October 2010 Issue:
Welcome to the Ancient Future Times/Future Ancient Record
In This Issue of the Ancient Future Times:
California Concerts
•October 21, House Concert, San Francisco; October 23, Trinity Chamber Concerts, Berkeley; November 3, Sonoma Valley Regional Library, Sonoma
Matthew Montfort and Bui Huu Nhut of Ancient Future Play Thingamajigs on Rachel Maddow Show
•Kent Jones Reports on the Strange Instruments Played at the Music for People and Thingamajigs Festival in San Francisco
In This Issue of the Future Ancient Record:
Ancient Future on Rachel Maddow Show in Parallel Universe
•Kent Jones of the Rachel Maddow Show Gets Lost in a Time Vortex While Listening to the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings by Ancient Future.
The Ancient Future Times
World Music Newsletter of the Band Ancient Future
California Concerts
Thursday, October 21, 2010, 7:30 pm, Natural Resonance Concert Series Presents Ancient Future Duet featuring Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar, Glissentar) and Mariah Parker (santur), Natural Resonance Concert Series, House Concert @ home of Steve & Diane Leonoudakis, San Francisco CA 94117. Tix: $15 online at Eventbrite and $20 at the door. Reservations email: Steve Leonoudakis at stepndi@gmail.com. Read more.
Saturday, October 23, 2010, 8 pm, Ancient Future in World Chamber Music Program featuring Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar, Glissentar) Mariah Parker (piano, santur) and Ian Dogole (percussion), Trinity Chamber Concerts, Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana Street between Bancroft Way & Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704. Tix: $15 General, $10 Senior/ Disabled/ Student. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. To reserve a ticket call 510-549-3864. Read more
Wednesday, November 3, 2010, 7 pm, The Sonoma County Libraries Present Ancient Future In Concert Celtic Raga Program Featuring Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar, Glissentar) with Ferhan Qureshi (tabla), Sonoma Valley Regional Library, 755 West Napa Street, Sonoma, CA 95476. Free admission. Info: Call Stephan Buffy at 707-996-5217. Read more.
Matthew Montfort and Bui Huu Nhut of Ancient Future Play Thingamajigs on Rachel Maddow Show
Kent Jones Reports on the Strange Instruments Played at the Music for People and Thingamajigs Festival in San Francisco
Matthew Montfort of Ancient Future was interviewed and performed on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC on Friday, September 24th, 2010. Kent Jones, the Rachel Maddow Show's pop-culturist, was in San Francisco September 23rd and 24th to cover the opening of the Music for People and Thingamajigs Festival. The “Just Enough” with Kent Jones segment featured interviews with Matthew Montfort and some of the other Music for People and Thingamajig Festival performers.
A selection from Matthew Montfort's Music for People and Thingamajigs Festival performance was the only music from the festival that was featured on the Rachel Maddow show. Montfort performed his piece, “Purple Raga,” from his Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar recording, but in this unusual arrangement, he was accompanied at the end by Bui Huu Nhut, a master of the dan bau, a traditional Vietnamese single string instrument with an indigenous version of a whammy bar. The two performed a spontaneous improvisation based on the guitar solo section of “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix. They received a standing ovation from the festival audience.
Video Transcript Excerpts
Rachel Maddow: So here's the bad news. On the day that we find out that a fist fight broke out in the stands between a man and two women no less, while Sharron Angle was speaking at a candidate forum in Nevada, on the day that Stephen Colbert braids performance art and politics together so tightly that he almost pops immigration reform out of Congress with the sheer pressure of his wit, on the day we actually get in the mail the stink mailer from the crazy Carl for Governor campaign in New York, the piece of direct mail scented with the smell of land fill, on the day when we most need a man of Kent Jones' talents to make sense of the world around us, Kent is on vacation. That's the bad news. We need him. He's gone. The good news is that it turns out that Kent does some freaky crazy weird stuff on vacation and then pops into a studio to tell us about it. Kent, did you seriously do what I heard you did today?
