Personal/Biographical

Guitar Sessions: What events inspired you to play the guitar?
Vic Juris: I originally wanted to be a saxophone player. My dad had a record collection of Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster and Stan Getz, players like that- and then he also had some of the Chess blues records of Howlin' Wolf and Chuck Berry. So, the first guitar players I heard were Howlin' Wolf and Chuck Berry. I decided I liked that more than the saxophone. So we went to a music store and got a Harmony "Monterey" $20 archtop.

GS: How old were you then?
VJ: Maybe 9 years old.

GS: Was that a full-sized instrument then, and not a three-quarter or anything else?
VJ: It was a full-sized instrument. Harmony made archtop acoustic guitars in those days. The soundholes weren't round. The round -hole version of Harmony was [produced by] another division of the company; I believe it was called "Stella". Did you ever hear of those?

GS: Sure!
VJ: So this was an F-hole archtop, non- cutaway and the string gauges were, I believe they were medium and heavy. There was a company called Black Diamond and there were no gauges marked on the string package.

GS: I still have some of those.
VJ: So you didn't know what the gauge was. If you got them on the guitar and you could press them down you were in business. The teacher that I started with was a jazz player. We just kind of stumbled on him by accident. His name was Ed Berg. He owned a music store, more of a studio actually, and he was my teacher. There were more accordion students at this studio than there were guitar student at the time. Thank God that's changed!

GS: It's fortunate, as far as your career as it's gone, that you stumbled on a jazz teacher from the very first.
VJ: Yeah! That was just by luck. So he taught me how to read standard notation right away and the first book I ever got was the Mel Bay Guitar Primer.

GS: I'll be darned. So you were hooked on the guitar by blues players but almost immediately got into reading and jazz?
VJ: Well, not jazz. Not yet, anyway. At that time Duane Eddie was pretty popular and I really wanted to get into the kind of "twangy" guitar sound. So I learned how to read a little bit and learned some chords and then we started with some early, blues-type I - IV - V things. By then I had been listening to Duane Eddie and also an instrumental band called The Ventures.

GS: I just heard one the original Ventures- Nokie Edwards- at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention in Nashville. He plays very cleanly in a very precise style.
VJ: I listened to him and the Ventures quite extensively. This was around 1963, about a year before the British invasion, before the Beatles. So I actually started playing guitar a year or so before that. The groups at that time were early Beach Boys; I was listening to that. We also had some recordings by Tony Mottola; he was a big influence in the sound. I just thought that he had the most amazing sound of any guitarist that I had heard up to that point.

GS: Was there anybody else who influenced you?
VJ: Yeah, there was also a Nashville guitarist named Harold Bradley who was Owen Bradley's brother. I had a record of his called Misty Guitar that I thought was really phenomenal. Most of what I was listening to would be like blues/country-type stuff. We had some Les Paul records in there).

GS: Any "garage bands" in there or big bands in high school or in college?
VJ: Didn't have any. The music programs in school and like… I grew up in a little town that was a suburb of New York City and it [a music program that included the guitar] was kind of non-existent. I mean, there wasn't any awareness of that kind of stuff in schools but I got a lot of exposure to the guitar through television because there were so many variety shows where people played live.

GS: That's right. I remember that.
VJ: Like it would be nothing to see Wes Montgomery play on television. I saw him play on the Grammy Awards and there was another show called Hollywood Palace where Herb Albert presented Wes Montgomery playing "Windy". I have a tape of that.

GS: Incredible.
VJ: I remember seeing Frank Sinatra playing with Antonio Carlos Jobim some, you know, plus you had the British invasion so there was a lot of music going on. Good music too!

GS: Any of that influence your current style?
VJ: Oh sure! It all goes in the pot. Some forty years later I can still, once in a while, pull out one of those old licks, you know. They're like bricks in the foundation. In the end it's part of your whole persona - of where you started and where you are and so on…

GS: Where did you get your music education?
VJ: Um, just the lesson with Berg in the 60's and that was it. I never went to school for it or anything like that. And then more recently in the past seven years I've been studying with a teacher named Charlie Banacos through correspondence. He lives in the Boston area and he's taught a lot of people like Mike Brecker and Mike Stern. He's probably one of the best-known teachers of jazz in the Northeast.

GS: Does he have a website or anything?
VJ: He's a piano player but he teaches all different instruments. I mean, he's a music teacher.

