After all, his father first turned him on to Pearl Jam when he was all of two, and he was four before he became fascinated with Jim Morrison. It’s no mistake that he’s performed with grunge-rock icon Eddie Vedder before 30,000 at a concert in Nashville or that he collaborated with renowned Seattle producer Barrett Jones (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Jawbox) at his famed Laundry Room Studio on West’s debut, eight-song offering, For the Record. "Brilliant original compositions...breathtaking." “That’s what I listen to,” he says of the influences on his first record, “My favorite band is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, though I realize there’s not much of them in my music... maybe just a little.”. Learn more about Jack on his Wikipedia page. “None of my friends are into this kind of music,” he laughs. He is currently in works on his first album, set to break in 2019! Though he may be an artist with big ideas, there's nothing academic about Curvature's sound. As We Know It won the Acoustic Guitar Magazine Self-Released CD Award for its "superb quality and originality.” West’s tune “This Life May Be Monitored for Quality Assurance” won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest award in 2004. His music is as emotionally vibrant and pulsing with life as any being created today. Video. The opening track, “Won’t Look Back,” sounds like a lost outtake from Dark Side of the Moon crossed with After the Gold Rush, while the plaintive David Gilmour-ish guitar riffs in “Look Out Below (How Long)” offer a paean to surfing and the thrill of catching the perfect wave. x ... Jack West Singer Songwriter Victor, NY ... more. Singer Songwriter music, lyrics, and videos from Victor, NY on ReverbNation . Jack West, Rochester, New York. In recent years Jack has been working on building a new instrument that he invented called the Gliss. And West’s compositions are frequently used as segue music for NPR programming. Until then, check out one of Jack's 6 albums. He is a solo artist and also the lead singer of various groups including Tomorrow, a 1960s psychedelic rock band. A mostly self-taught musician, West, grew up in Savannah, Georgia and moved to Northern California to attend Humboldt State University. The Farmhouse Sessions. It's not only that he plays the eight-string acoustic guitar, a unique instrument that he had specially constructed while searching for the sounds he had been hearing in his mind. Fourteen-year-old Jack West conjures memories of Kurt Cobain with his lanky, shoulder-length hair and piercing gaze. Take a listen to West’s impressive bow, and hear elements of Neil Young, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, The Doors and Nivana. Welcome to the music website for composer, guitarist, and inventor Jack West. But in the fine-grained textures he creates with his quartet, there's also an intuitive sense of interplay and generosity of spirit found in the finest jazz ensembles. [Excerpted from a lengthier bio of Jack West written by jazz critic Andrew Gilbert]. Like Neil Young, Jack West is at his most comfortable alone in his makeshift studio, dealing with his own self-imposed isolation through music. Make no mistake, Jack West is on the path less taken. - Contra Costa Times, "A whole new sub-genre of jazz" - National Public Radio, "Exploring uncharted territory...uncannily familiar and yet completely fresh" - Andrew Gilbert, Jazz Critic, "Stunning...one of the more interesting releases of the new year" - JazzWest. Keith Hopkins (born 6 December 1943, Dagenham, Essex, England), known by his stage name Keith West, is a British rock singer, songwriter and music producer. - Contra Costa Times, "A whole new sub-genre of jazz" - National Public Radio, "Exploring uncharted territory...uncannily familiar and yet completely fresh" - Andrew Gilbert, Jazz Critic, "Stunning...one of the more interesting releases of the new year" - JazzWest. Singer Songwriter music, lyrics, and videos from Victor, NY on ReverbNation. The extra strings, a low A and a high A, have enabled West to further expand his bag of tricks, for instance slapping a percussive line on the extra bass string while simultaneously playing slide or creating screaming-high octave slide runs with his first and third strings. He performed a highly controversial psychiatric evaluation of Jack Ruby, and he was in charge of UCLA's department of psychiatry and the Neuropsychiatric Institute for 20 years. “They’re all into rap and stuff, know what I mean?” The songs on ‘For the Record’ are about preparing to take flight, but at the same time, wary of plummeting to the ground. "Brilliant original compositions...breathtaking." Farmhouse Sessions. After 7 years playing mostly original rock, blues, and Afropop, he decided to work in an acoustic vein. 7.1K likes. Fourteen-year-old Jack West conjures memories of Kurt Cobain with his lanky, shoulder-length hair and piercing gaze. Jack West Gracey. He is planning to release new music performed on the Gliss in the future. In recent years Jack has been working on building a new instrument that he invented called the Gliss. Jack West is a Rochester, NY born musician. "Brilliant original compositions...breathtaking." Welcome to the music website for composer, guitarist, and inventor Jack West. "Brilliant original compositions...breathtaking." -, "Stunning...one of the more interesting releases of the new year" -, Introduction - This Life May be Monitored (for Quality Assurance. Even before he hired Santa Cruz guitar-maker Jeff Traugott to build his eight-string instrument, West had developed a highly personal sound using unusual tunings and a dazzling combination of bluesy slide work, finger-picking, and unorthodox percussive techniques. Home. Indie singer songwriter and troubadour of life, love and self reflection through song, Jack West Gracey, is a throwback. He is planning to release new music performed on the Gliss in the future. Sometimes it takes youth to lead us to the next place, to revive rock ‘n’ roll by taking the old and putting a new spin on it. -, "Stunning...one of the more interesting releases of the new year" -, Jack West - Composer, Guitarist, Band Leader, Introduction - This Life May be Monitored (for Quality Assurance. A prolific composer, West has released 6 albums on the small label Ahead Behind Music, five of these with his band, Jack West & Curvature. Become a Fan Remove Fan. Contact. to a simpler time when writing and recording a song in … If the title of his album, Big Ideas, suggests that this is heady music, there is a rigorous sense of structure to many of West's tunes. It wasn’t long after that Jack West retreated to his bedroom, where he obsessively laid down the piano, guitar, bass and drum tracks on Logic, eventually compiling 18 tracks, eight of which he and Barrett Jones chose to make ‘For the Record,’ a nod to both old-school vinyl records and Jack’s first official recordings made public. Jack plays 8-string acoustic guitar and creates original instrumental music. Like my page to be the first to hear new music! Jack West Live at Easy Street Records “Bring the Records Back” West wrote most of his own songs (credited to Keith Hopkins), often in collaboration with Ken Burgess. A prolific composer, West has released 6 albums on the small label Ahead Behind Music, five of these with his band, Jack West & Curvature. Louis Jolyon "Jolly" West (October 6, 1924 – January 2, 1999) was an American psychiatrist whose work focused particularly on cases where subjects were "taken to the limits of human experience".