Ray Davies at the Birchmere "rave up" - Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart

After one of the worst winters in metropolitan Washington, D.C.’s recorded history, the audience at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, was badly in need of a sunny afternoon – and that’s just what Ray Davies conjured up.  From the opening note of “This is Where I Belong” the former Kink’s frontman and songwriter invited the crowd to join him for two hours of  what became an evening of “Singalong with Ray”.  Davies and his fellow guitarist, Bill Shanley, moved the crowd through spirited  renditions of the Kinks’ legendary songbook.

From deeply personal tunes about family relationships like “Two Sisters” to the social commentary of “Victoria” and “ 20^th Century Man” to rollicking rockers like “You Really Got Me’ and “All Day and All of the Night”,  Davies was relaxed and in control with a driving right hand that propelled the songs forward. Shanley rolled out  tasteful fills alternating with some amazingly dirty lead licks that were the trademark of Ray’s brother and Kinks’ bandmate, Dave Davies.

Ray Davies leading the crowd in song - Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart

The legendary Ray Davies wit was evident throughout the evening as Ray wove a tapestry of stories of a life spent in the music business and of personal ups and downs.  His lifelong fans held their own, singing along with the lyrics that go back to the mid-sixties and, at times, letting Davies lean back and  enjoy the scope of his own career as the crowd’s voices wafted back at him in melodic unison.

Davies and Shanley were joined on stage by opening act, The 88, for a rave-up finale that brought the crowd to its feet with an encore of “Lola” and “Low Budget” that would have done The Kinks proud. As one of the original British Invasion’s elder statemen, Ray Davies proved that he is still a voice to be reckoned with, and his career has- indeed- “risen like a working class souffle.”

PHOTO GALLERY

Ray Davies - Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart

Ray Davies center stage at the Birchmere - Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart

******

Classic Kinks Video – “Tired of Waiting”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related Links

Ray Davies

The Birchmere

Michael G. Stewart Photography

In her book Music Success in Nine Weeks, Ariel Hyatt presents a wealth of knowledge in a readily-accessible, easily digestible form. The reader immediately gets the distinct impression that Ariel is really trying to help them out, and not just sell them a “get rich quick” book. Music Success is an interactive book in the sense that what you put into it is what you’ll get out of it, like music in general. It’s well laid-out, reads well and the information can be easily assimilated and quickly put to good, real-world use.

The material presented in the book is good, solid advice for indie (unsigned or specialty-label / imprint) bands, and solo artists like singer-songwriters. Some of the material is not applicable to larger acts: I doubt that Aerosmith’s biggest asset is their e-mail list. Please keep that in mind when reading the book. If you’re giving it as a gift to your favorite musician, check it through to make sure that it’ll be relevant to their particular situation.

Some of the tips in this book can help everyone, regardless of the status of their band, such as signing up for Twitter or Flickr and using it, or making sure to not spam: use an opt-in or opt-out list only. As well, the chapter on figuring out who your fans are (week 6) is loaded with great information, because figuring out your demographics, and who your core fan base really is, will help your band tremendously.

I really like how it has a clickable Table of Contents, and all of the internal anchors work. Meaning, if I click on a subchapter, I get taken to that subchapter and not some random page 3 or 4 before or after it. As well, the “five successes each day” approach contained in the book was something presented to me at an early age. It’s a very powerful esteem builder and helps to gain a positive outlook on life.

Since I’m most familiar with extreme metal, the section about putting a “sound alike”, and your genre on your show flyers, may not be applicable, depending on what genre you play. I don’t recall a single flyer in my collection that required such information. I do recall laughing at any band who forgot to include the price of tickets, or the date and location of the show. Usually with metal you can tell – the logos are highly stylized – or it’s assumed you’ll look the band up, or the members will have spent some time talking to you when you picked up the flyer. Of course, this could be different for other genres of music, but it’s a novel idea to me.

Some of the websites in the “essential websites” directory have, in the past, charged for their services, changed their terms of service, or they require personal information to even present you with a sample. As usual on the Internet, be mindful and selective of where you input your personal information.

