Cover photo © 2024 Marilyn Stringer
There is a descriptor sometimes used in the art world called “futuristic retro”, which describes an approach that incorporates the appeal of old styles, while looking toward the future. If there was a futuristic-retro movement in the blues, it would likely include Jad Tariq. Many perceive Tariq to be an example of the “future” of blues guitar, yet there is also a retro element to his style in which you can hear a pure and understated elegance similar to what was heard in players such as T-Bone Walker, BB King and Magic Sam. Blues Blast Magazine recently had the opportunity to catch up with this extremely talented musician via video conference.
Jad Tariq, (whose first and last names somewhat appropriately means “serious, benevolent well-intentioned striker” in Arabic), was born in Connecticut. His father is Palestinian and lived in Syria before moving to the United States and marrying his mother. Neither were musicians, and he discussed their attitude about his chosen career.
“They have always been supportive of my playing, but they know not many people get to make a living playing music, so that was never something they would urge me to do. At first, they urged me toward other paths. But, once I started touring a lot, they were ok with it, because at least I wasn’t phoning home to ask for money.”
Jad held a few brief and uninspiring jobs before devoting himself to a music career.
“I kept a job from high school into my first year of college working at a beach club, setting up chairs and helping people out. Between my junior and senior year, I did an internship in New York City at a bank. I hated it. It was the most miserable summer I ever had. That was definitely a ‘try to make the parents happy move’.”
Jad attended Rhodes College in Memphis, although he studied business management, not music.
“But it does apply to the music industry—a lot of it does. The relationships between people and the corporate culture does relate to the music scene culture and the band culture. But not so much with the marketing strategies I learned. It is such a different world in the music business now because things change so quickly. First, from tape to vinyl, hoping to get radio play, and then it slowly shifted to tapes and 8-tracks, and then to CDs, and now to digital. You take someone like John Nemeth, who started releasing records in the 1990s. He has had to adjust to so many changes. The whole music industry had to relearn how to do everything. It’s harder than ever to make money from records now. Physical copies aren’t really a thing anymore, outside of the blues world. In the indie music genre, I don’t think any of them even make physical copies anymore.”
Jad was exposed to many genres of music as a child, but his earliest blues influences were Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan. And, although young, he appreciates a quote that is sometimes attributed to Mozart and sometimes attributed to Debussy, which is, ‘music is in the space between the notes’. Additionally, he acknowledged that his fashionable appearance is also heavily influenced by those in the swing era.
“My dad used to listen to Arabic music in the car and that had totally different sounds to listen for. Then my guitar teacher played me some Stevie Ray Vaughan, and my parents bought me that record of Albert King and Stevie together. It was so clear that Stevie got his influence from Albert. Albert was such a monster. He completely changed how I saw guitar. He got me into the more traditional blues. His language was pretty limited, and he only had a couple of moves, but he could hit them in a million different ways with a million different inflections. He always gave just the right amount of space before and after too. And my parents got me into a lot of different styles, like hard rock, Led Zeppelin, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. That got me into the swing thing and brought me around to find the BB King and T-Bone Walker swing stuff. Those guys were the coolest, in the 40s and 50s. They had so much class and their phrasing was great. I think all of those musicians in that era had a better recognition of space and how to phrase things.”
Jad’s favorite guitar is also reminiscent of a past era.
“My baby is the hollow body 1949 Gibson ES 5. It is the same year and same model as T-Bone Walker had. It’s a very unique guitar and was one of the first electrics to have three pickups on it. It’s like a guitar of a thousand voices because there are so many different pickup combinations. It’s a pretty special piece of equipment to own. I also have a 335 and there is a Les Paul that I play a lot when I play with Tony Holiday. I am definitely a Gibson guy at heart.”
While many musicians suffered significantly during the pandemic and some even questioned their career choice, Jad reframed it as an opportunity to improve his skill.
“It gave me time to catch up. I had only been playing professionally for a year, and that was a year of realizing where all the gaps in my knowledge and experience were. I got back in a woodshed and started practicing a ton—digging into all the things I knew that I didn’t know. I dug into all the records that I may have listened to, but this time I seriously studied them. So, in some ways COVID was a good time to play catch-up. And when I came back, I felt able to hit the ground running.”
Jad’s first break came when he met John Nemeth, who is well-known for helping to promote the careers of several young, talented guitarists, including Jon Hay, and Gabe Stillman. Nemeth noted that he “took (Jad) on the road just out of college and showed him the ropes. He is an impressive player, and I appreciate the use of his cultural identity in his blues. He appears on my 2022 album, Live from the Fall Out Shelter.”
Jad shared the story about their first time playing with Nemeth, which sounded like somewhat of a spectacle.
“I had seen John play with the Love Light Orchestra at a music festival, and then I heard he was playing at the Railgarten, and one of my professors was in the band playing piano. So, I showed up and asked if I could sit in. He did call me up to play, and that was back during my partying days. So, I was taking a solo, and this guy in the audience was trying to bring us up a tray of flaming shots, but he spills one on his arm and his arm is on fire and then he accidentally sets the table on fire. So, he gets that fire out and goes back and grabs another tray of flaming shots and brings it to the bandstand. We all take the shots, while I’m still playing my solo, and this guy goes to ‘cheers’ me and I thought he was passing me a beer as a chaser for the shot, so I unintentionally stole his beer.”
Since then, Jad has frequently played in John’s band and Tony Holiday’s band, but he also performs and records with his own band.
“Being a sideman is such a fun experience because you can focus on just playing the guitar and suiting it to what is happening in the moment and blending in with the rhythm section. Guys who hire me do want me to impart my own style, but you get hip with the preferences of the guys you work with and play differently with each person to suit their phrasing. They all phrase things differently. That’s where I pick my spots to make a statement or lay back and support them. It is a super important skill of sidemen to recognize what each individual singer wants because what they hear behind them helps them to do their job more easily.”
Jad and his housemates, musicians Benton Parker and Jon Hay, have opened a recording studio in their home.
“It’s up and operational. The first record we cut there was Johnny Burgin’s last record. The studio is called Lola’s Place. Lola is our dog. She’s great and sometimes you can hear Lola barking in the background on the recordings. She definitely owns the studio.”
In addition to being a recording team, Jad and Benton often write songs together.
“I write songs for him, and he wrote some for me and we wrote some together. Benton has a record coming out and we co-wrote on that, and I wrote one on his album called ‘Operator’. It’s about being in a situation where you’ve messed up your relationship, but your blaming the operator for not being able to get through, even though you know that everything that happened is your own fault. I’ve been trying to force myself to be more disciplined about writing, but it doesn’t really work that way for me. Usually, people come to me with an idea for a song and it gives me a jumping off point. I’m good at taking an idea that is already there and can sometimes flesh out a whole song in five minutes. It can just come all at once. I also started taking vocal lessons for my album that is about to come out. I had been blowing my voice out. It puts a lot of stress on the vocal cords if you do not have the proper technique, and I did not. With the blues you want to be able to shout and croon and to have the ability to do both without hurting yourself. My album will be coming out in early March. It’s called Jad Tariq Sings. Jon Hay recorded it and Dave Gross mixed and mastered it. It’s my debut album and will be released on Momojo Records.”
Want to see how this impressive young artist honors the blues greats from the past, but finds a way to make it all sound current? Go see Jad Tariq and check out his debut album when it is released in March from Momojo Records. You can find links to his social media atwww.jadtariq.com
