Mel Bay author Ken Hatfield (Jazz and the Classical Guitar: Theory and Application) recently performed a week-long series of sets in Manhattan with bass player Gene Torres at a hip and spacious Upper East Side restaurant called Fetch. With its dark wood décor and wall to wall portraits of varying dog breeds, it turns out the restaurant's unique specialty, in addition to serving live music and American-style fare, is that it offers to play matchmaker for diners who are interested in adopting a pet from an animal shelter.

Hatfield and Torres performed in a small clearing within the upper dining area with a sound system adequate to reach the bar and patrons at the back of the restaurant. Hatfield, who plays a Buscarino Cabaret model, uses an RMC pickup designed by Richard McClish, run through a small generic PA cabinet with a 10-inch speaker and 5-inch dome tweeter.

While many people don't think cables are consequential to their overall sound, Hatfield says:

I have found it to make a major difference. I have a very strong preference for the Monster Cable Studio Pro 1000 series and I often use a volume pedal to help nip feedback in the bud because the one disadvantage to amplifying nylon strings is the low threshold before the onset of feedback.

I've also been using Luthier strings for a long time, Set #45, which are essentially a dark, silver, hard tension, he says. The basses are wound with a nickel coated copper as opposed to silver. I not only prefer the tone of these, but I also find they help cut down on some of the string noise that pickups seem to accentuate.

One piece of equipment Hatfield might have added was a vocal mic, as he was forced to shout out the titles of his pieces in his set, which started off with Antonio Carlos Jobim's classic "Al Felicidade", followed by a soulful version of Stanley Turrentine's "Sugar" and Hatfield's own "Meroe" from his Phoenix Rising CD (Arthur Circle Music). Deftly accompanied by Torres' 5-string fretless Epiphone El Capitan bass guitar, Hatfield launched into Caetano Veloso's sophisticated "Coração Vagabundo" (Vagabond Heart). The duo also performed Hatfield's "Alef", inspired by a Jorge Luís Borges short story before closing with "Forest Flower" by Charles Lloyd.

Hatfield's playing is technically fluent, expressive and above all, comfortable in his classical guitarist approach to posture and playing while incorporating traditional jazz chord reaches combined with the dexterity and speed afforded by classical guitar technique. In his new comprehensive book Jazz and the Classical Guitar (Mel Bay Publications), Hatfield aptly points out this is not really such an anomaly if you consider great classical/jazz players like Ralph Towner and Gene Bertoncini. And it's clear beneath the tables that the restaurant diners are appreciative of Hatfield's playing this evening by the way their napkins are bouncing on their knees.

Hatfield first studied with Mel Bay author and guitarist John Griggs in Norfolk, Virginia before going on to become an instructor himself at Berklee School of Music at the ripe old age of 19 in the same year that Pat Metheny was on staff. Hatfield names the artists Wes Montgomery and Ralph Towner as his primary musical influences at the time when a chance meeting with Andrés Segovia during the Griggs School of Music Concert Series lead to his study of classical guitar. "It was quick. I barely had the chance to say hello but I did get to shake his meaty hand," Hatfield says.

Hatfield's new CD, String Theory (Arthur Circle Music), features his original compositions on classical guitar, Dobro® and mandolin, along with a continuation of his fascination for crafting pieces inspired by the writer Jorge Luís Borges.

"Alef" was originally conceived for trio on my Phoenix Rising CD. I later found I still had more ideas, based specifically on the seven stories named in the suite on String Theory. I don't like to reuse material from previous works so 'Aleph' and 'Borges & I' were borne as separate works. It seemed appropriate to keep them that way.

When asked what aspects of the literature influenced his music, Hatfield says,

It's difficult for me to be precise on how literature, or for that matter, art, people, places or sometimes even animals, or things and objects influence my music except to say that such sources stimulate reflections that give rise to sounds which become the music.

I have always been able to equate and express how I feel in musical motifs, almost like a running sound track. The key for me seems to be the level of clarity I have about my feelings in regards to a specific source of inspiration and since great literature and painting in particular generate powerful reactions on my part, they often also stimulate the kind of reflection that is integral to some of the processes I employ when composing music.

Of course, this explanation is like a post mortem because I'm not aware of anything but the reflections I'm having when they are happening. Then quite suddenly, I'm hearing music sometimes very clearly, as was the case for all of the music on String Theory. Other times I just get glimpses or hear fragments of what becomes a tune or composition. When this happens it is like seeing something through a fog, and in these cases I have to try to piece things together like a detective. So the process varies from piece to piece.

Hatfield's 202-page book, Jazz and the Classical Guitar, features a neatly laid out overview of the various harmonic elements of jazz, its tonalities, scales and chords before delving into the modal jazz approaches created by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bill Evans. The book also provides and excellent study of the use of secondary dominant chords, substitute dominant chords and ii-V progressions used in the creation of jazz standards, in addition to covering the scope of vagrant and polytonal chords, quartal harmony, the blues and rhythm changes- though most of the book focuses on harmonic structure, which is essential for improvisation. The book also includes a companion CD of Hatfield's original compositions, featuring his playing with bassist Hans Glawischnig, drummer Jeff Hirshfield, and violinist Valentin Gregor.

With any luck, Fetch will live up to its name by seeing to the return of Ken Hatfield's relaxed, intelligent and masterful performance style.

About the Author

Julia Crowe is a New York-based guitarist, composer and writer. She contributes a monthly column, cover stories and features to Classical Guitar Magazine in the U.K. and her observations and musical commentary regularly appear in Acoustic Guitar Magazine and Mel Bay's Guitar Sessions® webzine. She has also written for Down Beat, FRETS and Guitar Player. Julia recently won a grant from the American Composers Forum's Encore Program for her piece, "Sid's Swagger".

For more information, please visit her website at www.juliacrowe.com