There were three quotes from the book that stood out to me in particular. Since some readers, myself included, won’t be familiar with these quotes directly, even though they are highly informative, it would be nice to have a bibliography in the back of the book so that people interested in quotes like these could pursue them for further reading.

“Only three percent of all people have their long-term goals written down, and it has been proven that by simply writing down your goals you are much more likely to achieve them.”

“Studies show that the average person can achieve six tasks a day so write a MAXIMUM of six per day – don’t get overwhelmed.”

“Recent studies show that people have the attention span of gnats and that if they have to wait more than 3.5 seconds for a site to load, they’re moving on…”

This book, a cross between a self-improvement workbook and a crash course in management, is superb for musicians who don’t have a lot of business experience. It strikes its target dead-on and really ought to help improve the successes of indie artists who work hard to attain these goals.

While not every situation in the book may be applicable to every person or band, the advice at its core is sound and time-tested. If people put a lot of effort into really assimilating these suggestions, they are sure to reap great rewards.

Links

Ariel Publicity Homepage

Music Success In Nine Weeks

Levi Clay

Guitar International is pleased to announce that U.K. based guitarist, Levi Clay, has joined us with his column, “Guitar Creativity”. “Guitar Creativity” will feature instructional content that will clearly explain the rudiments of rock guitar and other musical styles.

Levi is a young up and coming player and teacher based out of London, U.K. As a student of several of the United Kingdom’s best guitar teachers Levi has landed work as a transcriber, even writing a course and teaching his own class at the International Guitar Foundation (IGF) Youth Rock event.

More recently Levi has popped up on the radar as a transcriber at Jamtrackscentral.com where his reputation for transcribing Guthrie Govans album landed him the job transcribing some of Guthrie’s videos! Since then he has made himself armed and ready to tackle more private work of this nature.

Currently, Levi fills his time with his BMus(Hons) from the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) and his own rock outfit Hellcat Molly, as well as his fusion project Mal-Funk-Shen.

His specialties as both a player and teacher range from advanced rock technique to jazz fusion soloing ideas. But don’t think that you can predict where Levi might pop up next and what style he will be found playing!

Levi proudly plays Suhr Guitars (www.Suhrguitars.com) and Cornford Amplification (www.cornfordamps.com)

“Guitar Creativity” will feature instructional content that will clearly explain the rudiments of rock guitar and other musical styles.

Tickets go on sale March 1st, 2010 and the raffle will be held on Monday April 12th, 2010. Winners will be notified by email/phone on Tuesday April 13th and can claim their prizes directly after that date.

Win $2600 in Prizes

• Grand Prize: Full Scholarship (tuition/room/board) to attend ANY 2010 National Guitar Workshop campus, including New Milford, CT, Los Angeles, CA, Chicago, Il, Austin, TX or McLean, VA, valued at $1500.

2010 NGW Guest teachers include Tommy Emmanuel, James Burton, Russell Malone, Paul Gilbert, Sonny Landreth, Pat Martino, John Scofield and many more.

For more info please visit www.guitarworkshop.com

• First Prize: Raezer’s Edge Stealth Cabinet valued at $500

For more info please visit www.raezers-edge.com/

• Second Prize: Full Scholarship (tuition) to attend the 2010 edition of the Interlochen Guitar Festival and Workshop, valued at $400.

For more info please visit http://college.interlochen.org/program/guitar-festival-and-workshop

• Third Prize: Four (4) $50 gift certificates from Strings by Mail, each gift certificate will be drawn separately.

