For about as long as I've been a fan of music in Columbus, I've been a fan of guitarist Brett Burleson. He's set the stage on fire with rock bands including The Bygones (for a few years in the early '00s, pound for pound the most exciting band in town); Psandwich (several people of my acquaintance, including my partner Anne's, favorite of all Ron House's bands); one of my favorite Tim Easton sets of the last ten years, alongside Bygones drummer Billy Heingartner and Paul Goll; and most recently the raw and loving tribute to the Stones, The Rolling Holms, alongside members of Ugly Stick, Bob City, Bigfoot, TJSA, Golomb, and The Sovines. But he's best known for his work in various flavors of the jazz idiom, playing with every great player in town you could name and astonishing in all contexts.
For years, Burleson has had a parallel career as an educator. His current full-time position at Denison includes taking charge of the long-running Denison Guitar Festival. Begun by guitarist and professor Tom Carroll in 1997, this hidden gem takes place less than an hour outside Columbus and has brought legends like Gene Bertonicini and Bucky Pizzarelli - as well as acclaimed younger guitarists like Julian Lage - to play and workshop at the prestigious university.
This first year under Burleson - the 22-year run of the festival hit a forced pause in 2020 and 2021 - features an increased focused bands and group interplay, and he's bringing the cream of the crop October 20 through 22nd (free tickets to the 8 pm performances on Friday and Saturday are on Eventbrite, RSVP required). I met Burleson in a Clintonville bar to talk about the festival and how teaching works with his playing.
Burleson said his conscious focus with this year's festival was to bring in players "Who are really doing new stuff, writing and recording; getting out on the road and getting recognized for being part of the tradition [and] creating their own sound also."
Spin Cycle, image courtesy of their website
The first night brings Spin Cycle, a stellar quartet featuring Matt Chertoff's nimble guitar, compositions by drummer Scott Neumann and tenor saxophonist Tom Christensen that balance a taste for intricate melodicism and snarly gutbucket grease, and bassist Matt Pavolka who's blown me away a few times in New York clubs like Smalls and Barbes. They're at the clubbier venue Slivy's inside Silverstein Hall and no tickets are required. "They're also going to do a clinic with my 3:00 pm class, and [saxophonist] Alex Burgoyne is going to film it for part of the JAG TV [online] series."
Friday, Akron guitarist and bandleader Dan Wilson comes down with his organ trio, featuring Cliff Barnes on keys and Dave Throckmorton on drums. Wilson's recorded with some of the heaviest names in contemporary jazz, including Christian Sands and Jeff "Tain" Watts on his powerful 2021 record Vessels of Wood and Earth, produced by bassist Christian McBride. Wilson can play anything beautifully. "I'm really happy to have Dan and his group," Burleson said, "He has modern influences in his writing but can play all the standards and stuff. He's had a project with [Columbus drummer] Antoine Fatout and some people where they play all Brazilian fusion stuff from the '70s. That's super."
As anyone who's heard Wilson's playing with Hammond B-3 great Joey DeFrancesco (on Trip Mode and DeFrancesco's collaboration with Van Morrison, You're Driving Me Crazy) knows, there's a special kind of magic when he's in an organ trio context. JazzTimes said the band "has built a great rapport musically and personally." Of the drummer, Pittsburgh-based Dave Throckmorton, Burleson commented, "[Local organ legend] Tony Monaco is impressed by him," and Pittsburgh City Paper, in a glowing feature, quoted songwriter Bill Deasy saying he's "More like a force of nature than any other drummer in Pittsburgh." Wilson will also lead an open-to-the-public workshop at 5 pm Friday.
Burleson opens the Friday show with a set by his own trio featuring two of his fellow professors who are also acclaimed musicians. Dean Hulett is one of Columbus's absolute finest bassists whose work I mostly know holding down a rhythm section with the great Mark Lomax. Here, he and Burleson line up with drummer Seth Rogers whose work I don't know as well but I've heard remarkable things.
