Quotable Quotes:“Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed. ” Kahlil Gibran Zak Keith: musician
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 Zak is a multi-genre (Jazz, Blues, Funk, Rock, Soul, R&B, Reggae, Country, Bluegrass, African, Kurdish, Raï, etc) free-lance session guitarist based in Stockholm, Sweden, and is available for local &/or international engagements: recordings (can read sheet music and charts), live performances, clinics and seminars, guitar lessons (background as instructor/educator), etc. Zak currently collaborates with several artists and groups comprising top-notch musicians — soul artists, jazz musicians, etc. — each is available for big or small venue concerts, music festivals, company functions, weddings, private parties, jazz festivals, etc. For more information, see: For bookings, please use this contact form. See also: Företags Fest Zak Keith began performing on TV at the age of 10, playing simple classical piano pieces on a weekly children's program. He took up guitar at 14 — the forbidden instrument, and gravitated towards rock music. With no support for his endeavors, Zak became a self-taught guitarist, moved out of home by playing in strip clubs, and landed his first recording contract with a rock band at Warner by 17. His dreams were crushed when the band broke up, and he paid his dues by moving on to Funk and Disco, doing R&B circuits and learning Cocktail Jazz; somehow finding time for Country music in between. By 21, he was doing a stint as a Musical Director for a youth radio program, churning out freshly-written Folk-Gospel songs for broadcast every week. Zak's versatility has enabled him to work as a recording sessionist, an instructor at music colleges, and brought him on tours throughout Scandinavia, Europe, the Far East and Australia. He has authored instructional material still in use by schools today. Music legends of our time have labeled him "part funk, part jazz, part blues, or purely any of them" and "always playing from the heart." Among others, Zak has toured or shared the stage with: Tommy Emmanuel, Rev. Calvin Bridges (a.k.a. James Mendel of Curtis Mayfield fame), Perry Stenbäck (winner of 2009 grammy for best instrumentalist), Julius E. Green of The Platters, Bernard Purdie (world's most-recorded drummer), the late Master Henry Gibson (world's most-recorded percussionist), Jon Lord (Deep Purple), Pete York (Spencer Davis Group), Percy Duke, O'Donel Levy (Count Basie, George Benson), Jane Kitto, Eric Bibb, Bob Manning & The Soul Enterprise, Tony Ellis, Nevada Cato, Jerry Speiser (Men At Work), Joyce Hurley, Evan Lee (Taj Mahal), Michael Baretto (Taj Mahal), Annika Ljungberg (Rednex), Mary N'diaye, Little Jenny, Douglas Pashley ... He has also been in opening acts for and/or done stage management or sound-engineering work for: Stevie Wonder, the late Wilson Pickett, the late Michael Jackson (Bad Tour, Australia), Al Green, the late Isaac Hayes, Pink Floyd, John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes ...etc. Recent forays into World Music genres have led to festival and TV appearances in the Middle East, and multiple live recordings and performances with Algerian artist Khaled Habib, and Zakaria from Kurdistan. In addition to his earlier influences, Zak now borrows from African guitar, elements of Flamenco and Arabic maqams. “These are bootleg snippets of my live performances. Outside of the cozy environment of studios and small stages, lots of things can happen to your playing, especially when you're stretching out into some serious improvistion and beset with insecurity about whether or not the rest of the band will understand where you're going and back you up. Personally, I think that is when a performer's true colors show, when you can see what they're really made of, what kind of musical communicators they are. “It's a delicate balance: once you've got a format worked out, play it too safe and you're boring and predictable; push yourself, and you discover new things about your own playing. The drawback in my case, can be rhythmic complexity — loss of clarity and too much free floating. “The bands I love best, that have helped me grow, are the ones where we jump on stage with no clue as to what is happening next. Someone starts something and the rest of us follow — instant democratic onstage live composition unfolds, usually with some amazing results. The Soul Enterprise was one such band. Their solo excerpts I've put online here are from spontaneously-developed opening numbers — as a rule unplanned, with only a funk theme in mind. Check out the rhtyhm section during the trumpet solo by Micke Sörensen — I love that we came up with that spontaneously :-) “The two different intros to Khaled Habib's Trezel were recorded in an ampitheater in Istanbul, and in a jazz club called Fasching where we did a tribute to the late Master Henry Gibson. Same song, two different moods: The first bit shows some of my accoustic work. The second bit demonstrates my live, let-it-rip instant backwards masking. To do that, I'm actually playing about 2 seconds ahead of the rest of the band, hoping that by the time my sound is released, it won't step all over whatever everybody else is doing :-p The slightly free-floating rhythms can't be helped, as the attack and degeneration of each note is turned topsy-turvy by the sampler. “Thanks for your time and interest!”
Music Videos coming soon!
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