The folk-rock icon takes PG inside his intimate new Lighthouse LP, and shares the surprising story behind his all-time favorite flattops—and they’re not the American mainstays you’d assume.
Five decades into his storied career, David Crosby should need no introduction to anyone seriously interested in guitar playing or songwriting. There are, of course, latecomers to every party, so we’ll start here with a few highlights from his musical life, for those of you who may not know Croz’s story.
Along with fellow singer-songwriters Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark, Crosby was a founding member of the popular and influential folk-rock group the Byrds. Their 1965 cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” was a massive hit in America and the U.K. McGuinn played 12-string electric guitar and sang the lead vocal, with Clark and Crosby sweetening the choruses in tight harmony. A year later, the Byrds released their original song “Eight Miles High,” showcasing the band’s newfound interest in bold-toned psychedelia.
Crosby left the Byrds in ’67 and soon launched Crosby, Stills & Nash with Stephen Stills (of the folk-rock band Buffalo Springfield) and Graham Nash (of the Hollies, a successful pop group from the U.K.). Their self-titled 1969 debut album spawned the now-classic songs “Marrakesh Express” and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” Crosby’s most prominent outing on the album was “Guinnevere,” a hypnotic ballad with shifting time signatures in E–B–D–G–A–D tuning (low to high). From time to time, CSN expanded to include Neil Young (also a Buffalo Springfield alum), as on the multi-platinum 1970 album Déjà Vu.
In 1971, Crosby recorded his first solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name, which featured the hallmarks of his singular style—luscious vocal harmonies, acoustic guitars in alternate tunings, and surprising harmonic twists. For someone with such a strong artistic vision, however, Crosby has had a relatively scant solo output since that time. Although he’s put out a few live albums along the way, he’s released just four studio albums since his solo debut: 1989’s Oh Yes I Can, 1993’s Thousand Roads, 2014’s Croz, and this year’s Lighthouse (’16).
If you were to track Crosby’s musical progression as a solo artist and try to predict the type of record Lighthouse would be, you’d probably be dead wrong. Over the years, he has generally made records with hotshot session players and contemporary production values. Even the recent Croz is cut from that same cloth. Lighthouse, however, is a remarkably bare-bones album full of thoughtfully crafted songs, captured intimately. Coproduced by Michael League (bassist and skipper of the band Snarky Puppy) and Grammy-winning engineer-producer Fab Dupont, it features up-close-and-personal production that gives it a slightly modern feel, while the spare arrangements supporting Crosby’s rich voice and inventive acoustic playing harken back to his early-’70s solo work.
Inasmuch as the music and sonic textures on Lighthouse are like anything Crosby has released in the past, they’re most akin to the songs “Traction in the Rain” and “Orleans” from If I Could Only Remember My Name. Just as on those older sessions, there are no drums at all on Lighthouse. Instead, the musical pulse comes from the acoustic guitars, which are played by Crosby and League, whom Crosby first worked with when he was a featured guest on Snarky Puppy’s Family Dinner – Volume 2 earlier this year.
Snarky Puppy is known for having an abundance of technical chops, but it seems it would take a take a wholly different set of chops to support what you do. What gave you the confidence that Michael League was the right guy to make Lighthouse with?
As soon as I started working on that Family Dinner record, I pretty much knew right away that I wanted him to produce a record for me. He’s just a startlingly talented guy. My thought about getting him involved was sort of like hiring a master carpenter with a gigantic toolbox, all these great players—namely, Snarky Puppy. I thought that’s where we would go. I said, “Hey, I’d like you to do this and we could use all the guys from the band.” He came back with, “Well, I’d love to do it but I really loved your first solo record. Rather than doing band tracks, I’d like to do a more acoustic-guitar thing with big vocal stacks.” Of course, that’s right in my wheelhouse. That’s exactly where I live. And that’s what we did.
It’s so different from your last record!
Croz is more a band record. Lighthouse is an acoustic record. I deliberately wanted to do that—I want to go in both directions.
Recording and mixing apparently took a lot less time than you anticipated, too, right?
It was so embarrassing. I said to Michael, “I need a month,” and he said, “You don’t need a month. We can do this in two weeks.” I’d never made a record that quickly in my whole life, but Michael told me, “It’s easy. We can do it.” I was so sure we couldn’t, but once we got into the studio we recorded the whole album in just 12 days—then mixed it in four.
What made that sort of pace possible?
Being comfortable with each other and working with very talented people. Michael brought an engineer onboard—Fab Dupont—who is incredibly good. The three of us communicated extremely well.
