World Fusion Music Documentary

This video documents the history of the world music movement and shows archival clips of many of the variations of the band Ancient Future. Billboard calls the group "trendsetters" for contributing to the emerging movement for "world fusion music," a term Ancient Future coined at its inception in 1978 for music that blends musical ideas from many different cultures.

Guitar and Tabla Duet

Guitar and Tabla Duet: Matthew Montfort and Vishal Nagar perform Yearning for the Wind, a composition by Montfort based on Rag Kalyan and set in mattatal, a nine beat rhythm cycle divided 6, 1 1/2, 1 1/2. Matthew Montfort, is a pioneer of the scalloped fretboard guitar, an instrument combining aspects of the steel string guitar and South Indian vina, who is recognized by DigitalDreamDoor as one of the world's 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists. Vishal Nagar is a tabla virtuoso who is regarded as one of the best of his generation. This track is part of The Archive of Future Ancient Recordings by Ancient Future, a fan funded project.

Ancient Future Power Trio

This uptempo program features world guitar pioneer Matthew Montfort, virtuoso keyboardist Frank Martin, and Indian tabla phenomenon Aditya Kalyanpur. This virtuoso trio's uptempo program is an exhilarating and improvisatory take on Ancient Future's broad repertoire mixing strains of passionate flamenco, ethereal Indian raga, progressive rock, and jazz virtuosity.

Guitar-Sitar Jugalbandi

Guitar-Sitar Jugalbandi: Jugalbandi is a classical North Indian musical duet (literally "tied together"), in this case with the unusual configuration of sitar and guitar accompanied by tabla. Pandit Habib Khan (sitar) and Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar) have enthralled audiences from St. Louis, Missouri, to Beirut, Lebanon. Matthew Montfort specializes in performing Indian classical music on the scalloped fretboard guitar. This jugalbandi works so well because Matthew Montfort is a guitarist with knowledge of sitar and Pandit Habib Khan has been described as the "Jimi Hendrix of the sitar" by L'Orient le Jour, Beirut's French language newspaper. This piece is now available in The Archive of Future Ancient Recordings.

Arabic Beats

Arabic Beats: Master American and Arabic musicians play Arabic dance grooves in this version of Ancient Future including Georges Lammam (Arabic violin), Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar), Salaheddin Takesh (Arabic percussion), Doug McKeehan (piano, keyboards) and Sapphira (world dance).

Arab Diaspora

Arab Diaspora: Showcases concepts such as taqsim (Arabic melodic improvisation), and compás (rhythmic structure of flamenco). Shown: Ancient Future's Freight and Salvage performance of Sangria by Mariah Parker, available on her debut CD, Sangria, and Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort.

World Jazz Reunion

World Jazz Reunion: Capitol Records reissued Ancient Future's classic World Without Walls album to celebrate their reunion concerts. Shown: Freight and Salvage performance of Prelude by Matthew Montfort and Bookenka (The Adventurer) by Doug McKeehan. This live recording is now available in The Archive of Future Ancient Recordings.

Indo Latin Grooves

Indo Latin Grooves: This program features uptempo selections from Ancient Future's broad repertoire along with remarkable compositions by Mariah Parker from Sangria, her debut release on Ancient-Future.Com Records. The program is available in trio, quartet, quintet, and sextet formats and includes musicians who have performed with Oregon, Sun Ra, and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. Shown: Yoshi's Jazz Club performance of Milo's Moment by Mariah Parker.

Global Guitar

Trance Songs

Trance Songs: 100% loop-free organic world trance grooves played live by master musicians and fronted by Irina Mikhailova (Eastern European vocals). This program is quite popular at dances and festivals as an organic alternative to DJs and drum machines. The program was a dance favorite at the Harmony Festival's Techno Tribal Dance, where they debuted new material with Irina singing in English in addition to her native Russian language. Shown: Ancient Future performing Ocean of Love from the Planet Passion CD.