GS: So he teaches music theory and not particularly guitar styles at all …
VJ: Exactly, he doesn't teach guitar at all.

GS: So there was no other guitar teacher besides Ed Berg?
VJ: That's it.

GS: So you are a largely self-made man on the guitar.
VJ: I just checked out a lot of it on my own. I was fortunate and still am fortunate to play with so many great musicians where it's kind of like on-the-job training.

GS: How did that happen? Did you audition for bands?
VJ: Well when I left high school the only place you could go, as I was really interested in more of a jazz direction although I was playing rock and things like that…The only place to go was Berkeley in Boston and it was so expensive to go at that time. A lot of people who went to Berkeley in those days only went for a year or a semester and then ran out of money. They didn't have all the scholarship funding that they have now. So I ended up going on the road with an organist named Don Patterson. Pat Martino recommended me. I guess I was about eighteen or nineteen.

GS: Amazing! So no classes, no secondary education, nothing like that?
VJ: No, nothing.

GS: Incredible. You must have some kind of ear then.
VJ: I mean, if you are serious about it, if you are persistent…I mean. I'm more into it now than I've ever been. I mean, if it's what you want then…

GS: Do you make your living performing and recording?
VJ: And teaching.

GS: Tell me about the teaching aspect of your work. That's not mentioned in the biography in your book [Modern Chords: Advanced Harmony for Guitar].
VJ: Ok, I'm teaching at Rutgers University as an adjunct [professor], The New School for Social Research, a jazz program in New York City, and also at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. A lot of driving!

GS: What brought about your writing the book for Mel Bay, Modern Chords/ Advanced Harmony for Guitar?
VJ: Well, [Mel Bay Music Editor] Corey Christiansen and I kind of knew of each other and I was playing at the Bistro in St. Louis. We met there and we kind of kept in touch and had talked about a couple of topics and we kind of agreed on this one that we both thought was necessary.

GS: It's something that you must focus on in your own teaching then.
VJ: I do, yeah. A lot of this information I had already documented, so I organized it into book form with Corey's help and that's how it came about.

GS: What other areas do you emphasize with your students?
VJ: I try to get everybody to bone up on their sight reading. I think that's very, very important and one of the hardest things to do on the guitar because that gives you an insight into a whole world and a whole library of information. But it's good for the business industry because when people find a guitar player who can read well, they have a tendency to latch onto them. You don't necessarily have to be the greatest [player]… Some of the greatest players can't read that well. So I think it's an area that we need to focus more on.

GS: So job security comes with the territory.
VJ: You know, Fred Hamilton wrote a great sight reading book for Mel Bay. Do you know that one?

GS: That's Reading Studies and Compositions for Guitar (20392); I think I've got it here on my desk.
VJ: Yeah, that's a really good one. It's one of the best ones I've seen in a long time. I've started to use that one too, but that's an area that we all need to get better at. Guys like Tony Mottola and a lot of people…well, Wes didn't read, but there were a lot of top-notch studio players that I grew up admiring who could read anything. Guys like Don Arnone, Tony Mottola, Al Caiola; these were guys who worked from morning until night in the studio.

GS: Just reading down the charts!
VJ: Exactly! It's takes a lot of time but you can get better at it. You just have to be persistent.

GS: How do you encourage enhancing ones chord pallet? So many guitarists get stuck in the black and white chord area. How do you break out of that?
VJ: Well, that's one of the things I talk about in the book. If you take any stock voicing that you already know, for example, if you had a C Major 7th, you can flat the 5, sharp the 5, you can move the 7th to 6th, you can move the root up a whole step …then you have a 9th. If you have a dominant 7th chord, you can apply the same kind of process: flat the 5, sharp the 5. Then if you want a flat-9 then the root goes up a half step, sharp-nine... Just moving the 5's and 9's around will create four, five, or six other chords that you didn't have before.

GS: Do you get much into the drop-2 approach or drop-3?
VJ: You know, it's kind of the same thing. I didn't grow up on that kind of terminology. It's more of a science now, but it works out to be the same thing. Ultimately, any teacher is only going to show you what works for them. Then you draw your own conclusions. There are thousands of books now. The thing about my book, and it's true I'm sure of others, now we have the written notation as well as the tablature and I have my entire book on the CD. So you have no excuse! (laughs)

GS: What are your thoughts about the use of tablature? You'd rather see people use standard notation, right? But do you think there's a place for tab as well?
VJ: Absolutely, because tablature- when it's done properly- shows you which strings the player is thinking about. Of course, it's not going to matter to trumpet players. But I mean it's good to know what position [a note or phrase] is really in, or what is the player really thinking about position-wise. That's when I think it's really good. I mean, if it's just tablature, not any written notation then I don't think that's the best way to go. I definitely think tablature definitely has its place.

