FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2/7/2011
Contact: Ancient-Future.Com Records
1-415-459-1892
info@ancient-future.com

Ancient Future "World Without Walls" Reunion Concert

World jazz featuring Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar), Jim Hurley (violin), Doug McKeehan (keyboards, piano), and Ian Dogole (percussion) plus special guests including Pandit Habib Khan (sitar)

Tuesday, June 7, 8 pm
Yoshi's San Francisco
1330 Fillmore St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
Tix: $16 in advance, $20 at the door.
Info: 415-655-5600, or www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco
Poster (944 k pdf). Facebook Event.

Lunch Hour Preview "Teaser" Show
Tuesday, June 7, Noon
City of Concord Free Summer Concerts
Todos Santos Plaza
Concord, CA 94520

Sepia for print (14.7" x 9.7" sepia jpg, 7.2 MB). B/W for print (14.7" x 9.7" b/w jpg, 5.9 MB). Sepia for web (864 x 570 sepia jpg, 176 k). B/W for web (864 x 570 b/w jpg, 164 k). Ancient Future circa 1990. Photo by Irene Young. Pictured: Matthew Montfort (guitars), Jim Hurley (violin), Doug McKeehan (keys), Ian Dogole (percussion).

On June 7, 2011, the exact lineup of Ancient Future that performed on the band's influential World Without Walls and Asian Fusion recordings will reunite to perform for the first time in over 15 years. This is a one-time-only chance to catch this special reunion performance by the lineup that played over a hundred concerts together between their first appearance on August 21, 1988 at the Concert in the Forest, a benefit for the Friends of the Cathedral Forest near Breitenbush Hot Springs, Oregon, and their August 26, 1995, show for the Calaveras Arts Council. In honor of the reunion concerts, World Without Walls is scheduled for digital release by Capitol Records for the first time ever at major digital retailers such as iTunes and Amazon.com MP3 Store on June 7, 2011.

Ancient Future has headlined such venues as San Francisco's Great American Music Hall and Eugene's Hult Center for the Performing Arts, appeared at numerous jazz festivals such as the Sacramento River Jazz Festival, Cotati Jazz Festival, Valhalla Jazz Festival, and Sand Harbor, and shared bills with other leading jazz and contemporary music artists including Fourth World with Flora Purim and Airto, Tower of Power, Craig Chaquico, Acoustic Alchemy, and Ottmar Liebert. Ancient Future was the subject of numerous features in publications such as JAZZIZ and MÚSICA GLOBAL. A selection of these articles has just been uploaded to the archives of Ancient Future history, providing an interesting perspective on a period of growth in the world music movement.

The reunion show at Yoshi's features Matthew Montfort on scalloped fretboard guitar, Jim Hurley on violin, Doug McKeehan on keyboards, Ian Dogole on percussion, and special guests from the band's recordings including noted sitarist Pandit Habib Khan, who appears with this exact band lineup on the song "Socha Socha" on the Planet Passion recording. The show will also feature world dancer Sapphira, who has performed on many Ancient Future tours from the mid 90's on.

Ancient Future's uptempo virtuoso world fusion music is an exhilarating mix of jazz improvisation with the exciting rhythms, exotic sounds, and enchanting melodies of world music.

Band Bio

B/W for print (5.11" x 3.55" 300 dpi jpg, 212k). Ancient Future circa 1990. Photo by Irene Young. Pictured: Matthew Montfort, Jim Hurley, Doug McKeehan, Ian Dogole.

"Ancient Future is a rare kind of band that might simultaneously aggravate purists, confound New Age dilettantes, seduce skeptics, and dazzle just about everybody else. Delicious compositions, intricate arrangements, crisp playing and impeccable production put these ambitious voyagers in a league of their own." -Derk Richardson, San Francisco Bay Guardian

Formed in 1978, 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 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.

Ancient Future has released seven full length studio CDs selling over 150,000 units: Visions of a Peaceful Planet, Natural Rhythms, Quiet Fire, Dreamchaser, World Without Walls, Asian Fusion, and Planet Passion. Over one million legal mp3 files from three of these releases on Ancient-Future.Com Records have been distributed commercially. Ancient Future is also featured on samplers selling millions of units on labels such as Putumayo and Narada.

Over the years, Ancient Future has expanded its musical vision through collaborations with master musicians from more than two dozen countries, cultures, and musical traditions who are now an integral part of what is today more than just a band. Ancient Future has grown to become a large multinational music ensemble with many smaller ensembles within it, enabling Ancient Future to realize its core mission of creating world fusion music. Through cross cultural exchange, Ancient Future has created a musical world without borders.

Matthew Montfort (band leader, scalloped fretboard guitar)

Matthew Montfort is the leader of the world fusion music ensemble Ancient Future. He is a pioneer of the scalloped fretboard guitar (an instrument combining qualities of the South Indian vina and the steel string guitar). Montfort spent three months in intensive study with vina master K.S. Subramanian in order to fully apply the South Indian gamaka (note-bending) techniques to the guitar. In 2009, he released his first solo guitar recording, Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar, which debuted at #8 on Zone Music Reporter's Top 100 February 2009 World Radio Chart, and held the #34 spot on the Top 100 of 2009. He has performed concerts worldwide, including at the Festival Internacional de la Guitarra on the golden coast of Spain near Barcelona and the Mumbai Festival at the Gateway of India in Bombay. He has performed live on national radio and TV shows such as the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. 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.