For more info please visit www.stringsbymail.com

Tickets are $10 or three (3) for $25

To buy tickets, or for more information on the raffle, please email mr-warnock@wiu.edu or call 309-298-1328

For more information on the 2010 WIU Guitar Festival please visit:

http://www.tristatesradio.com/guitarmain.html

Prize winners must be legal residents of the United States at time of draw.
Grand Prize Winner may be required to claim the NGW scholarship on their tax r

GUITAR CENTER PRESENTS
YOUR NEXT RECORD WITH SLASH
RECEIVES MORE THAN 8,000 UNSIGNED BAND SUBMISSIONS IN FIRST MONTH

Submissions Open Through April 30th

Slash

Guitar Center (www.guitarcenter.com), the world’s largest musical instrument retailer, today announced that Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash, a first-of-its-kind unsigned band competition, has received more than 8,000 submissions from unsigned bands across the country, in its first month alone. The competition provides emerging artists the chance to win the ultimate career-altering opportunity: record a 3-song EP with legendary producer, Mike Clink (Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, Megadeth) and have Slash write, record and perform on the winning artists’ single. Through April 30th, 2010, unsigned bands across the United States are still invited to submit their music at YourNextRecord.com for a chance to win the aforementioned prize package, which also includes:

A management development deal with “The Collective” (Linkin Park, Slash, Avenged Sevenfold) · Feature of winning artists’ single on iTunes · Worldwide distribution of winning artists’ music through TuneCore · $10,000 Guitar Center Shopping Spree · New gear and endorsement deals from Ernie Ball Music Man · An opening slot on Slash’s Monster Energy Bash · An editorial feature on the winning band in Guitar World Magazine A Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash promo video can be viewed here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWOluHHoccE.

“The response so far has been tremendous and a lot of the music we’ve received sounds amazing but I still want to hear more,” said Slash. “We’re looking to find a great band with some kick ass songs and good energy, who hasn’t been able to get their foot in the door otherwise, and take them to the next level.”

The opportunity coincides with what will be Slash’s first true solo album. Slash announced today his CD, SLASH, will release in April 2010. The album features an all-star roster of guest musicians including Ian Astbury, Chris Cornell, Rocco DeLuca, Fergie, Dave Grohl, Myles Kennedy, Kid Rock, Lemmy Kilmeister, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Duff McKagan, M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, and Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother.

Slash with his LP and surrounded with a stack of Marshalls.

Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash is just one of many Guitar Center initiatives created to foster growth and success within the music community, including its annual King of the Blues, Drum-Off and On-Stage competitions, among others. Guitar Center’s King of the Blues is a nationwide amateur guitar skills competition with the goal of finding the next great undiscovered blues guitar player. Drum-Off is an annual drumming competition that, now in its 21st year, has been a launching pad for many drummers, including Cora Coleman-Dunham and Tony Royster Jr, two Drum-Off winners who have gone on to become highly acclaimed professional drummers (with Prince and Jay Z respectively). Guitar Center On-Stage is a musical competition judged by Mötley Crüe. The winning band, The Last Vegas, has since gone on to open for Mötley Crüe on tour and subsequently topped iTunes critics’ 2009 “Rock Singles of the Year List” with their hit single “I’m Bad.”

About Guitar Center
Guitar Center is the world’s largest retailer of guitars, amplifiers, percussion instruments, keyboards and pro-audio and recording equipment. Our retail store subsidiary presently operates 214 Guitar Center stores across the U.S. We are also the largest direct response retailer of musical instruments in the United States through our wholly owned subsidiary, Musician’s Friend, Inc., and its catalog and Web site, www.musiciansfriend.com. In addition, our Music & Arts division operates more than 100 stores specializing in band instruments for sale and rental, serving teachers, band directors, college professors and students. More information on Guitar Center can be found by visiting the Company’s Web site at www.guitarcenter.com.

The Guitar Center logo is a registered trademark of Guitar Center, Inc. Other brand or product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

About Slash
Slash is widely considered one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time. He has received countless accolades and awards including a 2007 star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside his idols Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. An original member of iconic rock band Guns N’ Roses, Slash helped the band create signature sounds like the guitar riff of #1 hit “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and “Welcome To The Jungle.” The band dominated the 1980’s and 90’s music scene selling more than 100 million albums worldwide and ushered in a decade of hard charging rock music. After the band’s break-up, Slash went on to critical acclaim in his personal project Slash’s Snakepit, and global success with supergroup Velvet Revolver. He has been widely sought after by the biggest musicians of all time, performing with everyone from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder to Ray Charles. Slash is one of the marquee playable characters in Guitar Hero III, has two signature Gibson guitars in his name, and authored his own top-selling biography Slash in 2007.