GS: Do you play any other instruments besides guitar?
VJ: Some piano, you know; we have a couple of keyboards in the house, but more as a reference, not for live performance.

GS: Any thoughts about playing 7-string guitar?
VJ: You know, I've picked them up a few times, but to me it just seems like it's just too much more to think about. Six string, I haven't figured that out yet, or enough to be efficient. Some people are so good at it, you know, like the way Bucky Pizzarelli can play 7-string, it's just so natural that when you listen…if it helps you get to the music better, then it's the right way. I don't feel like I need the extra string to get at the music. But I loved what players like Bucky have done and of course George Van Eps, Howard Alden and Jimmy Bruno. I think Jimmy Bruno now went back to six-string.

GS: Oh really?
VJ: Yeah, I think he abandoned the 7-string.

GS: I'll have to ask him.
VJ: I saw him last week and he was playing a six-string guitar. We went to a photo shoot and I think he's back to six. But I think it's great thing, if you are comfortable with it. To me, the guitar is just a chunk of wood; you know, it's only a means to the music and if you have a sound in your head of what the music should be, then the instrument kinda becomes secondary.

GS: Whom do you listen to now?
VJ: I'll tell you- I went out last night and heard John Abercrombie's group live. It was really phenomenal. It was just great music, I wasn't even aware of such virtuoso players. I still listen to a lot of guitar and I'm listening to more classical music now than I used to.

GS: What do you think accounts for that?
VJ: I don't know. I really don't know. Maybe there's some stuff that I've been meaning to get to for years that I've finally found time for- you know some Scriabin piano sonatas and I've been listening to a lot of Chopin piano music.

GS: Scriabin is great! He's one of my favorites.
VJ: He's unbelievable. I just got a CD of some new music for guitar… like George Crumb wrote some music for guitar. And I just picked up a piece that Hindemith wrote- a short piece for three guitars.

GS: I wasn't aware of those [compositions].
VJ: I wasn't either! I found them in a music shop. There's a really great music shop here in New York called the Joseph Patelson Music House [160 West 56th St, behind Carnegie Hall]. It has tons of classical transcriptions, so I found that.

GS: Apart from music, what are your interests?
VJ: Well I try to exercise. I'm to go to the gym as much as I can to keep my old 50-year-old body in shape. I really enjoy reading; that's my real passion. I read every day, anything from novels to magazines and newspapers. Now I'm trying to learn the computer a little bit better too. I'm not a big fan of computers; I've got to get better at it.

GS: What's the most recent book you've enjoyed?
VJ: Uh, let's see, I just finished The Da Vinci Code and that was very interesting.

GS: I recommend the novel Cold Mountain. I really liked that. Do you still have a daily practice routine of your own? Or do you just pick it up whenever you can?
VJ: I'm trying to do more composition now. I try to write more music and of course, I will pick up the guitar every day and play some exercises. I also work on sight reading. I'm trying to record more things on my little 4-track machine as well as on an 8-track, but I always seem to have things to practice just being involved in different recording projects. As a matter of fact, I'm recording something on Monday, a contemporary odd-meter thing and I'm going in to over dub; it's really hard stuff.

GS: Are there any particular teaching techniques you employ? You mentioned in your book the concepts of "Practice, Application, and Composition." That's basically it in a nutshell, isn't it?
VJ: Yeah, but the first thing I'll do when somebody [new] comes over is play something with them. I'm very hands-on as a teacher. I'll always play, but I'll try to listen to somebody play first and kind of determine what I think their strong points and their weak points are. Then I'll ask them how they feel about it, and then just kind of plan out a strategy to create a weekly practice plan that will strengthen all areas. But the application, you have to think about- "What do you practice for?" Ultimately, it's to play with somebody. So the way of getting better is to practice an application. If you just practice and never play with anyone, then you won't see results as quickly as the person that does both.

GS: So playing in some kind of ensemble, that's one of the key elements?
VJ: Definitely. I mean, for improvised music, you know, unless you just have a career as a classical musician.

