Smoothviews (SV): We’re talking with Ken Navarro today about his latest release, A Test of Time. I understand the new CD is coming out on March the 20th. Tell us a little bit about it.
Ken Navarro (KN): It’s funny I feel like it’s been out for months because I made it available on my web site back in January. So much has been happening with it. So many pre release marketing things and air play, I forget that it’s March 20th when it’s coming out. The Test of Timeis my twentieth CD. I wanted to do something that took the genere to a whole other level for my twentieth record. I wanted a different level of emotion, of warmth, and intimacy. So I selected to try to do a record of solo guitar music. For a guitar player, trying to play solo guitar is like climbing Mt. Everest. It’s one of those things that most guitar players can’t do or don’t do. To do it where you’re creating all the parts (the bass line, the melody, the chords and even percussion) all at the same time on one guitar it’s really a technical challenge and a musical challenge. You have to arrange the music that you select so that it really works that way. For me solo guitar is such an intimate thing for the listener. For me as the performer it means that I can take either a left or right and I dont have worry about anyone following me. I can go in whatever direction I want and I can feel where the audience is and take them with me. There’s something about the guitar that has an intimacy that is unique to that instrument. Of course the only other instrument that can play all the parts silmutanesously is the piano which is an amazing instrument, but I dont think it has that same intimate quality that an acoustic guitar has.

SV: Well you have a great selection of songs here that stand as you would say “The Test of Time.” One of my favorites along with a great video is “Message In A Bottle” from Sting. Tell us a little bit about that one.
KN: That was one of the first ones that I put together. It took me the better part of a year to put all of the arrangements together to be able to play them at the level I’m playing at. “Message In A Bottle” was like sort of half way through the process. That was one that I sort of said “I’ve always loved that song.” I’ve always been a big fan of the Police. They’ve always had that pop positive energy that I really liked. That song really had that signature guitar/bass line that goes through out the song. Sting basically improvises a different melody on it on every verse. Many ways it fits old guitar but it was extremely difficult to play. So the question with that one was, “Is this going to be possible to play once I come up with the arrangement?” Once I got through the toughest part which is the chorus where you are silmutanously playing this driving bass line that Sting plays. You have to play this syncopated chord in the midst of that bass line and then on the chorus while all of that is going on you have to bring out “I’ll send an SOS…” Once I got that happening, I said if I can do that, I can do anything. It was kind of a great omen for the whole project. Because it was an over the hump point about five months into the project. There are so many people who have bought the CD already directly from my web site. People are already asking how do you do this, is there a manuscript? So I thought, let me do a video, like a gorilla video where you can see me doing it and answer some of those questions and allow people to see a video prior to the official release. I’m really happy the way that one came out. It’s amazing to me, but radio is really embracing it. As far as I know, smooth jazz radio has never played solo guitar or solo anything. Not only am I getting added by a lot of stations, but “Message In A Bottle” is clearly the one they’re getting a lot of phone response from when they play it. It’s neat to see that. When I think back seven months ago when I was in my studio just tirelessly working ten hours a day coming up with this music. That being one of the more challenging pieces. It’s very satisfying. I thought of it and it came out the other end. People hear it. That’s kind of amazing to me twenty albums later.  

SV: You do a great job on it. It’s really a deep song because of all of the instrumentation you do on it. Having seen the video you can understand what goes into it. 
KN: That was exactly my reasoning that would be a good one for people to see, and to go “yes, he is really playing that.” I had one person write in and say “I know there’s more than one guitar going on here. To me as a listener, some of that stuff doesn’t matter. I always here my own music that way. It’s very hard to keep that perspective. The listener is interested in how something was done, especially the smooth jazz listeners because they get more involved with the music and have bigger ears. Still in the end it’s the emotion and the warmth and the beauty of something. That’s why I as a listener want to buy something or want to want to listen to something. So I always try to keep that in mind. In the end that’s what really drives any ones love of music.

