“Bob comes from a large musical family and has been playing guitar for over 30 years. His life changed forever in 1973, when he attended a live concert of John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. “They had to peel me off the wall after that show.”, he recalls. That experience opened Bob’s eyes and ears to the possibilities for his chosen instrument. “I loved the way John McLaughlin combined rock, jazz and classical forms. He was my hero, not just because of his amazing playing technique but also for his compositional genius.”
Later, Bob found other sources of musical inspiration in artists like, Pierre Moerlen, Pekka Pohjola, Michael Hedges and Steve Reich. “My first exposure to the music of Steve Reich was at an unlikely venue. My brother Tim and I were at a club in Washington DC, waiting to see Kit Watkins perform. The place was called the “9:30 Club” and it catered mostly to the punk rock crowd. About half the audience were probably Sex Pistols fans. Incredibly, they played “Music for a Large Ensemble” over the PA before the show started and I was totally blown away. I had already learned to love polyrhythm and counterpoint from listening to John McLaughlin’s music, but this was something totally different.”
Having so many diverse influences, it’s not always clear how to categorize Bob’s music. He isn’t terribly fond of the term ‘New Age’. “There has been a lot of beneficial cross-pollination between jazz, rock and classical music. But these days, it tends to get lumped together under the New Age category and people don’t realize where it all came from. I much prefer the ‘Thrash Acoustic’ label Michael Hedges used.”