Guitar virtuoso John 5 will perform live followed by a Q&A about the studio, recording, touring and other topics at the Grammy Museum on March 31st at 7:30 pm. This event will include a signing session to end the evening’s excitement.

John5

John 5 has compiled one of the most impressive resumes in rock. In addition to his own solo work, his commanding riffs combined with his composition skills have most recently earned him a coveted spot playing with rock icon Rob Zombie. Join us as he demonstrates his masterful techniques, breaks down his signature gear, talks about life on the road and songs from his latest album, Requiem.

John 5’s credentials include his famous stint with shock rocker Marilyn Manson, his current gig with Rob Zombie, but also includes diverse work with some names you might not expect, including Lita Ford, K.D. Lang, David Lee Roth, Meatloaf, Salt-N-Pepa, Lynyrd Skynyrd and many others. Surprisingly, to many, John 5 has an ardent love of bluegrass music and has the chops to prove it (just listen to “Sugar Foot Rag” from 2004 solo album Vertigo).

We have the opportunity to offer reservation seating for the first few rows of this event. This is first come first serve. If you would like to make a reservation please send an email to john5store@hotmail.com and in the subject field put “Reserve Seats”. This has limited seating so reserve your tickets now!

The Grammy Museum is located at 800 Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90015. For Further information online, visit www.grammymuseum.org

Check out Redd Volkaert's (left) interview and stand by for a new interview with steel pedalist Cindy Cashdollar (right) - Photo credit: Michael G. Stewart

Interviews you can expect at our pages soon include conversations we’ve had with Aaron Lewis from Staind; steel pedal whiz Cindy Cashdollar; Telecaster master Tom Principato, Steve Hackett (Genesis), Stevie Salas, Dick Boak (Martin Guitar Artist Relations), Johnny A., Allan Holdsworth and many more. We have some legendary player interviews scheduled during the next few months that will knock your socks off!

We are continuing to fix migration problems with some of our older content, but things are running smooth and we intend on highlighting some of our archived interviews at our Front Page. We may do this on a specific weekday, so you’ll know the schedule – but, we’re ruminating on that idea at the moment to figure out the best way to highlight these legacy interviews for you.

Stand by for John Page's new Guitar International Column!

We’ll be adding some new columnists very soon, who have been solid contributors to Guitar International in some fashion. One of our new columnists will be John Page, owner of John Page Guitars and co-founder of Fender’s Custom Shop. By the way, John is already a charter member of  GI’s Board of Advisors.

Our Good Life section has been slow in getting off the ground, mainly due to our focus on improving the site and adding guitar-centric content. But, we are working up ideas for new and exciting life style type articles and interviews to grab your interest. Stand by!

Although we have over 3,600 pages of content, we made a decision to “privatize” some of that while we fix glitches to older content. We’ll be adding all of our old content back to the public side of things for you.

And finally, Guitar International content is absolutely free, but to continue to keep things cranking we rely on money to pay for our supplies and services support. So, we ask that when you want to purchase some new music gear that you get to Musicians Friend from Guitar International’s links so that we can gain some commission revenue.  Musicians Friends pricing will not be any more by using our links! We also ask that you click through to our high quality and customer focused advertisers and check out their guitars and other gear or services.

As Guitar International evolves we will be adding even more professional content to our pages and new valuable features for guitarists and other music enthusiasts!  Thanks for reading!

And here’s an “oldie but goodie” for your listening pleasure…

The Who – Can’t Explain

Click here to view the embedded video.

All the Best and Keep on Plucking!

