Sunday, November 28, 2010

Maurice Gordon: A Jamaican guitarist of great versatility

Unambiguously smooth jazz and reggae guitarist Maurice Gordon describes his music as contemporary jazz delicately flavored with hints of reggae, R&B, funk, rock and fusion. Whatsoever the label, he is an artist of great versatility one who is well admired in jazz circles for his fluid technique, dexterity and highly personal style that has earned him wide-ranging appeal from Canada to the Caribbean, from South Africa to South America.

Quietly respected as a credible musician and composer, Maurice Gordon has recognized and draws upon the great wealth and tradition of many styles in music by studying with the likes of Bobby Edwards, John McLaughlin (saxophone) and Frank Falco in Toronto, Canada. His own influences are Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, George Benson and Bob Marley.

Although quite fluent in a variety of musical idioms his love and devotion to jazz have remained constant. A Bachelor of Arts degree (Hons)in Music from York University, the former head of the Department for the Caribbean Latin and Jazz Program at the Jamaica School of Music and private teacher performs regularly in various settings as solo, duo, trio and as a quartets.

Maurice Gordon performed festivals in the Caribbean including Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, St. Lucia and Martinique Jazz Festivals, Ramajay Festival (Trinidad), Grenada Spice Jazz Festival. In 2001 he recorded "Jazz in the Sun" for BET jazz which is still being aired on cable. Currently he entertains as a solo guitarist at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay. Three CDs to his credit, Jamaica Time Celebrating Festival Vol 1, Jamaica Flora and Irie Mood.

1 comment:

Boris Gardiner said...

Claude, everything you said is correct.I feel exactly like you.The sound was very poor.They did not have a sound check. What these promoters don't undrestand is that your show is as good as your sound. You could put the greatest entertainers on a show and your sound is poor like the one last night. You are going to flop. We had a selected band of musicians playing together for the first time and we got approximately one hour + rehersal each. Thats why I could'nt sing certain songs.It would take one hour to learn one song. I don't like going to live shows anymore, because I get too involved in the sound and when you tell these engineers that the bass or bass drum is too loud they get an attitude. You have middleage and elderly people in the audience who can't take the kind of volume that they use. Not saying thet it was loud last. In fact half the night you couldn't hear the bass. Promoters want to make money, but they don't want to spend. Boris