Artists

Bill Frisell’s career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than 35 years and many celebrated recordings, whose catalog has been cited by Downbeat as “the best recorded output of the decade,” including his recent albums for Savoy – Sign of Life with the 858 Quartet, Beautiful Dreamers, All We Are Saying, a collection of John Lennon interpretations and his debut release for OKeh/Sony Masterworks, Big Sur, featuring music commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival and composed at the Glen Deven Ranch in Big Sur, for strings, guitar and drums in a quintet comprised of long-time musical associates. Frisell’s latest album for Okeh/Sony When You Wish Upon a Star, a project that germinated at Lincoln Center during Bill’s two-year appointment as guest curator for the Roots of Americana series (September ’13 – May ’15). It features Frisell with vocalist Petra Haden, Eyvind Kang (viola), Thomas Morgan (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums) performing Frisell’s arrangements and interpretations of Music from Film and Television. Jazz Times described the project as follows: “unforgettable themes are the real draw here, reconfigured with ingenuity, wit and affection by Frisell and a terrific group.”

The touring version of the band includes Haden, Morgan and Royston. Always on the lookout for opportunities to “dig around for where I’m coming from,” Frisell’s recent project, the Grammy nominated GUITAR IN THE SPACE AGE!, is an homage to the inspirational popular music of his formative years made in the wake of “the birth of the Fender Telecaster guitar” – (1951, the same year as Frisell’s own birth) – that, he recalls, “got me super fired-up” about his instrument of choice. Frisell and his band mates explore material on the Okeh/Sony Masterworks release associated with The Beach Boys, Junior Wells, Pete Seeger, The Byrds, Duane Eddy, The Ventures, The Kinks, Chet Atkins, Link Wray, Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant, The Astronauts, Merle Travis, Johnny Smith and others, as well as original material by Frisell. “Frisell has had a lot of practice putting high concept into a humble package. Long hailed as one of the most distinctive and original improvising guitarists of our time, he has also earned a reputation for teasing out thematic connections with his music… He has drawn recent, long-form inspiration from the rural portrait photography of Mike Disfarmer and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927… There’s a reason that Jazz at Lincoln Center had him program a series called Roots of Americana for its coming season.” Nate Chinen – New York Times Frisell’s Nonesuch output spans a wide range of musical expression, from original Buster Keaton film scores, to arrangements for extended ensembles with horns and strings (Blues Dream, History, Mystery, Unspeakable); collaborations with bassist Viktor Krauss and drummer Jim Keltner (Gone, Just Like a Train, Good Dog, Happy Man); an album with Nashville musicians (Nashville), a solo album (Ghost Town)), a collection of traditional American folk songs and originals inspired by them (The Willies), and two trio albums with jazz legends – Dave Holland/Elvin Jones and Ron Carter/Paul Motian. The Intercontinentals blends Frisell’s brand of American roots music with Brazilian, Greek, and Malian influences. Disfarmer was inspired by the work of the mid-century rural Arkansas photographer Mike Disfarmer. Recognized as one of America’s 21 most vital and productive performing artists, Frisell was named an inaugural Doris Duke Artist in 2012. He is also a recipient of grants from United States Artists, and Meet the Composer, among others. Upon San Francisco Jazz opening their doors, he served as one of their Resident Artistic Directors. Most recently, Frisell was commissioned to compose and perform a new composition in San Francisco by the Freshgrass Festival.

Vin Downes began studying guitar at the age of eleven. His early interests were in electric guitar, but this all changed when he heard the opening notes of David Cullen’s “Along the Way” on a Windham Hill Records guitar sampler. He immediately immersed himself in the fingerstyle music of Will Ackerman, Michael Hedges, David Cullen and Leo Kottke.

Greatly influenced by the music of artists on Windham Hill Records in the late 1980’s, Downes furthered his interest of fingerstyle technique and composition by earning a degree in classical guitar performance and music education from William Paterson University. While at WPU, he studied classical composition and had several of his compositions performed by soloists and ensembles, including the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Helix Ensemble and members of the Composer’s Guild of New Jersey.

