{"id":15480,"date":"2020-12-04T09:12:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T17:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=15480"},"modified":"2020-12-04T09:12:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T17:12:46","slug":"catching-up-with-eclectic-guitarist-and-composer-andrew-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/catching-up-with-eclectic-guitarist-and-composer-andrew-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching Up with Eclectic Guitarist and Composer Andrew York"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>From the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/collections\/back-issues\/products\/no-326-january-february-2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">January\/February 2021&nbsp;issue&nbsp;of&nbsp;<em>Acoustic Guitar<\/em>&nbsp;<\/a>| <strong>By Joseph Skibell<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I spoke to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewyork.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Andrew York<\/a> last spring, right before half of the world\u2019s population began sheltering in place, he was putting the final touches on his new online video subscription service, Andrew\u2019s Den.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have maybe 30 videos edited,\u201d he told me, \u201cand another 20 in the can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, in weekly video postings, the virtuoso guitarist and composer has been discussing the technical issues involved in playing his own pieces, \u201cthe inner lines, how to be aware of some of the compositional form, and how to bring it out,\u201d as well as more general subjects pertaining to music and guitar.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m doing a series on improvisation, on ear-training, on identifying intervals,\u201d York tells me. \u201cI\u2019ll do composition, ultimately, and fingerboard knowledge, of course. Just as wide an array of subjects that I can offer with my multistylistic background and my abilities of improvisation and composition, too.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The short weekly films in the Andrew\u2019s Den series are produced and edited by York\u2019s wife, Annette, who has also been serving for the last couple of years as his manager. Filmed with his guitar on the blue sofa in his music room in Redlands, California, York is a warm and soulful teacher.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, it\u2019s hard to imagine a more knowledgeable and gifted guide.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A Prolific Career<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has been over 30 years since York, a classical composer and instrumentalist trained in jazz, launched his career with the double whammy of having John Williams, perhaps then the most famous classical guitarist in the world, record his piece \u201cSunburst,\u201d while his own steel-string performance of \u201cAndecy\u201d was included on the wildly popular 1988 <em>Windham Hill Guitar Sampler<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commissions from Christopher Parkening soon followed, and as York\u2019s solo career continued with performances and recordings of his own, in 1990 he became a member of the fabled Los Angeles Guitar Quartet as well, performing, composing, and arranging on ten of the group\u2019s albums, including the 2005 Grammy Award-winning <em>Guitar Heroes,<\/em> before departing from the group on amicable terms in 2006.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"THE L A  GUITAR 4TET  - LOTUS EATERS\" width=\"1170\" height=\"878\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TVBN1NV9F38?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption><strong><em>The LAGQ plays York&#8217;s &#8216;Lotus Eaters.&#8217; L to R: York, John Dearman, Scott Tennant, and Bill Kanengiser.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At 62, York remains as prolific as ever. His work has been embraced by a new generation of classical players, including Jason Vieaux and Sharon Isbin, while the video of him performing his own composition \u201cHome\u201d on an 1888 Torres guitar for Guitar Salon International has been viewed over three million times on YouTube. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo, I\u2019m wondering,\u201d I say, \u201chow, into four decades, you\u2019ve been able to keep moving forward as an artist.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cWell, the short answer is that I guess it depends on the reasons you have for doing it. Probably my earliest memory with sound is being in a stroller, when I was a baby, and hearing the \u2018bong\u2019 of the escalator. Back in those days,\u201d he says, \u201cif you were in a department store, and they had an escalator, they always had a bell. And I remember this incredible fascination I had with the quality of the sound: the timbre, the envelope. I listened to it decay. I might have been one year old, you know, but it was this fascinating sound.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd over the years, I realized, this is why I do what I do,\u201d he continues. \u201cI\u2019m always dividing up sounds into their constituent parts, being aware of what\u2019s going on around me in a three-dimensional auric sense, and when I\u2019m composing, I\u2019m in that world, immersed in this synesthetic landscape of sound. So, that\u2019s the first thing, and the second is my father playing guitar and my family being musical, and that was always there. And as soon as I could play guitar, even as a young boy, I imagined myself onstage.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd what\u2019s been consistent and what has changed over those years, for you, in terms of working as a composer?