This past Friday at Jazz in The Georgian, jazz guitarist Milo Petersen was in the house. Milo who plays a seven string guitar is a consummate professional jazz musician. Steeped in tradition paying homage and deep reverence to the pioneers and trailblazers of the jazz idiom, he is always striving to elevate his craft as an improviser and expanding his knowledge of songs within the Great American Songbook. Milo has the amazing ability to be able to know lyrics to just about every jazz standard. He has been known to sing on occasion but demurs in favor of being strictly an instrumentalist. With such exceptional lyrical recall I feel that he could open up more opportunities for himself by adding a carefully crafted and thought out stable of songs suited for his style and range. It would be another skill set to add to his guitar playing, and also his drumming. Milo is also equally adept as a jazz drummer. He plays drums with Mose Alison whenever he comes through Seattle to play at Jazz Alley. Milo has also played drums for and backed up the likes of Larry Coryell and Eartha Kitt as well as many other great players. It is a unique combination to be able to play both the guitar and drums at a very high level of professional accomplishment. For one thing guitar and drums are bookends of a rhythm section whereas the drums' role is the domain of rhythm and percussion, and the guitar's (or piano) role is operative for harmony and chordal structure. The bass sits in the middle of the two bridging the gap as a link for both rhythm and outlining harmonic structure. It is interesting that someone like Milo can play both ends of the rhythm section spectrum and do it so well. Now, if he could play the bass as well and add vocals to his already formidable arsenal of musical skill sets, he would truly be a complete one-man band.
Here are a couple videos from the gig. The first one is a great jazz standard by Bennie Golson called Along Came Betty. The second video is a take from one of the most covered popular songs with hundreds of versions released. It's a song written in 1966 by Bobby Hebb called Sunny.
Along Came Betty
Sunny
It was a fun night of playing many tunes. Milo is a bandleader who plays around the region as either a leader on guitar or drums. Visit his website to see where he is playing around the area. You can be sure to catch him here regularly at least once a month at Jazz in The Georgian. Did I also mention that the guy is a black belt in karate? Just a frickin' bad ass....but a guy with a big heart.
Please visit our YouTube channel to see and hear more highlights of Jazz in The Georgian, and Smooth Groove Productions special events.
Jazz in The Georgian every Friday and Saturday nights, 6pm-10pm at The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, 411 University Street, Seattle, Washington 98101, 206-621-7889.
Please visit www.smoothgroove.net
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