What would you say League’s greatest strengths are as a musician?
He’s happy, he’s focused, and he knows exactly what’s important to him. Those are three gigantic gifts.
On the flip side, what would you say your strengths are?
I’m happy and I love making music. Aside from my family, this is my greatest joy. It’s the most fun you can have with your clothes on, really.
Are the songs on Lighthouse all brand new?
Sort of. I’ve been working on this batch of songs for a while—probably two years. I first started writing “The Us Below,” “Somebody Other Than You,” and “Things We Do For Love.”
You wrote some of the new songs with League, right?
I have been writing a ton lately—mostly with other people, like Michael, and with my son James Raymond. They’re the two guys I write with the best. I like writing with other people.
Why?
If you write with somebody else it doubles the possibilities. I’m not here to prove anything to anybody. Writing with other people works great for me.
David Crosby with one of his Martin D-45s. “I’ve got three of them that I bought at the same time, in ’69,” he says.
Photo by Django Crosby
One thing that’s been a constant of your music over the years—going all the way back to “Guinnevere”—is the use of nonstandard tunings. We hear that again throughout Lighthouse. How’d you first get into writing songs in odd tunings?
I’m fairly crazy with tunings, but you’ve got to remember I learned it from people who were better than me—Joni Mitchell and Michael Hedges, in particular. Hedges was the master. I think he was the best guitar player of the last century. He and Joni both explored tunings more than anyone.
Can you tell us more about what you learned from Joni and Michael?
Well, I don’t mean they sat down and give me lessons. Hedges and I wrote together, we played together, we recorded together. I was living with Joni because she was my girlfriend, and it was a real head stretcher. I’d be working hard on a song and I’d play it for her, and she’d go, “That’s nice, David,” then play me three songs that she’d just written the night before. It was a little intimidating.
On Lighthouse, are there one or two main tunings that you favored, or is each song in its own tuning?
I used five different tunings on the record, at least. The two first songs—“Things We Do for Love” and “The Us Below”—are in the same tuning, Eb–Bb–D–G–Bb–D. It’s my new favorite.
Your harmonic sensibility is really striking in terms of how you shift from one mode to another within songs, with apparent ease. And it’s a skill it seems you’ve had for as long as you’ve been writing and recording. How did you develop your ears?
I always want to have those dense chords in there—much thicker, tone-cluster kinds of chords. That comes from me listening to jazz keyboard players, wishing I could play that.
Do you play piano?
A little—enough to write songs. My son James is a brilliant keyboard player, so I don’t have to.
When you’re writing in odd tunings, do you think about the literal names of chords—like, Bm7(add11) or what have you?
No, I’m almost completely illiterate about music. I don’t know diddly.
What guitars did you and Michael play during the Lighthouse sessions?
We used two of my 1969 Martin D-45s. I’ve got three of them that I bought at the same time, in ’69. Lundberg’s [Fretted Instruments, now defunct] in Berkeley had a bunch of them. I went there and cherry-picked the three best ones. If you know about Martins, you know about the legendary D-45—everybody has always wanted one. We also used three of my McAlisters on this record.
David Crosby’s Lighthouse Gear
Guitars
Two 1969 Martin D-45s
Vintage Martin converted D-18 12-string
Custom McAlister Concert model
Custom McAlister Concert 12-fret C
Fender Stratocaster
Alembic 12-string electric
F Bass Hammertone OC12 octave 12-string solidbody
Strings and Picks
Herco nylon picks
D’Addario EXP16 acoustic strings (.012-.053)
What’s the story with the McAlisters?
Roy McAlister is a guy who showed up at my house about 10 years ago and said he had built me a guitar. I thought, “Oh, no—this is gonna be terrible and I’m going to have to be nice about it!” He brought out this triple-O-sized thing, put it in my hands, and, man, it’s the best guitar I’ve ever played—just a flat-out stunner. So now I own five McAlisters, and I would count him as probably my favorite guitar builder alive. There are a lot of guys who are good: James Olson is really good, and if you haven’t seen a Micheletti, take a look at one. He’s doing things that nobody else is doing—he’s very experimental and a very fine maker. Still, my favorite is Roy McAlister.
What’s so special about his guitars?
He has some kind of magic with finding fantastic top wood. A lot of cross-grain, a lot of bear claw. He builds guitars that sound as good as the other guitars right off the bat—before they open up and really get their voice. They’re just freakin’ cannons.
What other guitars did you use on this record?
