soul Serenade, Smash Mouth's Walking on the Sun and several original tunes were recorded with acoustic bass and piano, real Fender Rhodes and Hammond B-3 organ and only one guitar overdub.
"We wanted to keep up an improvised vibe, with some interplay between the instruments," Golub says. "I've just always liked things that were more organic."
Preview
Guitars and Saxes, 8 p.m. Saturday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater; $28.50 and $32.50. Call (727) 791-7400.
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