Bruce Radtke is a New Jersey based jazz guitarist and composer. He has gigged professionally
in Boston, Los Angeles and NYC, and earned a B.A. from Boston’s Berklee College
of Music.
Drawn to the music of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton at the age of 8, Radtke picked
up the guitar, learning to play songs by ear. Along the way, he got into an expanding
range of influences - Clapton led to B.B.King and Muddy Waters and then to Robert
Johnson. He attended a concert in the early 70's by the Mahavisnhu Orchestra and
it was like a visit from another planet. The intensity and the fire was like nothing
ever heard before. Tracing back the lineage, led to some of the forefathers of jazz
guitar - Joe Pass, Wes Montegomrery and Charlie Christian.
Radtke never intended to be a "jazz guitarist", but decided to study jazz
because they had mastered the art of playing music. They were simply the "best"musicians.
He attended Berklee, and was one of the first 15 students to graduate from their
Applied Music Program. After college, he kicked around Boston, played in an original
punk/rock band A.Y.M., and taught at the Cincotti School of Music. He then moved
to L.A., where he lived for 10 years, gigging and recording with local mainstays
Chuck Johnson’s Interplay and Bill Given’s Give And Take.
Returning to New Jersey, Radtke has been playing around NYC and NJ with informal
jazz bands. However, he has been concentrating on his music and recording as time
and money allow.Radtke cites Wayne Shorter and Keith Jarrett as influences, for
their unique, personal tone. And with his warm boppish lines, and fresh workings
of original tunes, Radtke is well on his way to creating his own sound.
