Herschel Freeman Agency

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 CANADIAN TOUR

D’Gary, Clive Carroll, Miguel de la Bastide and Brian Gore

 

For the November/December 2007 Canadian tour, Brian welcomes D’Gary, renowned World Music guitarist from Madagascar; Clive Carroll, England’s finest young fingerstyle guitarist , and Nuevo Flamenco emigré Miguel de la Bastide from Canada via Trinidad and Spain.

International Guitar Night

 

The Performers

D'GARY

According to David Lindley, the American producer who helped compile the seminal Madagascan music album "A World Out Of Time", D'Gary is "a monster guitarist!" And, if you think that's an exaggeration, just take a listen to the unique open-tuned style of Madagascar's guitar wizard!

Ernest Randrianasolo – better known to Madagascan music fans as D'Gary – was born in the Madagascan capital, Antananarivo, on 22 October 1961. He is a descendent of the Bara tribe, a nomadic people who traditionally made their living herding oxen across the plains of the central south.

D'Gary's style is disconcerting to say the least. Listen closely to his music and you'll swear there must be at least two guitarists playing. This illusion stems from D'Gary's penchant for "open tunings" (a special technique he has developed through years of patient research and which, needless to say, he keeps totally secret!) Open tunings are actually nothing new in musical terms. In fact, they form the basis of tsapiky, the music that influenced D’Gary so strongly in his early years. However, in tsapiky musicians change only one string while D'Gary alters several. Some critics have claimed that D'Gary's unique playing style attempts to reproduce the sound of the marovany (the traditional Madagascan frame box zither). But D'Gary's secret techniques actually make his guitar sound more like the lokanga (the traditional violin which plays such a major role in the Bara's havoria).

D'Gary received his big career "break" when, partway through a tour with the Malagasy group Feon'ala, he received an urgent phone call from Antananarivo, the capitol city of Madagascar. Could he drop what he was doing and head back to the capitol immediately? Two American producers were waiting to see him at the Mars studios. The two American producers, David Lindley and Henry Kaiser, had picked up on the D'Gary buzz on the local music scene and insisted on staging a recording session with the Madagascan guitar hero before they left town.

D'Gary arrived back in Antananarivo and headed straight into the studio, Laying down thirteen tracks in an hour! And this highly fruitful recording session went down in history as his first international album, "Malagasy Guitar, The Music From Madagascar" (released on Shanachie). Henry Kaiser, who did not miss a moment of the legendary session, remembers the experience to this day. "I couldn't believe my eyes or ears when those tracks were played in front of me," he says incredulously, "If you get a guitar and sit at home trying to work out what's going on while he plays, all I can say is
'Good luck'!"

Enjoying increasing popularity abroad, D'Gary soon established himself as the most sought-after Madagascan musician on the international circuit. Playing sell-out concerts all the way from Germany and Norway to Tasmania, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa, D'Gary brought the house down at the world's top music festivals, scoring a big hit at Abidjan's MASA festival in 1995 (as he would at Womad in Singapore in 2001).

The year 2000 brought some important changes in D'Gary's relationship with his homeland. After having neglected the Madagascan music scene for some ten years, preferring to focus his attention on his international career, he finally agreed to put together a compilation of Madagascan music ("Tsapiky 2000", released on the Mars label). Later that year he also embarked on a mini tour of Madagascar, organised by the Alliance Française, playing fifteen concerts across the island. These two events appeared to reconcile D’Gary to his homeland once and for all.

In recent years, D’Gary has toured sporadically in North America.  His national tours in the U.S. and Canada will give North American audiences their first comprehensive glimpse into D’Gary’s extraordinary music, including a new International Guitar Night recording.

CLIVE CARROLL

Clive Carroll was recently described as “ the best and most original young acoustic guitar player and composer in Britain” (Acoustic Guitar Magazine).

Clive was born on April 8, 1975 and has been immersed in a diverse range of music ever since.  His mother plays the button accordian and sings traditional Irish ballads.  His father is an accomplished bodhran player, banjo player, and instrument maker. Putting his considerable skill to use when Clive was little more than eighteen months old, his father made him his first banjo.  By the age of ten, Clive was performing regularly with his family band, and as a soloist. At the age of twelve, Clive took up the guitar. Only eleven years later, in the summer of 1998, he achieved a 1st Class Honours degree in Classical Guitar & Composition from Trinity College of Music, London. Throughout his musical career, Clive has been awarded an array of prizes including;

