Music's Passion Stirs Quintero's Jazz Guitar - Los Angeles Times
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Music’s Passion Stirs Quintero’s Jazz Guitar

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

A few years ago, guitarist Juan Carlos Quintero would be popping up at jazz clubs all over the Los Angeles area, earning himself a nice following but hardly a hefty bank balance.

“I saturated the town, met a lot of people, and that was great,†he said on the phone this week from his home in Redondo Beach. “But I also found that a lot of club owners plain didn’t want to pay the band, and I couldn’t accept that.â€

He shifted gears and was fortunate enough, with help from studio guitar guru Tommy Tedesco, to establish himself in TV and film studio work. Then came more good luck. Two years ago, his self-titled Nova records debut got a lot of airplay, enabling him once again to pursue his career as a performing artist.

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This time, though, he decided to appear only intermittently because “that makes each appearance more eventful,†he said. He plays tonight and Saturday at El Matador in Huntington Beach.

His next Nova release, “Through the Winds,†due next week, should bring him even more fans. It’s a mixture of relaxed numbers such as “The Magic Ring†and pieces like the title track, full of sizzle and snap.

“Latin jazz mixed with world music, that’s what I do,†said the 30-year-old native of Medellin, Colombia, who, as the son of a U.S. Army physician, was raised in Freehold, N.J. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he said his style is “about passion, it’s about playing with abandon. My music isn’t salsa, it isn’t flamenco, it’s more a mixture of contemporary values played with a jazz vocabulary.â€

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Since his music has been played on such easy-listening stations as KTWV-FM (“The Waveâ€), he often is asked if he’s a New Age-er.

“No way ! That’s the kiss of death,†he said. “I mean, I appreciate any kind of airplay I can get but, in general, my music doesn’t fit in with that kind of format.â€

Quintero started on guitar at age 10 and decided to become a professional musician in 1979 after attending a summer program at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

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“I was a junior in high school and knew how to play the blues and some Top 40, and here I was with a bunch of ex-prodigies. It was heavy. People were there to get down to business, learning, practicing, playing recitals. I got turned on right there.†He arrived in Los Angeles in 1986.

Juan Carlos Quintero and his band play tonight and Saturday at 9 and 10:45 at El Matador, 16903 Algonquin St., Huntington Beach. Free. (714) 846-5337).

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