Jim Hurley (violin)

Jim Hurley has been playing violin since 1969. He holds a B.A. in Music from Humboldt State University. Influenced profoundly by South Indian violinist L. Shankar, he incorporates styles from bebop to zydeco, European classical to Zairean soukous. He is well known for his performances with Ritchie Blackmore and Blackmore's Night (rock legend turned Celtic and Renaissance musician), American roots music leaders such as Grammy winners Queen Ida and Al Rapone, and swing legend Dan Hicks' Acoustic Warriors. He has toured Europe and Japan and performed at numerous major music festivals, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, and the Monterey Jazz Festival. Jim Hurley has released two solo recordings, Primary Colors, and Finger Painting.

Doug McKeehan (keys)

Doug McKeehan started his piano studies at age five, and began his first professional work at the age of twelve. He studied music at the Oberlin Conservatory, Kent State University, and the University of Otago (New Zealand). He has toured Europe twice and spent considerable time in India studying with notable Indian music teachers such as Pandit Ram Narayan, Ustad Kursheed Khan and Pandit A.G. Bhattacharya. He has composed original music for stage and T.V. productions in San Francisco and Los Angeles and has been musical director of two original musical comedy productions. He co-founded Air Craft with violinist Bruce Bowers, which released a highly acclaimed progressive jazz album, So Near, So Far (Crafted Air CA 30100). He is a first call jazz pianist in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ian Dogole (percussion)

Ian Dogole holds a B.A. in Ethnomusicology from Brown University and an M.A. in Classics from Villanova University. He began his musical studies with the piano at the age of five, later switching to jazz guitar which was to be his primary focus until taking up percussion during his ethnomusicology studies. He has released numerous albums under his own name, including Along the Route (Dr. Unit DU-1001), Dangerous Ground (Cafe L-737), and Ionospherses (C.E.I. CYK 807-2), all pioneering works in the field of world fusion music. He received a prestigious 1991 Jazz Performance Fellowship from the N.E.A, and 1994 and 1995 Marin Arts Council grants.

Reunion Interview in India Currents

Priya Das wrote this excellent article for the May 2011 issue of India Currents on the reunion concert after interviewing Ancient Future bandleader Matthew Montfort and special guest Pandit Habib Khan.

Band Recordings

World Without Walls by Ancient Future

(Sona Gaia/MCA 163): CD - $24.98 (collectable signed copy): Buy Link. >YTmusic.
Press Audio Downloads: Lakshmi Rocks Me (Jim Hurley) MP3 (excerpt) (976 K). >YTmusic.
14 Steps (Matthew Montfort) MP3 (excerpt) (1 MB). >YTmusic.

As its name suggests, World Without Walls depicts a musical world without borders. Released in 1990, it features performances by such world music luminaries as Zakir Hussain, the master of the North Indian tabla. The inviting melodies and ingenious use of ethnic textures make this recording one of Ancient Future's most accessible and broadly appealing releases ever.

World Without Walls Media Report (6.4 MB)

"World Without Walls speaks to a cultural enrichment, a melding of world culture with Ancient Future's own lush sense of melody and rhythmic drive." - John Diliberto, JAZZIZ

Asian Fusion by Ancient Future

(Narada Equinox ND-63023): CD - $24.98 (collectable signed copy): Buy Link. >YTmusic. iTunes.
Press Audio Download: Mezgoof (Ian Dogole) MP3 (excerpt) 800K. >YTmusic

Asian Fusion is a musical travelogue spanning the vast geographic and cultural expanse of Asia showcasing some of the top performers in the Asian music field, including Zhao Hui, China's preeminent master of the gu zheng (Chinese zither) and Bui Huu Nhut, a leading performer of the Vietnamese dan bau (a one-string Vietnamese instrument with an indigenous version of a whammy bar). Asian Fusion received much critical acclaim. It made the Tower Pulse! Top 10 Best Contemporary Instrumental Releases of 1993 List (#4) and was Guitar Player magazine's "Pick" for April 1994.

Asian Fusion Media Report (11.4 MB)

"This compilation of 12 songs influenced by the Far East has all the sweeping impact of epic movies such as 'The Last Emperor.'" - CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Planet Passion by Ancient Future

(Ancient-Future.Com AF 2010): CD - $17.98: Buy Link. >YTmusic. iTunes.
Press Audio Download: Socha Socha (Khan/Montfort) MP3 (short version) 3.6 MB. >YTmusic.

The classic lineup of Ancient Future performing these special reunion concerts also was featured on one cut on the Planet Passion CD: the song Socha Socha on which they accompanied sitar master Pandit Habib Khan. Originally released in 2002, it was remastered and re-issued in 2009 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first Ancient Future concert.

Planet Passion Media Report.pdf (3 MB)

"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. 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

143 Word Radio Announcement

The exact lineup of the pioneering world music group Ancient Future that performed on their influential World Without Walls and Asian Fusion recordings is reuniting to perform for the first time in over 15 years. They will appear on Tuesday, June 7, at 8 pm at Yoshi's San Francisco, located at 1330 Fillmore Street. The reunion show at Yoshi's features Matthew Montfort on scalloped fretboard guitar, Jim Hurley on violin, Doug McKeehan on keyboards, Ian Dogole on percussion, and special guests from the band's recordings including noted sitarist Pandit Habib Khan. Their uptempo virtuoso world fusion music is an exhilarating mix of jazz improvisation with the exciting rhythms, exotic sounds, and enchanting melodies of world music. There is a noon preview show the same day as part of the City of Concord Free Summer Concerts Series in Todos Santos Plaza in downtown Concord.

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