FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2/23/2013
Contact: Ancient-Future.Com Records
1-415-459-1892
info@ancient-future.com
Ancient Future Performs at the Willits Community Theatre
Ancient Future Duet In Concert
Featuring Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard and fretless guitars) and Mariah Parker (santur)
Saturday March 23, 2013, 8 pm
Willits Community Theatre
37 West Van Lane
Willits, CA 95490
Tix: $15
Doors Open: 7:30 pm
Advance Tix: In person at Good's Stamp Shoppe, 56 So Main St, Willits, CA 95490. 707-459-1363. By phone with credit card at WCT Box Office (707-459-0895) or Brown Paper Tickets (800-838-3006).
Venue Email: wct@willitsonline.com
Venue Website: www.willitstheatre.org
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/434191103327766/
Ancient Future Website: www.ancient-future.com
Press Requests: cmnorris@saber.net and wct@willitsonline.com
Poster (240k): www.ancient-future.com/pdf/3_23_13_willits.pdf
Ancient Future In Concert
Ancient Future Duet Hi-Res Photo by Jialiang Len Gao (3.9 MB):
http://www.ancient-future.com/images/afmariahmatt300dpi10.4x6.9.jpg
Matthew Montfort - scalloped fretboard and fretless guitars
Mariah Parker - santur (hammered dulcimer)
This rare concert at the Willits Community Theatre is the first Ancient Future performance near Mendocino County since July 2006, when they performed their Arabic Dance program as a quartet at Friday Night Live in Cloverdale. This duet version of the pioneering world fusion music group Ancient Future features scalloped fretboard guitarist Matthew Montfort and santurist Mariah Parker. They will perform music from Ancient Future's broad repertoire, including current releases on Ancient-Future.Com Records: The Archive of Future Ancient Recordings and Planet Passion (30th Anniversary Remastered Edition) by Ancient Future, Sympathetic Serenade and Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Ancient Future leader Matthew Montfort, and Sangria by Mariah Parker.
Duet Performance by Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar) and Mariah Parker (santur)
Youtube Video Duet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGIliJuyfvs
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. Their music has stood the test of time: Ancient Future's seminal 1990 recording, World Without Walls, was voted by broadcasters wordwide as one of the top 5 world music recordings in 2012 after it was reissued by Capitol Records. There are more than 25 programs available, each drawing upon a different set of musicians from the roster of over 30 musicians from the world's musical cultures in order to fully explore the varieties of world fusion music. The Ancient Future duet 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.
123 Word Radio Announcement
On Saturday, March 23, at 8 pm, Ancient Future will perform at the Willits Community Theatre, located at 37 West Van Lane in Willits, California. This first Ancient Future concert in Mendocino County since 2006 features a duet version of the pioneering world fusion music group. Scalloped fretboard guitarist Matthew Montfort and santurist Mariah Parker will perform music from Ancient Future's broad repertoire including five current releases on Ancient-Future.Com Records celebrating over three decades of world fusion music. Tickets are $15, available at Good's Stamp Shoppe, 56 South Main St in Willits, by calling the WCT Box Office at 707-459-0895 with a credit card, and at the door the night of the show if seats are still available.
Biographies
Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar, Godin Glissentar)
Matthew Montfort Hi-Res Photo by Julie Marten (2 MB):
http://www.ancient-future.com/images/matthewmontfort600.jpg
The leader of the world music group Ancient Future, Matthew Montfort, released his first solo recording, Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar, in 2009. He 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. He is recognized as one of the world's 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists by DigitalDreamDoor.com, a curated "best of" site, along with such luminaries as Michael Hedges, Leo Kottke, Chet Atkins, John Fahey, Merle Travis, John Renbourn, Tommy Emmanuel, Doc Watson, Pierre Bensusan, Alex De Grassi, and Peppino D'Agostino. The December 2009 Les Paul issue of Guitar Player Magazine includes a full page feature on Matthew Montfort with a corresponding GuitarPlayer.Com video and lesson entitled “The Music of Jimi Hendrix Applied to Indian Raga.” 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 performed live on national radio and TV shows such as the Echoes Living Room Concerts on Public Radio International, and the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. 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.
Mariah Parker (santur)
Mariah Parker with Santur Hi-Res Photo by Ross Pelton (1.6 MB):
http://www.ancient-future.com/images/mariah_santur_300dpi5x4.jpg
Mariah Parker is a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose main instruments are santur and piano. Her first instrument was the piano which she began playing at age 5. Later in music school, she fell in love with the sound of the santur when she heard it drifting across campus. The transition was a natural one given that the santur, along with its Western offspring, the hammered dulcimer, is the ancestor of the piano. The strings of the santur are played directly by the delicate hammers, creating a beautiful shimmering sound. The sound of the piano is also created by hammered strings, but mechanically triggered by the fingers striking the keys.
While completing her degree in music at UC Santa Cruz, she 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.
Recent Recordings on Ancient-Future.Com Records
The Archive of Future Ancient Recordings by Ancient Future
Archive of Future Ancient Recordings by the band Ancient Future. (Ancient-Future.Com AF-2030). Recording Newsletter Package (128kbps MP3): $15. Buy Link. Download Supporter Package (320 kbps MP3): $25. Buy Link. Limited to 300 packages. Limited Edition CD Sponsor Package (CD quality .wav): $50. Buy Link. Limited to 200 packages. Honorary A & R Representative Package (Hi-res 24 bit .wav): $75. Buy Link. Limited to 100 packages.
During Ancient Future's 30th anniversary year, work started on the next project of the band: the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings (A.F.A.R.). To finance the project, a subscription system model is being employed to fund the recording through fans of world fusion music. There are already eight tracks in the archive available right now to subscribers, with more coming as money is raised for production.
Planet Passion by Ancient Future
Planet Passion by Ancient Future (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2010) $17.98: Buy Link . (>YTmusic.)
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, Nepali, 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
Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort
Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort. (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2008). $17.98: Buy Link . (>YTmusic.)
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
Sympathetic Serenade by Matthew Montfort. (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2012). Signed Mini EP CD-R- $12.98: Buy Link. (>YTmusic.)
When Matthew Montfort was working on his debut solo recording, he recorded a series of improvisations. Were it not for some serendipitous sequencing coupled with the allure of alliteration, it's likely that this recording would have been released as the eighth improvisation on what became Seven Serenades. Instead, this evocative Spanish serenade/raga hybrid receives a mini EP treatment on Matthew Montfort's Sympathetic Serenade.
"Both Matt Montfort and his band Ancient Future have been reviewed in FAME before, and the work is always superlative, but this one, a CD 11-minute single, is an expression of solo virtuosity on a variant axe which isn't employed by very many. Primarily a Spanish composition, there's nonetheless always a generous infusion of raga structures and riffs in Montfort's work as well as more Westerly rhythmatics. Sympathetic Serenade is no exception. Brilliant modern semi-neoclassical work with very strong ties to the traditional residing within progressive annals." – Mark S. Tucker, FAME
"Anyone whose ever been taken with the inventions of Fahey, Basho etc when they wander off the beaten, song structured path will enjoy this instrumental, raga flavored diversion. Not a piece that's clever just for the sheer sake of it, the hard core will groove to this head trip rhapsody. A fine work that extends the guitar vocabulary." – Chris Spector, MIDWEST RECORD
Sangria by Mariah Parker
Sangria by Mariah Parker (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2017). $17.98: Buy Link . (>YTmusic).
Sangria by Mariah Parker blends the driving rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz with the entrancing, asymmetrical meters of East India. This debut recording features her original compositions that draw musical inspiration from Brazil, Cuba, Spain, and India.
“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
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