GS: In your own composition, do you write melodies or chord-melodies for use with a combo, or full solo arrangements?
VJ: It's all of that. Sometimes if it's a recording you have to be aware of the instrumentation and the possibilities. You know, in the piano-less format, which is kind of the way I go. I'll always think of how to use the bass on the 5th and 6th strings [or] sometimes where I can voice chords other than on the upper four strings.

GS: You mentioned the word "piano-less"? Is that correct?
VJ: Yes. That's where the guitar is the primary chord instrument, which is kind of the way I like to play, you know.

GS: But you would logically do that with a bassist and a drummer, right?
VJ: Right.

GS: What is your favorite ensemble setting for the guitar?
VJ: I like the guitar, bass, drums, and a horn.

GS: A single sax, or whatever?
VJ: Yeah. I really enjoy comping and accompanying. That's one thing I really enjoy doing. Of course everyone loves to solo and improvise, but accompanying- that's what I find challenging and rewarding.

GS: What would you say are the key elements of your style? Aren't you basically trying to cover all the bases?
VJ: Well, I'm interested in acoustic as well as electric guitar.

GS: Oh really?
VJ: Yeah. I play quite a bit of steel-string and nylon-string, mostly with a pick with very little with fingerstyle. But I enjoy that whole acoustic area as well.

GS: What brands of guitar do you play in those three categories?
VJ: Well I just got a brand new classical made by a guy named Richard DiCarlo who lives on Long Island [Massapequa Park, NY], and it's really beautiful.

GS: Does it have a full-sized, classical neck?
VJ: Yeah.

GS: What about the flat-top and the archtop you're playing now?
VJ: I have a flattop made by Augustino LoPrinzi that I got in the 70's when he lived in New Jersey for a short time. He made one for me, he made one for Larry Coryell and he was building for some others. He's mostly known as a classical guitar maker but he did make some steel-strings. That was back in the 70's and I still have it.

GS: I met LoPrinzi and his daughter Donna [also a luthier] in Florida two years ago. They are very nice people and fine craftsmen. Other guitarists have recommended their instruments to me as well.
VJ: I've had this one since '77 and it's been in car accidents and it's been through moves, it's been through everything and it still sounds great. It's the guitar that I've had the longest. And I have another, a Takamine "Santa Fe" series that's really nice too.

GS: How about the archtops you are playing now?
VJ: I have an archtop made by Glenn McKerrihan monk@amug.org. Have you ever heard of him?

GS: Yes. He has also appeared at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention.
VJ: I have one of his. It's really nice; it has a closed top. I think he was influenced by George Barnes. Remember that old George Barnes model Guild that had the closed top?

GS: I'm not aware of that. So there are no sound holes in it?
VJ: No f-holes; It's a 16-inch archtop, but the top is closed.

GS: Are there any ports in it?
VJ: No ports at all.

GS: Not in the side or anything?
VJ: Nope. You'd be surprised at what an acoustic sound it has.

GS: That's great!
VJ: Yep. It's a really nice feature and the guitar just plays beautifully; it has a Seymore Duncan humbucker pickup in it. It's got a really nice sound. You wouldn't know the difference [between the sound of this guitar and one with f-holes].

GS: How about your amp?
VJ: I have an Evans custom amp; That's primarily what I've been using. I have some old amps too that I really like. I just recently bought an old Ampeg Gemini 2 from the 60's, and I bought and old Fender Twin from 1969.

GS: How about your flatpick preference?
VJ: I've been using John Pierce studio picks, extra heavy. It's the largest pick that I know of. They're fantastic. I used to get huge calluses on my right index finger that would hurt a lot hurt a lot but since I've been using these I'm not in pain anymore. (laughs) So I stick with them.

GS: Any formal product endorsements?
VJ: Well I have Evans amplifiers. I also have a guitar endorsement with Bill Cummins. That's the other guitar I want to tell you about. He makes archtops as well, but he just recently came up with this semi-hollowbody that I've been playing. We're both really excited about it. It's got a little port on the top that lets you practice acoustically; this little window on top opens and you can hear yourself better.

GS: A little slide device? Those are cool.
VJ: Yeah. So I have an endorsement with him as well as with Raezer's Edge Cabinets and La Bella Strings, which are my favorites.

GS: Anything on your wish list as far as equipment?
VJ: Oh boy! I wish I had a big old barn. I'd fill it all up with vintage gear!

