Taking Off: Silvan Joray

“Who will want to hire me, if I sound like another guy that is already in the same city? In order to be seen, to be heard as an individual voice, we have to offer something new or something unique. That’s essentially what I’ve been working on recently.”

Since September 2022, Silvan Joray has been living, performing, and teaching in New York. Born and raised in Switzerland, and alumni of the prestigious Jazzcampus Basel, he is a jazz guitarist whose sound exhibits a fascinating array of influences from both sides of the Atlantic. His first album Cluster (2020) and his acclaimed second Updraft (released on the UK-based indie Ubuntu Music in 2023) similarly featured guitar trios which showcased his technical flair as an improviser and his skill as a composer.

The launch of Updraft at the Vortex in London back in December was Joray’s first performance in the UK. “That was midway through the tour,” he explained. “We were in Spain before. After, we went to Germany.” Since returning to the US, life has been busy. “Here in New York, everybody wants to play all the time. You can have two or three sessions a day – it’s a lot of organising. In Switzerland, it’s just harder to get it together. The cities are smaller, and you have to travel lots if you want to enhance your network.” He continued: “In Europe, people come, they sit and they listen. But here in New York – it’s often more like background music. You can have the most killing bands on stage and there are still some people talking at the bar at the back. Live music is just more present in everyday life.”

Joray may have found his feet as a musician in the US, but it was in Switzerland where he learnt his craft. Aged eight, his mother introduced him to the ukulele, and a year later he switched to the guitar to begin his formative years of classical training: “I was also learning drums at the time as well. My idea was to go to conservatorium for guitar and jazz school for drums. Later, I realised that of course you can’t do both at the same time because both are like full time jobs. I didn’t even know what jazz really was back then.”

This all changed when, aged 11, his father took him to Marians Jazzroom in Bern: “The first concert that I saw there was Hiromi, the Japanese piano player. I was just blown away.”

Mesmerised by her technical ability and quirky creativity, he recalls listening to the album Brain (2004) on repeat in the months that followed: “I knew it inside and out. I was just a kid, dancing in my room to this music.”

During the subsequent years of playing in high school bands, older American guitarists like Wes Montgomery were crucial in helping him “get the jazz vocabulary together.”

Joray’s time at Jazzcampus Basel exposed him to a range of contemporary European guitarists: “Wolgang Muthspiel was the first really important influence in this style that I’m doing today.”

Lage Lund also left a deep impression. “I can recognise him immediately after only just a few notes. It’s the way he touches the guitar. He has a very strong left hand, so when he hammers on you can really hear the actual fingers hitting the string.” He contrasts this to Kurt Rosenwinkel, whose fluid style is more reminiscent of legato horn lines. Other important musical mentors include the likes of Guillermo Klein, Lionel Loueke, and Jeff Ballard.

Joray's technique has evolved significantly over the years: “In the beginning, I used to switch between a pick and my fingers. ‘Cluster Song’ from my first record starts off with this arpeggio in the right hand, which is a classical influence.”

More recently, inspired by guitarists such as Gilad Hekselman, Joray has adopted a more hybrid technique which uses pick and fingers simultaneously.

“I like to combine melodies with chords a lot," he elaborates. "I’m trying to think more like a piano player. I realised that a guitar trio can be very abstract for the listener, if there is nobody playing chords behind you.”

He continues, laughing: “Even on my latest album, I realised that I could have played some more chords.”

Joray’s frequent use of string bending comes not so much from blues and rock, but rather from the microtonal experimentation of modern horn players. Similarly, his finger tapping was inspired by the highly intervallic improvisations of Ambrose Akinmusire.

In the coming years, Joray is looking to diversify his sound beyond the familiar guitar trio. He mentions that a recent gig with harmonica player Roni Eytan, bassist Massimo Biocalti, and drummer JK Kim has fired up his creative imagination.

“In New York, most of the time, there’s a quick rehearsal and then you do the gig. In Europe, it’s more common to have a band that just plays together all the time. I like this about the European jazz scene…”

As a both a bandleader and a soloist, the future certainly holds many exciting possibilities for Joray.

This article originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of Jazzwise. Never miss an issue – subscribe to Jazzwise today