A Strat, an Alembic 12-string electric, and a little Hammertone octave 12-string electric—they’re brilliant. We also used one of my Martin 12-strings, which is a converted D-18 that I’ve had since before the Byrds.
It sounds like you’ve got quite a collection.
It’s funny, other people collect guitars for other reasons. They collect them because somebody famous owned them, or because they’re great looking, or because they’ve got a whole lot of inlay on them. I get them because they sound good. If I run across a guitar that sounds spectacular, that’s got unbelievable overtone structures and is really great to play, that’s what makes it for me.
What songs is the Hammertone on?
It’s on several of them, but you can really hear it on “Things We Do for Love” in several places.
You mentioned a Strat—who plays the wild electric-guitar solo on “The City”?
That’s Michael. It’s just crazy, because he didn't tell me he could play guitar. As a matter of fact, he told me he couldn’t. But he can.
So, when you two write together, it’s on guitars?
We write on acoustic guitars.
Is he fluent in tunings the way you are?
Absolutely—he’s a brilliant musician. I don’t want to throw the G-word around, but he’s a really gifted guy and can play anything that he wants to play. And he sings and writes words and music. He does it all.
There are no drums on this record, only some light percussion—tapping the side of the guitar on “Look in Their Eyes” and “The City.” That’s a bold choice, considering how much music today is beat driven.
We did that on purpose. I think it swings anyway.
It’s a tricky place to go, but it seems to me that we did it [successfully]. Truthfully—and I know I’m being immodest here—the quality of the songs is the most sustaining thing on this record. These songs are pretty good.
YouTube It
In this album-teaser video, we get aural and visual glimpses into the making of Croz’s latest solo album with collaborator Michael League and others.
Lighthouse was tracked and mixed in merely 16 days. “I’d never made a record that quickly in my whole life,” says Crosby.
Engineer Fab Dupont on Recording Lighthouse
Fabrice Dupont—or “Fab,” as absolutely everyone calls him—was coproducer, as well as recording and mixing engineer for David Crosby’s latest solo outing, Lighthouse. The sessions were tracked at Jackson Browne’s Groove Masters studio in Santa Monica, California. The mixing was done at Dupont’s Fabulous Room at Flux Studios NYC. Dupont had worked with Lighthouse arranger and coproducer Michael League on other projects before, but this was his first time in the studio with David Crosby. The album features guitars and vocals captured in glorious detail, with stark, complex arrangements providing evocative soundscapes for each song. Lighthouse is a remarkable achievement, especially considering it was tracked in less than two weeks. The key ingredient, Dupont says, was focus.
“League is a badass,” says Dupont. “I have better things to do than be in the studio and fuck around. We’d come in at 10 o’clock in the morning and at 10:15 we were recording. The vibe was awesome and sometimes playful, but there was no, ‘Should we do it this way or should we do it this way?’ We knew what we wanted. No ego. No bullshit.”
The thing that surprised Dupont most about the 75-year-old Crosby was the quality and consistency of his voice. “He’s just amazing,” Dupont says. “He came through with some of the strongest performances in his career, day after day, under serious pressure.” That said, Dupont and League cut the legendary Crosby no slack. “We didn’t pussyfoot around,” Dupont admits. “If I’m spending my time, I want this to be the best record ever—period. I don’t care if he’s David Crosby or Paul McCartney or whoever. If a take is not the best, I’m like, ‘Dude, do it again.’”
For the acoustic guitar tones, Dupont set up two identical stations for Crosby and League, each with a four-microphone array—a Lauten Audio Atlantis large-diaphragm condenser, a vintage RCA 77 ribbon mic, and newer AEA N22 and R44C ribbon models. “I would have all four microphones coming in on separate faders on the console,” he says. “I always based the sound on the Atlantis, then blended in the ribbons to create different colors for each song. For example, if I were tracking Crosby’s two 1969 Martin D-45s at the same time, on David’s guitar I would maybe blend in the RCA, then use a blend with the newer AEA ribbons on Michael’s side. That gave me enough difference in the sound to have a super-wide stereo image.” Dupont also took a DI signal from the acoustic guitars’ pickups. He says he likes to record the DI signal for security’s sake but rarely uses it in the final mix. “I also thought maybe I could use it to send stuff to effects or reverb.” He did, in fact, use the DI on “Things We Do for Love” to create an unbelievably fat and wide sound out of Crosby’s lone guitar.
During mixdown, Dupont put Crosby’s vocal front and center, with minimal treatment. “You can feel the life,” says Dupont. “That’s why I mixed it that way. I wanted it to be so present and lush—and that’s what we got.”