Rick
Rick Landers
Publisher
Guitar International

SOTTI’S DEBUT ON THE LABEL PAYS HOMAGE TO WES MONTGOMERY AND JIMMY SMITH

Driven by the dynamic interplay between Fabrizio Sotti’s colorful electric and acoustic guitar and Sam Barsh’s bluesy Hammond B-3 organ, the Italian born artist/composer’s highly anticipated E1 Music debut Inner Dance beautifully recalls the spirit of the mid-60s albums by his guitar hero Wes Montgomery and organ great Jimmy Smith. As inspired as the recording sounds, it may surprise longtime Sotti fans–and jazz guitar enthusiasts new to his multi-faceted vibe–that he originally conceived his first solo album since 2004’s Through My Eyes as a more traditional trio project. In a true sign of these technologically advanced times that Montgomery could never have fathomed, it was a computer hard drive failure-and the complete loss of the album’s original sessions-that gave rise to one of the most compelling jazz recordings of the year.

The fascinating story of how the ultimate version of Inner Dance came to be led Sotti for a time to use the working title “Against All Odds.” He began recording the nine track collection in February 2009 with veteran bassist James Genus and renowned drummer/percussionist Mino Cinelu. Sotti had worked with Genus various times over the years and Genus appeared on the guitarist’s 1999 recording This World Upside Down, his first major release in the U.S. that also featured John Patitucci, Randy and Michael Brecker, Al Foster and Victor Jones. After recording the basic trio tracks for Inner Dance, and others featuring Swiss harmonica great Gregoire Maret and Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña, Sotti’s hard drive crashed and he lost all the recordings.

“The tech company that tried to salvage my data told me that this kind of complete erasure only happens once in every 10,000 times a computer crashes,” Sotti says. “I was frustrated but quickly decided to press on and start scheduling new sessions. But when you’re working with busy musicians, it’s hard to find time in their schedules to rebook them. Since James was not available for the new sessions that started in April, I brought in Sam, who created the bass sound on the B-3. Inner Dance developed into a whole new and very exciting project featuring my guitar and the organ that sounded like those classic organ trio albums I grew up with. The organ has a fuller sound and can create bass and harmony at the same time, so I think the tracks are more accessible to listeners, whether they are big jazz fans or not. And we were fortunate to keep Claudia, who adds a wonderful Spanish vocal to ‘Amancer,’ and Gregoire, who adds his lovely harmonica to the title track.”

Inner Dance, whose title reflects Sotti’s spiritual and emotional journey back to making a jazz album after several years, begins with the hypnotic and moody, sparsely arranged “Blue Whisper,” a track that showcases his electric guitar prowess over a swinging organ trio groove. Shifting gears, Sotti displays a Spanish styled acoustic grace on the seductive “Kindness In Your Eyes” before switching back to the electric for the synth and harmonica laced title track-which rolls like an easy swaying waltz with bluesy touches thanks to the B-3. Sotti kicks up a notch on the percussive and swinging “I Thought So,” which includes a hard hitting drum/organ jam behind the soaring, spirited guitar melody.

Claudia Acuna’s soulful Spanish vocals add lushness and depth to the sweetly ambient “Amancer,” while the thoughtful meditation “Brief Talk” is a loving tribute to Michael Brecker inspired by Sotti’s last encounter with the sax legend before his untimely death in 2007. “Last Chance” is a high energy blast with Sotti’s crisp bluesy guitar swinging mightily over Barsh’s bubbly organ harmony and a jazz-funk percussion explosion. True to its title, the coolly swaggering “Mr. T.M” and its sensual guitar lines were inspired by another of Sotti’s influences, Thelonious Monk. Inner Dance wraps with the gentle acoustic guitar coda “We Are What We Are.”

Had the hard drive crash not necessitated a refashioning of the project, the story that newcomers to Sotti’s music would have heard first is the unique duality of his career. Born in Padova, Italy in 1975, he was taking classical piano lessons by age five and switched to guitar at nine when his guiding musical lights switched from Bach and Chopin to Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery and Jimi Hendrix. He originally moved to the U.S. shortly after releasing his debut album Looking For in his mid-teens, then came back to New York permanently to launch his jazz career after a brief stint in the mid-90s in the Italian Air Force.