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s actually kind of a difficult question in a way,\u201d he says. \u201cThere have been so many seasons in my career. I mean, I was lucky to have a measure of success where my music became more and more popular, and to join a group\u2014the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet\u2014that became very popular. And as a composer I had other streams of creation that had a great return for me, both emotionally and somewhat financially. I\u2019ve gained a lot of experience over the years, and I have more tools in the toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But on the other hand, he notes, \u201cnothing is different, really. I still use the same processes. I always just did it by what interested me, you know? You can\u2019t write for other people. Quite early, I boiled it down to the very simple idea of comfort and discomfort. If I\u2019m comfortable with a piece\u2014and that\u2019s a hard state to reach\u2014it\u2019s essentially done.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"1024\" width=\"683\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/York_Path-683x1024.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-121186\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>An Unrelenting Intellect<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Music isn\u2019t York\u2019s only pursuit. He has an unrelenting intellect. \u201cAnd the problem with a mind like that is it interferes with the artistic process,\u201d he says. \u201cA fast and active intellect will want to take control of everything, and I learned very early that that\u2019s a very bad idea for an artist.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a way of feeding his intellect, of keeping it separate from his composing, York works on physics and mathematical problems. About three years ago, he bought a book called <em>Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics<\/em> by William Dunham. \u201cIt is full of equations, like the history of theorems and things like that,\u201d and having vowed to read<br>and understand it, he signed up with Khan Academy, an online learning service that offers instruction on a wide variety of subjects. There, he worked through algebra, linear algebra, calculus, and matrix theory. \u201cI\u2019m able to learn vast amounts in a short period of time,\u201d he says. York has even had articles on math published in scholarly journals (and included them on his website).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, with his intellect otherwise engaged, York is able to allow a \u201cdeeper undercurrent of being to illuminate the [musical] ideas that come through. And that\u2019s a very rewarding way to work. I\u2019ve never seemed to lack for ideas. I\u2019m not saying they\u2019re always good, but there\u2019s always music available. I pick up the guitar, and there\u2019s a melody in my mind, and I just play it. It happens all the time. Daily. And I don\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has been that way since his childhood.<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen I was a boy\u2014probably eight, ten years old\u2014I would be in the back seat in the car, and I specifically remember one time realizing that I have a radio in my head and that there was like a switch, a mental switch, and I could just turn it on, and symphonic music, or any kind of music, would play, and I could direct it. I could make it more intense or chatter more\u2014you know, the violins would start doing quicker runs\u2014or I could just let it play like a radio station. I didn\u2019t have the skills to write it down, but I could just listen to it, and I would do this. I\u2019d turn it on, and I\u2019d turn it off, and put my attention somewhere else. So that\u2019s still there.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He grows reflective. \u201cAnd I mean, sure, there\u2019s been ups and downs. There are times I thought maybe I\u2019m done, that I don\u2019t really have anything more to say. Sometimes I go through some extended periods without writing things. Sometimes I\u2019ve gone <em>months<\/em> without writing anything. That\u2019s kind of typical, actually. And yeah, I\u2019ve had a love\/hate relationship with the guitar. Sometimes I don\u2019t really want to play it anymore. Some days it sounds like crap. But I just take this as a natural now. You\u2019re not always surfing the waves. Sometimes you\u2019re underneath, trying to figure out if you can come up for air. But I think after years and years of experiencing those kinds of sinusoidal changes in creativity, you begin to trust that it will come back around. Especially if you have reasons to sustain you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo, to circle back to the original idea, when it comes down to it now, I think I still do music because it seems like a really beautiful thing to do, to create these things that I think are beautiful and to put them out there in the world. You know, I don\u2019t have the hubris to think that that necessarily improves the world a lot, but it gives people something that\u2019s beautiful that they can put into their consciousness and maybe that helps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Andrew York plays &quot;Home&quot; on an 1888 Antonio de Torres (SE 115, ex Emilio Pujol)\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6ajTcwJBbw4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>An Expressive Creature<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a guitarist, York has often been celebrated for the complex, singing, sensual tone of his playing. I mention to him that it has always amazed me that different pianists can bring such different sounds out of the piano, a mechanical object, after all, with three removes\u2014keys, hammers, strings\u2014between the players and the sound.