1994 John Halford Prize for Composition
1994 Gladys Puttick Memorial Prize for Extemporisation
1997 Ivor Mairants Guitar Award
1997 Continuum Ensemble ~ National Improvisation Competition (Finalist)
1998 Gladys Puttick Memorial Prize for Extemporisation
1998 Montagu Cleeve Prize for Guitar
1999 Essex Young Musician of the Year

Clive's debut solo album was released in 1999 under the Old Bridge Music record label and has been lauded by John Renbourn, John Williams and Christy Moore amongst others. He has toured most recently with John Renbourn, Tommy Emmanuel, and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, and in 2004 Clive was included in Total Guitar Magazine's “Top 10 Acoustic Guitarists of all Time”.   His 2nd CD, the Red Guitar, was released in Summer 2004 to great critical acclaim.

In 1998, CLIVE CARROLL (born in Chelmsford) was given the opportunity to play at his local pub with JOHN RENBOURN - one of the world's seminal and still hugely influential guitarists. John was also a pivotal member of PENTANGLE, a group that also featured BERT JANSCH and JACQUI McSHEE. That night, Renbourn encouraged him to record a solo album, and finally in 1999 after playing a support to CHRIS NEWMAN & MAIRE Ni CHATHASAIGH, Clive was given his first record deal by their label, ‘Old Bridge Music’.

The only guitar player to win the Essex Young Musician of the Year (1999), Clive’s long awaited 2nd solo album, 'The Red Guitar' contains eleven original pieces as well as works by Gilbert Biberian & Wayne Shorter,(formerly of jazz supremos, WEATHER REPORT). This is just one stunning review -

“Truly a guitarist for all seasons, Carroll here delivers an album full of ornamentation and filigree, putting him up there with his peers such as John Renbourn and Tommy Emmanuel. Inspirations run from newgrass and fusion jazz to the inevitable Irish stylings, all cleanly arranged and immaculately interpreted. Rating: THUMBS UP!  “
FRoots magazine

His first solo CD, 'Sixth Sense' received an unusually high level of attention from radio shows, reviewers and journalists and has since been described as "a milestone in the journey of the steel-string guitar". Over the next two years John Renbourn took Clive on tour all over Europe and America. In 2002 the BMG/RCA record label took an interest in Clive. He recorded solo for them on one album, which is still selling very well.

Over the past two years Clive has toured as a solo performer and he has also played alongside many great artists in the traditional Irish, acoustic, and pop/rock worlds, including TOMMY EMMANUEL, JOHN RENBOURN and JOHN WILLIAMS.Also in demand as a session player and a film score writer, Clive has already played in Canada, the USA and France this year, with tours of Italy and Ireland to come.  Clive will be doing a solo tour in the US in January/February 2007 before heading to Vancouver to record on the new International Guitar Night CD.

MIGUEL DE LA BASTIDE

Miguel de la Bastide has been involved with flamenco for over 25 years.  He is one of the few guitarists outside of Spain, who has mastered the techniques and the knowledge of the flamenco guitar.  An incredible soloist, he also excels as an accompanist and as a composer.  He possesses a rare combination of explosive technique with a unique sensitivity to the flamenco dance and song.

A native of San Fernando, Trinidad, Miguel immigrated to Canada at the age of eighteen and began an intensive study of flamenco.  In 1992, he joined forces with Carmen Romero as Music Director for Canada's premier flamenco company, The Candela Flamenca Dance & Music Ensemble, recently renamed, Compañia Carmen Romero.  Since then he has become a recipient of the prestigious Chalmers Award and the Toronto Arts Council Award.  He is also the first flamenco guitarist to be invited on staff at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.  Over the past decade, Miguel has performed extensively with Compañia Carmen Romero, and as a solo artist, in North America, Europe and Asia.

In 1996, Miguel was the first in North America to be featured with some of Spain's most respected flamenco guitarists on the CD compilation entitled Flamenco Fire and Grace by NARADA .  The following year, he contributed to another compilation entitled Gypsy Passion and, in 1998, was included on Gypsy Soul, also by NARADA.   Later that same year, he released his long-awaited solo album, EL CAMBIO, to rave reviews, followed by a video of the same name, which was picked up by BRAVO-TV.  In spring of 2000, his music appeared on NARADA's Gypsy Fire and in the fall,  Viva Flamenco.  Other CDs that Miguel's work can be found are on Narada World, Narada Showcase Collection,  Narada Guitar: 15 Years of Collected Works and Best of Narada New Flamenco Guitar.