Vin Downes has released four studio albums, two of which were produced by Grammy Award winning guitarist and producer, Will Ackerman. He is currently a performing member of “The Gathering – A Concert Series presented by Will Ackerman”.

He has recorded and performed with musicians including Will Ackerman, Tom Eaton, Michael Manring, Eugene Friesen, Liz Story and Tony Levin.

Vin Downes is a public school music teacher in New Jersey, where he currently teaches classical guitar at Bayonne High School.

“Sometimes in life there is a moment in time that you wish would never end, something so beautiful and calming comes in and changes everything, that moment is here for me right now in the guise of Vin Downes” – Steve Sheppard – One World Music

https://www.vindownes.com

To find a unique voice on so ubiquitous an instrument as the acoustic guitar is quite an achievement: to do so within a centuries old idiom where the instrument has no real history is truly remarkable.

Tony McManus has come to be recognized throughout the world as the leading guitarist in Celtic Music. From early childhood his twin obsessions of traditional music and acoustic guitar have worked together to produce a startlingly original approach to this ancient art. In Tony’s hands the complex ornamentation normally associated with fiddles and pipes are accurately transferred to guitar in a way that preserves the integrity and emotional impact of the music.

Self taught from childhood, initially through listening to the family record collection, McManus abandoned academia in his twenties to pursue music full time. The session scene in Glasgow and Edinburgh provided the springboard for gigs around Scotland and a studio set for BBC Radio, frequently rebroadcast, began to spread the word.

Tony’s first self titled recording in 1996, followed by Pourquoi Quebec in 1999 led to worldwide recognition. However, it was with the release of Ceol More in 2002 that Tony’s stature as a first class musician reached a new level. Critics hailed the focussed, spell-binding nature of the music, from the plaintive Jewish hymn “Shalom Aleichem” to the ingenious arrangement of the Charles Mingus classic “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”. Having been nominated as Musician of the Year by both the BBC Folk Awards and The Scottish Traditonal Music awards, in 2002 “Ceol More” hit the Critic’s Album of the year list in Acoustic Guitar magazine and named “Live Ireland Awards” Album of the Year.

Tony’s work has come to represent Celtic music in the guitar world, making regular appearances at guitar specific events where just a few years ago jigs and reels would be unheard of. He is invited annually to the Chet Atkins Festival in Nashville, has appeared at Guitar Festivals in Soave and Pescantina, Sarzana and Francacorta Italy; Frankston, Australia; Issoudun and Bordeaux France; Kirkmichael, Scotland; Bath and Kent, England; Bochum and Osnabruck, Germany. In 2004 he appeared at the famous Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in the “All Star Guitar Night” featuring Steve Morse, Bryan Sutton, Muriel Anderson, Béla Fleck and Victor Wooten and headlined by the legendary Les Paul.

His ability to reach audiences unfamiliar with traditional music is remarkable- he is quite comfortable at predominantly classical events such as the Dundee and Derry Guitar Festivals (appearing six times between the two) the Uppsala Guitar Festival and even The Bogotá International Guitar Festival where he followed virtuoso Eduardo Fernandez.

Today his live work ranges from intimate solo performance through his trio with brothers Gary and Greg Grainger to the quartet Men of Steel (with fellow guitarists Dan Crary, Beppe Gambetta and Don Ross). He is an enthusiastic collaborator both as a leader and as a sideman having worked with, among many others Dougie McLean, Phil Cunningham, Mairi MacInnes, Liam O’Flynn, Martin Simpson, Kevin Burke, Alison Brown, Martyn Bennett, Natalie MacMaster, Patrick and Jacky Molard, Mairead ní Mhoanaigh and Dermot Byrne, The Nashville Chamber Orchestra, John Jorgenson, Jean Michel Veillon, Catriona Macdonald, Seikou Keita, Xosé Manuel Budiño, Ewen Vernal and Andy Irvine. He is also in great demand as a studio musician having contributed to over 60 albums. In addition to his solo output Tony has worked with both singers and instrumentalists providing his distinctive sound on many successful projects.

