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.

Steve Herberman

"His talent has such an energetic flare, with his own voice, that he cannot help become a major force in jazz," writes Jude Hibler of 20th Century Guitar magazine. Jazz guitarist Jimmy Bruno states "Steve Herberman is one of the freshest new jazz voices on the scene today." Herberman's style is rooted in swing and bebop yet his forward thinking approach to harmony and rhythm puts him on the cutting edge of jazz improvisation and composition.

Born in Bethesda, Maryland in 1966, Herberman was first exposed to jazz when his first grade teacher played a film of Louis Armstrong to her young students. Steve played piano and trombone before he decided to take up the guitar at age 11. When Herberman was 14 he had already decided to study music in college. He graduated with honors from Berklee College of Music in 1988 having studied with Gary Burton, John LaPorta, and Bill Leavitt.

Steve moved back to the Washington DC area and began a serious study of fingerstyle guitar and counterpoint. This led him to adopt the seven-string guitar in 1993. Herberman has performed at Blues Alley, the Kennedy Center, the East Coast Jazz Festival and Spazio in Los Angeles. He has performed with bassists Keter Betts and Buster Williams, saxophonists Buck Hill and Gary Bartz and trumpeter Terell Stafford and guitarists Howard Alden, John Pisano, Paul Bollenback and Joe Puma.

In 1999 Steve Herberman began teaching jazz guitar at Towson University near Baltimore where he is an adjunct faculty member. He directs several jazz ensembles and teaches private guitar lessons and performs in the faculty jazz ensemble featuring original compositions of new music.

In 2001 Steve released his first CD as a leader titled Thought Lines featuring a jazz quartet playing a program divided between Herberman originals and jazz standards. Jazz guitarist Jim Hall calls it "a terrific CD." The All Music Guide gives Thought Lines a four star rating. In 2002 Steve signed with String Jazz Recordings and Thought Lines was added to their catalog. It has received numerous national airplay on "Jazz After Hours" hosted by Jim Wilke and NPR's Morning Edition.

Steve is currently writing a sourcebook for musicians interested in improvising in a chordal, contrapuntal style. He is also working on his second CD. Herberman will be a featured performer at the First World Guitar Congress in Towson, Maryland in 2004, projected to be one of the largest guitar events of its kind.

The Interview (April 2003)

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

(SH) Guitarists Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Jim Hall and Joe Pass. In high school I was listening to a lot of Charlie Parker. Bird and Wes were my two favorites in high school and remain so today. Dexter Gordon was also very influential and than later on John Coltrane and Miles Davis.  

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

(SH) The emphasis on extended improvisations. The harmonic complexity and the rhythmic drive. The elegance and swing. I loved everything about jazz music, read all of the jazz biographies I could get my hands on and hunted for all of the classic jazz albums as well as some obscure recordings. I made it a point to hear every guitarist that I had ever read about.  

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

(SH) Certain types of jazz are definitely more marketable than others. The more experimental jazz will probably always have a smaller audience which is a shame. But it has always been that way. It seems that nowadays people are buying many more classic jazz albums than taking a chance on newer artists. There is plenty of great jazz music being created right now! I see nothing to convince me that jazz music will reach a significantly larger audience besides the thriving jazz education phenomenom.  

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

(SH) A Carl Barney 7 string archtop 17 inch with a Red Spruce top. It has a Kent Armstrong floating pickup. I use a Polytone MegaBrute, the one with the 8 inch speaker for most of my local gigs. Bill Comins is building me a new guitar which will be a 16 inch carved spruce top with a built in pickup, a good gigging guitar that isn't so lively like my Barney. I'll be playing at Bill Comins' booth this summer at the Philly guitar show.  

(JGR) Any plans for a new CD?  

(SH) I'll be recording a CD this summer with a record company called Mapleshade. They are known for their superior audio fidelity recordings. In fact there is an article in the current issue of JazzTimes which discusses their unorthodox recording techniques. The CD will primarily be a guitar trio but with a few solo and duo tracks and a few tracks with pianist Larry Willis. My first release "Thoughtlines" is on the String Jazz record label.