Masters’ Pieces : Kottke Stakes Claim With Fellow Guitarists at Style Summit in Irvine

The view from the lofty heights of the “Guitar Summit,” the touring program that includes jazzman Joe Pass, classical guitarist Pepe Romero and flamenco wizard Paco Pena, has been especially revealing for the fourth member, Leo Kottke.

They travel, usually at night, from venue to venue on a tour bus, and as Kottke explained Thursday by phone from a stop in San Diego, “I’ll mooch a cigar from Pepe or Paco, and we’ll get into it. It’s an opportunity to get answers, and they have a lot of guitar lore to pass on and stories coming out of their ears.

“I’m continually picking Joe’s brain about harmony, and I’ve been trying to get this irregular flamenco rhythm down. We all sit around trying to learn something from each other. We can’t smoke on the bus, of course, but outside, we leave a cloud wherever we go.”

Kottke’s respect for his fellow summiteers was apparent. “I’ve always had a huge appetite for music, but I’ve been slow in my studies. That’s why Joe and Paco and Pepe are so developed in what they’re doing; they haven’t been slow.”

“There’s a lot of style, too, that I notice and learn from. Pepe will play from the sound check right up to his set, two or three complete pieces, no noodling or scales. Joe makes a point not to pick up the guitar until he walks on stage.” Kottke, Pass and Pena met three years ago on a similar tour of Australia. “It was so much fun, and the audiences seemed to enjoy it, so we decided to repeat it here. There was a bit of a question if anyone, including us, could stand that much guitar. But because we come from different backgrounds, it works out well. We don’t feel at anytime overwhelmed by the twang.”

While Pass, Pena and Romero easily are categorized into jazz, flamenco and classical styles, Kottke seems the square peg and is listed on the “Guitar Summit’s” promotional materials as the “steel string” stylist.

“A friend once called me a ‘disenfranchised guitarist,’ and that’s a category I like. I’ve absorbed something of everything but haven’t fit neatly into any one kind of pursuit. I think that comes from being self-taught.”

Kottke’s own territory has been explored and developed in some two dozen albums for a variety of labels over 25 years, recordings that find his lush, involved style on six- and 12-string guitars sometimes decorated with his witty, often ironic lyrics. His latest release, “Peculiaroso” (on the Private Music label), was produced by new friend and associate Ricki Lee Jones, who adds her voice on the tune “Turning Into Randolph Scott (Humid Child).”

Though the album title suggests Thelonious Monk’s standard “Mysterioso,” there’s no Monk on the album. “But there is a distant, odd connection,” Kottke explained. “I love Thelonious Monk and have spent a lot of time with (bassist) Buell Neidlinger, who used to play with him. I have heard a lot of Monk stories from Buell. I also had the urge to come up with something a little less inflated than some of my titles. So I invented this language.”

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Jones got involved in the project after she and Kottke were introduced by a mutual friend, bassist John Leftwich. “John brought my last record along on Ricki’s last tour, and she heard it and liked it. One day John was going up to her place in Ojai, and I tagged along. We hit it off immediately and spent the day singing and sitting around in sort of a musical mood.”

Jones brought Kottke in for her recording “Traffic From Paradise.” “While we were recording the tune ‘Pink Flamingos,’ something I did struck her funny, and she hit the floor laughing. And I thought, ‘That’s the kind of environment I want when I record.’ Recording can be such an unpleasant setup; you’re always looking for allies and friends.”

He found the friendship he was looking for, though the process didn’t always go smoothly. “One day we had an argument about something. She said this, and I said that. And after two hours of floundering, I realized she was absolutely right. That’s why she’s a good producer. She hears things I wouldn’t notice.

“Another time she got all of the vocals and some of the instrumentals out of me through trickery. She asked me what else I had for the day, and I said I had nothing ready but fragments. So we worked on those, and she had the tape running, and that was that. I went in to hear which one to work on next and she said we were done. Now that was very nice.”

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Kottke denies that his relationship with Jones is, as a local deejay recently suggested, something more than professional. “There isn’t anything more going on. There’s a display of affection that people can see when we perform together. We have so much fun. It’s the music. And we have a lot in common; there’s a connection in the way we grew up and the quality of music that we both like. But anything more than that would be . . . .” His voice trailed off.

Anyway, for now, Kottke’s attention is on the guitar summit, in which each participant plays solo for half an hour or so. A couple of duets come next, and then all four gather on stage to blend styles. “It’s kind of a take on Mozart, but with Joe and Paco and Pepe and me, there’s no way we can approach Mozart with the kind of formality you would expect from this kind of piece. So we take it somewhere else.”

* The “Guitar Summit” takes place Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. $24-$28. (714) 854-4646.