Abercrombie Seeks Adventure on Higher Musical Ground

John Abercrombie, one of the most adventurous artists in a new generation of guitarists, is always reaching for higher-tech.

The group he now leads (due to open tonight for a 6-day run at Catalina Bar & Grill) finds him working with the guitar synthesizer, enabling the group to undergo a powerful change of character: In effect, the trio can become a full orchestra.

“I started using the synth a couple of years ago, around the time we made our first record with the trio,” says the 43-year-old virtuoso. “I first heard one when Pat Metheny used it on a gig at Woodstock with me and Jack De Johnette. I knew right away that I had to have one.

“The synthesizer is at once rewarding and frustrating. There’s a slight delay between hitting a note and hearing it, which you don’t get on a keyboard synthesizer. Then, too, there’s what I call the glitching--when you touch an adjacent string that you’re not playing, but the synth will bring it out and make it sound like you added a wrong note.

“Still, the advantages outweigh the problems, because you can program so many of your own sounds and ideas with it that it’s an invaluable tool.”

As was revealed in the trio’s recent album, “Getting There” (ECM 1321), Abercrombie employs the technology without allowing it to overwhelm the human quality. His taste ranges from dissonant original works to such wistful pieces as “Remember Hymn,” with guest soloist Michael Brecker.

After 20 years working with major names--Johnny Hammond, Gil Evans, Gato Barbieri--Abercrombie has achieved a colorful fusion of elements that is expressed by a hand-picked group.

“It didn’t come together by chance,” he says. “Several years ago I went to the Village Vanguard to hear Bill Evans, and I was completely floored by this bassist who had just joined him, Marc Johnson. I just knew we would work together someday.

“I met Peter Erskine on a Bobby Hutcherson record date. He was just leaving Weather Report, getting ready to move back to New York and join Steps Ahead.

“I had this idea of getting the two of them together, because Marc has the sensitivity for that subtle interplay I like to achieve on standard songs, while Peter’s drumming provides the kind of energy he displayed in Weather Report, which works well with some of the more electronic stuff I like to play.”

The trio played its first date in Europe in 1984 and has remained together. There is a great mutual admiration within the unit. Erskine has characterized Abercrombie as “one of the greatest improvising musicians I’ve ever encountered.”

“I’ve always had a good relationship with drummers,” says Abercrombie, who began his professional life in music in 1966, when he graduated from the Berklee School of Music in Boston. “Chico Hamilton was very open--we all did a lot of writing for his band and there was plenty of spontaneity. With Billy Cobham, whom I joined in 1974, there wasn’t that much interplay, but he had a high decibel level and a certain kind of interesting energy.

“One of my greatest experiences was working with Jack De Johnette. We were together for about 5 years. He is a great time-keeper, with strong jazz roots, capable of playing free time, straight-ahead time, everything. I learned an awful lot from him.”

He is also learning from other guitarists. Just as Metheny inspired him to become involved with the synthesizer, an English guitarist, Alan Holdsworth, now intrigues him with a new development. “Holdsworth is involved with the MIDI guitar, which includes an in-between converter box. Whereas Pat uses what would be called more of an analog-sound synth, Alan Holdsworth’s is digital. Both men are real pioneers.

“I’m still convinced that all these developments have musical value in terms of being creative and expressive; we just have to keep hanging in there until the technology matches the players.”