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The Spirit Fall trio: drummer Brian Blade (right) and saxophonist Chris Potter (center) joined Patitucci (left) for a single day at The Bunker. “Those guys are scary. It almost puts pressure on me, how good they are, because they get it really fast,” says Patitucci.
Legendary bassist John Patitucci continues to explore the sound of a chord-less trio that balances melodicism with boundless harmonic freedom—and shares lessons he learned from his mentors Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter.
In 1959, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and John Coltrane’s Giant Steps—two of the most influential albums in jazz history—were recorded. It’s somewhat poetic that four-time Grammy-winning jazz bass icon John Patitucci was born that same year. In addition to a storied career as a bandleader, Patitucci cemented his legacy through his lengthy association with two giants of jazz: keyboardist Chick Corea, with whom Patitucci enjoyed a 10-year tenure as an original member of his Elektric and Akoustic bands, and saxophonist Wayne Shorter’s quartet, of which he was a core member for 20 years. Patitucci has also worked with a who’s who of jazz elites like Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, and Michael Brecker.
What distinguishes Patitucci is that he is one of the few jazz musicians who simultaneously enjoys a vibrant career as a classical bassist and first-call session bassist. His résumé—which includes recordings with pop icons like Sting and Bon Jovi, and hundreds of film dates—is virtually unparalleled. Patitucci also composes classical music and is frequently commissioned to write music for string quartets and other chamber ensembles. Among his numerous compositions are a piece for 6-string electric bass and string orchestra that was performed with Suono e Oltre, a chamber orchestra in Italy. In short, Patitucci is the very rare jack of all trades who is also exceptional at all.
Freedom without Chords
Patitucci’s latest release, Spirit Fall, is a trio album featuring Patitucci, drummer Brian Blade, and saxophonist Chris Potter. This instrumentation leaves out a traditional chordal instrument, and can be tricky to make sound full, as there is a large harmonic hole in the sonic space. But in the hands of master musicians, this setting offers more room for harmonic exploration and conversational interplay amongst the band members. Patitucci has been exploring this chord-less format since 2009’s Remembrance featuring Blade on drums and Joe Lovano on saxophone.Throughout Spirit Fall the trio employs a variety of textures and colors to make for an engaging listen. “Pole Star” has an open feel with the counterpoint between acoustic bass and sax discreetly implying the underlying progression. “Lipim,” which means hope in Cameroonian, has a lively afrobeat groove and a ridiculous sax solo by Chris Potter. Like many of his solos on Spirt Fall, Potter’s solo on “Lipim” veers through several harmonic detours that would have likely been hampered if a chordal instrument were imposing the harmony. “Spirit Fall” and “Thoughts and Dreams” sees Patitucci using his 6-string electric to explore gorgeously haunting figures. The bass solo on “Spirit Fall” sees Patitucci almost accompanying himself as he alternates between low notes and chords against blistering single-note lines.
Even though Patitucci had the luxury of studio time, Spirit Fall was recorded quickly, with mostly first or second takes, and the occasional third take. The trio was able to record a powerful musical statement in such a short time because they are a working band as opposed to hired guns that might possibly play together for the first time at the session.
John Patitucci's Gear
“I’m just a kid from Brooklyn,” says Patitucci. It was his formative years spent with his older brother (who played guitar) that led him to the bass.
Photo by Dave Stapleton
Guitars
- Yamaha TRBJP2 Signature Model 6-String
- Yamaha Custom Semi-Hollow 6-String
- 1965 Fender P Bass (Used on “Lipim”)
- Gagliano Double Bass
Amps
- Aguilar DB 751 for acoustic bass
- Aguilar Tone Hammer for electric bass
- Aguilar 4x10 cabinet
- Aguilar 1x12 cabinet
- Grace Design FELiX Version 2
- Grace Design m303 DI
Effects
- Line 6 HX Stomp
- Line 6 DL4
Strings and Accessories
- D’Addario Nickel Round Strings (.032-.045-.065-.085-.105-.130)
- Gruvgear Signature Straps
- Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Weich gauge
- Pirastro Perpetual
Prior to the recording, Patitucci sent demos out, and by the time they got to the studio they were ready to commit to tape. They finished the whole record in just one day without any rehearsals. “Not with those guys,” says Patitucci. “Those guys are scary. It almost puts pressure on me, how good they are, because they get it really fast [laughs]. I was hoping that my good takes were theirs too.”