Dan Wilson, taken from his website
Saturday afternoon features a clinic by festival founder Tom Carroll at 4 pm and one at 5pm by headliner Jonathan Kreisberg who brings his quartet for the 8 pm final concert. Miami-based pianist Martin Bejerano has logged time in the band of legendary drummer Roy Haynes and features on a burning Russell Malone album, Live at Jazz Standard Vol. 2 along with killer work on Kreisberg's 2019 Capturing Spirits - JKQ Live. Besides his work with Kreisberg, bassist Or Baraket's rich, resonant tone enlivens records with collaborators like Ari Hoenig and Fred Nardin and lights up a gorgeous record as leader, Sahar, released this year. Drummer Karl-Henrik Ousbäck's work I didn't know as well but in researching this, I found tracks I love his playing on just from this year - the restrained fire he brings to a cover of Norah Jones' "My Dear Country" with Gustav Lundgren and Par-Ola Landin is everything I want in jazz drumming and the subtlety he brings to the new record by classic Swedish guitarist Hans Olding fits like a perfect glove.
Burleson pointed out Kreisberg's interest in Brazilian music and, for me, one of the joys of Kreisberg's writing is his ability to bring in a variety of influences and filter them through a prism of his own experience and understanding, in own twisting but catchy compositions and in assailing undisputed classics of the form like his breathtaking cover of Horace Silver's "Peace" from his Wave Upon Wave album. I never get the feeling the pyrotechnics are hiding anything, he's always deeply invested in communicating but with heightened language, not unlike the leader I first saw him play live with, organ maestro Dr. Lonnie Smith, in a concert inside a church as part of Winter Jazzfest that sent me into the snowy street feeling like I'd been set on fire. "I kind of cold called Jonathan," Burleson said, "And he was completely in - the first time we talked, we talked for an hour. He's been really great about communicating and used this to set up a tour [for his band]."
Jonathan Kreisberg, from his website
Burleson and I talked a little about the transition to becoming a full time instructor at an exclusive liberal arts university like Denison and the unique pleasures that come with that role. "[Previously,] I taught at Denison, Capital, Ohio State, and Ohio Wesleyan. It was a lot of driving. Some days, I'd spend half the day at one school and half at another, kind of cobbling together a full time job out of four. [This] is great. I'm there four days a week and I feel a lot more focused with my students and and just feel like I have a better connection with them. [For instance,] I can meet with them outside of the lesson times."
"We have some music majors," Burleson continued, "But the vast majority of our music students are studying something else and they're either minoring [taking] a second major in music. It's a different situation compared to something like Capital, where you show up and the Conservatory, with hyper-focus, [is] the destination. I can help them with what they're interested in."
"I really like that the students are studying a lot of different things," Burleson continued, And have a lot of different backgrounds that they can bring into possibly having music be a part of their career. Also, just the fact that I'm teaching students about how to be disciplined and working on a piece of music. Especially working with classical guitar music where they have to like just like break it into pieces, you know? And build up this thing that really forces them to be patient with themselves. They can't do it right away. It's impossible. They have to really just work on one thing at a time, deal with the roadblocks that pop up and that's great for teaching them how to negotiate with problems in everyday life, you know, so they're getting a lot of that from that perspective."
For example, Burleson said, "[I have] a really great student from the beginning. He came in, we had a good connection when he came into the interview with his parents and everything. He's studying music composition but his major is international business. He's a senior this year and he likes music but he's interested in the business. I've had to learn - like most musicians - the hard way about how business works in in order to make a living.
Besides the sharper focus on students, Burleson said, "I feel like it's helped a lot with my playing too. I don't feel as scattered all over the place. I'm still over working. I'm always going to do that. But I have a more focused connection with the work I [do]. I [get only] to take the playing that I want to do."
This year's Denison Jazz Guitar Festival promises four different approaches and four looks at where guitar playing is now and where it's going. It's a key event of the cultural season, nestled in beautiful downtown Granville.
Richard Sanford is a Columbus native always on the lookout for new stimulation.