John Etheridge
Guitarist talks to a player who has the uncanny ability to blend diverse styles together seamlessly, creating rich and diverse flavours along the way
If you played in such diverse musical arenas as fusion with Soft Machine, Gypsy-flavoured jazz with Stéphane Grappelli and world music with classical guitar maestro John Williams, you’d think it would be a matter of changing your style each time to suit. But John Etheridge insists that – in his experience, anyway – it’s not the case. On the other hand, as with Darwinian theory, he muses you just have to adapt to the prevailing landscape in order to survive and that your style can and will prevail on any journey between genres. A recent critically acclaimed project with singer Vimala Rowe proves once again, that if your musical personality is strong enough, you can successfully straddle a multitude of different endeavours.
Blend Your Stylistic Influences
“When you start off, you want to cover everything and you want to cover all areas of playing, and gradually you specialise in one that becomes your thing. That sort of happened to me in the sense that I loved Django Reinhardt and I loved Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix and I wanted to put those things together. This was an early ambition of the people of my generation who were slightly jazz-interested. So, like the other guys of my age – like Ollie Halsall and Allan Holdsworth, all in different regions of the country – we were instinctively trying to put these things together in the middle and late 60s. When I heard Ollie Halsall, I realised, ‘Oh God, there’s somebody doing it much better than me!’”
Sometimes Fate Takes A Hand
“I always used to play Django tunes for fun and then I got the Stéphane Grappelli gig. Diz Disley called me up out of the blue and, actually, I’d been recommended to him after a guy called Pete Shade had seen me on the telly with Soft Machine, although there was nothing I was doing in Soft Machine that would remotely suggest that I’d be good with Stéphane Grappelli. So, thanks, Pete! In those days, music was quite rare on the telly and Pete said, ‘This guy in Soft Machine, John Etheridge…’ and Diz Disley was just looking for somebody quickly, so he just came round and I went, ‘Well, actually, I do know some of those tunes.’”
Salute The Past, Don’t Be A Slave To It
“As soon as I met Stéphane, I realised he was really undogmatic and open-minded, so I hardly adjusted my playing at all. I actually played sort of McLaughlin-y acoustic guitar style with Stéphane and he loved it. He absolutely didn’t want you to try and play like Django and if you went boom chink, boom chink, he’d go, ‘Don’t play like that. Don’t play like that.’ So, it wasn’t really that much of a tension. It was physically different, because I was playing acoustic guitar, without any pickup, into a microphone. I really developed some acoustic chops at that period, because you had to play really hard. Then I’d go back to light gauge strings on the electric when I got home from a tour.”
Tool Up For The Job In Hand
“The first tour I did with Grappelli was three months and I didn’t even have a steel-strung guitar. For some reason, I bought a little Guild, because I wanted something that was easy to play, but it patently didn’t have any of the power. So, when I was in Hong Kong I bought an Ovation – you’ve got to remember this was going back to 1977. It was loud and it was quite good for that gig, actually. I used to do a three-month tour with Stéphane, hacking away on my Ovation with heavy strings, and then I’d pick up my SG Custom and it was like flying, you know. It was just like, ‘Wow, this is incredible.’ I loved it.”
It Pays To Be Yourself
“Fast forward to playing with John Williams and, when we got together, I initially thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to want me to play classical guitar duets or something. Boy, has he got the wrong man.’ But he knew what I was about and he wanted me to do what I do with him. So, it’s not really a matter of jumping genre; it’s not like being a session man. I’ve never been like that, really. At the same time as being accommodating, I’ve always just sort of done my thing in these various contexts. But the basis for me is the early fusion, jazzrock thing. That’s why I loved it when we reformed Soft Machine.”
A Case Of Vive La Difference?
“The physical difference between playing acoustic and electric guitar is the fingerpicking thing. I try to practise them both, but I’m really a pick player who plays a bit with his fingers. I’m also an electric guitarist who plays acoustic guitar. There’s a big difference there, I think. I mean John Williams is obviously an acoustic guitarist who has occasionally played electric guitar. Obviously, there’s lots of slight issues, but the main point is I never had that thing of like, ‘Oh, now I’m playing jazz,’ or, ‘Now I’m playing rock,’ or, ‘Now I’m playing a session.’ I didn’t do that. I don’t think of myself as a session guitarist at all.”
Don’t Be Afraid To Fly Solo
“I’ve done loads of solo guitar over the last 15 years, which I started doing because I thought it’s a bit like ‘everybody should write a novel’. Everybody’s got a novel in them and every guitarist should be able to do a solo concert without too many gadgets. I’ve been doing it for 14 or 15 years and I enjoy being the only person on stage, so you can talk away to the audience and make jokes without the rest of the musicians going, ‘Oh, get on with it!’ For someone like John Williams, it’s just a normal thing. You play solo. But it was quite a big deal for me, and once you realise that if something goes wrong you haven’t got somebody swearing at you, it can be very liberating.”
Sculpt Your Signature Sound
“The semi-acoustic 335 type thing – that’s essentially me, I think. I really do. I’ve always loved someone like John Scofield, his sort of sound where you can hear a little bit of woodiness; there’s a slight unevenness with the notes that is attractive. So, when we came to do my signature Fret King, they had the Elise shape anyway, which has got less of a block than the 335, which also suits me because you get even more woodiness. The body size is also very comfortable. It’s a smaller semi shape and that was something that I immediately liked. I’ve always tended to like ebony ’boards, which, for what I want to do, is much more even. It’s much better for fast line playing, because it’s firmer and denser.”
Never Underestimate The Power Of Tone
“I was listening to Charlie Parker With Strings and what’s the first thing that hits you? It’s the beauty of the sound of the alto saxophone. Not the lines. Not the fact that he’s playing fast. It’s the sound and that’s the important thing. All these great guitarists in the post-Charlie Christian period, they’re playing great lines, but the sound doesn’t do anything for anybody. If you’re not a guitarist nobody feels it. The great guitarists of our era – Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Hendrix – what immediately knocked everybody out was the sound of the instrument. So, really, everybody took the wrong path. I mean, it doesn’t happen with saxophone players; they’re absolutely fanatical about their sound.”
Try To Sing With Your Fingers
“Jeff Beck, to me, is the ultimate guitarist now, because he’s like a singer and that’s how it should be. Every note is attended to properly. If you’ve got a decent guitar sound, you can think about the end of the note, not just the beginning of the note. I mean, the jazz guitar sound is just the opening of the note and then it just decays. How you end it is so important and, if you’re someone like Beck, he may not sit here and say, ‘That’s what I’m doing,’ but that is what he’s doing. He’s thinking about the beginning, the middle and the end of the note. So, although I love Wes Montgomery and I love that stuff, I’m very aware that you’ve got to be producing more of a sound than that, I’m afraid.”
I enjoy being the only person on stage, so you can talk away to the audience and make jokes without the rest of the musicians going, ‘Oh, get on with it!’