Geoff travels to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in the heart of the City of London to meet with the wonderful guitarist and educator Chris Allard.

Growing up in a musical family with roots stretching back to The Juilliard School in New York, Chris recalls his path from classical piano lessons to discovering rock guitar through Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, before Pat Metheny's ‘Letter From Home’ (1989) opened the door to jazz improvisation. This pivotal moment set him on a course that would lead to conservatory training, where his reluctant classical guitar studies unexpectedly became a career asset, enabling performances with artists like Russell Watson and Lea Salonga.

The heart of the discussion centres on Chris's doctoral research, where he has meticulously transcribed and analysed four contrasting guitarists—Lionel Loueke, Jesse van Ruller, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Nelson Veras—to develop his own musical language. His systematic approach to absorbing their innovations while establishing his distinctive sound offers valuable insights for musicians of all levels struggling with the influence of their heroes.

From performing at the Pyramids in Cairo to playing intimate jazz clubs, Chris shares candid reflections on stage nerves, memorable performances, and the practical challenges of developing as a musician. We even explore his equipment choices, favourite recordings, and get a demonstration of some particularly tasty chord voicings.

Ready to take your jazz practice and performing to the next level? Download the Quartet app for iOS today and experience the difference of playing along with professional-quality backing tracks, just like Chris demonstrates in this episode with Irving Berlin’s 1930s standard ‘How Deep is the Ocean’.

Presenter: Geoff Gascoyne
Series Producer: Paul Sissons
Production Manager: Martin Sissons
The Quartet Jazz Standards Podcast is a UK Music Apps production.