Since the late 90s, Sotti’s career has forged a fascinating dichotomy between working with some of today’s top jazz musicians and writing and producing for superstar hip-hop and pop artists. On the jazz side, he continued his solo recording career with Standards and More and performed on and produced two albums for Grammy winning vocalist Cassandra Wilson, Glamoured (2003) and Closer To You: The Pop Side (2009). He has toured extensively in the U.S. and Europe and worked over the years with an impressive group of A-listers: Al Foster, Roy Hargrove, George Coleman, George Garzone, Steve La Spina, Sammy Figueroa, Mick Goodrick, Mark Egan, Mino Cinelu, Victor Jones, Rachel Z, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Cameron Brown, Andy LaVerne, Harvie Swartz, Brian Lynch, Mick Goodrick, Lincoln Goines, Rick Margitza, Clarence Penn and many more.

Expanding his musical palette into the lucrative and creatively fulfilling realm of hip-hop and R&B, Sotti has played with written and produced tracks for everyone from Dead Prez, Q-Tip, Tupac (a posthumous piece called “If I Fail”), Ghostface Killah, Jennifer Lopez, Whitney Houston, Killah Priest, Styles P, Hell Razah, Foxy Brown, Half Pint and The DEY. In 2006, he produced the album Confidential for an artist named M1 and released it on his own label Sotti Records to great commercial success.

“I agree with Duke Ellington in his assessment that there are only two kinds of music, good and bad, and I choose not to discriminate by genre,” says Sotti. “I am truly a jazz musician by training and nature but I think what sets me apart from the typical jazz guy is that I also love writing and producing in other realms and do both in a professional way, giving my all and being true to both myself and the artists I work with. I had always been interested in the sound of hip hop and the way the artists and producers use so many different layers of sounds. Compared to pop and rock, producing hip-hop is much more creative and, as with jazz, I love having the freedom to choose different instruments and combine them in clever, exciting ways. Both styles even give me the space to choose awkward instrumentation if that’s what I feel it will take to make the track sound great.”

The word “freedom” comes up often when Sotti is discussing his unique and eclectic career and the joyful feeling he has about returning to the jazz world-with a 2009 European tour and the recording of Inner Dance-after a several year layoff. “The thing I love about my life now is really being free to dive into so many different projects and feel like I’m part of them in an authentic way,” he says. I bring great passion and knowledge to my hip-hop work, but it’s cool the way my jazz roots always come out. For someone like me who is a composer, guitarist and producer, it’s nice to have the freedom to explore and live different lifestyles. The legend who set the trend in mixing styles like this is Miles Davis, who loved playing with pop artists in addition to the greatest jazz musicians in the world. He was way ahead of his time. In my own small way, I am simply trying to continue what he started. My roots are jazz but it’s always nice to be open minded and embrace new opportunities as they arise.”

Click here and listen to an exclusive
streaming track from the album

Fabrizio Sotti · Inner Dance
Release Date: April 6, 2010

2010 Portland Jazz Festival Sells Out Seven Of Eight Featured Concerts Including Pharoah Sanders, Mingus Big Band, Luciana Souza, Dave Holland, and Three Acclaimed Groups From Norway.

Panel Discussions, Jazz Conversations, Middle School Educational Outreach, Late-Night Jam Sessions and Local Performances Complemented This Year’s Innovative Festival Programming

Luciana Souza - Photo credit: Fran Kaufman

Devin Phillips, the young saxophonist who evacuated Hurricane Katrina with the NOLA2PDX program in 2005, took the stage at the Newmark Theater and showed the audience in his adopted hometown that he has the chops to share the stage with the legendary Pharoah Sanders, who welcomed him with open arms. At one point Phillips introduced Pharoah as “my idol”. It was a fitting moment for a festival that encourages the development of young players and Portland jazz musicians.

Beginning with a sold out show featuring Luciana Souza on Thursday and concluding with Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy at the storied Crystal Ballroom, the 2010 Alaska Airlines/ Horizon Air Portland Jazz Festival presented by US Bank demonstrated that jazz is very much alive in this country and across the Atlantic, in Norway.

