Interviews

Jay Soto spreads a vibe of love

Jay Soto spreads a vibe of love

After our review about Jay Sotos album “Veritas” , we decided to see his point of view, and to find out more about the journey about the album. Like we said Jay Soto is not just a smooth jazz guitarist, he’s also a composer, songwriter, producer, pianist, music instructor and church music director.
It’s not easy to start making an album. You always need the main ingredient, and that is the inspiration. This is what kept M.r Soto going.

Originally, I set out to break free from my usual Smooth Jazz sound that I’m known for and become more experimental with my compositions. Although guitar is my forte, I’ve played the piano since I was 7 and I’ve always chosen piano to compose with, so, I sat at my keyboard and allowed myself to just compose whatever came out from my heart and fingers. I ended up with a melting pot of different styles that were already ingrained in me, styles that I know and love to play. Some of these styles include Rock, Pop, Classical, Smooth Jazz, Fusion, World Music, Latin and Cinema. I know, that’s a mouthful! Toward the end of the production, I had a change of heart in terms of the direction of the album and decided to go back to my spiritual roots and release it as an inspirational album.

jaysoto

When it comes to help Jay prefers to do the things on his own, but of course cooperation is always on his list.

For this album, I decided to do most of the work myself. I did work with a few top notch musicians including bassist, Mario Mendivil, who is on my Stay Awhile album. Also, on drums, I used Goran Rista and Phil Robertson. All brilliant players.

Every album has his own meaning, but the meaning for the musician is the most important.

This album has given me freedom, freedom to compose organically from the soul. I had no barriers, hence, I believe it is my greatest achievement and most honest release to date.  It also marks the kick off to my new ministry, desotoministries, so I’m very excited about that.

If you want to make beautiful music, you have to start from somewere, this is how Jay started.

My first guitar instructor, many, many years ago, was heavy into Jazz guitar, even though I was studying Classical guitar from him at the time. I really loved it when he would noodle around playing Jazz and one day, I asked if he could teach me that “Jazz stuff” instead.

Like we sead previously this album is breathtaking, but we asked mr.Soto about the highlights.

Honestly, there are too many to name, but one in particular is the tune “Ancient of Days.” it sounds like it could be the theme song for a James Bond movie or something. On it, I created an interesting blend of both nylon string guitar and electric guitar, playing different parts but still working seamlessly together. Then, the true Rock side of me comes out in my guitar solo.

Jay Soto is always working and trying hard, so he discovered us his newest project.

I’m actually producing Neamen Lyle‘s next album. He’s a very talented Smooth Jazz saxophonist, you may have heard of him.

And at the end, he finished in his own style, with a beautiful message for all of us.

My hope is to spread a vibe of love, peace and joy to a hurting world through the gift of music.

Milena Staniskovska

December 19th, 2015

No Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *