JAKE HERTZOG, Ozark Concerto

While made possible by a generous grant from the South Arts Organization, funded by the Doris Duke Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, electric guitar virtuoso Jake Hertzog’s breathtaking magnum opus Ozark Concerto – which premiered in April 2024 at the UARK Jazz Festival in Fayetteville, AR – is the culmination of a dream that took root when he was a grad student at the Manhattan School of Music.

He engaged in his first large orchestra composing in his classes with pianist-composer-arranger Jim McNeely, which put jazz and orchestra students together for several concerts a year to perform large scale modern works. He alalbums with the trio of Harvie S. and Victor Jones. The culmination of Hertzog’s vision is a dazzlingly performed, rhythmically eclectic and adventurously arranged 7-part, 46 minute excursion that showcases the depth of the guitarist’s artistry on his trademark red Artinger axe in a multitude of settings, from full orchestra (Parts I, III, V and VII), to various brass instruments (Part II), string quartet (Part IV) and saxophones (Part VI).

Along the way, as Hertzog modulates through countless moods – from the graceful, introspection in Part IV through the blistering rock wailing in Part V, and all emotional points in between – he draws from some unique, sometimes unexpected influences. His frenetic vibe at the start of Part I, for instance, is inspired by The Edge from U2, while he attributes his hypnotic fingerstyle solo in Part II to a technique he learned from Mick Goodrick, his guitar teacher at Berklee. Taking a sweeping bird’s eye view of all the nuanced and bustling magnificence,

Hertzog attributes the “road map” for the project to concepts he learned studying Pat Metheny and Kurt Rozenwinkel. Ozark Concerto is a masterful work from an endlessly inventive artist.