GS: Hoarding, eh?
VJ: I'd like to have one of the old Gretches too. I'd like one of the old Chet Atkins "Country Gentlemen"; that's a really nice guitar. You don't see those around too much. I've always liked three [models]: "The Tennessean", "The Nashville"). Old Gibson's! I love Old Gibson's and archtops. I like to own a "Super 400". Those are really beautiful.

GS: They kind of set the bar, didn't they?
VJ: Yeah. Seems like everything is modeled after the old Gibsons as far as archtops makers are concerned.

GS: Do you have any other Mel Bay projects in the works? I hear you have a CD coming with us?
VJ: There's a book coming out shortly called Inside/ Outside. It's kind of like the Randy Johnston project [Soul Jazz Guitar] where I went into the studio and played over fifteen standards. [The transcribed solos will appear in the book.] That's coming out. There is also some kind of collaboration that Corey [Christiansen] put together [Master Anthology of Jazz Guitar Solos, Volume 4] that will be coming out; It's made up entirely of original tunes. And then I'm working on one right now entitled Polychords.

GS: That's an area that hasn't been adequately explored in our catalog.
VJ: Yeah, I hope to have that done by the end of summer.

GS: What's the Mel Bay Records CD called? [A December 2004 release is planned.]
VJ: The Second Look - That's the working title anyway. I'm pretty sure that's what it's going to be.

GS: Any up coming performance dates or tours or workshops?
VJ: Yes, as a matter of fact I'm playing at The Blue Note on August 15th with the Vic Juris Trio. Then I'm teaching a workshop here in New Jersey from August 8th to the 11th. That will be with some other players in a week-long workshop with a concert. And I'm touring Japan for part of September with a flutist named Jeremy Stein. And then I'll be going on tour with David Liebman, the saxophone playe,r for two weeks after that.

GS: Do you manage yourself or do you have a manager or agent?
VJ: I mostly do everything myself. I do have certain agents and things but I don't have a fulltime agent as such.

GS: Any advice to students who are seriously considering becoming career guitar players? Learn to read, for one, right?
VJ: Yeah- Do something else! Nah. Well, today it's a little different. You have to have your hands in a little bit more than just guitar playing, you know. Teaching, of course. I would say getting a college education and a degree and possibly even a master's degree would be a good idea. So if you can do that early on then you're pretty much set; you can get better paying positions if you have the credentials; that's the way it works now.

GS: I once asked [big band leader] Stan Kenton, "How do you get people to listen to jazz?" He said, "You really can't make them listen." I noticed in Newsweek not long ago that only 3 percent of record sales in 2003 were devoted to jazz and possibly classical music as well.
VJ: Well, it's definitely a small group of people, but worldwide I think that there are more listeners than we realize, but I don't think this next generation of people is picking up on it as much as the previous one.

GS: Among guitar players it's a natural progression. If you start with blues, folk or rock, you ultimately gravitate towards music of more substance. To me, that means either jazz or classical music. So among players at least, I think conditions will improve.
VJ: I think the Internet will be good for that too because it will expose people to a lot more. And I think eventually, I see things going back more acoustic. I have the feeling that in ten years technology's is going to level off.

GS: I think that's what hits most of us in the beginning; it's just the intimacy of the acoustic instrument, the way it responds.
VJ: Definitely.

GS: Furthermore, it's just my opinion, but nylon-string guitars have the capability of varying the tone and dynamics…
VJ: That's the real guitar…

GS: ...practically more than any other guitar. At least I don't hear that kind of awareness in most steel-string or fingerstyle players. They don't seem to scratch the surface of the interpretive capability of the steel-string guitar.
VJ: That's why I think it's important for a beginner to really start with the acoustic guitar so they really hear the sound of the instrument, not the amplifier because, if you're playing the electric guitar, you're hearing everything from the amp. I think it's important for a beginner to get a good acoustic sound together first.

GS: Now that's significant! Would you like to elaborate along those lines?
VJ: Well, that's how you develop your sound. I rarely play amplified in the house. The only time I use an amp is when I'm working with an effect or I just want to hear what something's going to sound like on the gig. Other than that, I have two guitars on stands in different areas of the house, and they're both acoustic. So if I'm walking by, I can just pick one up and play. I think that's how you really develop your sound.

GS: That's a nice closing thought for this interview. Thank you for your time, Vic. You can look forward to seeing this interview in the August issue of Guitar Sessions®. Thanks so much.
VJ: Thank you. It's been a pleasure.