Smooth JazzNotes

Jay Gore is the hot lead guitarist who plays in Mindi Abair’s band. An in-demand session player in Los Angeles, he has played with Hilary Duff, Scott Grimes, and a Southern California Journey tribute band, as well as doing studio work for a variety of renowned artists of different genres

SJN: Jay, tell us about working with Mindi?

Jay: Working with Mindi is awesome because Mindi encourages us to have fun on stage. She really appreciates everything that her band brings to her show. For me, with my experiences, that is a very rare thing to play with an artist that really appreciates her band. We are not just interchangeable parts to her.

SJN: What other artists have you worked with?

Jay: I haven’t worked with many Smooth Jazz artists. I did a TV show with Boz Scaggs one time. I played with Seal once about 15 years ago at a private performance. I have played with a lot of people that I haven’t performed with like Chris Strandling, Norman Brown, and Dina Fargo. In other genres, I toured with Hilary Duff for a while which was a great experience. We got to go around the world and do the crazy pop-rock thing. It was a lot of fun!

SJN: You live in LA now, are you from the LA area?

Jay: Yes, I’m a native! I’m from West LA and I live in Hollywood now.

SJN: When did you first start playing guitar?

Jay: I started playing guitar when I was nine years old and by the time I was 13, I was actually playing at the local clubs around town with a group of buddies. We were all in the eight grade. We wrote our own music and had rehearsal three times a week in my dad’s garage. We had gigs on the weekends, school parties, backyard parties, we went and played the local clubs, the Troubadour, the Whisky and the Roxy, and all those places up on the Sunset Strip.

SJN: How did you get started in the music business?

Jay: That’s pretty much how I got started. I got the bug in my early teens. I was already a pretty decent guitar player by that time and I had a family friend who was in a seventies rock band that had a couple of hit songs. They hired me to play the guitar for them for some of their local stuff. When I got to be 18 or 19, they took me on some of their road stuff also. That was Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds and it was my first real pro situation. From there I started doing gigs with anybody and everybody. I played with an Elvis impersonator where I had to dress up in a tuxedo and play at weddings and I did the Vegas lounge thing. I’ve done it all!

SJN: Which artist has been the most fun to work with?

Jay: Probably Mindi or Scott Grimes because they are musicians, as well. A lot of the time when you are a sideman, you are working for a singer, and singers don’t relate well to musicians unless they play an instrument. The thing about Mindi is that she has been a sideperson so she knows what it is like to be supporting someone else and Mindi never forgets where she came from and how hard she has worked to get to where she is today. I really respect that!

SJN: Who inspires you musically?

Jay: So many different people, I go through phases, I really do. I go through listening to guys like George Benson and Larry Carlton, to Eddie Van Halen, and Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix. I vacillate between different styles, it just depends, for a series of a few months, I will immerse myself in some player, or group of players, then I will move on to a different group of players. I try to get what I can from each of those different kinds of influences, whether it be the tones that they use or the notes that they play.

SJN: Where would you like to go from here?

Jay: I just want to stay busy working. I want to be that guy that everyone can go to that can make their gig that much better and make their record sound that much better.

SJN: Let’s talk about your personal life a little, are you attached and do you have children?

Jay: No, I’m not married and I don’t have any children. I have never been married.

SJN: Do you hope to be married someday?

Jay: It’s definitely not something I have ruled out, but it’s not something that I ponder. I am just really focused on music.

SJN: Is there anything you would like to add?

Jay: I’d just like to say that playing with Mindi has afforded me the opportunity to meet and play with some people who I have always looked up to, including the other guys in Mindi’s band, Rodney and Andre. It is a real privilege to get on stage with them and to know that other artists who I admire maybe playing next, like Lee Ritenour, or Norman Brown, or Chick Corea. It blows my mind to think that I am playing the same festival as they are. It is a humbling experience everyday that I am out there. Everyone is such a community, more so that the rock genre, everyone knows everyone in everyone’s band.

SJN: Thank you for your time.

Find Jay at www.jaygore.com