SV: That’s so true. Speaking of which, you begin the project with John Lennon’s “Imagine” which hits heart chords with everyone. Tell us a little bit about that one as well.
KN: That was like a no brainer for me. That was one of the first ones. I have known for a long time. We all know the lyrics and they’re sort of controversial I guess. Obviously the song itself just transcends any of that stuff because everybody knows it and everybody loves it and everybody has kind of adopted it as their own in many ways. So I’ve known for a long time that the music to that song, not the lyrics, but the music was very powerful. They were powerful to me but I felt like they had depth to it that a solo guitar arrangement could bring out that people might not have really noticed. Even though they were feeling it, they hadn’t noticed. So that was one of the ones I really very much felt myself emotionally in my soul. I wanted to really share that. It was also an opportunity to say check out this amazing piece of music that John Lennon wrote. Listen to these really cool chords and the way that he introduces the second verse that little chromatic piano run that he played. He wasn’t much of a piano player but he sure picked the right stuff to play with what he could do and bringing all of that to the forefront. When you take the lyrics away it really unmasks the beauty of the music of that song. It seemed like the right one to start with. Whenever I would do a show last year, I would throw in a few solo guitar things and I would always play that. Some people would cry. I realized it was a powerful rendition of it. So I thought what a good way to start the record and introduce my audience to this new thing I’m doing.

SV: It really, really is. Another one that I like because of the way it plays out is “Wichita Lineman.” It’s an old Jimmy Webb song.
KN: That one’s challenging. That’s another one where the lyrics are important and Jimmy Webb is an incredible composer but he’s also a great lyricists. What I did was write out all the lyrics and thought a whole lot about the meaning of the lyrics, but the phrasing of the lyrics. When people say that is a very lyrical song, I think what they are saying is that they are hearing someone singing it. I wanted to make it so that when you heard “Wichita Lineman” and you didn’t know the lyrics, you would 1: sense how the phrasing was, how Glen Campbell sang it or how Jimmy Webb originally wrote it; and 2: you would somehow understand the meaning of the lyrics because of the way I was trying to bring it out. So the challenge there was to not get it overly complex but yet to represent all those parts. If you remember that Glen Campbell arrangement with a big group, and strings and all that stuff. Yet to me one of the things I remember reading a long time ago about that song. Somebody summed it up by saying “It’s about ordinary people having extraordinary thoughts.” I thought, “wow” what a great way to put that. Like somehow it conveys that feeling in the way that I play it. So that’s how I approach the arrangement and even now when I play it, I’m always singing it in my head. Singing the melody sort of speak.

SV: Another one that hits the heart chords is “Europa” from Santana. The beginning notes of that one really hits you in the heart. Tell us a little bit about that one as well.
KN: I’ve always been a huge fan of Santana. Obviously everyone of these songs that I’ve picked which is obvious by the way I’m talking about them. They all have resonated with me for many, many years. When you spend the kind of time I’ve spent on this, you better love them. You’re really, really going to live with them in a way that you thought that you knew them. With “Europa”, I wanted to create a tour de force because I felt like it deserved it. It leant itself to having that long introduction where its played in a style that’s called reboto where you really don’t have a tempo. You can hear the groove, but it’s not in a locked tempo and that allowed me to do some flamingo Spanish kinds of things that I always loved and always thought were an inherent part of what Santana did. Then it breaks into the groove and eventually works it’s way into this very driving almost ecstatic strumming section where I’m playing slap bass and the chords and the melody, then comes back to that quiet roboto flamingo thing to end the song for like fifteen seconds. So I really wanted to create this tour de force. It took a long time to play it all and to finalize the arrangement in the seven minutes or so because it goes through a lot. It’s really quiet a journey. Again always keeping that emotional chord and that intimacy and the warmth. That’s the one thing that ties it all together all of this music and my love for it. There’s such a humanity and warmth in all of it.

