Dave’s Photo Blog

I’m a recent fan of Julien Kasper. He’s one of the best guitarists in Boston and I jumped at the chance to both enjoy his performance and capture some of the moments for the blog. I see a lot of local concerts and I go for various reasons. Sometimes, it’s to support the artist, or to blog a show because I know there are lots of people interested. Sometimes it’s because the music is great and I want to provide my own small measure of exposure. But I went to see Julien for me – I wasn’t going to miss the chance to see him demonstrate his command of the guitar, music and tone up close and in person.

When Julien Kasper was seven years old, he saw a guitar store while lying in the back seat of his parents car. He sat up in his seat and said, “Mother I would like to play the guitar.” The rest, as they say, is history. A history that includes degrees in music from the University of Miami and the University of North Texas, countless performances and his current day job – teaching at Berklee College of Music. How can you not like a guy who teaches performance labs on Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck?

The Julien Kasper Band (l-r) Julien Kasper, Zac Casher (drums) and Jesse Williams (bass)

Julien has three albums under his belt as well as appearances 0n albums by Bruce Katz, Pat Ramsey and Mighty Sam McClain, but don’t let those latter folks fool you – Julien is not strictly a blues guitarist, although he totally rocks playing the blues. He is extremely versatile and comfortable with jazz, rock, soul and many other genres. It’s convenient to want to force a performer into a genre, especially when it comes to making and producing records. But Julien is not so easy to define and that’s a big bonus for those of us that are enthusiastic about hearing good guitar.

Johnny D’s Uptown put together another amazing deal for those of us that thrive on seeing live music. The door was $10 for this show, but Julien gave away copies of the new CD, Trance Groove, to everyone there. Now that is a record release party! On top of all that, Julien is very approachable and a number of people, myself included, had him sign our copies. Backed up solidly with Zac Casher on drums and Jesse Williams on bass he played every song from the new album as well as some older tunes.

Trance Groove is a nine song CD that covers a wide range of musical styles from rock to jazz to blues. There’s even an acoustic song, Abyssinia, his first on a CD. The music is rich and complex, demonstrating quite resoundingly Julien’s abilities across the spectrum of guitar playing. If you don’t listen to much jazz you might find some of the songs a bit inaccessible – Julien is not afraid to record songs that are musically complex. By that, I mean that it’s not going to sound like what you hear on the radio. To me, that’s the joy of a work like this – it challenges you to listen and think. And there are plenty of great moments even for those who might be apprehensive about the material. Trash Day is one that stands out in this regard. It’s just under 5 minutes of total rock guitar heaven and shows off his mastery of the instrument. Julien talked during the performance about his devotion to tone and sound and how pleased he was with the record. His focus is evident in Trash Day. From the opening riff that features the pick striking the string to create a staccato beat to the sound of his hands moving up and down the neck between playing notes to the best moment, in my opinion. Just before the solo section, he clicks an effect pedal and you can hear the roaring hum and sustain of the chord he had ringing. This builds until he picks an impossibly soft two notes to set the mood for the solo.

Julien is also a master with the tremolo bar. He doesn’t dive bomb the strings until they are loose against the pickups – it’s much more subtle than that. But you can hear it clearly on the album where he uses the tremolo bar very delicately to add nuance to a passage. In Trash Day, he does a standard hammer-on, pull-off but then bends the last note down ever so slightly with the tremolo bar. Although Trash Day is the clear rock-out song on the album, there are plenty of other amazing moments and the performance highlighted them all. Other stand-outs include Trance Groove, the hauntingly beautiful The Reverend and the super-chill The Rumpus.

His devotion to sound is also evident on stage. He uses a mix of pedals to provide distortion and other effects. Most interestingly, he spent a fair amount of time playing with a pedal that reverses the notes so they are played backwards. He was able to create a very rich sound with this pedal, one that illustrates the time he has put into to squeezing musical ambiance out of this style of playing. And how far is he willing to go to get a certain sound? During one of the last songs, I heard a sparkly, haunting kind of sound coming from the guitar. As I watched him, I realized his right hand was back behind the guitar and he was actually striking the springs of the tremolo bar inside the back of the instrument to get that sound to come out.

If you love great music and killer guitar, don’t miss your change to see The Julien Kapser band. They’ll be playing at Johnny D’s Uptown in Davis Square again on March 3rd, 2010.