David Boswell is a Guitarist. Inspired as a child by The Beatles and Johnny Cash, David has matured into a skilled and talented composer and musician. His new record, his sixth, The Story Behind The Story, is a series of journeys that will pollinate thoughts and feelings. You’ll feel better after listening to it.
David joins Baruch in a conversation about music, inspiration, empathy, and of course coping with Covid, and more.
Music by: David Boswell
Review - First View Smoothjazz-de July, 2020
I received my first impression of guitarist David Boswell's music with his album I Like That in 2009. That was his third album after Hold Tight To Your Dreams (2004), and Bridge Of Art (2006). Then his albums Windows (2012) and his trio Storyboard project Hello (2014) followed. Now he returns with his album The Story Behind The Story (2020).
David gathers on his new album again an excellent crew of first-class musicians, Scott Kinsey, Mitchel Forman and Otmaro Ruiz on keyboards, Bart Samolis and Jimmy Haslip on bass, MB Gordy and Gary Novak on drums, and guest tenor-saxophonist Andy Snitzer.
The album begins with Miraculous, an overall harmonic tune which is influenced like his previous works by the guitar style of Pat Metheny. A Los Angeles Minute takes up this stylistic direction and mood, with Andy Snitzer picking up and continuing the melody on his saxophone.
The third track Innocence, is the only tune not written by Boswell but by Jimmy Haslip and Barry Coates. The liner notes speak about David's warm guitar tone. Unfortunately he never mentioned his equipment. Because he is a follower of Pat Metheny's style I assume he is playing like Pat an Ibanez PM100 as his signature guitar.
The title song builds on a special repeating sequence which is alternated in the following part of the tune. Mitch Foreman (Metro) shows his excellence on piano equally mirrored on David's guitar. This piece is obviously dedicated to atmospheric mood and not too much to virtuosity, although none of the participants is stingy with it.
Prayer For The Planet obviously follows David's vision of saving the planet from environmental degradation. David donates two minutes of acoustic guitar music to this project. Alta means in Spanish elevated, big or high-rise, aspiring to higher things overall. Guitar and keyboards sound are strongly aligned by Pat Metheny's style and the dynamic development of the piece also corresponds to the character of his music.
On The Wind in Her Hair David dresses his recitation in Latin American rhythm. Los Olivos (The Olive Trees) once again presents Mitchel Foreman's musical genius in a vibrantly sparkling cascade of piano tones. The Sun and Moon are two celestial bodies that define themselves through their opposites. Here David's melodiousness meets the jazzy freethinking saxophonist Andy Snitzer.
The music of David Boswell circles in a sphere of its own, which chooses Pat Metheny's stylistic elements as its center. Perfect in ts execution, it lives from his groundbreaking brilliance.
Hans-Bernd Hulsmann - Smooth-jazz-de
Review - Roots Music Report
Written by Robert Silverstein
July 1, 2020 - 4:47pm EDT
Interesting name for a record company yet, My Quiet Moon Records has a real winner on their hands with the 2020 CD release of The Story Behind The Story by California-based electric guitarist/composer David Boswell. While jazz buffs may notice Pat Metheny as a big influence, there’s plenty of unique sounding, orchestral-flavored instrumental fusion on this superbly-recorded and tastefully produced guitar-centric CD to bring in a range of music lovers. David gets top-notch support from a number of musicians, including keyboard icon Mitchel Forman (piano) and Jimmy Haslip (bass), to name just a couple. Co-produced by David and Jimmy Haslip, The Story Behind The Story will be the album to put David Boswell on the jazz-fusion map.
Had a great interview with Gregg Kaufman on his show Vinyl Rundown. We talk about some of my early influences in music and the records that really resonated with me when I was first listening. It was a really fun ride back to my earlier days and he had a few surprises for me that blew me away. Check it out!
I’m so grateful to have Jimmy and Rich involved in this record project. Jimmy really has been such a great inspiration to me in so many ways and Rich just knows exactly what to do to make things sound amazing. Serious Dream Team Here!!!!
A little help from my friends…… Thank you Jimmy Haslip and Rich Breen for helping me bring this music to the world with all your talent, ideas, spirit and beautiful touches. Grateful!
Music comes to me at the strangest times and the best music comes to me when I am far away from a musical instrument. All of the music was initially documented by using the voice memo recorder on my phone or iPod whichever is closer to me at the moment. At times when I have come up with an idea and then picked up the guitar and tried to play it, then I often times totally lose the idea and the initial concepts that I had around the idea. What I have found is that my brain is without ANY limitations in terms of the musical or melodic ideas that come to it and it is more of a natural experience direct from the heart and from my voice.
Remember Missing Persons? What are words for?? When I was a child and in elementary school, I can remember thinking that the language of music was more meaningful to me than the spoken word. What I mean by that is not to say that the spoken word, or lyrics are not important because they absolutely are in telling a story, but it was always the instrumental aspect of music that grabbed me and got my attention. I guess this is why I eventually gravitated to jazz as a dominant influence on me musically. I would listen to the Beatles and marvel in the amazing vocal harmonies and the sounds of the instruments and how it all came together. I never really paid much attention to the lyrics which may sound really strange. I would sing with the songs and know the lyrics for the most part, but it was not anything that I could tell you much about. Funny thing. There are so many songs that I can sing back the melody perfectly and know the melodies in the music but could not tell you much about the lyrics. When I was in high school, I can remember just hating reading and hating study and book work. It all had to do with how my connection to words was fragmented in some way. I could read an entire book and not know what was said because my mind was wandering and focused on music that was in my head. The only school subject as a kid that seemed to make any sense to me was math and although there is a lot of math in music, I never think of music in terms of math. It’s all about emotion and movement both physically and spiritually.