I think when I was 7 or 8 I first took piano lessons, then piccolo lessons. I remember my piano teacher pacing back & forth behind me with his head in his hands; not encouraging. I taught myself guitar when I got the measles. I was very bored, so I borrowed my older brother’s guitar & Mel Bay books & learned a bit.I could read music, but I when I put down the book, I found it easy to play most of the songs on the radio with the chords I knew, & would take my guitar everywhere & was probably a real pain in the ass to the world. I was happy though.
What was your most significant musical experience?
My most significant musical experience was when I started being a conduit for music. I had acquired some skills, & started to find that when I focused very hard on what I was doing, something would happen and I would play with seemingly no focus or concentration at all. The music seemed to come from somewhere else into my hands. That’s the best feeling in the world. An earlier important thing that happened to me when I was 14 or 15 was that I was on my way to the train station to go to New York City, I’ve forgotten why, but sitting in the back seat of my mother’s car, I was hearing in my head the guitar intro to Working Man Blues by Sleepy John Estes. As I was thinking about it, I could visualize how to play it. It was 8 to twelve hours before I was near a guitar again, but as soon as I got back home, I tried it out and it was right. That was a big Eureka moment for me.
What was the best advice you received about pursuing a career in music?
I don’t know that I ever got any good advice about pursuing a career in music. My advice to talented individuals is to move to New York, L.A. or Nashville. It takes a certain amount of time to become known in any city, but the national press is in those 3 cities, so recognition in any of those cities goes nation-wide.
What is your favorite sound?
Right now my favorite sound is the sound coming out of my tiny 1938 Elektar amplifier with the volume all the way up. It’s not real loud, but it’s the sound all the pedals are designed to get & don’t.
Name some of your biggest non-musical influences.
My parents were, naturally big non-musical influences on me.
What is the most memorable concert you have ever attended?
I just saw a concert by Keb’ Mo’ that never let my attention wander. I also remember seeing Jimmy Hendrix & BB King play at a club called Salvation in Greenwich Village the night that Martin Luther King was assassinated. I also saw a concert in the 60s with BB King, Jimmy Reed, Two Tons of Fun (Martha Wash) at the Apollo. I’ll never forget it.
Put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 5 songs that come up.
Down in Bottom (Howling Wolf), Sensation Communication Together (Albert King), Norwegian Wood (The Beatles), Shtoi-Ta Zvon (The Pennywhistlers), Changes (Jimmy Hendrix).
I first met Jeff a few years ago when he returned to teaching at NGW after a bit of a hiatus. There are few musicians around that are as versatile as Jeff. As you can tell from his website (jeffmcerlain.com) he is a very busy guy. You can usually find him teaching, performing and producing in and around NYC.
Describe your first experience playing music.
My first live gig was a nightmare that makes for a great story. We were playing a school gym doing poor covers of Iron Maiden and Ozzy tunes. The “singer” was really nervous as we we all. For some unknown reason he kept spraying Chloroseptic down his throat and was on his knees punching himself in the stomach trying to hit the high notes. He then went off stage and threw up. I couldn’t make that up.
What has been your most significant musical experience?
There are so many but I would have to say my first tours with a band called Liquid Hips. I was 23 and we went to Europe a number of times. We did quite well over there for a while. I was the youngest guy in the band and the others guys were way more experienced than I was. They were grizzled touring cats and I was as green as you could get, I am sure I was very annoying actually! It was really painful at times often being the weakest link in many ways but it sure made me better. I had my butt handed to me a number of times. I now always try to play with people who I think are better than me, it keeps me on my toes and pushes me to evolve.
What is the best advice on pursuing a career in music you were ever given?
It was from George Burns “Don’t leave your wallet in the dressing room.” Also as I said in the last question, try to play with people who challenge you.
What is your favorite sound?
Well besides a Strat through a cranked 1967 100 watt Marshall plexi through 8 12″ Greenbacks, and my son laughing, I’d have to say someone doing their own thing. We talk about Clapton, Page, Miles, Hendrix, Coltrane, etc… All these guys had their own voice and worked their asses off. I love hearing that from a player, when you can hear the time, dedication, and love they have for the instrument. When you can hear them as a person, when the instrument is just an extension of who they are, not an impersonation of someone else. That actually carries through to many other things as well like art, film etc. The sound of a master.
Name some of your biggest non-musical influences.
My Uncle Angus, I worked on his sheep farm in Scotland as a kid one summer. I was about 13 doing all sorts of stupid stuff so my mother shipped me off to Scotland because she was a single working mom. He taught me what work was, here I was this kid from NJ put on a farm where I had to shear sheep, clean out stalls, walk miles a day, tag sheep, milk goats, etc. I am paraphrasing due to his salty language “Stop complaining and do it”. It is often hard to remember that lesson but it is true across the board. Apart from him, my family, my students, Monty Python, and Woody Allen.
What is the most memorable concert you ever attended?
I’d love to give a guitar geek answer but I’d have to say U2 on the Elevation tour. It was simply the absolute best concert I have seen, I had a great time and it amazed me that almost every song they played was a hit, they were amazing, tight, fun, and exciting. Bono connected with an audience like no one I have ever seen, and this was Madison Square Garden. Granted I had great seats…I think what struck me most was I wasn’t too much of a fan before that now I am. A close second was my favorite musician Tom Waits.
Put your iPod on shuffle and name the first 5 songs that come up.
Chalk – Buddy and Julie Miller
Cemetery Polka – Tom Waits
Emerald – Thin Lizzy
Cream – Meet Me At the Bottom ( bootleg from Klooks Kleek a must have)
Oazaca – Daniel Lanois
Amanda Monaco is a jazz guitarist based out of NYC. I first met her one summer at NGW where she is a faculty member (and before that an intern and alum). She recently completed the NYC Marathon and is playing and teaching all over the place.