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI mean, you\u2019d never mistake Art Tatum for Bill Evans,\u201d I say.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNo, that\u2019s true.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cAnd you\u2019ve talked about&nbsp;playing with personality and color and not just dry, if perfect, technique, and so, I\u2019m wondering what you\u2019d advise a player to do to put more of his or her inner life into their playing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWell, first of all,\u201d he says, \u201cI think we\u2019re expressive creatures, and for piano, it\u2019s not that hard to imagine why different players sound different. The ones that are good and have an identity have a certain feeling that they\u2019re expressing when they play, and it affects the velocity of their keystrokes, and the amount of space between them, and how fast they released them, and all these things give a different apparent character to the piano. So, even though it is a machine and there\u2019s a much smaller range of what you can do to make it sound different, there is enough where it can be somewhat dramatic\u201d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He mentions Chick Corea. \u201cMan, you can\u2019t miss him when he plays. He has a crispness that\u2019s in his nerves. He has a quickness in pressing the keys, and this incredibly crisp release and this incredible sense of time. It just flows out, and again I think it has to do with his intent, his feeling, and the way he\u2019s able to attack those keys and release them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Andrew York - Sunburst\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jja6cLDEk8o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption><strong><em>York plays &#8216;Sunburst&#8217; on a steel-string guitar<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And the guitar, he says, is an even richer medium for sound, \u201cbecause we have so much control over the tone. We touch the strings with both hands, and we can do all these unimaginable things compared to a pianist. We can get beyond an array of color and just pluck in different ways\u2014that\u2019s incredible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut how do you put your inner life into that? Well, first you have to <em>have<\/em> an inner life. And I don\u2019t mean that sarcastically,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I\u2019m often appalled by the lack of curiosity of many, many people. I ask some people, \u2018What do you find fascinating?\u2019 and they can\u2019t think of anything! I mean, if you asked me the question, you\u2019d have to shut me up after ten minutes, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhich hardly seems possible,\u201d I say.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRight!\u201d York says. \u201cSo, first of all, give yourself an inner life! Go look for it. Try to find some way to relate to concepts that you find beautiful and that will percolate through your whole being and come out through your instrument. And if you have that intent inside, you will use whatever technique you have at your disposal to express those feelings and ideas. I can\u2019t see it happening any other way. It\u2019s not how you technically approach the instrument. That has nothing to do with it in a way, or not much.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou think about an old blues guy whose technique is rudimentary at best, but he\u2019s playing really cool licks, and you\u2019re like, \u2018Wow, that sounds so good!\u2019 because that\u2019s how he\u2019s feeling it. He\u2019s not going to be playing Bach, but what he\u2019s doing is awesome.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo, it has to start with something internal, and I can\u2019t show you how to do that. I mean, you\u2019ve got to go read some poetry or go stare at a tree for 20 minutes. Those are much better exercises than \u2018Let me show you how to move your hands.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>                #            #          #<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-acoustic-guitar\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"Zq38nKo1RQ\"><a href=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/10-things-steel-string-players-should-know-about-classical-nylon-guitars\/\">10 Things Steel-String Players Should Know About Nylon-String Classical Guitars<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;10 Things Steel-String Players Should Know About Nylon-String Classical Guitars&#8221; &#8212; Acoustic Guitar\" src=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/10-things-steel-string-players-should-know-about-classical-nylon-guitars\/embed\/#?secret=Zq38nKo1RQ\" data-secret=\"Zq38nKo1RQ\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the&nbsp;January\/February 2021&nbsp;issue&nbsp;of&nbsp;Acoustic Guitar&nbsp;| By Joseph Skibell When I spoke to Andrew York last spring, right before half of the world\u2019s population began sheltering in place, he was putting the final touches on his new online video subscription service, Andrew\u2019s Den.&nbsp; \u201cWe have maybe 30 videos edited,\u201d he told me, \u201cand another 20 in the can.\u201d Since then, in weekly video postings, the virtuoso guitarist and composer has been discussing the technical issues involved in playing his own pieces, \u201cthe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":15482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Andrew-York.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}