Peter White: The Acoustic Magician
November 12, 2007 - Voting kicks off today for the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards and Peter White has made the list.

Peter White - You know when I started playing music as a young man I felt the need to be noticed and to prove myself. My motivation is much different now but what's still left is the love of music and the joy of entertaining people- the feeling that I make a difference, giving something back rather than just taking. Every year or two I come out with new music, or new arrangements of old music which keeps my show fresh. This past summer (2007) I was touring with Richard Elliot, Rick Braun and Jonathan Butler. Next year I'm going on tour with Gerald Albright, Jeff Golub and Jeff Lorber, so collaborating with different musicians always keeps me on my toes and keeps things interesting!

Akbar - Your end of the year is quite hectic. You will be performing about 45 shows mainly in the US, a week in the UK and 4 days in Tokyo? Are you a musical globe trotter (laughs!)?

Peter - At this time of year, I usually go to England and I always get a lot of musical ideas playing in the small clubs there. Small audiences are conducive to experimentation- that's when I like to try new ideas out. Whatever works I then take and use in my bigger shows- kind of like a comedian trying out new material in a comedy club. My mother lives in England so she comes to see me perform over there and that's always a treat. Tokyo is a city that I've always wanted to play and I will be there in November to play my music for the first time! Mindi Abair will be performing with me- we always have a great time playing together- she's a very funky sax-player. I start a Christmas Tour shortly after the Japan trip along with Mindi and Rick Braun that will take us all over the US up till a few days before Christmas Day so yes I am quite a globe trotter at this time of year! Not that I'm complaining of course, I'm very happy to have so many places to play.

Akbar - For your latest album "Playin'Favourites", you revisit old songs and enrich them with your groovy and sophisticated musical arrangements? What motivated you to choose such a path?

Peter - I made a CD of oldies in 1994 called "Reflections" and a couple of years ago I discovered an audio tape from back then with a lot of songs that were not used. I thought these songs would make a nice CD and that it would be a relatively easy project to record. It didn't exactly turn out that way however and I asked my producer and friend Paul Brown to help me out and finish it up and he suggested recording "What Does it Take (to Win Your Love)" the old Junior Walker song. I'm glad he did because that became the first radio hit from the CD.

Akbar - On the CD cover, you appear with your guitar on a nice sandy shore? Is it an invitation to travel through your music?

Peter - I just wanted a nice summery CD cover as it was going to be released in the summer, so I arranged a photo shoot with my photographer in the Florida Keys. The cover shot was one of the
first shots we took that day (in the basement of a half finished house on the beach). The back cover was the last shot of the day, taken just as the sun was dipping under the horizon. You can see my lonely figure walking along the beach way in the distance- carrying a guitar of
course- doesn't everyone do that?

Akbar - Almost all your albums have made it to the smooth jazz charts. How do you explain such a successful career?

Peter - I try my best.... ha ha! Really I am very hard on myself and I continually re-record and revise things I've done to make sure that it's the best that it can be. I admire artists who are big fans of
their own work. I on the other hand am always saying to myself- "That could have been better!" It's not even my playing, usually the arrangement or the mix.

Akbar - As usual, on this CD, you are well surrounded with great musicians: the multi-talented Jeff Caruthers, sax man Sam Riney, bass ace Roberto Vally and as special guest stars, sax giant Boney James (on Dionne Warwick's nicely revisited smash hit "Déjà Vu"), great South-African vocalist Jonathan Butler (on Bill Wither's "Lovely Day"), star keyboardist Bob James (on Grover Washington's "Mister Magic") and Jeffrey Osborne on "You are Everything"). Well, that is an impressive casting (laughs!)

Peter - All these are great artists that I've met along the way and I'm so glad that they all agreed to appear on my CD. And here's an interesting factoid- Bob James plays on my version of Mr. Magic but I only realized later that he played on the original version with Grover Washington Jr!

Akbar - You have been nominated for the 2008 Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards (where you will perform live) within the "International Instrumentalist of the Year Category". Other nominees are Rick Braun, Richard Elliot, Gregg Karukas and Jeff Lorber. How do you feel about it?

Peter - It is of course a great honour to be nominated and I look forward to playing in Canada next year, as I have never played my music there.

Akbar - Can you tell us more on your next Christmas tour featuring Rick Braun and Mindi Abair?

Peter - This is my 5th Peter White Christmas tour and I hope there will be many more. It's always fun playing with Rick and Mindi and this year we have recorded the show for a CD which has just been released. It's called- you'll never guess: "Peter White Christmas with Rick Braun and Mindi Abair". In the show we play half Christmas music and half our own music and we always demand a lot of audience participation!

Akbar - Lee Ritenour will receive the George Benson Lifetime Achievement Award at the next 2008 Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards.

Peter - Lee has been at the forefront of Jazz guitar for more than 3 decades and I've always thought of him as a guitarist's guitarist. I was very honoured when he asked me to play on his "Twist of Motown" CD and I congratulate him on receiving the George Benson Lifetime Achievement Award. He certainly deserves it!

Akbar - What are your musical projects for next year?

Peter - I'm working on a new CD of original music which I hope to have out next year, so wish me luck!

Akbar - Dear Peter, thanks so much for your time and all the best for your career. We look foward to seeing you next for the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards.

Peter - Thanks - I'll see you there!

For more information: www.peterwhite.com
By Akbar Nour, Smoothjazznow.com's Contributing Editor