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Joel Harrison Announces The 5th Annual Alternative Guitar Summit

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February 4, 2015 @ Shapeshifter Lab And February 6-8, 2015 @ Rockwood Music Hall

Joel Harrison, guitarist/composer/bandleader and founder of the annual Alternative Guitar Summit, is happy to announce the 2015 Alternative Guitar Summit, taking place at Shapeshifter Lab (February 4), and Rockwood Music Hall (February 6-8)! This festival of daring, inventive guitarists, who emphasize new and unusual approaches to the instrument, will once again celebrate the guitar’s enormous range, beyond style or genre. The 2015 AGS will feature Lee Ranaldo, Liberty Ellman, David Gilmore, Joel Harrison, Miles Okazaki, Kenny Wessel, Doug Wamble, Adam Levy, Sheryl Bailey, Michael Gregory Jackson, Anders Nilsson, Marco Cappelli, Gyan Riley, David Fiuczynski, Prasanna, Ava Mendoza, Adam Rudolph, and others.

The AGS will present three master classes as part of its ongoing educational initiative:

February 5 (7:30 PM): Composing for the electric guitar with Steve Mackey, Scott Johnson, Ben Monder

February 7 (1 PM): Incorporating techniques from India and Middle East into jazz guitar playing with Dave Fiuczynski, Prasanna and Joel Harrison

February 8 (1 PM): Accompanying singers, and incorporating blues, country, and funk into your jazz playing: Doug Wamble, Adam Levy and Joel Harrison

All master classes will take place at The Drama League of New York

Located at 32 Avenue of the Americas, NYC, Tel 212 244 9494 - Prices TBA

NEW for 2015!: Joel Harrison has inaugurated a new monthly podcast series as part of the Alternative Guitar Summit entitled, “Say What You Mean." “My first interview is with the eminent composer Henry Threadgill in two parts. In part one he discusses his new guitar concerto featuring Liberty Ellman, which enjoyed its premiere on Thursday, December 4 at Roulette in Brooklyn. I'm really excited to share his vision with everyone. Threadgill is beyond unique, and it's amazing to launch the podcast with him. Click here to check it out: http://joelharrison.com/podcast-2

Lifeforce Arts Inc., a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Joel Harrison in 2013, is the fiscal sponsor for the Alternative Guitar Summit. The AGS Board of Directors is: Pat Metheny, Vic Juris, Elliot Sharp, Dave Tronzo, Bill Milkowski, Ben Monder, Nels Cline and Fred Frith.

Alternative Guitar Summit 2015 Schedule of Events:

TKTS are, Feb. 4 - $15, Feb. 6 - $20, Feb. 7 - $25, Feb. 8 - $20 Or, a three-day pass at Rockwood Music Hall for $50

February 4: Shapeshifter Lab @ 7:30 PM

Shapeshifter Lab is located at 18 Whitwell Place, Brooklyn, NY Tel 646 820 9452

Three 40 minute sets Three Ground-breaking Duos

Anders Nilsson and Aaron Dugan - Hot and Cold; Marco Capelli and James Ilgenfritz - Unplugged; Ava Mendoza and Chris Corsano.

Fusing their common love of improvisation and composition in Hot & Cold, guitarists Anders Nilsson and Aaron Dugan create musical layers that transgress denominations and -isms and embrace the universe’s constant mandate to create anew. “Our musical process is a total democracy with lots of fun sessions bouncing ideas back and forth. And, we share the same birthday, 6/20!"

Unplugged Duo is Marco Cappelli (classic guitar) and James Ilgenfritz (double bass). The Duo join their mutual creativity and large range of musical experience to explore a repertoire from different folk traditions, with a simple and deep commitment: every deviance through improvisation is possible, and no electronic device is admitted.

Ava Mendoza is new on the NYC scene from the Bay Area. She became known to Harrison through rave reviews from Fred Frith and Nels Cline. Enough said!

February 6: Rockwood Music Hall @ 7 to 9:30 PM

Rockwood Music Hall is located at 196 Allen St., NYC, Tel 212 477 4155

Three guitarists blending jazz improvisation and composition with techniques and sounds from India and the Middle East

Probosci: Gyan Riley and Timba Harris; Prasanna (solo): South Indian music meets modern jazz; David Fiuczynski Planet MicroJam trio: with Adam Matta - beat boxer, vox, mouth bone, real time sonic manipulations and Utar Artun-microtonal keyboards.