His 2009 release “The Maker’s Mark” saw him showcase 15 of the finest luthier built guitars available. Recording a solo piece on each instrument, the project caught the attention of the mainstream rock guitar press in a way that acoustic work rarely does.

The following year, a chance hearing on Irish radio led to an invite to contribute music to the soundtrack of Oscar winning director Neil Jordan’s film “Ondine” starring Colin Farrell.

Never one to be typecast, Tony’s new album “Mysterious Boundaries” is his most ambitious to date. An encouraging challenge from mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall to learn the Bach E Major Prelude on guitar led to an exploration of classical and baroque music – seemingly very different to the jigs and reels that he grew up with. By examining the boundaries between genres and sticking to his steel string guitar (rather than the conventional classical guitar) McManus has produced a work of great originality and beauty, hailed by his peers as “a masterpiece” (Renbourn), “beyond beautiful… it’s PERFECT!” (Tommy Emmanuel) and which contains a truly remarkable rendition of Bach’s colossal Chaconne in D Minor – one of the greatest compositions of any age.

Whatever work McManus brings within his scope the listener is assured a journey into the depths of the music in the company of a great talent.

Hiroya is a one-of-a-kind composer, guitarist and singer-songwriter from Kyoto, Japan. He began playing the five-string banjo when he was thirteen, and took up the guitar shortly after.

In 2000, Hiroya received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music and came to the United States. He formed his own group in Boston “INTEROCEANICO (inter-oceanic)” which consists of unique musicians from different continents including Latin Grammy Colombian singer Marta Gomez. The group released three acclaimed records (“The Other Side of the World”, “Confluencia” and “Where the River Shines”). Hiroya released two solo albums (“Heartland” and “Places”) from Japanese record label 333 discs.

Hiroya has been leading concerts internationally including several appearances at Blue Note in New York City with his group and Japanese National Television(NHK). Hiroya performed, recorded and shared stage with Esperanza Spalding, The Kennedys, Joe Jencks(Brother Sun), Michael League (Snarky Puppy), Brooks Williams and Jim Kweskin.

“Hiroya has pioneered a sub-genre of world music that mirrors the multicultural make up of the ensemble” -The Asahi

“A Japanese guitarist Hiroya Tsukamoto takes us to an impressionistic journey” -Boston Herald

“…chops, passion and warmth. Zealously recommended.” -Jazz Review.com

“His music is earthy, organic and an amalgam of elements imported from diverse genres” -The Groove

“He delivers skillful and innovative guitar instrumental solos” -Folk Project

“…imparts a mood of piece and tranquility. -The Live Music Report

”Close your eyes, and imagine his fingers dancing across the strings. You can hear each instance. “　-Victory Music

“Hiroya Tsukamoto plays with fluid mastery, pristine tone, and great warmth. ” -Celine Keating (author / Acoustic Magazine / minor7th)

“Ian Ethan represents something so new in musical approach, that the result is near impossible to pigeon hole into a ‘sounds like’ statement. It has been my personal privilege to observe his unwavering and deep exploration of this new technique and on a relatively rare instrument…the original music of Ian Ethan is not to be missed.” – Emmy-Winning Composer / Producer Peter Bruce Wilder (Morrisville, VT)

Boston-based multi-instrumentalist Ian Ethan Case, best known for his innovative approach to the 18-string acoustic double-neck guitar, has been performing in listening rooms across the country for the past eight years and is increasingly gaining recognition both for his unique instrumental compositions and for the highly original playing methods which are required to perform them.

