Where are they now? - Steve Howe
This page last updated: 16 Jun 2013
On this page: Solo projects - Guest appearances
On other pages: Yes news - Asia
Steve Howe's official site: Homepage -
News - MySpace page
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YouTube - Official
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Yes & Asia
Howe is in Yes—see details on main
news page. He amicably left Asia
in early 2013 after several years with the reunion line-up in
order to focus on other activities, saying, "Myself and the band
wish to thank their fans for the enthusiasm shown during the
original members' reunion. I will continue with Yes, and with my
trio and solo guitar work. I wish my friends continued success."
On his website,
he said, "I have left Asia to concentrate on Yes, my solo work
& my Trio. I've enjoyed the 6 years of touring and recording
with Asia, but now it's time to focus more on the above mentioned
formations." In
an Apr
2013 interview, Howe explained: "it was was the end of
last year that made me realize that this being on call was
really too much. I couldn't keep either really happy. I was
either making Yes miserable or Asia miserable, because of the
other one being in existence."
Solo
Howe is on a solo
tour of the UK, with 10 dates from
14-29 Jun 2013. Promo for the tour describes Howe as [SPOILERS—highlight
to read] "play[ing] some of his more familiar pieces plus
several new tunes like Solitaire from Yes's Fly From Here album, The
Golden Mean and others from Motif, plus various
arrangements of Yes songs and other tunes he's picked up along the
way. A few stories and songs thrown in for good measure should
ensure a great evening." Another source also mentioned "Part & Parcel" (from
Motif, Vol. 1), "Clap", "Mood for a Day" and his
version of "To be Over". In
the Apr
2013 interview, Howe also hinted at playing "Cat Napping" from Motif, Vol. 1. The 15 Jun show included, in no particular
order: "Masquerade", "Ram", "Beginnings", "Surface Tension", "Corkscrew", "The Valley of
Rocks", "The Little Galliard", "Pyramidology", "Mood for a Day",
"Roundabout", "Clap", "Close to the Edge" (excerpt), "To be Over",
"Devon Blue", "Leaves of Green", "Laughing with Larry", "Sketches
in the Sun", "J's Theme" and "Second Initial".
Steve Howe's Cross Styles Music
Retreat (19-23 Aug; Facebook)
is a 4-day "camp" in Big Indian, NY, part of the Musics Masters series
(past artists have included Crimson ProjeKct, Dweezil Zappa,
Richard Thompson), with workshops on multiple topics,
solo performances, jams, Q&A sessions and other
activities; Howe will be supported by two other guitarists,
Ray Matuza (worked with
Steve Howe, Ian McDonald, Annie Haslam) and Flavio Sala (working with Steve Howe). Also
involved is Martin Guitar archivist Dick Boak.
Howe's
latest solo album was Time (Warner Classics; samples now available).
It was released first in Europe in 2011, later in North
America and Mar 2012 in Japan. The album was 5 years in the
making and saw Howe working with a classical ensemble.
Tracks:
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An Apr
2013 interview reports that Howe is in talks with Warner
Classical about a follow-up. In a Feb
2013 interview, Howe talked about possibly doing another
solo album along similar lines to Time. He also mentions
another project. While talking about working with his sons
Virgil and Dylan, he says, "Virgil has collaborated on Spectrum
and other albums. We've got an on-going thing. [...] In
fact, they've just played on a whole project that's not been
released, that's in the pipeline. Virgil plays drums." It's
unclear whether this is related to any of the other projects
discussed on this page.
Howe has been working further with Paul Sutin. In a Jan 2012 interview, Howe they have some "new tracks we haven't released yet", "kind of a mix up of some things we've done where we've re-arranged them, re-played them, they're almost like different tunes because they have such a different feel", plus some new tracks which are "almost Europop influenced". He goes on to describe how they've worked together: "What I like to do [...] if you've got a sort of semi Euro dance track, I don't play like semi Euro dance track guitar. [...] I play [...] different sorts of things [...] It came alive because of the contrast."
