Michael Whitmore

“★★★★ Nylon string guitarist extraordinaire” -- Buzz Weekly

“Top 200 Favorite Guitarists List” -- Nels Cline

“Always intriguing, insinuating mysteries but never resolving them” -- Option

Michael Whitmore specifically plays a nylon string guitar and is the leader and composer for the band Some’tet. He tends towards that frayed edges of jazz -- post-jazz, avant-jazz, free-jazz, with a hint of samba in his playing. And yes, he seems to have disappeared for a bunch of years after leaving Los Angeles -- 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 seven 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, where Some’tet was born. He is now performing throughout the Seattle/Puget Sound region. Soon, again, Whitmore will be recording with Some’tet, plus, there’s talk of a brief return to LA to record a solo project.

He is a veteran of the LA new music scene with some 2500 gigs under his belt. 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 and Mark Hollis as huge inspirations.

More comments about Michael Whitmore  

“Brimming with a mysterious orchestral ambiance that at times makes the hair on your arms stand up” -- altar native

“A musicians musician who has remained open to new directions and continued to develop while retaining a unique and distinctive sound” -- FluxEuropa

“Cumulatively psychedelic in its own way, great for creating a big soulful emptiness” -- Option

“Isn’t it clear that artists such as guitarist Michael Whitmore must be afforded attention” -- San Diego Reader.

“The sensory overload is multilayered and deliciously orgasmic” -- Campus Circle

“Michael Whitmore needs to be singled out for praise, he’s the one to watch” -- The Improvisor

“His musical outlook may be dark and brooding, but there’s no trace of morbid posturing – it’s a gorgeous darkness with subtlety aplenty” Los Angeles New Times