One of only about five musicians worldwide to tackle the double-neck guitar in earnest, he fluidly combines a variety of self-invented playing techniques necessitated by his multi-layered compositions, which, taken together, have begun to establish the instrument’s musical validity perhaps more so than the work of any other artist. While audiences consistently remark on the fascinating visual aspects of watching Ian play “as he rambunctiously weaves between fretboards, slapping and tapping the sounds of the guitar to life seemingly effortlessly in a style that you’ve likely never seen before” (Port Orchard Independent), his unusual methods are simply byproducts of the rich, heartfelt, and powerfully uplifting music that he writes and plays.

During a fall 2015 coast-to-coast tour of the US, a Facebook video of Ian playing a piece from his new album “Run Toward The Mountains” went viral and received over 6 million views in October alone, drawing praise from viewers around the world, including legendary bassist Leland Sklar (James Taylor, Phil Collins), producer Steven Miller (Dave Matthews Band, Bobby McFerrin, Michael Hedges), and Windham Hill Records founder Will Ackerman. The self-produced double-disc album features two sides of his playing: “straight up solo acoustic” double-neck, and at the other end of the spectrum, his meticulously-crafted live looping compositions which make full use of 21st-century digital technologies to enable seemingly infinite layers of sound and sophisticated on-the-spot orchestration that extends well beyond the reach of most looping performers.

Emmy-winning composer and producer Peter Bruce Wilder was one of the first to discover the young artist’s talent and unique voice in the remote hills of northern VT, proclaiming in 2008: “Ian Ethan Case represents something so new in musical approach, that the result is near impossible to pigeon hole into a ‘sounds like’ statement. It has been my personal privilege to observe his unwavering and deep exploration of this new technique and on a relatively rare instrument; the original music of Ian Ethan Case is not to be missed.”

In January 2013 Ian was invited to perform with some of the world’s foremost guitarists and bass players as part of Muriel Anderson’s “All-Star Guitar Night” at the annual NAMM convention in Anaheim CA, where he shared the stage with Robben Ford, Victor Wooten, and Stanley Jordan, among others. Since then he has gone on to perform with some of the most respected artists in his genre, including solo bass icon Michael Manring and Grammy Award-winning reed player Paul McCandless (Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Oregon), as well as top notch classical musicians from the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra.

In addition to performing and collaborating with several of his longtime musical heroes, Ian has performed and/or recorded with some of the best up-and-coming acoustic musicians from around the country and beyond, including Jeremy Kittel (Chris Thile, Jars of Clay), Nathaniel Smith (Natalie MacMaster, Sarah Jarosz), Japanese harpist Motoshi Kosako (Paul McCandless, Stockton Symphony) and Austrian hang drum virtuoso Manu Delago (Bjork, Anoushka Shankar).

Recently, after both were featured on the same NPR segment (“Here & Now”, Dec. 2013), Ian joined forces with 4-Time Grammy Award-winning cellist Eugene Friesen (Trio Globo, Paul Winter Consort.) The duo premiered their new collaborative works during two recent shows at the Boston Museum of Science Planetarium to overwhelmingly positive reviews.

As one first-time listener in California exclaimed, “Ian’s music is phenomenal – watching him play is not ‘listening to music; it’s a full mind experience. Transporting.“

What others are saying:

“Though the big name acts like Stanley Jordan, Robben Ford (who received The Guitar Player Certified Legend award at the event) and host and performer Muriel Anderson were the big name draws of this ‘exclusive’ event, it was some of the lesser known names who were the most interesting of the long showcase…Ian Ethan Case is a young guitarist with a style that is both sonically and visually original and unorthodox in all the best ways.“

“Case’s performance at this showcase surely had many six-stringers rethink the possibilities of the guitar. Case plays a double neck acoustic guitar in a unique and percussive manner, strumming the six string side of the guitar with one hand, while fretting chords and lead sequences on the 12 string side with the other hand, over the neck of the guitar while occasionally thumping his fists on the instrument’s body, creating polyrhythms. One must see this to believe it. His ideas were endless, playing a style that had elements of country, acoustic rock, and bluegrass, but is a completely unique sound nonetheless.“

