Berklee College of Music guitar professor Julien Kasper isn’t fond of getting his music referred to as “fusion,” particularly given the connotation it carries.

“I’ve by no means preferred listening to it used when describing my music,” he stated. “I perceive the designation when listeners join my roots again to electrical Miles Davis, Jeff Beck, Hendrix, Mahavishnu, and John Scofield. However I consider my music as being very private, soulful, instrumental guitar music that actually doesn’t sound like something anyone else is creating.”

At Berklee, Kasper developed three efficiency labs – Artistic Purposes, Jimi Hendrix lab, and Jeff Beck lab. He’s additionally the teacher for 2 lessons within the Efficiency division – Harmonic Concerns in Improvisation and Recital Workshop for Efficiency Majors. His college students have included Andrea Balestra (VG, January ’21) and Clay Prepare dinner (Zac Brown Band).

“Most-special are the scholars with whom I set up a lifetime mentoring relationship,” he famous. “We keep in contact, change into buddies, and so they ship their work to me. It’s extremely rewarding to see and listen to them evolve.”

Kasper’s most-recent album is a self-titled instrumental showcase that makes use of a number of guitars. Launched in November ’23, throughout its recording, he meticulously centered on which guitar was acceptable for every music.

“My most-gigged guitar for the previous 13 years has been a D’Pergo Signature Restricted Strat copy,” he detailed. “For membership gigs, I normally convey that and a korina Gibson SG or a Fender Customized Store Tele. For concert events and recording classes, I’ll convey out the classic guitars.”

The classic items embrace a number of unbelievable fashions for Kasper’s type of difficult, progressive jazz.

“I used my ’63 SG Particular on ‘An Upraised Hand’ and ‘Chazzskinnabaal,’ ‘The Wolf,’ ‘Large Dismal,’ and ‘King Cake’ all characteristic my Strat, which has a ’54 neck on a ’57 physique. That’s my primary guitar. ‘Oceanides’ has a worn and beautiful-sounding ’66 Strat I’ve owned since I used to be 18, and I performed a Customized Store Telecaster Customized on ‘Upon a Inexperienced Hill.’ The D’Pergo makes an look for the second solo on ‘King Cake.’”

As for amplifiers, a ’72 Marshall 100-watt Tremendous Lead into two classic 4x12s are the one rig heard on the primary 4 tracks. On later songs, he used a Marshall 1974X, a ’69 50-watt Marshall right into a 4×12, and a ’64 Vox AC10.
A number of the album’s most-intriguing sounds embrace distorted tremolo on the opener, “The Wolf,” and a snarling treble within the left speaker on “King Cake.”

“That will get your consideration, doesn’t it?” he queried. “It’s a Approach Big Atreides, which is a loopy pedal that looks like a mix fuzz, octave, ring modulator, and I don’t know what. It’s a blast to play, because it’s very delicate to selecting dynamics and accuracy. It’ll blow the wine glasses proper off the desk at a jazz membership.”
A lot of the album is improvisational.

“Each tune has a number of solo sections throughout which I – or we – improvise over the shape or a set of comparable adjustments written for improvisation. ‘Chazzskinnabaal’ has the open improvisation firstly, which is a duet between me and our drummer, Zac Casher, and there’s a gaggle improvisation within the center adopted by one other guitar solo with drums. The rubato intro to ‘Upon a Inexperienced Hill’ is a gaggle improvisation.”

Reverse from improvisation are note-for-note unison preparations.

“As a lot improv as there’s on the album, there’s additionally numerous concerted materials,” Kasper averred. “All the pieces is charted and I write out bass strains which might be doubled down the octave, in counterpoint, or in concord with me. Often, when these strains are performed with the bass, and Zac will play them, too. This band has minimal rehearsal time, so committing so many particulars to reminiscence is difficult. That being stated, this trio has performed collectively for a very long time, so the extent of musical empathy could be very excessive and lots of rhythmic hits occur spontaneously.”

Kasper appears ahead to touring to assist the album, particularly in Europe.

“Despite the fact that this isn’t jazz within the conventional sense, we’re all skilled jazz musicians,” he stated. “No tune is ever the identical from one evening to the subsequent.”

This text initially appeared in VG’s February 2024 difficulty. All copyrights are by the writer and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.