Interestingly enough, while iconic chord-less trio albums by saxophonists like Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and Joe Henderson played a big role in Patitucci’s musical upbringing, he came to record with that instrumentation almost by accident. “We were going to rehearse for that record [Remembrance], and [pianist] Brad Mehldau, who played on some tracks, couldn’t make the rehearsal,” recalls Patitucci. “So we rehearsed at Lovano’s house and it sounded so good I was almost like, ‘Wow, maybe we should do the record as a trio.’ But I had all this music written that really was for the piano. So I said, ‘Well, maybe someday.’ And then finally we got around to it.”
Spirit Fall was tailored to the sensibilities of Blade and Potter, both of whom Patitucci has played with a lot over the years. “We have a relationship and we have a sound together already because of the way they play. Brian’s sense of dynamics has made it easier for me to get the kind of acoustic bass sound live that I've always wanted to get. It’s not easy to do that if the drummer can’t play those wide dynamics like Brian can,” explains Patitucci. “And Chris has been playing my music for years. He’s just an incredible interpreter of my music, and I love that. I remember using him in the early ’90s. Interestingly enough, around the time I did Imprint, I was using him and I was also using Mark Turner. And it’s funny. I started teaching college [Patitucci was Professor of Jazz Studies at City College of New York and is currently teaching at Berklee College of Music] a lot in 2000, and all my students were trying to sound like those guys.”“As a composer, I wanted to have a chance to have major control over the sound and how we did things, as opposed to a live record.”
As a precursor to Spirit Fall, in 2022 Patitucci had recorded Live in Italy with the same lineup of Blade and Potter. He could have easily just done Spirit Falllive againwith the trio but this time he specifically chose to bring them into the studio. “As a composer, I wanted to have a chance to have major control over the sound and how we did things, as opposed to a live record,” explains Patitucci. “Live records are great, but I wanted to record in the studio with that band so we can get into some new compositions I was writing, and some through-composed things with the 6-string, as well as the acoustic.”
How Chick Helped Turn Four into Six
Patitucci isn’t fond only of the traditional trio sans chordal instrument format. In fact, he’s recorded in just about every context you can imagine. From completely solo bass on Soul of the Bass, to his Electric Guitar Quartet with two guitarists—Adam Rogers and Steve Cardenas on Brooklyn, to guitar trio plus string quartet plus Chris Potter on Line by Line. Patitucci uses each situation as a way to grow musically.When Patitucci first started playing with Corea it was in the trio format, along with drummer Dave Weckl. Corea was a keyboardist who covered a huge sonic range and Patitucci saw this as an opportunity to push the creative envelope. “Chick and I became very close. I had enormous respect and love for him and he taught me a lot. That’s how I really discovered the 6-string, because I felt like I needed it orchestrationally to play in that band,” says Patitucci. “I started playing with Chick and at first I played my 4-string, and it’s a trio, but I have to blow on every song. And he’s got all these synths, and I’m thinking, ‘Man, I need a low string, because he’s playing all these low notes. I want to play the low notes.’ [laughs] I need a 5-string at least. Then I heard Anthony Jackson play the six. He was the pioneer who invented it.”
Spirit Fall is the documentation of a working band exploring new music in the studio. It features all new compositions and an inventive take on “House of Jade,” written by Patitucci’s longtime mentor, Wayne Shorter.
Corea fronted the money for Patitucci’s first 6-string—a Ken Smith—and took some money out of his check every week to pay it off. The transition to the 6-string wasn’t immediate for Patitucci, however. There was actually a big learning curve to the new instrument. To make matters even more daunting, the first big tour was to begin two weeks after Patitucci received the new instrument. Despite all the potential risks, Corea was very encouraging. “Chick was really patient. It was ridiculous. It was so hard. I was just a glutton for punishment,” admits Patitucci. “I just wanted the sound, and I was so naive about what it would be like. When I got the 6-string, it was a couple of weeks before we started going out on major tours and I was clamming. Like I would go down to what I thought was the E string but was now the B string.”
Once he got a handle on it, the 6-string allowed Patitucci to finally maximize the potential of his fluid soloing style. “I wanted to play the 6-string because when the blowing comes around, the C string helps me get over the top as a band,” says Patitucci. “Chick dug the fact that when I was blowing I wanted to sound more like a tenor player.”
“Wayne [Shorter] made me have the courage to play very little and hang a note up in the air.”
Shortly after Patitucci joined his band, Corea convinced GRP Records to sign Patitucci, whose 1987 eponymous first solo album reached number 1 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart. Patitucci reflects, “The two biggest long term influences in terms of mentoring and what they did for my career would have been Chick Corea and then Wayne Shorter.”