Pharoah Sanders and Devin Phillips - Photo credit: Fran Kaufman

Friday morning began with a scramble to transport the Mingus Big Band from storm-rattled New York to rainy Portland. Arriving less than an hour before show time, the band performed the music of the legendary Charles Mingus to a sold out audience. Even after a long day, five of the Big Band members joined the packed Midnight Jam Session at Norse Hall, the venue that featured performances by Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli, the Christian Wallumrod Ensemble and In The Country. One of the jam session highlights was pianist and program curator Darrell Grant taking over for Dave Kikoski in welcoming Craig Handy and Justin Faulkner. A Philadelphia native, Faulkner  aptly demonstrated to Portland audiences that he lives up to his rapidly growing reputation since joining the Branford Marsalis Quartet in 2009. Faulkner also performed admirably with Pharoah Sanders sounding akin to a young Elvin Jones. Another jam session highlight was Grant’s moving tribute (a recasting of Amazing Grace featuring bassist Glen Moore) to Portland political and cultural icon Dick Bogle who passed away on the festival’s opening day.

Trygve Seim and Frode Haltli - Photo credit: Fran Kaufman

The Norwegian artists, two groups premiering in North America, played to sold out performances at Norse Hall, Portland’s Norwegian community center. In The Country demonstrated the provocative quality of Norwegian jazz with their genre bending and electrifying performance. The virtuosos Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli captivated the audience with a personal and unconventional saxophone and accordion duo performance. Taking advantage of the warm acoustics of Norse Hall, the Christian Wallumrod Ensemble opted for an acoustic performance creating an intimate sound that highlighted the subtleties of their acoustic instruments.

Portland’s jazz scene was in force at full capacity for PDX Jazz free performances by Devin Phillips, Ben Darwish, the Blue Cranes, the Quadraphonnes, the Farnell Newton/Marcus Reynolds Quintet, Toni Lincoln, Clay Giberson & John Nastos, and the John Gross/Dave Frishberg/Charlie Doggett Trio.

“This year’s festival represents the culmination of an experience that began in 2007 when we prominently featured ECM artists – Charles Lloyd, Gary Burton & Chick Corea – along with introducing Trygve Seim and Tomasz Stanko,” states Portland Jazz Festival co-founder and artistic director, Bill Royston. “The ECM exposure led to an exhilarating odyssey to the Kongsberg Jazz Festival as an invited guest of the Norwegian government. Hearing Christian Wallumrod, In The Country, and the alluring duo of Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli in their natural environment gave me renewed energy to expand on what jazz is and potentially is not for the 2010 festival.”

More festival highlights:

· The festival week began with a sold out Gospel Brunch featuring Mike Phillips at Self Enhancement, Inc., an organization that serves youth in the N Portland community.

· The Incredible Journey of Jazz traveled to five area middle schools to present the musical history of jazz to 2,000 students in honor of Black History Month. In attendance were two Portland Trail Blazer alumni, Terry Porter and Jerome Kersey.

· Dave Holland, who had weather related problems departing New York, was joined by Alex Sipiagin in place of Robin Eubanks, on tour with the SF Jazz Collective. The Grammy award-winning quintet also featured longstanding members Nate Smith, Chris Potter and Steve Nelson.

· Jam session participants included artists from Norway and America – Darrell Grant, Roger Arntzen (In The Country), Craig Handy (Mingus Big Band), David Kikoski (Mingus Big Band), Justin Faulkner (Mingus Big Band), Trygve Seim, Frode Haltli, Andrew Oliver, Glen Moore (of the group, Oregon), Reed Wallsmith, Derek Sims, Ben Darwish and others.

· The Jazz Conversation with Pharoah Sanders took place in front of an overflow audience.

·The Jazz Conversation originally scheduled with Craig Handy became an impromptu discussion about the life and times of Charles Mingus. Moderated by Tom D’Antoni (Oregon Music News), the discussion included David Friesen (bassist/composer), Don Lucoff (PDX Jazz), Paul DeBarros (Seattle Times/ Down Beat) and Sam Howard (bassist).

