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Players �
Brad Shepik�
A Consistent Variety
It’s no accident guitarist Brad Shepik
bears the mark of so many music styles.
On a Saturday afternoon in late March,
he retrieved a stack of CD wallets from
the downstairs room of his apartment in
Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighborhood.
He found a jumble of albums by
George Benson and Georges Brassens,
Dorothy Ashby and Chet Atkins.
“Great cataloging,” Shepik cracked.
He played several tracks from a laptop
computer, where much of his CD collection—roughly
1,500 recordings—is
stored. The small sample included syncopated
Ethiopian Tigrigna music from
a compilation series called Ethiopiques,
then classical guitarist John Williams’
reading of Augustín Barrios Mangoré’s
La Catedral. “I wish I could play like
that,” he said.
Not long after Shepik started middle
school, he began signing out records
from libraries and taking buses to record
shops scattered in and around Seattle. He
not only discovered jazz, but also folkloric
music from overseas that would introduce
him to odd meters and exotic scales.
An album cover depicting an oud or a
lute invariably piqued his interest. “Some
of it I couldn’t quite get my ear around,”
recalled Shepik, 45. After a few months,
he added, he would listen to the music again and
start to appreciate it.
Shepik’s exposure to a wide spectrum of music
in the ’70s and ’80s anticipates the varied nature
of his career: He’s at home performing Great
American Songbook standards; he tours overseas
alongside musicians from Eastern Europe
and the Middle East; and he doubles on traditional
instruments like the tambura, oud and saz.
The new Brad Shepik Quartet album, Across
The Way (Songlines), displays little of this crosspollination.
Shepik composed the music in 2008
during a German tour with drummer George
Schuller’s group, Circle Wide. The tour highlighted
music that Keith Jarrett recorded in the
first half of the ’70s with his American quartet.
Before recording Across The Way, Shepik
experimented with groups that included organ,
drums and several different saxophone players.
Saying he found the format “confining,” Shepik
replaced the organ and reeds with vibraphone
player Tom Beckham and bassist Jorge Roeder;
Mark Guiliana plays drums. “I wanted to hear
more of the harmonic material that was in the
tunes,” he said. The music, he added, “is pretty
uncomplicated, so it really allows people to
stretch and be themselves.”
20 DOWNBEAT JULY 2011
caroline mardoK
The album is by turns quiet and intense. The
group often maintains a cool veneer while adhering
to a strict dynamic range. Playing with a clean
tone, Shepik avoids blues licks. But his doubletime
solos turn up the heat on tracks like “Down
The Hill” and the syncopated “Marburg.” An attractive
groove highlights “Mambo Terni,” and
“Your Egg Roll” includes multiple key signatures.
“As with a lot of Brad’s music, there’s a folk
element to it,” said Beckham, a longtime collaborator.
“Because of his body of work, I think that
[many critics] don’t quite know that he’s also an
amazing jazz guitarist.”
The tracks on Across The Way are more
streamlined than on 2009’s conservation-themed
Human Activity Suite, which is busy and eclectic.
Shepik offered his perspective over dinner at a
Mexican cafe near his co-op building.
“I just try to absorb music and see how it
comes out,” he said. “It’s not really interesting
or necessary for me to know where everything
comes from or what’s influencing what.”
Yet his large palette of influences, he conceded,
has distinct advantages: “Maybe it’s the idea
that you have to bring something of your own to
the table. You can’t just play it the way the other
guys played it.”
Shepik earned a music degree from Cornish
College of the Arts in Seattle before moving to
New York in 1990. He established a profile on
the city’s adventurous downtown scene while
completing a master’s degree at New York
University. His fondness for world music found
a supportive environment at clubs like the original
Knitting Factory and Tonic. By the mid-’90s
he had received exposure in several groups—
Dave Douglas’ Tiny Bell Trio, Pachora and the
Paradox Trio—that drew inspiration from the
music of Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
These days, Shepik focuses on electric guitar,
specifically a vintage Gretsch Tennessean
he’s played since 1998. He sticks to standard
tuning and uses a pick, although he sometimes
plays fingerstyle or with just his thumb. He prefers
tube amps and uses effects pedals for distortion
or delay.
While embracing a variety of music and
instruments, Shepik’s approach has remained
remarkably consistent. In particular, he continuously
listens to a hodgepodge of music. “I
consider myself still learning,” he explained.
“I try to hear new things all the time in my
favorite recordings. And I often revisit music
that puzzles me.” —Eric Fine