Howe's previous solo
album was Motif Volume 1
(HoweSound). This solo guitar album consists of existing pieces
plus four new compositions. Howe explained that the album:
He has been working on a second volume, due "perhaps this year
[2009]" according to a May
2009 Billboard article, and "soon" according to a Jul
2009 article. In an update on his
website in Mar 2010, Howe describes Volume 2 as being "in the
planning stage" and that he will tour in support of it in due
course. In the Oct
2011 interview, he talks of working on Volume 2 and says
"maybe next year [2012]" for when it will appear. In another Oct 2011
interview, Howe said:
Yes and Asia have kept me busy
for three years [...] that's got to stop, and I do want to play
solo. I'm a solo guitarist, and that means that I do want to go
out and do it. I am writing new material, I am going to follow
up 'Motif, Volume 1' with, surprisingly, wait for it, 'Motif,
Volume 2'. I've got new material, I'm going to record it in the
studio, as opposed to how I've done it before. I enjoy that side
of my life, probably more than Yes or Asia, I don't want to make
that seem unappreciative, but the older I've got the more I've
dug in to that solo side. That's why 'Motif, Volume 1' was a
very important release for me, because it pulled together that
side of my life that had been spread over Yes, Asia, solo
records, Trio records
| Homebrew 4, in the same
style as the previous Homebrew
releases, is now out. See details in Yescography.
"High Flyer" on Homebrew 4
is described as having also been developed by GTR for an
unreleased song called "The Future". The liner notes then
continue, "which I plan to release as part of a forthcoming
project called Radar which contains unreleased songs and
tunes with friends". So Far is the name given to a planned 3CD anthology of Steve Howe's career to date with accompanying DVD which was originally due in 2001. This appears to be the same project earlier tentatively entitled Headstock, being compiled by Howe for Rhino. At least at some point, So Far was to include "Traveller" (written by Currie/Howe—Currie: keyboards, viola; Howe: guitar, bass; Toby Anderson: synth) from Billy Currie's 1988 Transportation. Comments from Howe suggest So Far may also include some Yes or Yes-related material. It has been years since anything was heard of this project. An Apr 2013 interview says "Howe is at work on a best-of compilation of his solo work", which may (or may not) be the same project. In his Jan 2009 interview for Notes from the Edge, Howe talks about "a lot of my films that I've been preparing for many years that will eventually come out on a DVD" (including performances of "Corkscrew"), which may be the same project. Howe has previously talked about a documentary of his career, concentrating on his solo work from 1975-1994, which may also be somehow related, and two new books, one called "The Guitarist's Survival Kit", the second a collaboration. At the Steve Howe Appreciation Society workshop in Jun 2005, Howe read a chapter from an autobiography that he is writing (which I guess may be related to some of these other projects). In a Feb 2011 interview, asked about his autobiography, Howe said: Quite a few years ago
I started talking about the fact that I’d written up
quite a lot of my book. What I did, I got up to 1972, I
think, in the book. And that was quite an achievement.
What happened was, that I’ve had so much other things to
do, I haven’t really addressed that very much. But I
have a plan. The plan is about expansion [...] I look at
those 15,000 words and I think, ‘Right, well, that isn’t
quite right, it isn’t quite thick enough, there isn’t
quite enough depth,’ so I want to bring a little more to
it. So when I get another block period, I’ll get back to
it [...] What it’s about is work in music. [...] My book
will be about my work […] I hope to finish it, maybe
even next year [2012]. [...] It might be a realistic
plan to have it out by 2012.
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NVP (Nicolet Vidéo
Productions) describe on
their website (scroll down to second item) filming in Oct
2008 a 3D film and an accompanying one-hour, 2D film about Howe.
It is unclear what has happened with this project or how it may be
related to the projects described above.
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The Steve Howe
Trio Much like I pushed Asia and Yes to keep reinventing themselves, the trio is going through a bit of that. We may decide to do a completely original record this time without any jazz or blues references. We may not get that far — we may decide we like something and we want to do it, but we’re certainly going to combine musical styles to come up with another phase of the trio. Their latest release was Travelling (HoweSound), a live album
taken from UK and Canadian dates in 2008. See details in
Yescography. Guest
appearances & collaboration "I asked them if
they would work with me and they said yes," Steve
says. "It has taken some time, but I have not stopped
writing tunes [for the project]. I have a country side
that I want to explore. I will do country records."