“It was refreshing to witness a guitarist who has created his own style and is not emulating a host of other players.” -Devon “Doc” Wendell – The International Review of Music: 2013 NAMM Convention Performance Highlights

“You’ve probably never heard anything quite like the music of Ian Ethan. That’s probably because not many musicians are tackling the double-neck guitar — at least not the way he plays it…”

“The results of his exploration are stunning, beautiful, moving and expressive…be prepared to hear something like you’ve never heard before, to venture into wild and uncharted territory.” – Jen O’Callaghan – Nashua Telegraph / Encore / Granite Sounds (Nashua, NH)

For more information, visit IanEthan.com

Brookeʼs career began at the age of 12, as the lead guitarist and vocalist of a punk band. She later connected with music by the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Rickie Lee Jones, The Police, and Joni Mitchell. Since then, Brooke has flourished into a road warrior, touring throughout Canada, the US, Europe, and Japan.

In 2007, she won the Ontario Council of Folk Festivalsʼ Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award. This success was followed by the release of her fourth album self-titled Brooke Miller, which received a nomination at the 2012 East Coast Music Awards. The record features Brooke singing and playing the guitar, as well as guest vocals from an array of Canadian musicians. Brooke used the record as a way of getting back to her rockier roots, while still keeping her guitar playing front and centre.

Brookeʼs songs have been heard in films including the Year of Getting to Know Us (starring Sharon Stone, Lucy Liu and Jimmy Fallon), and on hit television shows such as The L Word and Womenʼs Murder Club.

Today, Brooke hopes to reach out to a truly international audience with new business relationships — specifically companies based in her current hometown of Montreal, Canada.

For more information, visit Candyrat Records.

“I understand completely why the audience applauds and whistles so wildly…this is fiery, living music.” – IndieMusic.com

“I have to open my eyes to make sure that only one guitar is playing and that Vicki Genfan – so the name of this fascinating woman – only owns two hands.” – Spurren Magazine, Switzerland

“Vicki has brewed her own style that has no name…and created a new kind of singer-songwriter culture.” – Frankfurter Allgemeine

“Genfan is carving a niche in the acoustic music world which few can fill.” – minor7th.com

Every now and then an artist comes along whose music reaches out and touches the soul of all who hear them…virtuoso guitarist, singer and composer Vicki Genfan is among those artists… Drawing from folk, jazz, pop, soul and world music, Vicki is redefining ‘singer/songwriter culture.’ With a mastery of the acoustic guitar that borders on pure alchemy, audiences are mesmerized by the waves of sound Vicki creates with just two hands and her voice. Using 29 alternate tunings and the percussive technique she calls ‘slap-tap’, you’ll find the addition of her pure, expressive vocals that dig deep and stir the heart to be the perfect accompaniment on many of her songs. Vicki writes and beautifully sings her own brand of music and lyrics while putting her unmistakable imprint on familiar tunes like the Beatles’ Norweigian Wood. An evening with Vicki is far more than a concert; stories, warmth and humor come gift wrapped in an unforgettable evening of music that leaves the audience always wanting more.

Vicki has been recognized among the world’s greatest guitarists and musicians at festivals such as The International Montreal Jazz Festival, Germany’s Open Strings Guitar Festival, Italy’s Soave Guitar Festival, as well as at venues and Performing Arts Centers across the US and abroad. In 2005 she was one of the featured artists on ‘La Guitara’, the first compilation CD featuring female guitarists from around the globe, released by Vanguard Records. With several additional ground-breaking recordings behind her, recent acquisitions of the 6 string banjo, 12 string and baritone guitars, high demand at clinics and music camps and an ongoing European presence, Vicki continues to reach beyond musical borders and into new territory.

For more, check out vickigenfan.com