Bob deVos

Bob deVos is an American jazz guitarist whose playing style is similar to that of Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery. He is most noted for his work with organist Richard Holmes.^[1]

Biography

Although no one in the family played a musical instrument, deVos spent much of his youth listening to the big band and blues records that his parents owned. He picked up the guitar at age twelve and within weeks he was memorizing guitar solos from these albums and performing professionally at age thirteen. As a teenager, he toured nationwide with a famous rock group, but chose jazz over rock in his twenties saying, "I needed more chord changes..."

DeVos started in jazz as a student of Harry Leahy and Dennis Sandole.^[2] In 1970, when Sandole sent his leading students out to audition for the organist Trudy Pitts, deVos was chosen to step in for Pat Martino. DeVos went on to be the guitarist for groups led by Richard "Groove" Holmes, featuring saxophone legend Sonny Stitt, and Jimmy McGriff and Hank Crawford. He later toured and recorded extensively with organist Charles Earland's group that included Eric Alexander and Jim Rotondi. He further developed his compositional and harmonic skills playing with many jazz greats outside the organ trio genre.

Currently deVos plays with an organ trio with whom he has released the CD, Shifting Sands. This album spent 28 weeks in the top twenty on Jazz Week's Top 50 Nationwide Jazz Airplay Chart.

Equipment

DeVos says that he plays a Gibson Super 400 more than his other guitars; however, he claims his mainstay guitar is a custom archtop, designed by longtime friend Rob Engel. He also spends time tweaking his amps and has even built a few of his own, mostly out of parts from vintage Fender Amps such as the Twin Reverb and Showman.

References

External links

• Official website