SV: You can really tell by what you have picked out here too.  You start with “Imagine” and end up with “When You Wish Upon a Star.” You go full circle with a lot of music.
KN: I called those last two tracks, “bonus tracks.” Because they didn’t quiet fit stylistically into the body of the record. And I really felt like Europa was the closer. I love the idea of having the Bach piece just before “Wish Upon a Star.” There’s such perfection. It’s like looking at nature. Whenever I play that, I try to imagine the natural organic nature all around us. Somehow Bach feels like he’s a human representation of that. Like when you see nature doing what it’s doing. That’s the kind of thing that makes me believe that in God. I look and I see such amazing things. When I hear Bach, the same feeling. I just wanted to have that on there for the same reason. “When You Wish Upon a Star” to be quite honest Harvey, I didn’t realize the complete circleness of it until I put it all together. I always loved that song. It has a dreamy optimistic quality. I wanted to do a version of it that kind of modernized it. I pushed it a little farther than some of the other songs in some ways. Which again is why I thought it was more appropriate to call it a bonus track. In the end I really loved the way it caps off the record and like you said, kind of puts a bow at the end of the record.

SV: Do you have any favorites? I know that’s a hard question to ask. 
KN: Yes it is. I don’t know. There’s a song that I did that was an old Allman Brothers song back from my rock and roll days called “Little Martha.” That’s a real fun one to play. The guitar has a special tuning for that and it kind of reminds me of some of the influences I had even as early as the sixties and early seventies. Even though they were coming from rock musicians, they were already hinting at some of the places that contemporary and smooth jazz would go decades later. I don’t know if it’s a favorite per se, but it’s a favorite to play. It’s wonderful to see how people react to it. That’s another one of those songs that everybody knows even if they don’t know the title of it.

SV: You look back over the writers of some of the songs here and it looks like an all star list. With John Lennon, Duane Allman, Bob Dylan, Henry Mancini, Jimmy Webb, Pat Matheny, Carlos Santana, Brian Wilson, and Bach (laughing)
KN: I know. (laughing) I love that I can do that. I feel so lucky that I can represent such a wonderful list like that. When you read them like that, I just go “wow” it’s like a who’s who of popular composers who write quality, quality music. I know it’s my album title, but clearly they all stand the test of time and will continue. The fact that generations, our kids know these songs. My daughter who is home from college this week, I can’t really practice too much around her. She starts singing on them; she knows them all you know. It’s a little distracting.

SV: I put the CD on and it sounds like you’re in my living room.
KN: Thank you for saying that. That’s what I was going for, that intimacy of a presentation and a healing kind of a thing too. I remember I did an album in 2005 called Love Colored Soul. My whole attempt on that record was to create like a healing vibe. Something you put on and feel better. That was my intent with this and use the solo guitar wonderful intimacy like it’s right there with you. Especially with the wonderful recording technology we have now. You can really make it sound like that. I went to a lot of pains to make this record sound really good. I’ve heard a lot of acoustic guitar records, I’m not saying they sound bad, they don’t sound bad, but they don’t sound great. I just wanted this one to sound great. I spent a lot of time on that. It’s nylon string guitar, but has like a half nylon half steel string quality so that it has the energy and the excitement and the dynamics of steel strings. But it has the sensitivity and gentleness of the nylon strings too. That was the challenge in recording, to capture both of those.

SV: Well you did a great job with that. Speaking of living room concerts, I understand you do those from time to time. Tell us a little bit about those.
KN: I’ve been doing them for a few years kind of here and there. People would call and just say, “when are you going to come?” And they would name some city that I would play at very often. We would say “well, we don’t know, we don’t have anything on the books for that or we’re not working on anything.”  Ken does things where he can play a living room concert, and we started booking a few. With a solo record it just seemed like the perfect thing to put the word out. So we created the living room concerts street team. We’ve had about fifty responses for people who want to do it. So far we have done four and we’re working on a fifth and sixth one now. I don’t want to do too many of them because I want to do things with my full band. It’s different to play with other people and I want to continue that as well as add the solo guitar thing. I’m loving doing it and really looking forward to it. The solo guitar album is the perfect vehicle to literally put that in someone’s living room for fifty people or so. It’s a way of bringing this music to people who very, very much feel I and want it. There’s somewhere in Colorado unless it’s Denver, it’s hard to say when I’m going to play there next. So it’s a great way to bring it to them.