Kent Jones: Ah, well, I mean this depends on what you think it is that I “did” today. I'm in San Francisco and I think that I helped the people of San Francisco advance music to the next level. That's what I think I was doing today. So, may I present the Festival of Music for People and Thingamajigs. (Matthew Montfort and Bui Huu Nhut perform)
Kent Jones: This is a guitar, but not like one we know. Tell me about this.
Matthew Montfort: Right, this guitar actually has no frets on it. And so it's basically a combination of an oud and a guitar.
Gretchen Jude: This is a koto, a traditional Japanese instrument. And this is a photo koto. They react to light in a way you will hear when I play.
Kent Jones: Could you play a little bit for me, please?
Gretchen Jude: Of course. Actually, your cameraman can play?
Kent Jones: What? How does that work?
Gretchen Jude: OK. The light comes in here. Ready? (Sound of photo koto reacting to the camera light)
Kent Jones: That was my cameraman playing the photo koto. It's a first.
Rachel Maddow: Kent, if you come back to the office without that thing, that makes noise when you hit it with light, I'll be very angry.
Kent Jones: I'm going to need a bigger desk, I'm just saying right now.
Rachel Maddow: And also maybe a larger overhead compartment for the flight home...but...
Kent Jones: That goes without saying.
Rachel Maddow: Thank you, Kent. Happy vacation.
Kent Jones: Thank you.
The Future Ancient Record
Newsletter from a Parallel Universe A.F.A.R.
Ancient Future on the Rachel Maddow Show in a Parallel Universe
Kent Jones of the Rachel Maddow Show Gets Lost in a Time Vortex While Listening to the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings by Ancient Future
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, the Rachel Maddow Show continued with its exploration of the farthest reaches of musical culture. Above is a video of the latest installment of the parallel universe “Just Enough” with Kent Jones.
Stay tuned at Ancient-Future.Com, because this Halloween, we expect to get a new transmission in the time communication portal from the evolved beings of the future that Kent Jones met at Ancient-Future.Com. We'll broadcast this via the Ancient Future Times to you soon thereafter!
Youtube Video Transcript
(Embed video code available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmF49JKWjfo)
Announcer: And now, from a parallel universe, the Rachel Maddow Show on X.N.N.B.C!
Rachel Maddow: So here's the bad news. On the day that we find out that Sarah Palin quit Fox News to restart her music career by making a new age flute recording with Yanni, on the day that Glenn Beck hosts an Islamic heavy metal band an his show, on the day when we most needed a man of Kent Jones talents to make sense of the world around us, Kent was lost in a time vortex. That's the bad news. We needed him. He was gone. The good news is that it turns out that Kent did some freaky crazy weird stuff in the vortex, and then beamed in to tell us about it. Kent, did you seriously do what I heard you did today?
Kent Jones: Ah, well, I mean this depends on what you think it is that I “did” today! I was in the Ancient Future and I think that I helped the people of earth advance music to the next level. That's what I think I was doing today. So, may I present the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings by Ancient Future!
Rachel Maddow: Ancient Future? Archive of Future Ancient Recordings? Are you still lost in the time vortex?
Kent Jones: Ancient Future is a band, but not like the one's we know. They are a world music group that fuses music from many different traditions, and they are working on a new project of cross-cultural collaborations: the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings. I met the band's leader, Matthew Montfort, when I was in San Francisco covering the “Festival of Music for People and Thingamajigs.” So I was at the band's website, Ancient-Future.Com, checking out their new fan funded recording project, when I found myself in a time communication portal and I ended up talking to an evolved being from the future!
Rachel Maddow: Sounds cool! Would I get to talk to an evolved being if I visit Ancient-Future.Com?
Kent Jones: Well, you are Rachel Maddow, and Republicans won't talk with you, but I don't think you will have quite the same problem with evolved beings from the future!
Rachel Maddow: Kent, if you come back from your time travels without bringing some of the music by Ancient Future, the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings, I'll be very angry.
Kent Jones: I'm going to need a bigger iPod, I'm just saying right now.
Rachel Maddow: Well, for a big archive, you deserve a big iPod! Happy time travels!
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