Michael Whitmore
Vashon, Washington, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2013 | SELF
Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"Brimming with a mysterious orchestral ambiance that at times makes the hair on your arms stand up” -
“A musicians musician who has remained open to new directions and continued to develop while retaining a unique and distinctive sound” -
“Michael Whitmore needs to be singled out for praise, he’s the one to watch” -
“The sensory overload is multilayered and deliciously orgasmic” -
“★★★★ Nylon string guitarist extraordinaire” -
“Always intriguing, insinuating mysteries but never resolving them” -
Discography
Warm In My Pocket – Catgut Trust Recording Co. (CG-01)1998
Juggling the Thing of a Thing of a Thing – True Classical CDs/Transparency (TCCD-006/0054) 2001
Walk Through the Pitch Dark - True Classical CDs (TCCD-019) 2008
Some'tet - Steps - Callipygous Records (CR101) 2017
Photos
Bio
“★★★★ Nylon string guitarist extraordinaire” -- Buzz Weekly
“Top 200 Favorite Guitarists List” -- Nels Cline
“Always intriguing, insinuating mysteries but never resolving them” -- Option
Michael Whitmore is a third generation Angeleno and a veteran of the Los Angeles new music scene. With some 2500 gigs under his belt, he prefers nylon string guitars and tends towards the frayed edges of jazz -- post-jazz, avant-jazz, free-jazz, nu-jazz with a hint of samba in his playing. He has a thing for torch songs and American primitive guitar stylings. And yes, he seems to have disappeared for a bunch of years after leaving his home town -- but that’s what happens when you move to a rural island in the great northwest and live in a cabin in the woods. About eight years ago, with a new body of work, Whitmore returned to live performance and a Sunday night residency at the Snapdragon Café/Black Cat Cabaret on Vashon Island, WA. This is where his jazz ensemble, Some’tet, was birthed, and up until 2020 and the pandemic, he and Some’tet were performing regularly throughout the Seattle/Puget Sound region.
Some highlights in a long career include a NEA Composers Grant, three acclaimed solo CD’s, working with & composing music for Pulitzer Prize winning poet Franz Wright, and performing on a few dozen albums & soundtracks either as a leader, sideman or as a collaborator. He is also an author, music historian, very often a DJ and always a record collector. Currently he hosts a morning radio show on local KVSH 101.9FM on Vashon Island, WA.
The greatest influences to his distinctive style of jazz guitar include the likes of Baden Powell, Lenny Breau, Sonny Sharrock, Lionel Loueke, John Stowell & Jon Abercrombie, but he also lists artists such as Brigitte Fontaine, McCoy Tyner, Robert Wyatt, Bill Evans and Mark Hollis as huge inspirations.
Band Members
Links
