Article Contributed by DL Media
Published on November 7, 2025
Composer, guitarist, and inventor Jack West will release two albums on Otá Records (the label behind most of Omar Sosa’s recordings). The first, Guitars On Life, is a new album of percussive acoustic guitar music featuring West and guitarist Walter Strauss performing mostly live in the studio as a Duo. The second, Essential Curvature, is a compilation of songs West composed and recorded with his group Curvature between 1996 and 2003. Both recordings showcase West’s innovative approach to the acoustic guitar and to composing instrumental music with a focus on rhythm and groove.
Both albums are available on vinyl and digital platforms and are set for release on January 23, 2026 on Ota Records / Redeye Worldwide.
A prolific musician, composer, and inventor, Jack West is a singular guitarist with an immediately recognizable sound. He has released six albums, all receiving widespread critical acclaim, and has performed regularly at leading festivals and venues. In parallel with his music career, West is also an accomplished inventor, and has patented new musical instruments and solar technologies, pursuits that have both born impressive fruit. Jack has recently ramped up his musical output with multiple musical projects.
Characterized by uncommon rhythmic dexterity, exploratory slide guitar work and a uniquely grooving, percussive acoustic style, West’s playing was described by The Oakland Tribune as sounding “like something never heard before…nothing short of astounding.”
While some have placed West’s work into the jazz category, it might be more accurate to say his music represents a new stream of American acoustic music, an improvisation-laced sound influenced by jazz, but equally engaged with rock, folk, and funk. In many ways he was an early exemplar of the acoustic guitar virtuosi who followed in the percussive footsteps of Michael Hedges (1953 –1997), a world that’s expanded in recent years with YouTube sensations like Marcin, Alexandr Misko, and Luka Stricognoli. While West shares with these artists an expansive toolkit of impressive percussive techniques, his music is far less about blazing through fully composed pieces and more about innovative grooves and ensemble interplay, with space for impromptu invention.
About Guitars on Life
Guitars on Life offers fans of acoustic guitar virtuosity a jaw-dropping sojourn. The album presents a captivating collection of steel string duets with fellow guitar explorer Walter Strauss. West supplies the bass, chords, and percussion lines of an entire rhythm section while Strauss weaves expertly filigreed melodies on top. The result is a surprisingly large, full band sound emanating from just two acoustic guitars.
It’s a captivating joyride, from the ecstatic take on Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” to the impetuous innocence of “Youth.” Like many of the pieces, the aptly titled “Double Bounce” opens with West laying down a supple groove (his bass notes pop due to a thumb pick of his own invention). Strauss’s lightning triplet runs provide their own fuel, while West’s legato slide work is expressive of the boogie roots that nourish both guitarists. Not that it’s all dance music. Side A concludes with the tautly dramatic “Across the Bardo” and Side B wraps up with an oasis of calm, the introspective “Follow the Water Down.”
Recent Guitars on Life music videos posted on YouTube have generated nearly a million views and inspired over 70,000 YouTube subscribers over the course of just a few weeks!
About Essential Curvature
The 16 tracks on Essential Curvature were originally recorded live in the studio by Jack West and his evolving band Curvature, and they were variously released across five albums from 1996 to 2003. Sounding unlike any other ensemble on the scene, the group attracted some of the Bay Area’s most creative musicians, including drummer Scott Amendola, Turtle Island Quartet cellist Mark Summer, and pedal steel expert David Phillips. Legendary producer Lee Townsend, known for his work with guitar explorers Bill Frisell, Charlie Hunter, Kelly Joe Phelps, and John Scofield, recognized another incandescent talent, producing West’s Big Ideas and guiding the production of Around About Now. At the same time, West gained recognition for his creative vision as a composer. The sardonically elastic soundscape “This Life May Be Monitored (for Quality Assurance)” won the 2001 John Lennon Songwriting Contest.
Still fresh and alluring today, each of these instrumental songs was composed by West and showcase him on 6 or 8-string acoustic guitar in a small, mostly acoustic ensemble that includes instruments such as marimba, a second acoustic guitar, sax, percussion, or pedal steel. Many of the tunes feature West’s remarkable acoustic slide work, and all of them are fascinating studies in rhythm. For sure, the thread running through all of West’s work during the Curvature years was his utter commitment to the groove, no matter how much curve he and his bandmates applied to the rhythmic momentum. Naming his combo Curvature was “very much based on my thinking about rhythmic cycles,” West says. “Rhythm is fundamentally curved. It turns back on itself.” Listening back to this sonically upgraded body of work, West’s music with Curvature continues to sound as new and filled with surprises as it did 20 years ago. It’s impossible not to wonder where he’s headed next.
More About Jack West
West hails from a long line of musicians in rural Alabama, including his grandfather’s family band, which performed at funerals across the state. His uncle, an accomplished jazz pianist, first inspired him to play music. Mostly self-taught while growing up in Savannah, Georgia, West played primarily in rock and world music bands as a teen. But in 1993 he shifted course and decided to work exclusively in an acoustic vein, inspired by various country blues players and fingerstyle innovators like Hedges and Leo Kotke. Even before he began to experiment with guitar technology, West had developed a highly personal sound on 6-string acoustic guitar using unusual tunings and a dazzling combination of bluesy slide work, finger-picking, and unorthodox percussive moves.
It’s also of note that West’s work as an inventor in parallel with his music career has included the development of a motorized guitar, new types of fingerpicks and new solar technologies—the latter relating to his passion for protecting the environment, which resulted in a part-time, music-supporting gig installing solar systems. West eventually parlayed his solar day-job into a new company, Zep Solar. Launched in 2009 with financial backing from “father of the iPod” Tony Fadell among others, Zep Solar manufactured several of West’s inventions that streamlined roof-mounted solar systems with sleek, aesthetically pleasing new designs. The company was sold to SolarCity in 2013.
Of late, West has been exploring the musical possibilities presented by a new thumbpick he recently invented, “which opened up a whole new way of playing guitar,” West says. Unlike conventional thumbpicks, his design allows West to deploy his trademark “acoustic spank” technique while also striking the strings in both the down and up direction. This new pick even allows him to echo the rapid-fire triplets of flamenco guitar, while remaining true to the funkier feel of American music.
The fact that West is both a highly accomplished musician and a successful inventor (with over 100 patents) places him in a category without many peers—except possibly the great guitar innovator and hit songwriter Les Paul—a man who West cites, not surprisingly, as a key influence on his life. “For me, inventing songs is the same process as inventing technology,” he says. “I just keep experimenting with new ideas until I find one that works.” Luckily for those who enjoy his music, West is still at it with more technical innovations and compelling musical ideas than ever. As Guitars on Life emphatically confirms, he’s still finding new ideas that work.
2026 TOUR DATES
Feb. 20: Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz, CA. Tickets available here.
Feb. 22: Catalina’s Jazz Club, Los Angeles, CA. Tickets available here.
Feb. 26: Freight & Salvage, Berkeley, CA. Tickets available here.
March 7: Gualala Arts Center, Gualala, CA. Tickets available here.
