John Clarke talks jazz guitar on Skyline FM

I"ve just been listening to friend and fellow "ace" jazz guitarist John Clarke as a guest of Andi C's The Fret Connection show on Skyline FM, "local radio for the southern parishes".  Between ads for taxi firms, jewellers and mobile discos, John was playing tracks from his favourite post-1980 guitarists.

John is a big fan of Mike Stern and John Scofield but where our tastes really converge is with Peter Bernstein, Jonathan Kreisberg and the Dutchman Jesse van Ruller. Each track was chosen with care and designed to demonstrate the range of contemporary jazz guitar players. Interestingly, the more recent guitarists seem to hark back to an earlier age - I can hear Django Reinhardt in the playing of both Kreisberg and van Ruller.

John got into jazz guitar at university back in the Sixties and cut his teeth on the South London jazz scene with pianist Roger Simmonds, with whom he still gigs and records. John has some really nice original recordings on myspace site.

As a longstanding member of the Southern Jazz Guitar Society, John pointed out that it's unlikely that you would find a Southern Jazz Saxophone Society. Yes jazz guitarists like to listen to other jazz guitarists because, well, few other people will! The SJGS meet monthly in Romsey and every few months features a concert or workshop by name guitarists such as Nigel Price, Sid Jacobs and Mike Outram.

Here is John's sensitive interpretation of the standard "This Is Always" on his wonderful, old Gibson L7 and a Jazzamp.