JACK WEST
Artist Website: JackWestGuitar
Social Media Pages: IG | Facebook
Streaming Service: SoundCloud
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A prolific musician, composer and inventor, Jack West is a singular guitarist with an immediately recognizable sound. Between 1994 and 2003 he released six albums that received widespread critical acclaim, while performing regularly at leading festivals and venues including SXSW, Atlanta Jazz Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, and Yoshi’s in Oakland. But in 2009 he hit the pause button on his recording and performing career to focus on inventing new musical instruments and solar technologies, pursuits that both bore impressive fruit. Now, after a decade off the radar, Jack West is back on the scene with multiple musical projects, including two new albums slated for release in early 2026 and tour dates starting in February 2026.
Characterized by uncommon rhythmic dexterity, exploratory slide guitar work and a uniquely grooving, percussive acoustic style, West’s playing was described by The Oakland Tribune as sounding “like something never heard before...nothing short of astounding.” His recordings, mostly featuring West with his band Curvature, have elicited extravagant praise, with Cadence Magazine calling his music “subtle, sensuous, accomplished, and mature,” while NPR declared his output “a whole new sub-genre of jazz.”
Rather than a tributary to the mighty river of jazz, it might be more accurate to say West’s music represents a new stream of American acoustic music, an improvisation-laced sound influenced by jazz, but equally engaged with rock, folk, and funk. In many ways he was an early exemplar of the acoustic guitar virtuosi who followed in the percussive footsteps of Michael Hedges (1953 –1997), a world that’s expanded in recent years with YouTube sensations like Marcin, Alexandr Misko, and Luka Stricognoli.
While West shares with these artists an expansive toolkit of impressive percussive techniques, his music is far less about blazing through fully composed pieces and more about innovative grooves and ensemble interplay, with space for impromptu invention. New videos showcasing West’s guitar skills will be released soon leading up to the January 23, 2026 release of his new album, Guitars on Life.
With this stunning return to the studio West is back in the fray, offering fans of acoustic guitar virtuosity a jaw-dropping sojourn. Guitars On Life presents a captivating collection of steel string duets with fellow guitar explorer Walter Strauss, best known for his extensive work with Malian artists (particularly kora master Sidiki Diabaté and ngoni innovator Mamadou Sidibe). With West supplying the bass, chords, and percussion lines of an entire rhythm section, his bass notes popping due to a thumb pick of his own invention, Strauss weaves expertly filigreed melodies that alternately careen around and caress West’s buoyant foundation. The result is a surprisingly large, full band sound emanating from just two acoustic guitars.
The Critics Speak:
“Astounding rhythmic dexterity and unorthodox percussive technique... unusual time signatures and odd rhythms...Jack West never has to worry about being mistaken for another guitarist"
- San Jose Mercury News
"[Big Ideas is] a remarkable outing of cool curves, gently sloping musical parabolas, and wondorous bends in compositional structure. With rhythm at the fore West offers unusual sound colors, fluid slide work, and percussive attack"
- Downbeat
"Curvature explores an original, rhythmically astute amalgam of blues, jazz, funk, and folk. Although complex in terms of time signatures and improvisations, Curvature's music is immediately accessible, owing to West's beguiling melodic sensibility and his absorbing percussive attack."
- SF Bay Guardian
"Subtle, sensuous, accomplished, and mature. West wants and gets a group sound/identity. The music is well-contructed and smartly played. If you like percussive music that does not skimp on melody, check out Jack West & Curvature."
- Cadence Magazine
"Organically induced homespun themes...subtle intimacy along with pumping beats and atmospheric propositions... enticing harmonic relationships... the guitarist makes every note count. The artist's memorable compositions and glimmering technique bespeaks a fertile imagination. Recommended!"
- AllAboutJazz.com
Obsessed with rhythm...[West] pushes his guitar techniques to the limit"
- Metro Santa Cruz
"Rooted in jazz and blues...it's also highly accessible... extremely melodic and harmonically in..."
- Oakland Tribune
"Curvature [is] a band with a distinctive sound that flows from it's unusual instrumentation...[West has] managed to find musicians endowed with a sense of syncopation as articulate as his own."
- Contra Costa Times
Characterized by uncommon rhythmic dexterity, exploratory slide guitar work and a uniquely grooving, percussive acoustic style, West’s playing was described by The Oakland Tribune as sounding “like something never heard before...nothing short of astounding.” His recordings, mostly featuring West with his band Curvature, have elicited extravagant praise, with Cadence Magazine calling his music “subtle, sensuous, accomplished, and mature,” while NPR declared his output “a whole new sub-genre of jazz.”
Rather than a tributary to the mighty river of jazz, it might be more accurate to say West’s music represents a new stream of American acoustic music, an improvisation-laced sound influenced by jazz, but equally engaged with rock, folk, and funk. In many ways he was an early exemplar of the acoustic guitar virtuosi who followed in the percussive footsteps of Michael Hedges (1953 –1997), a world that’s expanded in recent years with YouTube sensations like Marcin, Alexandr Misko, and Luka Stricognoli.
While West shares with these artists an expansive toolkit of impressive percussive techniques, his music is far less about blazing through fully composed pieces and more about innovative grooves and ensemble interplay, with space for impromptu invention. New videos showcasing West’s guitar skills will be released soon leading up to the January 23, 2026 release of his new album, Guitars on Life.
With this stunning return to the studio West is back in the fray, offering fans of acoustic guitar virtuosity a jaw-dropping sojourn. Guitars On Life presents a captivating collection of steel string duets with fellow guitar explorer Walter Strauss, best known for his extensive work with Malian artists (particularly kora master Sidiki Diabaté and ngoni innovator Mamadou Sidibe). With West supplying the bass, chords, and percussion lines of an entire rhythm section, his bass notes popping due to a thumb pick of his own invention, Strauss weaves expertly filigreed melodies that alternately careen around and caress West’s buoyant foundation. The result is a surprisingly large, full band sound emanating from just two acoustic guitars.
The Critics Speak:
“Astounding rhythmic dexterity and unorthodox percussive technique... unusual time signatures and odd rhythms...Jack West never has to worry about being mistaken for another guitarist"
- San Jose Mercury News
"[Big Ideas is] a remarkable outing of cool curves, gently sloping musical parabolas, and wondorous bends in compositional structure. With rhythm at the fore West offers unusual sound colors, fluid slide work, and percussive attack"
- Downbeat
"Curvature explores an original, rhythmically astute amalgam of blues, jazz, funk, and folk. Although complex in terms of time signatures and improvisations, Curvature's music is immediately accessible, owing to West's beguiling melodic sensibility and his absorbing percussive attack."
- SF Bay Guardian
"Subtle, sensuous, accomplished, and mature. West wants and gets a group sound/identity. The music is well-contructed and smartly played. If you like percussive music that does not skimp on melody, check out Jack West & Curvature."
- Cadence Magazine
"Organically induced homespun themes...subtle intimacy along with pumping beats and atmospheric propositions... enticing harmonic relationships... the guitarist makes every note count. The artist's memorable compositions and glimmering technique bespeaks a fertile imagination. Recommended!"
- AllAboutJazz.com
Obsessed with rhythm...[West] pushes his guitar techniques to the limit"
- Metro Santa Cruz
"Rooted in jazz and blues...it's also highly accessible... extremely melodic and harmonically in..."
- Oakland Tribune
"Curvature [is] a band with a distinctive sound that flows from it's unusual instrumentation...[West has] managed to find musicians endowed with a sense of syncopation as articulate as his own."
- Contra Costa Times