The New West Guitar Quartet 2007 Tour:
From Berlin to Boise by John Storie

When Guitar Sessions Editor Stephen Rekas first approached me to write an article for the webzine's "Tales from the Road" column, I knew instantly that I would have a tough time picking out exactly what story to share. My group from Los Angeles, the New West Guitar Quartet, has had five great years of playing together from our early days of ensemble coaching by Pat Kelley at USC to international tours in Japan, Canada, and Germany. As you can imagine, we've seen it all.

From chilled water bottles backstage and packed jazz clubs filled with guitar aficionados, to empty rooms, power outages (or surges), destroyed gear, boisterous (and vulgar) bar patrons, Babelfish translations gone wrong, and even a septic tank truck parking in front of our stage during a performance last year in Berlin. But hey, at least we were in Berlin. I bet most of us guitar players would play to a septic tank truck, so long as it's in an a foreign country and the driver waits until the bass solos to turn on the pump.

The New West Guitar Quartet has been a fun project for all of us. Perry Smith, Brady Cohan Matt Roberts, and I were all placed in the group in the fall of 2003 when we were Studio/Jazz Guitar Majors at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. Later that year, we traveled to the North Texas Jazz Festival and had a lot of fun winning the combo category as a guitar quartet with no rhythm section. In 2004 we received the protégé grant and put together our first album Introducing: New West Guitar Quartet.

In the three years that followed, we released our album Wide Awake, and the four of us put together a business plan to pursue the group year round - of course, limited by wherever my little Ford Escort could possibly take us. Right away, that ruled out driving more than a few miles, so we asked our parents if we could take their cars on tour. When they all said no, we decided to take two cars so we didn't all have to be together all the time, and we could play duo if one of the cars didn't make it. Plus, Perry's Saturn has a CD player and A/C. My Escort, or "Essie" as I call her, just has an AM/FM radio, A/C that works only when its cold outside, and a bike rack which surprisingly really doesn't come in that handy on a guitar quartet tour. But it sure looks hot!

Last summer found us on our longest tour of all. We started off at the German- American Volksfest in Berlin representing the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Tourism as a part of the 60th anniversary of the Berlin-Los Angeles Sister City program. I know, it's a long title, but they did give us business-class accommodations across the Atlantic - twice, once for the three-and-a-half weeks of our first leg, and then for our return trip in September to play one gig for the Mayor of Berlin.

Upon our first trip back from Berlin, we hit the road right away, and in two weeks, played San Francisco, San Jose, Lake Tahoe and Portland, Oregon. Then it was back to Germany- for less than 24 hours. We would go from Portland to LA to Düsseldorf, wait five hours, and then go on to Berlin. Then we would play a gig the next afternoon, party all night long in the basement of Berlin City Hall, and promptly leave the following morning. Now, while I'm sure all of us guitar players would love to get more of those gigs across the pond, take our advice and make some time to at least eat in the country you are visiting prior to coming home. Having a meal before the 15 or so hours of flying you will do is especially beneficial.

When we reached Portland, I was gratified to realize that we had completed an international trip in less than a day, but horrified that we still had another 3 weeks of travel across the West, driving to Portland, Central Oregon, Seattle, Boise, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Phoenix, and then home to LA. After the flight from Berlin, the four of us slept for a day straight, and then we putted along on our way in Essie Escort and Perry's gold Saturn.

I felt as if we were all in some odd Boy Scout troop trying to earn our merit badges for cooking, electronics, labor, business, cultures, heritage, aviation, collections, citizenship in the world, family life, first aid, personal management, wilderness survival, salesmanship, public speaking, truck transportation, and of course, music- all at once! With that in mind, it was certain that we would be Eagle Scouts by the time we arrived in Los Angeles, not to mention, tight in terms of our arrangements. And we didn't even have to wear a uniform, attend after-school den meetings, bake cookies, or restore any park benches to get there.

We arrived home September 23, 2007 with the four of us quite happy to see the crisp, fresh, brown, polluted air of our Lady of Los Angeles. While a little more road-worn, Essie the Escort made it all 3557 miles with all gaskets and sprockets intact.

Over the years, we have learned much about how to present ourselves as a contemporary guitar quartet. Many of the gigs on our 2007 tour were truly outstanding. The music really came together for us, and we all learned more about how much fun it can be to play with other guitarists in an ensemble setting. Whether we played in a club, theater, jazz festival, guitar festival, high school band room, or friend's back yard, the group managed to further carve our niche and hone-in on our group sound.

While some of our actual traveling was thoroughly exhausting, and I may resort to permanently using a Segway personal transporter after being stuck in my miniature car for two months, we all came away with a great sense of satisfaction knowing that for the third time we had put together a successful international tour for ourselves, sold a few hundred CDs and had some very memorable experiences to share with all of you in "Tales from the Road."

Happy trails,
John Storie

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About the Author

What started as a class for individual guitarists became an opportunity for Perry Smith, John Storie, Brady Cohan, and Matt Roberts to create a group like none other. In reference to their west coast roots and passion for new music, the group dubbed themselves the New West Guitar Quartet (NWGQ).

By arranging classic jazz standards and exploring original compositions, NWGQ established themselves as a notable jazz group when they were all students at the University of Southern California. As music majors, NWGQ collaborated with USC to become the first group to receive the coveted Thornton Protégé Grant. Since the group started in 2003 they have performed in major venues throughout Canada, Japan, Europe and all over the Western United States.

With the release of their second album "Wide Awake" on Art Song Music, NWGQ focuses to combine the improvisational elements of jazz with the performance standards of a chamber group. By utilizing all the colors of the guitar, New West Guitar Quartet creates a new medium of chamber music.