Ancient-Future.Com Records 30th Anniversary CD Release Party
3 Releases Celebrating 30 Years of World Fusion Music
'Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar' by Matthew Montfort (Acoustic Guitar)
'Sangria' by Mariah Parker (Indo Latin Jazz)
'Planet Passion' (30th Anniversary Remastered Edition) by Ancient Future (World Music)
Sunday, July 26, 8 pm
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
1111 Addison Street
Berkeley, CA 94702
Tix: $18.50 in advance and $19.50 at door. Half-price tickets for youths 18 years old and under. Seniors and Freight members get a $1 discount.
Tel: 510-548-1761
Web: http://www.freightandsalvage.org/tickets.html
Email: info@freightandsalvage.org
This triple bill features the pioneering world fusion music group Ancient Future, scalloped fretboard guitarist Matthew Montfort, and Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz ensemble. This 30th anniversary CD release party features music from three new releases celebrating 30 years of world fusion music.
'Planet Passion' by Ancient Future has been remastered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band, and features top masters of Indian, Nepalese, African, Cuban, Celtic, Arabic, Palestinian, Jewish, Indonesian, Chinese, Eastern European and American music traditions performing music on the theme of mythical stories of love. BILLBOARD calls the group Ancient Future “trendsetters” for their early contributions to the world fusion music movement, which seeks to show how people from different cultures can grow by learning from each other. Ancient Future has grown to become a large multinational music ensemble with many smaller ensembles within it. The version of Ancient Future performing on this bill concentrates on Arabic, Indian, and Spanish musical themes, and has performed in Spain at festivals in Sant Carles de la Ràpita, Botarell, Torredembarra, and Salou.
'Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar' is the debut solo recording by Ancient Future leader Matthew Montfort. This improvised recording showcases his pioneering work on the scalloped fretboard guitar, a special modified instrument able to produce ornaments more characteristic of the sitar.
'Sangria' by Mariah Parker blends the driving rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz with the entrancing, assymetrical meters of East India. This debut recording features her original compositions that draw musical inspiration from Brazil, Cuba, Spain, and India. The musicians performing with Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble and with Ancient Future include Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard, flamenco, and fretless guitars), Mariah Parker (piano, santur), Kash Killion (bass, cello, sarangi), and Debopriyo Sarkar (tabla), plus surprise guest musicians.
ANCIENT FUTURE
featuring Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar, flamenco guitar, Glissentar), Debopriyo Sarker (tabla), Mariah Parker (santur), plus special guests TBA
http://www.ancient-future.com/epk.html
http://www.ancient-future.com/espana.html
Ancient Future is the first and longest running musical organization dedicated exclusively to the mission of creating world fusion music. The term was coined by bandleader Matthew Montfort in 1978 to describe Ancient Future’s unusual blend of musical traditions from around the world. BILLBOARD calls the group “trendsetters” for their early contributions to the movement, which seeks to show how people from different cultures can grow by learning from each other. There are more than 12 versions from the band, each with different musicians from different cultures in order to fully explore the varieties of world fusion music. The version of Ancient Future performing on this bill concentrates on Arabic, Indian, and Spanish musical themes, and has performed in Spain at festivals in Sant Carles de la Ràpita, Botarell, Torredembarra, and Salou.
PLANET PASSION BY ANCIENT FUTURE
http://www.ancient-future.com/planetpassion.html
'Planet Passion' by Ancient Future has been re-issued with 64-Bit Tuned Harmonic Mastering to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band. The seventh Ancient Future recording features nineteen top masters of of Indian, Nepalese, African, Cuban, Celtic, Arabic, Palestinian, Jewish, Indonesian, Chinese, Eastern European and American music traditions performing music on the theme of mythical stories of love.
