When New York City-based guitarist Jeff Golub takes the stage Saturday to close out the International Polo Club’s two-day Saddle Up for JazzFest Wellington event, much about the experience will be familiar to him.
As he has for more than 35 years, the 56-year-old guitarist will hear the ebbs and flows within the music, feel the power surge from his electric instrument through his amplifier and the PA system, and get a smell and taste of the South Florida humidity (along with equine wafts of the polo matches taking place nearby).
But Golub won’t be able to see the crowd, or even discern the faces of his bandmates. For the past eight months, he’s been almost completely blind, a result of the collapse of the optic nerves in both eyes during the first half of 2011.
“All I have left is the ability to see some shapes,” Golub says, “and some peripheral vision. If someone introduces themself to me, I can tell that they’re standing there, but can’t recognize them. But I’m getting a guide dog soon, and doing the best that I can. Like someone said, ‘You don’t drown when you’re thrown in the water, you drown when you don’t get back out.’”
The beginning of his downward spiral involved familiar water. As he had in 1995, he noticed a spot on his right eye early last year, which he assumed was another popped blood vessel in his retina. But when his vision worsened, the collapsed optic nerve was diagnosed by a neuro-opthamologist. Working with only his left eye during last summer’s tour schedule, Golub noticed his remaining vision worsening, and the collapse of his other optic nerve was confirmed. Amazingly, he missed only one tour stop through the ordeal.
Yet the second show after losing his vision proved a special one for Golub. At JazzFest West in San Dimas, Calif., the guitarist was jamming with fellow smooth-jazz stars like trumpeter Rick Braun, guitarist Peter White and saxophonist Gerald Albright when they were joined onstage by an artist who knows a little bit about coping with sight loss. After singing his hit I Wish with the collective, Stevie Wonder sought out Golub to offer insight.
“How cool was that?” Golub says. “His advice was to show people your abilities, not your disabilities, and to try to stay up despite the depression that you’ll feel. And he certainly lives by all of that. It seems logical, but the more I deal with this affliction, the more I understand what he meant. Doctors have told me that there will be a cure. It’s just that insurance companies only want to cover existing technology, not research. I look forward to being able to see again, but hey, I’m also very thankful for having my vision for the first 55 years of my life.”
Golub was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1955, and raised in nearby Copley. Like many guitarists, his upbringing on the instrument started with 1960s rock heroes like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton before he traced their roots to blues masters like Buddy Guy, Albert King and Muddy Waters. Hearing Wes Montgomery albums opened the door to jazz, and led Golub to study at Boston’s renowned Berklee College of Music in 1975.
“My father was a rubber worker for B.F. Goodrich in Akron,” Golub says, “and he wasn’t so sure about my musical career. I’d passed the test to become a postal worker, which was a big deal within my family, but I said, ‘Dad, I play guitar. It’s what I do.’ So he enabled me to go to Berklee.”
When he moved from Beantown to New York in 1980, the rock continuum restarted when he landed his first major gig as a lead guitarist with chart-topping artist Billy Squier. Like British group Sweet had done in the previous decade, the singing guitarist successfully fused bubblegum pop with metal bombast on hits like The Stroke, Lonely Is the Night, My Kinda Lover, Everybody Wants You, Emotions in Motion and Rock Me Tonite through the ’80s — which was otherwise predominantly the era of New Wave MTV videos.
“Billy helped me remember how much I enjoyed playing rock guitar,” Golub says, “which I’d done since I was a kid. I really took the job because I wanted to see Europe, and he had a six-week European tour coming up. But I’m really glad I took the gig. Billy was selling well enough to basically support Capitol Records then, and he had a very lucrative deal. He somehow became very popular playing Led Zeppelin-influenced music in an era of British guys wearing skinny ties.”