The Spirit of Shorter
Patitucci first met Shorter in 1986, during the Chick, Wayne, and Al (Di Meola) tour. A year later Shorter asked Patitucci to record several tracks on his album, Phantom Navigator. This began his association with Shorter and led to Patitucci ultimately joining Shorter’s quartet in 2000.
It’s fitting that the only non-original tune on Spirit Fall is a Shorter tune, “House of Jade.” Shorter’s highly individual approach—particularly the electric stuff he was doing from the Atlantisperiod—shaped a lot of Patitucci’s conception of music. “I was playing electric bass and all the tunes were through-composed, except the blowing was like on one chord. And, you know, that’s challenging, actually,” reveals Patitucci. “And he was creating these incredible things, and he could do it with density or almost nothing, almost like one note. His lyricism and melodicism is so powerful that it really changed me. I was like, ‘Wow, I want to play like that. I want to be able to have a sound that I can be confident enough about to leave a ton of space and be able to just let space happen.’ Like, he got that from Miles.”
Moving to a 6-string bass wasn’t as natural for Patitucci as you might think. “When I got the 6-string, it was a couple of weeks before we started going out on major tours [with Chick Corea] and I was clamming.”
The minimalist approach that Shorter used at times was a stark contrast to some of the over-the-top pyrotechnics Corea’s Elektric Band was known for. “I was always into melodies too, but yes, in Chick’s band there were a lot of changes to play over, and sometimes a lot of fast tempos,” says Patitucci. “It wasn’t only chops, there were a lot of melodies and we played ballads too. I mean, I wanted to do that, but I didn’t have the courage to. Wayne made me have the courage to play very little and hang a note up in the air. With the 6-string, you can really do that. I started to realize that I was really interested in moving people in that way too.”
The Journey of the Kid from Brooklyn
Subliminally, the transition from 4- to 6-string bass might harken back to Patitucci’s childhood in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. He originally picked up the guitar, influenced by his brother Tom who had already been playing. Tom tried to teach him but ultimately the guitar just didn’t connect, and Tom sensed it. “He just said, ‘Why don’t you try the bass?’” recalls Patitucci. “Because we can play together then.” And that’s where it all began.
At 10, Patitucci got his first bass, a short-scale Sears Telstar bass that was hanging on a wall like a decoration down the street at somebody’s house on East 39th Street. “We bought it for 10 bucks and I thought it was great,” reflects Patitucci, who enjoyed rock ’n’ roll and James Jamerson’s playing on Motown Records in his formative years.
When he was 13, Patitucci’s family moved out to the West Coast. Soon after the move, Patitucci started learning the acoustic bass, and by the early ’80s, Patitucci’s career started taking off. In 1996 he moved back to New York, where he continues to break new musical ground.
With a career spanning over four decades and still going strong, Patitucci has achieved the dream that many aspiring musicians long for. What is the secret to his success? “Nobody knows the secret and anybody who tells you they know that is lying,” says Patitucci. “I don't even deserve it. I think that God was really good to me and blessed me. He somehow allowed me to have my dream come true. I look at it now as a 65-year old guy and go, ‘Wow, that was really a long shot.’ [laughs] It’s kind of unbelievable. You know what, I mean? I’m just this kid from Brooklyn, you know?”YouTube It
This trio rendition of the Beatles’ “And I Love Her” showcases John Patitucci’s ability to add chordal textures on his 6-string bass to create a full sound, even without a conventional chordal instrument like guitar or piano.
With authentic stage-class Katana amp sounds, wireless music streaming, and advanced spatial technology, the KATANA:GO is designed to offer a premium sound experience without the need for amps or pedals.
BOSS announces the return of KATANA:GO, an ultra-compact headphone amplifier for daily jams with a guitar or bass. KATANA:GO puts authentic sounds from the stage-class BOSS Katana amp series at the instrument’s output jack, paired with wireless music streaming, sound editing, and learning tools on the user’s smartphone. Advanced spatial technology provides a rich 3D audio experience, while BOSS Tone Exchange offers an infinite sound library to explore any musical style.
Offering all the features of the previous generation in a refreshed external design, KATANA:GO delivers premium sound for everyday playing without the hassle of amps, pedals, and computer interfaces. Users can simply plug it into their instrument, connect earbuds or headphones, call up a memory, and go. Onboard controls provide access to volume, memory selection, and other essential functions, while the built-in screen displays the tuner and current memory. The rechargeable battery offers up to five hours of continuous playing time, and the integrated 1/4-inch plug folds down to create a pocket-size package that’s ready to travel anywhere.