· Is Jazz Dead (or has it moved to a new address)? featured a highly charged discussion on transatlantic musical styles, politics, race, art and commerce. Moderated by Paul DeBarros, the conversation included Forrest Bryant (JazzTimes), Peter Margasak (Down Beat) and Darrell Grant (pianist/composer), with pianist Christian Wallumrod joining the discussion in mid-stream.

Gibson Guitar Releases Its Own Free To Download App Exclusively For The iPhone and iPod Touch from the Apple App Store

Gibson Guitar, the world’s premiere musical instrument manufacturer and leader in music technology, is proud to announce the highly anticipated launch of the Gibson Guitar App. This free to download App will be available exclusively for all Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users directly from the Apple App Store 25th February 2010. This is one App every guitarist and fan of Gibson Guitar must own. Over the past two years over 3 Billion Apps have been downloaded around the world, the Gibson Guitar App cements Gibson’s reputation as the industry’s leader in innovation and music technology.

Sammy Hagar with his App-titude.

Latin Superstar Luis Fonsi shows off his App-titude.

Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger shows us his App-itude.

The Gibson Guitar App includes a number of special features, such as a traditional chromatic tuner which starts in “All Notes” mode that tracks whatever is played. Owners of the App can choose a tuning on the “Mode” page so the tuner will only track notes for that particular tuning. Also included is a standard chromatic tuner, a simple tuner which allows less advanced users to tune to Standard tuning Open G, Open D etc by touching the key. For iPhone users, the Gibson headstock inlay will automatically change color indicating if the string is sharp, flat or in tune. For iPod Touch users they can turn the “Play Notes” option on so they can hear the appropriate tuning since they do not have a microphone facility.

The Gibson app also features a standard metronome that allows users to choose a specific BPM or tap the screen three times to automatically set the tempo. Other key features of the app include over 30 chord charts with finger markings to help the user with mastering the chord. For those who prefer to learn new guitar riffs, licks or chord sequences via video tuition can now have that option from their Gibson App. The app will be updated frequently with new video content so users of all guitar ability can improve their technique from the comfort of their home.

For those who want to keep up with everything Gibson Guitar related including the announcement of new products, artist activity, news stories, interesting and factual features, exclusive contests and special events to name a few can now do this via the Gibson.com option. By popular demand the Gibson Guitar App is a multi-purpose and fully interactive guitar application which can be used at home, on the road or in the Studio. It’s a must have for guitarists and music enthusiasts of all ability and style, and best of all its free. Get yours today.

About Gibson Guitar
Gibson is known worldwide for producing classic models in every major style of fretted instrument, including acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins, and banjos. The Gibson Les Paul guitar is the best selling guitar of all time and bears the name of the late, great Les Paul. Gibson’s HD.6X-PRO Digital Guitar, the Gibson Robot Guitar, Gibson’s Dark Fire and the new Gibson Dusk Tiger represent the biggest advances in electric guitar design in over 70 years. The Gibson Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Gibson Guitar Corp., and dedicates its time and services to making the place a better world for children through its support of music, education, health and human services. Founded in 1894 in Kalamazo, Michigan , and headquartered in Nashville since 1984, Gibson Guitar Corp.’s family of brands now includes Epiphone, Dobro, Kramer, Steinberger, Tobias, Echoplex, Electar, Flatiron, Slingerland, Valley Arts, Maestro, Oberheim, Baldwin, Sunshine Piano, Take Anywhere Technology, J&C Fischer, Chickering, Hamilton, and Wurlitzer. Visit Gibson’s website at www.gibson.com

About Learn & Master Guitar
Learn & Master Guitar is produced by Legacy Learning Systems, Inc., the world leader in video instruction for music and the arts. Its renowned Learn & Masterseries provides the most comprehensive multi-media courses available anywhere for learning guitar, drums, piano, ballroom dance and painting, each containing between 17 and 25 instructional DVDs and CDs for up to two year’s worth of instructional content per course. For additional information on the innovative company that has made truly comprehensive music and arts training available in the home for the first time, visit www.LearnAndMaster.com