The partnership with Squier lasted right up to Golub’s 1988-1995 tenure with rock vocalist Rod Stewart, and the guitarist recorded his solo contemporary jazz debut Unspoken Words in-between. He now has a dozen releases as a leader, whether under his own name or with his instrumental group Avenue Blue, plus sideman work with artists from smooth-jazz saxophonists (Mindi Abair, Warren Hill, Kirk Whalum, Dave Koz) to pop singers (Tina Turner and former J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf as well as Squier and Stewart).
“I’ve worked with Rod more recently, too,” Golub says, “since he’s been doing his American Songbook material. He knew I loved to play standards.”
The blues — always evident underneath the smooth surface of the music released under Golub’s name — officially returned with his 2009 CD Blues for You, which led to his new release The Three Kings (for Albert, B.B. and Freddie King). Recorded over only three days, the 2011 disc features gritty covers of tunes associated with all three Kings (Born Under a Bad Sign, The Thrill is Gone, I’m Tore Down).
Guests include organist Chris Palmero and fellow guitarists Robben Ford and Sonny Landreth, but Golub’s core quartet includes bassist Andy Hess, drummer/vocalist Josh Dion and another new role model, blind New Orleans pianist/vocalist Henry Butler. Those four have played together since first jamming during a New York Harbor cruise in 2010, and Butler made Golub’s first sightless show last summer as memorable as his subsequent encounter with Wonder.
“I forgot that I couldn’t see,” Golub says. “I’m trying to lead Henry around and bumping into stuff, and he’s laughing. It was definitely a case of the blind leading the blind.”
Abair’s band will headline the Wellington festival, and her special guests will be Golub and former Ambrosia vocalist David Pack, who’ll even sing some tracks from The Three Kings.
“Mindi’s been a friend for a long time,” Golub says, “and it was her idea to have David join us. He’s a wonderful guy, and we had so much fun when we did this the first time that we wanted to keep doing it. I knew Mindi before she even got a record deal, and we’ve appeared on each other’s albums since. And David sounds exactly like he did on all those Ambrosia hits.”
Golub now spends more time with his wife and two sons, 11-year-old Chris and 9-year-old Matthew, at their New York City than Bridgehampton, N.Y., homes because the grid-like nature of the Big Apple makes for easier sightless navigation. Chris, a budding guitarist, even marked the back of the neck of is father’s guitar with tape to create a musical grid.
“Chris also reminded me that I keep my eyes closed most of the time while I’m playing anyway,” Golub says. “And Matthew was helping me with some charts recently. I consider myself lucky. I’ve been able to watch my kids grow up, and I know what my wife looks like. They’ve all been as supportive and understanding as anyone could hope for, even with all the added responsibility that this has put on them.”
He’s also very thankful for the outpouring of financial support from friends and fans through the fundraising link on his website, since much of his expensive treatment isn’t covered by insurance.
“I can only use the money raised through the website for medical purposes,” Golub says, “which is as it should be. None of the doctors I see in New York City accept insurance. But promoters aren’t shying away from booking me, even after I tell them I’ve lost my vision. People have been so great. I have so many people to thank, and so much to be thankful for.”
***
Saddle Up for JazzFest Wellington takes place Friday and Saturday. Starting at 5 p.m. Friday, the festival features trumpeter Cindy Bradley, vocalist Nicole Henry and saxophonist Mindi Abair in sequence. Starting at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, the running order is the group Urban Gypsy, guitarist Robert Harris, percussionist Sammy Figueroa, trumpeter Joey Sommerville, guitarist Nick Colionne, saxophonist Richard Elliot, and Mindi Abair and Friends (with Golub and former Ambrosia vocalist David Pack).
Friday’s general admission tickets cost $40, with Friday-only VIP packages $100; Saturday’s general admission tickets run $60 with $125 VIP packs. Two-day general admission tickets are $80; two-day VIP packs $199. Two-day, 10-person VIP tables can also be reserved for $2,000. Visit www.wellingtonjazz.com to order.
Polo matches and the festival occur simultaneously at the International Polo Club, 3667 120th Ave., Wellington (561-204-5687).