“If the members of the United Nations formed a world-fusion band, it might look and sound a little something like Ancient Future’s re-issue of their seventh recording. Featuring instrumentation from Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East, Planet Passion is a mythical story of love, flirtation, seduction, courtship, marriage and longing. Manose Singh’s bansuri flute and Matthew Montfort’s scalloped fretboard work stand out in this eclectic, visionary global village, where each track features its own unique set of players. At its best, Planet Passion strives to preserve the world’s vast musical heritage via international collaboration: the idea that one protects the old by creating something new. This is at the heart of fusion music and the heart of Ancient Future’s global aesthetics, too: a diverse, unified world without borders, a multicultural community, a new, reconstituted sonic reality.” — Ryan Allen, LEO WEEKLY, Louisville, Kentucky
“Planet Passion is a celebration of music from around the world. The core of the album incorporates enchanting melodies and clairvoyant vocals. A world-class album by world-wide musicians.” — Matthew Forss, InsideWorldMusic.Com
“This album clearly shows that Ancient Future's World Fusion has nothing to do with the (ambient) World music style. Stylistically, 'Planet Passion' represents a real fusion of the musical forms of the various nations of Earth, which, though, is based on such structures of the composition and arrangement that we used to call Prog Fusion. Highly diverse in sound, all of the ten compositions, that are featured on the album, are filled with very tasteful and diverse arrangements created by the masterly solos and passages of each of the soloing musicians and interplay between them as well. Some of the guitar, flute, and violin solos are so fast and virtuosi that they can remind you of jazzy improvisations” — Vitaly Menshikov, PROGRESSOR: Uzbekistan Progressive Rock
“It is music that irresistibly moves both body and soul. But then, one expects nothing less from the visionary players for whom the description 'world fusion' was coined. Laying the groundwork for some of today's most successful worldbeat acts like Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, Vas, Dead Can
Dance and even the jazz-worldbeat band, Shadowfax, Ancient Future has grown into a global village of 19 musicians whose rich heritage includes erotic rhythms, sensuous voices and inspired instrumentation from Africa, India, Asia (especially Bali), South America and the Middle East. The tunes included are diverse, yet equally captivating, evoking all that is most appealing about music from a global village.” — CDNOW.COM
MATTHEW MONTFORT
(scalloped fretboard guitar)
http://www.ancient-future.com/matt.html
As leader of the world music group Ancient Future, Matthew Montfort has devoted himself to the scalloped fretboard guitar since 1978. Montfort is a pioneer among guitarists who have had their fretboards scalloped in order to play various forms of world music that require intricate note-bending ornaments while still being able to play chords. Montfort immersed himself in an intensive study with vina master K.S. Subramanian in order to fully apply the South Indian gamaka (note-bending) techniques to the guitar. The method is based on pulling the strings across the frets in order to raise the pitch. He has performed concerts worldwide, from the Festival Internacional de la Guitarra on the golden coast of Spain to the Festival of India in Mumbai. He has worked with many world music legends, including tabla phenomenon Zakir Hussain and Chinese zither master Zhao Hui. Montfort wrote the book “Ancient Traditions – Future Possibilities: Rhythmic Training Through the Traditions of Africa, Bali, and India,” which has been used by many musicians to improve their rhythm skills.
SEVEN SERENADES FOR SCALLOPED FRETBOARD GUITAR BY MATTHEW MONTFORT
http://www.ancient-future.com/serenade.html
'Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar' is the debut solo recording by Ancient Future leader Matthew Montfort. The recording showcases his pioneering work on the scalloped fretboard guitar, a special modified instrument able to produce ornaments more characteristic of the sitar. This first solo effort features his improvisational music.