KATANA:GO drives sessions with genuine sounds from the best-selling Katana stage amp series. Guitar mode features 10 unique amp characters, including clean, crunch, the high-gain BOSS Brown type, two acoustic/electric guitar characters, and more. There’s also a dedicated bass mode with Vintage, Modern, and Flat types directly ported from the Katana Bass amplifiers. Each mode includes a massive library of BOSS effects to explore, with deep sound customization available in the companion BOSS Tone Studio app for iOS and Android.
The innovative Stage Feel feature in KATANA:GO provides an immersive audio experience with advanced BOSS spatial technology. Presets allow the user to position the amp sound and backing music in different places in the sound field, giving the impression of playing with a backline on stage or jamming in a room with friends.
The guitar and bass modes in KATANA:GO each feature 30 memories loaded with ready-to-play sounds. BOSS Tone Studio allows the player to tweak preset memories, create sounds from scratch, or import Tone Setting memories created with stage-class Katana guitar and bass amplifiers. The app also provides integrated access to BOSS Tone Exchange, where users can download professionally curated Livesets and share sounds with the global BOSS community.
Pairing KATANA:GO with a smartphone offers a complete mobile solution to supercharge daily practice. Players can jam along with songs from their music library and tap into BOSS Tone Studio’s Session feature to hone skills with YouTube learning content. It’s possible to build song lists, loop sections for focused study, and set timestamps to have KATANA:GO switch memories automatically while playing with YouTube backing tracks.
The versatile KATANA:GO functions as a USB audio interface for music production and online content creation on a computer or mobile device. External control of wah, volume, memory selection, and more are also supported via the optional EV-1-WL Wireless MIDI Expression Pedal and FS-1-WL Wireless Footswitch.
For more information, please visit boss.info.
In our third installment with Santa Cruz Guitar Company founder Richard Hoover, the master luthier shows PG's John Bohlinger how his team of builders assemble and construct guitars like a chef preparing food pairings. Hoover explains that the finer details like binding, headstock size and shape, internal bracing, and adhesives are critical players in shaping an instrument's sound. Finally, Richard explains how SCGC uses every inch of wood for making acoustic guitars or outside ventures like surfboards and art.
We know Horsegirl as a band of musicians, but their friendships will always come before the music. From left to right: Nora Cheng, drummer Gigi Reece, and Penelope Lowenstein.
The Chicago-via-New York trio of best friends reinterpret the best bits of college-rock and ’90s indie on their new record, Phonetics On and On.
Horsegirl guitarists Nora Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein are back in their hometown of Chicago during winter break from New York University, where they share an apartment with drummer Gigi Reece. They’re both in the middle of writing papers. Cheng is working on one about Buckminster Fuller for a city planning class, and Lowenstein is untangling Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann’s short story, “Three Paths to the Lake.”
“It was kind of life-changing, honestly. It changed how I thought about womanhood,” Lowenstein says over the call, laughing a bit at the gravitas of the statement.
But the moment of levity illuminates the fact that big things are happening in their lives. When they released their debut album, 2022’s Versions of Modern Performance, the three members of Horsegirl were still teenagers in high school. Their new, sophomore record, Phonetics On and On, arrives right in the middle of numerous first experiences—their first time living away from home, first loves, first years of their 20s, in university. Horsegirl is going through changes. Lowenstein notes how, through moving to a new city, their friendship has grown, too, into something more familial. They rely on each other more.
“If the friendship was ever taking a toll because of the band, the friendship would come before the band, without any doubt.”–Penelope Lowenstein
“Everyone's cooking together, you take each other to the doctor,” Lowenstein says. “You rely on each other for weird things. I think transitioning from being teenage friends to suddenly working together, touring together, writing together in this really intimate creative relationship, going through sort of an unusual experience together at a young age, and then also starting school together—I just feel like it brings this insane intimacy that we work really hard to maintain. And if the friendship was ever taking a toll because of the band, the friendship would come before the band without any doubt.”
Horsegirl recorded their sophomore LP, Phonetics On and On, at Wilco’s The Loft studio in their hometown, Chicago.