SV: That’s a great opportunity for a lot of people, so I’m sure they will take advantage of that. Bringing people to the music, you’re doing a pod cast on I-tunes also. Tell us a little bit about that.
KN: I’ve been doing that. I think I did that with Love Colored Soulback in 2005. It’s hard to believe some of these technologies we now take for granted, it’s like seven years old now. I started doing it back then. I put a pod cast out in January for The Test of Time where I talked about the process, played samples of every piece on the record (I can’t help that I still call them records). It’s fun for me because it’s a little like the living room concert because I get to talk a little bit more about each song. I got to talk a little bit about the process of what it’s like as a fifties something year old, to continue to learn about something and work hard at something. For me personally that really keeps me young. For my whole life frankly has been a way for me to stay young. I’m constantly wanting to get better, constantly wanting to do new things with it. Learning and keeping your mind active. To get me to work out is a bit of a challenge. It’s not something I like to do. But if I know I have to perform and have this next kind of a schedule, then I do about anything. So even in ways that are not musical, it has an influence on keeping me healthy and feeling young at least mentally.

SV: I know you stay really busy, and you conduct workshops as well all over the country and five or six different ones of those as well. Tell us a little bit about those.
KN: I’ve mostly done those with colleges and universities where I’ll do a concert at night then during the day give a workshop. Sometimes they can be on the guitar, but because I run my own record label for twenty two years, I’ve actually done workshops with the business departments of some universities where I give a presentation on how to begin, found and then run an independent record label in the current technology that’s available. How I’ve done it over these twenty two years and how we have changed and what we do now. That’s an interesting thing too. You share the benefits of wearing that hat. Originally I started my on record label, not because I wanted to run a record label, but because I wanted control over what I was doing musically. Control over the music I was making, and control over how it got marketed and how it was presented to people. But inevitably you cant help but learn about that business if you’re going to do it right. You need to be able to talk to college aged kids and share that. Of course they’re coming from a world where all they know is I-tunes and downloading and I-pods. You know what I mean? That’s their world so you’re not really telling them anything new. You’re more explaining how that integrates into the already established worlds of distribution and marketing and radio and promotion in general. It’s always great to interact with young people that way. That’s why I still have two or three private guitar students. They’re all people who are young, or young at heart, and it just keeps you in touch teaching some way or another. It keeps you in touch with a whole other dimension of what learning is all about. Those young people are still like sponges at the ages of nineteen or twenty. Especially in something they’re interested in like music.

SV: What’s coming up on the tour schedule?
KN: The next show that I do is in Orlando Florida. That’s going to be in April. That will be a band show, plus I will do a twenty minute mini set of solo guitar music. Then I believe I head to Japan after that for two shows in Osaka. One night I’m playing with Eric Marienthal the great saxophonist as my special guest then the next night we do the same show but Eric Marienthal features me as a special guest. I’ve know Eric for thirty years now. It’s going to be a fun reunion even if it will be twelve thousand miles away. He’s lots of fun. From there I head back here to do a living room concert in the D.C./Baltimore area. Then I go down to Norfolk Virginia for a show there. We have something else that’s not on my calendar yet in a great theater outside of Philadelphia in May also. There have been a lot of different things coming in and we have a lot of irons in the fire. I never put anything up on my web page calendar until it’s pretty definate. You’d be suprised how many things can be on the fire that don’t always happen. There’s a lot going on with my band as well as the solo stuff too.

SV: Well good, it sounds like you have a full agenda in front of you.
KN: I do. I feel very busy, which is great. Last year was a year of solitude in many ways because I was working on this music. The nature of it was me playing all by myself many, many hours every single day. Which is fun, but I spent a lot of time by myself. I feel like I’m coming out of that kind of a shell in a big way this year and that’s a welcomed change.

SV: Is there anything you want to tell your fans today as we close today?
KN: No, except to thank them for all these years of following my music and allowing me the privilege of getting to the point of saying that I just finished my twentieth CD. The smoothviews fans are the core fans of this music in my opinion. And I thank you for what you’re doing Harvey, it’s great, and everybody at the site. Everybody who’s involved with it. It’s wonderful. This is one of the interviews that when I put out a record, I look forward to because you guys cover the music that no one else does.

SV: Thanks Ken and best of luck with the new disc.