He may refer to it as “that old church” but to Amos Garrett the Rotary Performing Arts Centre is one of his favourite venues to perform.
The 69-year-old guitar legend has played the Rotary Performing Arts Centre (RPAC) several times before and said he appreciates the way it is appointed acoustically.
“Everything just sounds great in there,” he said.
Garrett confessed he is eager to try a musical experiment within the structure’s hallowed walls.
“I’d like to try performing there sometime without any equipment and see how that goes,” he said.
That bare bones musical exercise will have to wait for now because the Amos Garrett Jazz Trio show on Sunday Feb. 27 at the RPAC will be the headline event of the RPAC’s gala re-opening weekend.
Garret has had a long and storied music career having recorded with more than 150 different artists. He’s performed with such stars as Stevie Wonder, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt and Anne Murray. He was also a founding member of the band Great Speckled Bird that famously backed up Ian and Sylvia Tyson during the duo’s heyday.
One thing that has kept the guitarist in such great demand is his rarified multi-note string bend playing technique. Not long ago he put out a DVD titled “Amos Garrett Stringbending: A Master Class”, which is a wonderful teaching tool for guitarists.
When it comes to performing, Garrett said he plays mostly with his jazz trio these days which features him on lead vocals as well as guitar.
“That’s my main concern these days musically,” he said. “My old blues band (The Eh’ Team) is still playing the odd date but there aren’t many really good blues gigs around anymore.”
The performer said he has developed great chemistry with the other members of the trio, which includes an accomplished Calgary guitar player.
“Keith Smith is a fabulous finger style jazz guitarist who I met about a decade ago,” Garrett said. “Initially, I started up a quintet with Keith. He’s a very stylized guitar player as I am. Our styles are very different but they’re very complimentary. There’s a compatibility that’s quite unique in our approach to contemporary jazz. We go back a little bit into some standards but mostly we play stuff from the early bebop period. It’s music like Mile Davis, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver and things of that vintage.”
Taking the last slot in the trio is string bass player Greg Carroll, who like Garrett, currently lives in High River.
The bandleader revealed the group is currently recording many of their live performances.
“We’re hoping to put out a live album in about a year,” Garrett said. “We’re starting to get some pretty neat stuff form our live shows. Remote recorders today allow you to get some incredible sound from some wonderfully compact equipment that people can just carry around and record directly to a laptop.”
The string bending guitarist indicated he hoped to record the upcoming RPAC show in Okotoks due in no small part to the venue’s celebrated acoustic qualities.
“It’s a great place to do live recording,” he confirmed.
Garret said he is pleased the venue is back to full operational status after it’s most recent batch of renovations.
“It’s good to see Okotoks up and running with something as good as that again,” he said.
The Amos Garrett Jazz Trio performs Saturday Feb. 27 at the Rotary Performing Arts centre on Elma Street. Tickets are $15 and available by calling the Okotoks Art Gallery at 403- 938-3204.