“Because Montfort’s guitar has a scalloped fretboard, his fingers touch only the strings, enabling him to produce ornaments more characteristic of the sitar. This album reveals a thorough knowledge of Hindustani microtonal ornaments, transferred in ways that create one of the most distinctive guitar sounds in contemporary music. However, it also reveals a lifetime of exploration in world music, which can be immediately summoned in a flash of inspiration. When this level of mastery is reached, there is no need to rewrite. The first improvisation has the depth of a reworked composition.” — Teed Rockwell, INDIA CURRENTS, March 2009
“Matthew Montfort conjures lovely Asian zither-like inflections with a scalloped fretboard guitar.” — GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE
“The mind-bending playing abilities of guitar virtuoso, Matthew Montfort, stems from the note-bending capabilities of the scalloped fretboard guitar. This produces a different sound than the more familiar guitar, because the fretboard is carved out, so the fingers only touch the strings. Musically, the songs verge on a flamenco-Indian-jazz continuum. This is partly due to Matthew's playing technique and the sitar-like sounds of his guitar. The crystal-clear picking on guitar and accompaniment on didjeridoo (with Alan Tower), violin (with Patti Weiss) and santur (with Mariah Parker) provides a rich musical texture. For everyone interested in the sounds of guitar, especially fans of Bob Brozman or Ben Bowen King, then this is definitely for you.” — Matthew Forss, INSIDE WORLD MUSIC
MARIAH PARKER'S INDO LATIN JAZZ ENSEMBLE
featuring Mariah Parker (piano, santur), Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar, flamenco guitar, Glissentar), Debopriyo Sarker (tabla), and Kash Killion (bass, cello, sarangi)
http://www.ancient-future.com/indolatinjazz.html
Mariah Parker (composer and multi-instrumentalist), while completing her degree in music at UC Santa Cruz, worked with ethnomusicologist Fred Lieberman and Mickey Hart on the “Planet Drum” project. She has performed in the US and Europe, and worked with many musicians of note including composer Pauline Oliveros, the late Dumisani Maraire (renowned composer from Zimbabwe) and others. She has studied with jazz great Art Lande and Latin jazz pianist extraordinaire Rebeca Mauléon, and performs regularly with the trend-setting world music group Ancient Future.
SANGRIA BY MARIAH PARKER
http://www.ancient-future.com/sangria.html
'Sangria' by Mariah Parker blends the driving rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz with the entrancing, assymetrical meters of East India. This debut recording features her original compositions that draw musical inspiration from Brazil, Cuba, Spain, and India. Her Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble accompanies her and includes musicians from the bands Ancient Future, Oregon, Sun Ra, and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters.
“Labeled as an Indo-Latin jazz musical experience, Parker and friends blend the rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz music with the entrancing, asymmetrical meters of East Indian rhythms resulting in first-class world music. Intriguing melodies that draw musical inspirations from the tempos of Brazil, Cuba, India, and Spain make for an uplifting serene yet passionate musical journey into an ideal world.” — LATIN BEAT MAGAZINE
“Spicy tantalizing flamenco melodies cross pollinate with East Indian rhythms that beg to be imbibed in while a gentle warm breeze rustles your hair. Jazzy flirtations permeate the world music foray and are focused by Parker’s poignant piano (or santur) accentuations.” — MAXIMUM INK MUSIC MAGAZINE
“Although entirely instrumental, Sangria speaks. Maybe it’s the technical virtuosity abounding in the multiplicity of sounds — in the santur or sarangi, or the tabla or timbales. Maybe it’s in the emotive resonance of what’s behind the sounds, like the longing of separation in “Between the Lines,” where Parker’s fingers dance across the keys in precise, measured movements, in graceful arching and sweeping strokes, or in the spectacle of wonder in “Debajo De La Lluvia” or the “Tenth Journey.” Whatever it is, Parker’s Sangria is a lively, adventurous exploration into a hybrid global identity.” — LEO WEEKLY
“Parker brings a wide variety of influences to Sangria, ranging from Indian and Middle Eastern music to Afro-Cuban salsa and Brazilian samba. She obviously appreciates the Eastern-influenced spirituality and mysticism of John Coltrane, Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, and Lonnie Liston Smith, but her composing also contains elements of everyone from Pat Metheny to Chick Corea.... Parker, of course, didn't invent the idea of world jazz; New
Orleans pioneers like King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton were influenced by world music back in the 1910s and 1920s. But she keeps it moving forward... demonstrating that the fusion of jazz and world music still has plenty of possibilities after all these years -- and a global perspective serves Parker well throughout the rewarding Sangria.” — ALL MUSIC GUIDE
“This collection of eight original instrumentals by Mariah Parker is just one of many examples of the infusion of East Indian music into Western music, but to my ears one of the most successful.” — AUDIOPHILE AUDITION
