Here is a mini interview that I'm conducting with various jazz guitarists that are listed on this site. Some of the same questions are presented to every guitarist.

Joey Goldstien

Guitarist/Composer Joey Goldstein has been performing his original jazz compositions in and around the Toronto area since the early 80's

The Interview (April 2003)

(JazzGuitarResources) As a Jazz guitarist who where you early influences?

(JG) As a "jazz guitarist" my early influences were John McLaughlin, George Benson, Larry Coryell, Pat Martino, Pat Metheny, Mick Goodrick and John Scofield. But I wasn't listening to any of those guys until well after I had started studying at Berklee College Of Music. I was a rocker when I went in there and somewhat of a jazzer when I got out. I was there roughly from 1971 to 1974. I really went to music school so I could write complex progressive rock music like Yes, Frank Zappa, Emerson Lake And Palmer and Genesis.

But my earliest musical influence was my Dad who had a great singing voice and used to play a little baritone  ukulele. He taught me my first few grips on the uke. My elementary music school teacher, Mr. Bradshaw, was very good too. He taught the "Orff Method" created by composer Karl Orff.

The Beatles became very popular and so I had to graduate from 4 to 6 strings. I got an acoustic guitar, a Stella, for my 12th birthday, I think. Then I saved up for an electric (a Kent Strat copy) and an amp (a Paul). My Dad was in the army surplus business and for my 14th birthday somewhere he found me a Danelctro double neck electric guitar with a six string on the top and a bass on the bottom. It was made out of metal, aluminum I think, and it weighed a ton, especially inside the case.

I was into the Beatles and the Monkees, not the Stones. I wanted to be Mike Nesmith. I had the hat, the shirts, everything. Eventually I got into the harder stuff too. A friend played me Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced and that was it! From then on I was into Clapton, Beck, Page, Mick Taylor, Johnny Winter, Mike Bloomfield, Leslie West .... all the white blues/rock guys. I never really took to the black guys except Hendrix. I don't really know why that is. I guess I was scared or something or their music was just harder to find. I had an SG and then a real Strat during this time frame ... high school.

Back then it seemed that the electric guitar was progressing along the lines that everybody was getting faster, and faster was better. So I became a big fan of Ten Years After and Alvin Lee. It was easy to make the jump to John McLaughlin from there. I was listening to George Benson's funky CTI stuff when I first got to Berklee but the straight ahead jazz bug had not quite bitten me yet. It wasn't until I heard Pat Metheny playing around town that I got real interested in all of that. Pat has never been the most traditional player out there but his roots are in that music and I always check out the roots of the people I am most interested in. So from there I started checking out the masters.

(JGR) What about jazz drew you to the form?

(JG)I just always loved to improvise and to play by ear, from day one. To me, jazz is just about doing that on the highest level.

(JGR) Do you see any commercial potential in jazz?

(JG) Sure. There's always been a few guys in jazz selling lots of records and doing lots of gigs. But it's weird to see the enormous popularity of Diana Krall. That's all out of whack. I think the general public likes her for different reasons than the jazz community does. I get uncomfortable when jazzers reach pop star status.

(JGR) For all the guitarists with GAS out there what is you current gigging setup?

(JG) Well I'm in a weird transition now where I have not settled in on any particular rig. Although I've been concentrating on playing with a clean dark sound the last few years, if and when I decide to do some more recording and gigging as a leader, I'm sure I'll want to rock out a bit. I also do quite a few jobbing gigs every year for money so I need a rig that covers all the bases all the time.

The Raezer's Edge Twin 8 cabinet I bought a few months ago has been a real eye opener for me. It gives me the best jazz sound I've ever had no matter what I plug into it, so I'd like to have that sound available to me whatever gig I'm playing. For jazz jams and jazz-only gigs the T8 is great with the Clarus 1R I have. But that rig is simply not suitable for pop music.

So I thought I'd try it with my Boogie stuff. But on the last 2 jobbing gigs I did with Mesa Boogie gear driving the T8 it was not cutting it on the pop music. My current plan is to grab a Stealth 12 cabinet and use that with the Boogie gear. It should work better with the pop music and the tube amps, as well as sounding great for jazz.

The main conclusion I've drawn from all the little speaker cabinet experiments I've been doing over the last several weeks is that although they sound great for rock and R&B I don't like open backed cabinets for jazz. Almost any closed back cab is better for jazz than an open back but those RE cabs are the best I've ever heard.

So, if it all works out the rig will be: Mexi Tele  (for jazz) D'Addario flatwounds .012 to .052, w/humbucker (Duncan 59) and Gotoh brass bridge or FrankenStrat (for pop/R&B/fusion) D'Adarrio roundwounds .011 to .049 2 humbuckers, Duncan 59 in neck position and Dimarzio Tone Zone angled bridge humbucker with 1 coil offset to align pole pieces better with strings, 1 sing coil Duncan flat magnet Strat pickup in the middle, hard-tail Gotoh bridge. into Vox Wah (modded for true bypass) Boss CL-50 .... half-rack rack-mount compressor Mesa Boogie TriAxis .... programmable all-tube preamp TC Electronics G-Major ... multi-FX Mesa Boogie Simul Satellite ... 75 watt simul class tube power amp (came as a powered speaker cab with an open backed cabinet and EVM 12L speaker but is now placed in a head cabinet). Pearce cabinet with Eminence Delta 12A speaker (same speak as in the RE-S12). This cab is left over from an old Pearce G1 amp I used to own and can be open or closed back. It has a single port and sounds almost as good as the RE-S12 in closed back.

If this works out I'll be buying a real S12 and probably a stereo tube power amp, probably the Mesa Simul 2:Ninety.

For straight ahead jazz gigs I'll just be using the Tele, the Clarus 1R and the T8.