The first band I played in was called “The Dimensions” and we played pop tunes from the 50s and 60s – everything from Booker T. and the MGs to Wilson Pickett. The lead singer had a bad perm that made her look like a poodle, and no stage presence whatsoever (I think she was only doing the gig because her boyfriend, the drummer, insisted), but she could sing ok, and the other guys in the band were really into it so it was still a lot of fun. We played every weekend – everything from private parties (including a christening for a little Mafia baby in New Haven) to cruise nights in the parking lot of a restaurant in mid-state Connecticut.
What has been your most significant musical experience?
There’s been so many, but the first one that comes to mind is this: there was one Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur where I was playing services with a quartet (organ, guitar, cello, percussion) and the organist, who had been playing the services for 15+ years, had taken the music to the next level in terms of spiritual meaning through this intense musical expression. There was plenty of room for improvisation, stretching the limits of the liturgy, tons of freedom within what is normally looked upon as more of a somber occasion; at one point the congregation was praying/dancing in the aisles (literally!) which one might expect at a gospel church, but not the norm at a shul…It was such a moving experience that it completely changed the way I play music in every situation since; it took the petty anxieties away and gave music a meaning that could be compared to prayer.
What is the best advice on pursuing a career in music you were ever given?
Play as much as you can with as many people as you can.
What is your favorite sound?
Music that feels so good it makes you smile so much it hurts and makes you feel that these sounds can truly change the world.
Name some of your biggest non musical influences.
Training for the NYC Marathon has taught me a lot about endurance, pushing oneself past what was thought possible, setting goals, humility, and patience.
What is the most memorable concert you have ever attended?
John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussein at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2007. “You Know You Know” played in a duo setting; Shakti redux; so much joy and inspiration flowing through these incredible musicians. The crowd roared for 30 minutes just to get an encore, which they did.
Put your iPod on shuffle and name the first 5 songs that appear.
“Just Squeeze Me” – Ella Fitzgerald with the Duke Ellington Orchestra
“I Walk The Line” – Johnny Cash
“String Quartet #6” – Bela Bartok
“My Girl” – The Temptations
“Fried Pies” – Wes Montgomery
My first experiences playing music were my goofing around with my first guitar at 5, guitar/theory lessons when I was six, recorder ensemble during my elementary education. But my first musical EXPERIENCE was putting on records by The Beatles, Wilson Pickett, Aretha, Eddie Floyd, Credence, Ahmad Jamal, Ken Nordine,Kai Winding, Chico Hamilton, Bay City Rollers, many others, between 3-5 yrs of age. That was my favorite activity, and probably still is.
What has been your most significant musical experience?
Probably the answer to question #1. Or when I heard the White Album
at age 6. Or hearing David Russell in concert when I was 14.
What is the best advice on pursuing a career in music you were ever given?
My teacher, John Holmquist, when I was a student at CIM: “Music Business is two words”, and “Never play your music faster than your ability to articulate it clearly to your listener”. That 2nd quote is a very important lesson for the aspiring professional guitarist that perhaps more guitarists could take to heart.
What is your favorite sound?
Too hard to answer, but at least this week it’s Bernard Purdie playing drums on “Caves of Altamira”. Name some of your biggest non-musical influences. My father: “even if this doesn’t become your job, you can always come home from work and play guitar for your own enjoyment” (he told me this when I was 11) and “even if there’s 1 person in the audience, you should play for that person, because they came to hear music” (when I was about 12).
What is the most memorable concert you ever attended?
Aforementioned D Russell concert, Julian Bream in ’88, Cleveland Orchestra Mahler 2nd 1999, Mitsuko Uchida in Philly playing a Mozart Piano Quintet 2000?, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny trio setting and with Gary Burton. Too many, I know.
Put your iPod on shuffle and name the first 5 songs that come up.
No iPOD, but since we’re talking “pop” songs…this week only,
I got my first guitar for my 11th birthday. It was a cheap flattop with a bolt-on neck and a floating fingerboard.
I had to stuff cardboard under the fingerboard extension to make the action playable. There was a book called “Play In A Day” by Bert Weedon, a well-known British guitarist.
It had the melody of “When The Saints Go Marching In” written in notation – there was no tablature in those days. One rainy Winter afternoon I figured out how to read it.
What has been your most significant musical experience?
Career-wise, I’ll have to say playing with McCartney, but that really was part of a much larger musical experience. I try to play in the ‘musical moment’, so each performance can be significant.
What is the best advice on pursuing a career in music you were ever given?
I realized at around age 13 that I wanted to make a living being a guitarist, so that became an all-consuming passion. It was a time and an environment where there were constant opportunities and developing the skills to be a pro came naturally to me. I didn’t truly learn about the business of music until much later. The best piece of musical advice came from an old school jazz guitarist who told me to play ‘big notes’.
What is your favorite sound?
The voice of the guitar itself – there’s a sweet spot where the instrument sings and everything resonates. It moves depending on the style, the tune, the kind of guitar, but it’s there on acoustic and electric. Think of Clapton’s tone on ‘Hideaway’ or Django on anything.
Name some of your biggest non-musical influences.
My wife Hope, who helps me focus my creative imagination. Various teachers of Alexander Technique and meditation. Comedians and actors – performers who communicate with humor and drama.
What is the most memorable concert you ever attended?
Jimi Hendrix at the Albert Hall in 1968. He played there twice in one week – the second was filmed, but the first was magical. He played ‘Red House’ on a white SG custom. Second was the Cream farewell concert. Third place goes to lutenist Paul O’Dette who played at a church in West London in the early 70′s. I had never heard notes spinning out of an instrument with such liquidity.
Put your iPod on shuffle and name the first 5 songs that come up.