[...] "Alison asked me why a guy from Yes likes [country] music so much," Steve recalls. "I really got into guitar because of country music. I loved Tennessee Ernie Ford, he was a fantastic jewel. I was so inspired by his playing, I started playing guitar. Then I heard Chet Atkins -- there are a lot of great guitarists but Chet is at the top -- and knew I wanted to go into country music sometime." Although Steve is now deeply involved with Yes [...] he thinks the time for the collaboration may well be around the corner. |
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Asked about the collaboration in the Feb
2013 interview, Howe said:
I’ve got immense respect for Alison and the band. I just love them to bits. Things were mooted and there were was a little opportunity to try something. In the time that these things were talked about and mentioned, shifting sands changed here and there. So I never count on things like that. [...] My determination is to do some recordings that reveal some more of my connection with country and bluegrass through people like Chet Atkins [...] also Mel Travis and Tony Rice, Stevie West, Jimmy Bryant, I could go on and on. I’ve written 30 solo pieces, half of which are in the country style
In the Jan
2012 interview, Howe describes planned work with Italian
classical guitarist Flavio
Sala, and then further possible collaborations:
At the moment I've got a sort
of beautiful backlog of guitarists that I'm gonna be playing with. I
met a young guitarist a few years ago, he's only 28, and he
plays amazingly. So I'll play with Flavio Sala [...] He's from
Italy, highly, highly regarded classical guitarist, but he, like
me, he's not really going to be content with one repertoire,
y'know, he's looking to build repertoires, and I hope we're
going to do a couple of tunes together.
[...] of course Steve Morse and I have always had a point in
destiny where [...] we're going to do more, but time might run
out, we might not do that, but I'd love to do that
[...] Martin Taylor [...] I'd love to get back with him
Sala's website
describes how he's been inspired by Howe, inter alia, and goes on that
he is "working on new CDs, that will be released between 2012 and
2014, with classical, pop, flamenco and fusion repertoire." In a Jul
2012 interview, Howe said, "There's an Italian
guitarist I've been doing a bit with. His name is Flavio Sala".
Sala is also participating in Howe's guitar
retreat in Aug 2013. Discussing the
retreat in this Apr
2013 interview, Howe said of Sala: "We started meeting up
and we have recorded a tune together that we're both sort of
holding back to see how we use. So we've done a duet together."
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Other news Howe guested on the Queen album Innuendo, playing a Spanish guitar solo on the title track. Originally released in 1991, as part of the band's remaster series, Innuendo has been re-released in the UK and US. There is both a standard release and a deluxe edition with a bonus 7-song EP. In the Jan 2012 interview, Howe was asked about the possibility of a Tomorrow reunion and said: [Keith West and I,]
we'd love to do it. […] I know Twink would like to do
it. […] Keith and I have talked about it quite often. I
think he's a bit more retiring than I am […] I think he
would jump at it if he felt you could do it.
Jonathan Mover, who drummed in GTR, is planning a "a two volume collection of works from various artists that I've played with over the past twenty or so years. Mainly, a variety of tracks that are dear to me in one way or another and have not had the chance to see the light of day." On his website, he refers to "unreleased GTR (1985)". As GTR was released in 1986, presuming this is not a typo, Mover would appear to be referring to material before the first album. Two tracks on Steve Hackett's (ex-Genesis, ex-GTR) solo album Beyond the Shrounded Horizon are co-credited to Howe and Mover, through Hackett re-using old GTR ideas: see details under Squire, who guests on the album. GTR's debut album has been re-released in Japan as an HQCD by Victor Entertainment with 1 bonus track, the single version of "When the Heart Rules the Mind", sourced from vinyl because the master tape has been lost. |
Any news, additions or corrections, please e-mail Henry Potts.
Thanks.