Jason Vieaux Comes Home
Nurtured By Buffalo's Musical Community, A Prodigy Returns
Buffalo native and Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux filled UB’s Slee Hall Saturday (March 9, 2024) night, performing a wonderfully eclectic program to a grateful, hometown audience. The performance was the highlight of the 2024 Buffalo International Guitar Festival; I had the opportunity to interview Vieaux on Friday, March 8th prior to his master class.
A Buffalo Childhood
Jason discussed growing up in Clarence in a working class family who loved music. He recalled that his father “had a (flamenco guitarist) Carlos Montoya recording in his collection long before I was born, and my mom loved the Getz/Gilberto album (1964).”
Jason said that when he was around five years old “my mom brought home this 3/4 size guitar with nylon strings and a thick neck and I knocked around on that for a while. Later, I enrolled in The Calasanctius School (image and background above) which I loved attending.”
Jason vividly recalled one of the artistic outreach performances that inspired him to dedicate his life to classical guitar.
Sometimes all of the elementary kids would pile into the cafeteria to watch a clown, a juggler, or a movie. This one day in the second grade, I was seven, these four guys with Abbey Road beards, John Lennon glasses, and tuxedos came and played Ravel, Darius Milhaud, John Dowland, and Boccherini. It was the Buffalo Guitar Quartet.
(Authors Note: The Buffalo Guitar Quartet was a pioneering chamber music ensemble founded in 1976 which disbanded in 2000. It consisted of John Sawers, James Wolf, Leonard Biszkont and Jeremy Sparks. Click here for a 1979 New York Times article discussing their Carnegie Hall performance and here for their discography.)
At age seven, Vieaux began studying guitar in earnest under the tutelage of Jeremy Sparks. Although Jason modestly describes early praise from established musicians, it is clear that his precocious talent was quickly recognized and nurtured by Buffalo’s musical community.
Vieaux’s memories of Buffalo are “fairly happy;” he recalled “as a kid, I assumed every city featured modern art. I took three buses to Calasanctius from Clarence. We would pass through Delaware Park and there was art everywhere. That’s how I remember Buffalo: filled with murals, art, and sculptures. It’s a great place and I love coming back.”
Pat Metheny and Kismet
Renowned composer-guitarist Pat Metheny wrote the “Four Paths of Light” guitar suite for Vieaux and the parallels in their respective careers are notable. Metheny gained fame as a jazz guitar prodigy in Kansas City and became a professor at the University of Miami at age 18.
After his training in Buffalo, Vieaux began his studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music and joined the faculty immediately following graduation. He co-founded the Guitar Department at The Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia) in 2011 and is “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone).
I have written extensively about Pat Metheny and his music in this space here, here, and here.
The story of the creation of “Four Paths of Light” for Vieaux is fascinating; I can do no better than the conversation between Vieaux and WRTI’s Susan Lewis. I gratefully include it in its entirety (above) with express permission from WRTI.
Jason Vieaux in Concert
Bach is a staple of the classical guitar repertoire despite the fact that it did not exist during the Baroque. Vieaux performed two famous string sonatas of his own arrangement; he opened with Bach’s Violin Sonata #1 in G Minor, BWV 1001.
The transposition from violin to guitar is, in this case, a challenging one, as the violin’s two lowest strings (G and D) are part of G Minor’s core triad, allowing the violinist to add drama by attacking the bass in root position. These “open” strings reverberate through the sonata as demonstrated by Hilary Hahn’s performance of the Sonata’s Fourth Movement (Presto).
Vieaux’s technique is characterized by precision, especially in his right hand, which plucks the guitar strings and acts as the guitar’s “bow” in the Violin Sonata. Vieaux mimics the violin’s long, legato lines with an active right hand, creating a flurry of precise, plucked notes.
As the guitar and cello have similar registers, Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major may have posed fewer arranging challenges, but the challenge of communicating the sublimity of Bach in the suite’s famous “Prelude” remains.
Listen below to Alisa Weilerstein’s excellent interpretation of what has been called the “perfect piece of music.”
Vieaux brought out the Prelude’s gentle radiance, balancing the resonant, warm bass against Bach’s meandering river of a melody.
Vieaux gave a spirited performance of Leo Brouwer’s 1981 guitar composition “El Decameron Negro” before opening the second half of the concert with Metheny’s “Four Paths of Light.”
In Part 1 we hear one of Metheny’s compositional signatures, developing melody from complex chord progressions, in this case leading to an abrupt conclusion. “Four Paths of Light” is technically demanding, as the guitar’s low, middle, and high strings are simultaneously employed in an intense dissonant, whirl. Vieaux explained that Metheny advised him to access his “inner Pantera.”
Western New Yorkers have a special relationship with Toronto bands, as the inevitable Buffalo gig is sometimes the full extent of their US market penetration. It was therefore appropriate that Vieaux’s encore was a charming, lighthearted arrangement of Rush’s “Limelight.”
Vieaux performed for approximately two hours. There was no amplification or written score for reference.
Jason Vieaux’s return to the childhood home that nurtured his precocious musical gifts was a wonderful reunion.
May there be many more.
On the subject of Pat Metheny, he just dropped the title cut from his upcoming album “MoonDial.” Look for a July 2024 release.
If this piece is any indication, MoonDial will be a further exploration of the baritone guitar in the vein of “One Quiet Night,” (2004).
youtu.be/3GbnG9RP0RM
Fantastic article. How can you not love a concert that begins with Bach and ends with Rush? That sort of covers it all, I think.