Today marks the release of Kostrzewa’s first CD of all-original acoustic guitar music. The self-taught guitarist played for fun but never got serious in days when work called from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.
“Mark’s music is very good, very special, in a genre which is growing,” said Half Moon Bay guitarist/vocalist Auri Naggar, emcee of the Cameron’s Restaurant and Inn weekly open mike where Kostrzewa performs.
 Guitarist Mark Kostrzewa of Montara performs at the Caffe Lucca open mike Friday in anticipation of the release of "55 Miles," his first CD of original acoustic instrumentals. |
The new CD is titled “55 Miles,” or the length of the San Mateo County coast from Daly City to Año Nuevo. Its 16 original pieces pay tribute to the impressions and friends within those 55 miles. Thirteen of those feature Kostrzewa on solo acoustic guitar; the remaining three include bass, percussion and scat-style vocals from friends Nomi Harper and Nancy Hall of Pacifica and Tony Miranda of Montara.
It is unique and perhaps risky, he said, “to express what I do as a solo without using other musicians.”
But while a musical smorgasbord of jazz, ethnic, New Age or folk sounds, each piece stands on its own with intricate, lush fingerpicked textures.
Kostrzewa admits to “a grand total of eight lessons” and guitarists Pierre Bensusan, Lawrence Juber, Alex de Grassi and Michael Hedges as influences. Born in Michigan, he pursued aircraft maintenance, moving to Los Angeles in 1985, the Bay Area in 1991 and Montara in 1996.
The graveyard shift killed any chance to perform. “There aren’t a lot of open mikes going on at 8 o’clock in the morning,” he sighed.
But once he moved off that shift, he became a regular at Cameron’s Inn, Caffe Lucca in Montara and the Chit Chat Café in Pacifica. He performed briefly as half of the “4th Street Experience” with fellow Montaran Mike McCall. But his last six months’ focus was the CD.
With the hard work and emotional energy that required, “I thought that must be like having your first baby,” he said. But the figurative became literal for Kostrzewa a week after his last recording session, with the out-of-state birth of a baby he and wife Kate were scheduled to adopt.
“I’m the proud father of both,” Kostrzewa said.
Now the couple and baby Devin are back home and “55 Miles” is going into stores.
It is available at the Music Hut in Half Moon Bay, Caffe Lucca in Montara, at markkostrzewa.com and at Kostrzewa’s gigs.
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