Probosci is a collaboration between violinist Timba Harris (Secret Chiefs 3, Estradasphere) and guitarist Gyan Riley (Dither, Terry Riley). Both composers, whose work is featured in John Zorn’s Tzadik Records Composers’ Series, contribute to the interplay between composition and improvisation, steeped with intricacy, subtlety, and shape-shifting energy. Their new album, Time to Feed, ranges from purely acoustic music to electro-acoustic textures, dancing between delicacy and hullabaloo.

Prasanna is a pioneer in performing South Indian Carnatic music on the guitar. He is part of a trio with Vijay Iyer entitled Tirtha.

David Fiuczynski (fretted and fretless guitars) is the director of the Planet MicroJam Institute at Berklee College of Music, a 2011 Guggenheim fellow and moonlights as the leader of the Screaming Headless Torsos. Adam Matta is a Grammy nominated (withThe Carolina Chocolate Drops) beatboxer/vocal percussionist from NYC, merging hip-hop, house, drum n' bass, jazz, Middle Eastern and rock. Utar Artun is an emerging force from Turkey, a microtonal keyboard player who is also a percussionist that writes symphonic suites and tone poems. “New musical ideas are on the horizon at the crossroads of new beats, microtonal harmonies, and Eastern melodic inflections and improv concepts.

February 7: Rockwood Music Hall @ 7 to 9:30 PM

Rockwood Music Hall is located at 196 Allen St., Tel 212 477 4155

Lee Ranaldo Solo: (of Sonic Youth fame)

Adam Rudolph's Go: Organic Guitar Orchestra, featuring Damon Banks, Marco Capelli, Tomas Doncker, Liberty Ellman, David Gilmore, Joel Harrison, Jerome Harris, Miles Okazaki and Kenny Wessel

Adam Rudolph's Go: Organic Guitar Orchestra is a 21st century vision of a kind of future orchestra: an original orchestral concept of world music improvisation started by Rudolph in 2001. Since then he has taught and improvisationally conducted hundreds of musicians in both Europe and the United States. The music is composed as thematic material that provides a spontaneous orchestral context and inspiration for improvisational dialogue. The multicultural dynamic of Go: Organic Orchestra expresses a creative vision of a world without boundaries: of culture as the vessel for human understanding, empathy and sharing.

February 8: Rockwood Music Hall @ 7 to 10 PM

Rockwood Music Hall is located at 196 Allen St., NYC, Tel 212 477 4155

Four improvisers debuting singer/songwriter projects

Doug Wamble (guitar & voice) and Mino Cinelu (percussion); Joel Harrison (guitar & voice) withGlenn Patscha (keyboard); Adam Levy (guitar & voice) withSheryl Bailey (guitar); Michael Gregory Jackson (guitar & voice) and Keith Witty (bass).

A native of Memphis, TN, Doug Wamble has always been fascinated by the intertwining of American music styles, and how those blues fundamentals stretch across the musical divide in the U.S., but also across the globe. “Mino Cinelu has long been a musical hero of mine because he can step into any groove, any time, any place, and bring something special to it.” Artists from Sting to Miles Davis to Kate Bush have employed Mino’s talents as a drummer and percussionist, and Wamble has played with everyone from Wynton and Branford Marsalis, to Cassandra Wilson and Norah Jones. This special and rare duo performance of songs and improvisations promises to be a magical event.

Joel Harrison, though best known for his instrumental prowess, has written and sung songs his whole life. He will debut a new songwriting project, which is a compendium of American sounds, styles, and geographies.

Adam Levy is best known for his tenure in Norah Jones’ Handsome Band (2001–2007), though his diverse career has also included music making with Joey Baron’s Killer Joey, Tracy Chapman, Trevor Dunn’s Trio Convulsant, and Rosanne Cash, Sex Mob, and Ani DiFranco.

Sheryl Bailey has released nine critically acclaimed releases as a leader and has toured the world with her many projects. She has worked alongside Richard Bona, David Krakauer’s Ancestral Groove, Abraham Inc., Irene Cara, George Garzone, Jack Wilkins, Shingo Okudaira, Steve Slagle, Harvie S, Ken Peplowski, Kim Plainfield, and Gary Thomas.

For the Alt Guitar Festival, the guitar duo of Levy and Bailey will be reinterpreting several of the tunes from Levy’s recent ‘Town & Country’ CD—an instrumental travelogue.

One of the most influential and innovative guitarists to emerge during NYC’s avant-garde loft scene in the 70s, Michael Gregory Jackson has embraced everything from avant-garde, creative music, jazz, blues, rock and electronica soundscapes to harmonically rich and lyrically deep vocal tunes. Rolling Stone Magazine called Jackson, “the most original jazz guitarist to emerge since the sixties.”

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