Ventana Album Cover

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Site Updated: November 21, 2007

Here is a link of me playing with the great organist
Gene Ludwig at Zanzibar Blue in Philadelphia, PA.

http://www.geneludwig.com/pages/photos.html

The personnel & video copyright is : Gene Ludwig at Zanzibar Blue Philadelphia (August 2005) video
Gene Ludwig(Hammond B-3) with Ken Karsh (guitar) Eric DeFade (tenor saxophone) and
Tom Wendt (drums)

video & copyright by Matt Rogers (11 minutes)


Read an interview with Ken Karsh at Jazz Guitar Life. COM.

Read a review of Ken Karsh's CD "Ventana" at Jazz Guitar Life. COM.

Hello, everyone! Thank you for visiting my website. I hope that you all have an overload (and then some) of peace, love & abundance.

I have been very busy (and enjoying) teaching 2 sections of Computers for Musicians, my first classroom course at Duquesne University. It has been fun and a real learning experience. I am also still teaching jazz guitar at Duquense and recently, I have been teaching guitar to music minors at California University of PA. so my teaching life has been very busy.

I am looking forward to once again playing guitars and kalimba for Lion King at the Benedum Center (Phone: (412) 471-6070. Box Office: (412) 456-6666) in Pittsburgh, PA. This will be from January 10th through February 17th. Please go to http://www.pgharts.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=8644 for details.

I will be sharing the spotlight with a fine classical guitarist named Marco Sartor for a concert that we are presenting on Saturday March 1st at 8 :00 PM at the PNC Recital Hall at the Mary Pappert School of Music. This concert is being sponsored by the Guitar Society of Fine Art in Pittsburgh. Please click the following link http://www.gsfapittsburgh.org/karsh.htm in order to obtain more information.

I am still revising my book “Fingerboarding Made EZ”. I won’t be done for a while, but it is still going well. The current version is still available at the Duquesne University Book Store. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to put new lessons online.

 

 


Karsh plays with technical maturity and a surging, driving intensity that surely marks him for stardom.
—Leonard Feather, LA Times


“Ken Karsh is among the very finest guitarists that I have ever heard. His technical ability and musical ideas place him among the finest players of his generation.”
—Johnny Smith


“Ken has turned in a stellar performance on his latest musical offering. From the first grooving song to the last, I’m sure you’ll enjoy “Ventana” as much as I did.”
—Henry Johnson


“Ken Karsh’s “Ventana” is a superb CD. Very inventive. If you like jazz guitar, buy this CD.”
—Jimmy Bruno


“The first time I heard Ken play he was eleven or twelve years old. I remember saying, ‘This kid is going to be a great guitar player.’ You know what? I was right!”
—Joe Negri


Ken Karsh is an enormous talent with plenty of taste and technique.
—Joe Barth, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine


Ken Karsh is a talented and diverse writer and a very fluid player with chops to spare, great time and tone.
—Jazz Improv Magazine


Pittsburgh's Ken Karsh is one fine guitarist, perhaps ranking with some of the nation's best.
—Pittsburgh Post Gazette


“ I think Ken is one of the great guitar players on the scene. There must be something in the water in Pittsburgh.”
—Sid Jacobs


“I've known Ken for over a decade and have admired his playing more with each year. Guitarists of all persuasions should check him out—but when you do prepare to do a lot of smiling.”
—Wolf Marshall


“It is once in a lifetime that you meet a musical talent of the stature of Ken Karsh.”
—Bill Purse


I am also featured on the following CDs:


• Gene Ludwig: Hands On (Blues Leaf Records)
• Gene Ludwig: Soul Serenade (Blues Leaf Records)
• Donna Bailey: Becoming…Ballads, Bossas, Blues, & Beyond (DBS Jazz).
• Lisa Ferraro: LYF’s Standards and Timeless.
• Catch 22: Sly On Life
• Catch 22: Reappearance
• Pam Ross & Ed Moss: Do Nothing ’til You Hear From Me
• Nathan Davis: The Other Side of Morning
• Darryl Alexander: Diamond in the Sky
• Darryl Alexander: Tea For Two

Lessons Online has arrived! Please click on “Online Lessons” to get there.

Endorsements:

I am proud to be an endorser for a very excellent luthier from Cincinnati, Ohio named Tim Brockman. Tim, in my opinion, makes some of the best archtop guitars I have ever played and he is also building some wonderful flattops as well. He has recently been interviewed in the latest issue of Just Jazz Guitar magazine (Feb. 2006). You can hear me playing my Brockman 005 “Little Guitar” on my CD Ventana. Please view pictures of my 005, Arch Rival and the first Brockman Premier at Tim’s newly updated website (http://www.brockmanguitars.com). Please check out more pictures of Tim and his guitars in my photo section.

I also endorse John Pearse Strings, Guild guitars, and Fender amplifiers . Jazz Scales Book Jazz Guitar Book

In addition to performing with Duquesne University’s Catch 22, I enjoy freelancing and teaching both privately and at The Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University. My new instruction book “Jazz Scale Workout” has been published by Mel Bay Publications. I have also contributed to two other books jointly published by Mel Bay and Warner Brothers. Please go to http://www.melbay.com/authors.asp?author=1800 for more details.
Here are some links to sites that I am actively involved in: