Sheryl Bailey has enjoyed a steady upward trajectory since her career launched 20 years ago. One of the leading proponents of modern jazz guitar, she was dubbed “one of the new greats” by Downbeat, boasting a string of albums, recording sessions with Alan Broadbent, Art Farmer, Urbie Green, Eric Kloss, Steve Kuhn, Roseanna Vitro, and others, numerous appearances worldwide, and a recent professorship/assistant chair position at Berklee. With Homage, she’s breaking new ground with her quartet, The SBQ, and moving jazz guitar into the world of multimedia.
You’re documenting, with specificity, every track on Homage. That’s unprecedented.
That’s part of the Youtube release. In my performances and teaching, I talk about my tunes; it’s part of building a career with original compositions and instrumental music. For my audience, as well as the casual listener, it puts the stories into their imagination, provides behind-the-scenes glimpses, and personal and technical insight. My intent was to create something like an event beyond recording music for an album, like combining digital downloads, vinyl records, and video clips for each piece.
What’s the basic premise?
Honoring influences. Every song is a dedication to someone important. “Open Sesame” is for Joe Henderson; I never met him, but his music gave me inspiration and direction. Though it has modern harmony and rhythmic complexity, it’s accessible. For me, it’s about the melody – that’s at the center. That’s also evident on “The Search for New Light,” dedicated to Chick Corea. “Velvet Hammer,” inspired by Pat Martino, was on Reunion of Souls (2001), and it conveys his powerful life force, eighth-note drive, and identity. That’s hard to get on the guitar. But beyond his playing, people need to check Pat out as composer. Starbright and Joyous Lake are desert-island records for me.
What about “144”?
“144” honors the band – Miki Hayama (keyboards), Harvie S (bass/assistant producer) and Neal Smith (drums). I’d played with them on other projects, but it’s exciting to see players with whom you’ve had relationships connect with each other; it’s another layer of satisfaction. Harvie S and I had been partners on two Plucky Strum albums.
“A Fine Vine” honors Mike Stern and a different side of modern harmony.
One of Harvie S’s records, In a Different Light, had Mike on it. That was before I met Harvie. I listened to that one repeatedly; it was very influential when I was studying at Berklee. Every guitar player should have it! FYI, Gene Bertoncini was on fire on “Embraceable You” – it’s the best rendition ever. When I was at Berklee, I had cassette bootlegs of Mike playing standards at The Willow jazz club, and that’s what I transcribed to learn to play the music. I never studied with Mike directly, but via Bruce Arnold, I got into all the Charlie Banacos stuff, all the chromatic-approach material. That was a big part of his style.
How did the album originate? Was it organic or a set of pre-existing pieces?
I’d gotten a grant from Berklee, had a career change, moved to a new city (Boston) and was coming out of the pandemic. It was a reflective time, I asked myself: How did I get here? I wanted to give thanks to those that enriched my life from afar so I cultivated material that had those connections. Other than “Velvet Hammer” all the pieces hadn’t been recorded previously. The only brand-new post-pandemic composition was “Exit,” for George Garzone; the others were sitting in my book waiting for a recording opportunity.
Your video rundowns have something for guitar players as well as fans. You get into the how and the what.
There are many things magical about music, but understanding harmony, melody, and the instrument is not magical in itself, it’s very pragmatic and scientific. The magic is in getting people to play together and develop something. I talk a lot about how the songs came alive in the process of Homage as well as the technicalities. I hope it comes off like, “These are people playing together – they’re not trying to prove anything, they’re just doing it.”
Which instruments and what gear did you use on Homage?
I played my second McCurdy Mercury guitar, the newer one that Jimmy Wyble gifted me. It’s built by Ric McCurdy in New York City. He’s such a talented luthier and it’s an amazing guitar. It’s based on the McCurdy Messenger of the Gods model introduced in 2004 – a scaled-down ES-335 with two pickups, ebony bridge and tailpiece. I also have a couple of McCurdy solidbody models in Tele and Strat configurations, and my original Mercury.
I plugged into a Deluxe Reverb, which is a favorite studio amp, and used Valeton Coral pedals for some effects – a chorus on “A Fine Vine” and T-wah on “Exit.”
This article originally appeared in VG’s December 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.