Don Ross | Follow the path of water, a guitar for a paddle

Expert in the art of finger playing (fingerpicking), guitarist Don Ross comes to present his new album Water Sunday evening at Sala Rossa. A true return to his roots for this Montreal-born musician, who travels across the country and abroad, distilling his sculpted harmonies with ten fingers.

The gentleness of a sea surf, the tranquility of a summer lake, drops of notes beading on guitar strings… the pieces of Water draw unambiguously from the calm provided by this source of life, a central element of Don Ross’s daily life.

Born in Quebec on the banks of the Saint Lawrence, the man who lived in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia has always been surrounded by sheets of water. Literally. “My studio overlooked the ocean, I always feel better when I’m close to the shore,” he explains to The Press. And even more so during the pandemic, during which he composed a large part of the album, while the whole world found itself “submerged”. The theme therefore naturally emerged.

The challenge facing the artist was to transpose this aquatic sensitivity into music, with his personal approach. That is to say by passing it through the style mill fingerpicking which made his reputation – Don Ross has gleaned a host of competitions and distinctions since the start of his career, which began more than 35 years ago. For the uninitiated, this playing technique consists of using, instead of the usual pick (the pick, a small piece of plastic), all the fingers of the hand to attack the strings, mixing arpeggios, chords, melodies and percussion effects, all in an orchestral way. While some excel on electric guitar (Mark Knopfler), Ross exploits all the resonant qualities of electroacoustic instruments.

This parenthesis closed, let’s return to our water stories. “Music being a metalanguage, it is difficult to say, when we compose instrumental pieces, how our feelings are transmitted through a group of notes or chords,” explains the guitarist.

He holds up the example of Seabrightpiece of Water borrowing the name from the coastal Nova Scotia village where he resided. “We hear joyful and radiant sounds, even though I composed it during a dark period. » A maritime caress, peppered with floating notes, reminiscent of the nocturnal stars of One Quiet Nightby Pat Metheny.

Twenty fingers in the spotlight

Montreal is thus known territory for Don Ross, who grew up there and returns there regularly, for example for the Jazz Festival. This Sunday evening, it will be at the Sala Rossa that the ten fingers of Don Ross will be at work, to play songs from his most recent album, but also classics from his long career.

We say ten, but in reality there will be twenty. Because will be added those of Kent Nishimura, a young Japanese prodigy who is causing a sensation on YouTube with his covers of well-known songs given a twist fingerstyle. By closing your eyes, you might think that several musicians are playing simultaneously!

Moreover, Nishimura will not constitute an “opening act” strictly speaking, since his appearances on stage will alternate with those of Ross throughout the evening, and they will sometimes perform together.

In addition to his Montreal roots, Don Ross also inherited indigenous blood from his mother, who hid her Mi’kmaq origins for many years from those around her… and even from her husband! Although he willingly cultivates this legacy, the guitarist acts a bit like his mother (albeit unintentionally) when it comes to composing: you won’t really find a trace of traditional sounds in his work. “My music is what it is, I don’t have a lot of control over it. If I tried to incorporate indigenous chants or drums, it would sound really borrowed and inauthentic, like I was trying to cash in on that heritage instead of paying homage to it. So I avoid doing that, because I play the music I want to play. »

Don Ross, with Kent Nishimura, Sunday April 14 at Sala Rossa

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There fanned fret

No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. Several guitars used by Don Ross actually seem distorted, particularly their frets (metal bars separating the frets from the neck). Usually strictly parallel, here they form a sort of fan; these are guitars fanned frets or multi-scale. In fact, this less common arrangement has been in development for centuries. “As I tend to use lower tunings, this can cause intonation issues. Unlike a conventional guitar, the strings of a fanned fret are not all the same length, and this allows us to maintain optimal intonation even below standard tuning,” explains the artist, who collaborates with Ottawa luthier Marc Beneteau.