These changes also include subtle and not-so-subtle shifts in their sophisticated and artful guitar-pop. Versions of Modern Performance created a notion of the band as ’90s college-rock torchbearers, with reverb-and-distortion-drenched numbers that recalled Yo La Tengo and the Breeders. Phonetics On and On doesn’t extinguish the flame, but it’s markedly more contemporary, sacrificing none of the catchiness but opting for more space, hypnotic guitar lines, and meditative, repeated phrases. Cheng and Lowenstein credit Welsh art-pop wiz Cate Le Bon’s presence as producer in the studio as essential to the sonic direction.
“On the record, I think we were really interested in Young Marble Giants—super minimal, the percussiveness of the guitar, and how you can do so much with so little.”–Nora Cheng
“We had never really let a fourth person into our writing process,” Cheng says. “I feel like Cate really changed the way we think about how you can compose a song, and built off ideas we were already thinking about, and just created this very comfortable space for experimentation and pushed us. There are so many weird instruments and things that aren't even instruments at [Wilco’s Chicago studio] The Loft. I feel like, definitely on our first record, we were super hesitant to go into territory that wasn't just distorted guitar, bass, and drums.”
Nora Cheng's Gear
Nora Cheng says that letting a fourth person—Welsh artist Cate Le Bon—into the trio’s songwriting changed how they thought about composition.
Photo by Braden Long
Effects
- EarthQuaker Devices Plumes
- Ibanez Tube Screamer
- TC Electronic Polytune
Picks
- Dunlop Tortex .73 mm
Phonetics On and On introduces warm synths (“Julie”), raw-sounding violin (“In Twos”), and gamelan tiles—common in traditional Indonesian music—to Horsegirl’s repertoire, and expands on their already deep quiver of guitar sounds as Cheng and Lowenstein branch into frenetic squonks, warped jangles, and jagged, bare-bones riffs. The result is a collection of songs simultaneously densely textured and spacious.
“I listen to these songs and I feel like it captures the raw, creative energy of being in the studio and being like, ‘Fuck! We just exploded the song. What is about to happen?’” Lowenstein says. “That feeling is something we didn’t have on the first record because we knew exactly what we wanted to capture and it was the songs we had written in my parents’ basement.”
Cheng was first introduced to classical guitar as a kid by her dad, who tried to teach her, and then she was subsequently drawn back to rock by bands like Cage The Elephant and Arcade Fire. Lowenstein started playing at age 6, which covers most of her life memories and comprises a large part of her identity. “It made me feel really powerful as a young girl to know that I was a very proficient guitarist,” she says. The shreddy playing of Television, Pink Floyd’s spacey guitar solos, and Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan were all integral to her as Horsegirl began.
Penelope Lowenstein's Gear
Penelope Lowenstein likes looking back at the versions of herself that made older records.
Photo by Braden Long
Effects
- EarthQuaker Westwood
- EarthQuaker Bellows
- TC Electronic PolyTune
Picks
- Dunlop Tortex 1.0 mm
Recently, the two of them have found themselves influenced by guitarists both related and unrelated to the type of tunes they’re trading in on their new album. Lowenstein got into Brazilian guitar during the pandemic and has recently been “in a Jim O’Rourke, John Fahey zone.”
“There’s something about listening to that music where you realize, about the guitar, that you can just compose an entire orchestra on one instrument,” Lowenstein says. “And hearing what the bass in those guitar parts is doing—as in, the E string—is kind of mind blowing.”
“On the record, I think we were really interested in Young Marble Giants—super minimal, the percussiveness of the guitar, and how you can do so much with so little,” Cheng adds. “And also Lizzy Mercier [Descloux], mostly on the Rosa Yemen records. That guitar playing I feel was very inspiring for the anti-solo,[a technique] which appears on [Phonetics On and On].”This flurry of focused discovery gives the impression that Cheng and Lowenstein’s sensibilities are shifting day-to-day, buoyed by the incredible expansion of creative possibilities that setting one’s life to revolve around music can afford. And, of course, the energy and exponential growth of youth. Horsegirl has already clocked major stylistic shifts in their brief lifespan, and it’s exciting to have such a clear glimpse of evolution in artists who are, likely and hopefully, just beginning a long journey together.
“There’s something about listening to that music where you realize, about the guitar, that you can just compose an entire orchestra on one instrument.”–Penelope Lowenstein
“In your 20s, life moves so fast,” Lowenstein says. “So much changes from the time of recording something to releasing something that even that process is so strange. You recognize yourself, and you also kind of sympathize with yourself. It's a really rewarding way of life, I think, for musicians, and it's cool that we have our teenage years captured like that, too—on and on until we're old women.”
YouTube It
Last summer, Horsegirl gathered at a Chicago studio space to record a sun-soaked set of new and old tunes.