Featured
Performer: Phil
deGruy
After
falling under the spell of Chet Atkins, deGruy, a native New Orleanian,
began his tenure with jazz great Lenny Breau in 1976. By the early '80s
deGruy began plucking an electric guitar behind its bridge and was
compelled to incorporate that sound into his music. Hank Mackie, Phil's
extraordinary teacher, suggested fashioning harp strings to sit on the
guitar's body where the pick guard would be located, thereby extending
chord voicings in one motion and evoking the illusion of a
"limitless" guitar. Thus
the guitarp was born –
a marriage between 7-string guitar (high A) and 10 short
“super-treble” harp strings. Phil
commissioned Jimmy Foster of New Orleans to build the first guitarp in
1983. In 1997, West Coast
luthier Ralph Novak redesigned and built deGruy's present guitarp
employing Novak's fanned-fret system.
"Phil's
approach to the guitar sounds like John Coltrane meets Mel Brooks at a
party for Salvador Dali."
– Steve
Vai
Featured
Performer: The
Zingaresca Duo
Zingaresca
(an Italian word for “in a Gypsy style”) consists of Oleg
Timofeyev, the leading pioneer in the revival of the Russian
seven-string guitar, and the celebrated Russian-Roma Gypsy
virtuoso Vadim Kolpakov, whose many credits include bandmember of Madonna’s 2008
"Sticky & Sweet" world tour.
Their music interweaves the written Russian guitar heritage
with the best traditions of the Russian Gypsies, thus blending the
sophistication of classical music with the fiery vitality of folk
musical expression. Oleg
and Vadim use a great range of musical resources including rare
guitar publications of Mikhail Vysotsky (1791-1837), virtuoso
arrangements of Sergei Orekhov (1936-1998), and the original
compositions of Vadim’s celebrated uncle Alexander Kolpakov. But
since the ensemble’s goal is to bridge an array of different
musical styles, their success mostly depends on their own
imagination as music arrangers and performers. At times, it takes
a sensitive ear to distill and exaggerate the Gypsy element from
otherwise classical musical fabric. Alternatively, Vadim and Oleg
are incorporating folk tunes into classical structures, creating a
colorful and enjoyable experience.
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