Miguel's music has been used for television commercials in Spain and his guitar artistry can also be heard in the world-released television series Queen of Swords.
Two-and-a-half years went into Miguel's much anticipated second solo album entitled "SIENTO".  A completely original work, this album sets new standards in composition, performance and production.  Miguel's mastery of the guitar, and of the art form, is evident from the first note played through to the last.  Lightning fast runs, flawless timing, striking melodies and unique arrangements, all combined to take flamenco to another level.

BRIAN GORE

"Brian Gore's strong, well developed melodies and intriguing chord sequences set him apart from the myriad of steel-string fingerstylists who compose in open tunings.  His finely crafted poetic "songs without words" take the listener on a spellbinding emotional ride.”
    --Ron Forbes Roberts, Acoustic Guitar Magazine

“An artist of the highest caliber.”
--Ray Toumey, the Boulder Chautauqua

San Francisco guitar poet Brian Gore is gaining a reputation as one of the most interesting and influential performers of "the next generation" in fingerstyle guitar. A musical romantic, his compositions draw inspiration from myth and modern literature. Hailed as having "...one of the most unique new acoustic guitar styles on the scene today (News and Review)," his lyrical, understated compositions integrate classical and percussive techniques that display what the Los Angeles Times calls "a characterful bounce and spaciousness all his own."

Gore’s style of playing offers strikingly beautiful tone and dynamics-- qualities that are often hard to find in steel string players.  His melodic, evocative songs rely heavily on the use of open tunings, extending the “stream of consciousness” style of guitar composing he grew up with in Northern California.  “Music started out as a kind of therapy for me,” says Gore.  “Consequently, I am a very emotional player. Now, my style of playing has also become a well honed craft. I am very grateful I can share this with people.”

His buoyant personality and odd sense of humor help add lightness to his shows.  “By the time I’m done with a performance,” explains Gore, “people really know the meaning of the term ‘extroverted introvert’.”  While Gore integrates some of the flashier percussive techniques into his pieces, the poetic quality of his music is preserved.  “Because my music is simple and somewhat rootsy, it’s easy to relate to, which is something I’m thankful for.  Also, it helps keep me grounded.”

Gore is an artist in residence at the Boulder Chautauqua, and endorses LR Baggs Equipment, Ryan Guitars and Morris Guitars. He is founder of the International Guitar Night, sponsored by Acoustic Guitar Magazine. His first CD, produced by Peppino D’Agostino, is called The Path of Least Resistance. His second CD, Legacy: Solo Guitar and Duets, is available on Germany’s Acoustic Music Records Label.  His music has been featured on NPR’s nationally syndicated Echoes Radio, and many other local public radio programs.

Brian founded The International Guitar Night in 1995 as a forum for the world’s finest guitarists/composers to play their latest original songs and share musical ideas with their peers in public concert.  This has evolved into seven critically acclaimed annual U.S. tours, a CD on Favored Nations Records released in 2004, a guitar instruction book published in 2005, and a new IGN release on Warner Music Canada in advance of the first trans-Canadian IGN tour in Fall 2006.

Press Photos

Miguel Press Photo D'Gary press photo Brian Gore Clive Carroll

 

2007 Tour Schedule


November

2 F   Alix Goolden Hall,  Victoria BC

3 S  St. Christopher's Anglican Church, Haines Junction YT

4 SU Yukon Arts Center, Whitehorse YT  

7 W   Port Theatre, Nanaimo BC 

8 TH Massey Theatre, New Westminster BC

9 F     Center for the Arts, Banff AB 

10 S   Southwood Centre, Calgary AB

11 SU  Festival Place,  Sherwood Park AB 

13 T   Centre Culturel de l'Universite de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke QC

14 W  Diffusion Inter-Centres, Drummondville QC

15TH  Centre des arts Juliette-Lassonde, Saint-Hyacinth QC

16 F    Theatre Hector-Charland, L'Assomption QC

17 S    Theatre Lionel-Groulx, Ste. Therese QC

18 SU  Diffusions de la Coulisse, Beloeil QC  

22 TH  Aeolian Hall, London ON 

23 F    Kiwanis Theatre, Chatham ON 

24 S    Oakville Centre, Oakville ON

25 SU  Gryphon Theatre, Barrie ON

28 W   Brock College, St. Catherine's ON

30 F  University of Moncton, Moncton NB 

December  

2 SU  Membertou Convention Center, Sydney NS 


Return to Artist Menu

 

International Guitar Night Main Page

September/October 2007 U.K. Tour

November/December 2007 Canadian Tour

January/February 2008 U.S. Tour

November 2008 Canadian Tour

January/February 2009 U.S. Tour

 

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