When Peter White released “Good Day,” on September 8, it was no surprise that his new CD debuted at the top of Billboard’s Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. For nearly twenty years, Peter has made the acoustic guitar a dynamic and expressive voice in the soundscape of contemporary jazz.
However, many people don’t realize that Peter started out playing the electric guitar. But his musical aspirations abruptly veered in an acoustic direction when his beloved axe was destroyed in a fire, one that his younger brother Danny accidentally started.
“The funny thing is that Danny didn’t actually admit to setting that fire for at least twenty-five years,” Peter says. “I had been kind of obsessed with the electric guitar at that point in my life, so that episode kind of forced me to go back to playing the acoustic. In retrospect, that’s a good thing.”
Indeed, Peter’s interests after the accident shifted more toward the music of acoustic artists like Crosby , Stills and Nash, James Taylor, and Joni Mitchell. He had decided by his late teens that music was his calling, and his first professional gig was at a holiday resort when he was 19 years old. A year later, he was invited to join pop balladeer Al Stewart’s band as a keyboard player for a tour of England , Scotland , and the U.S.
Peter worked with Stewart in the studio in the making of “Year of the Cat,” which became a huge hit in 1976, and the two musicians co-wrote numerous songs, including Stewart’s 1978 hit, “Time Passages,” released when Peter was 23. He’s also played with singer Basia on all her recordings and tours, from 1987 to present day.
Peter continues to maintain a busy tour schedule, playing over 100 dates this year. He tours the U.K. in early November and returns to the U.S. to perform a string of Christmas dates with Dave Koz & Friends.
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