Ancient-Future.Com Recording Artists Perform at the San Francisco International Arts Festival

The 2017 San Francisco International Arts Festival features three performances showcasing Ancient-Future.Com Recording Artists. Ancient Future performs a Guitar-Sitar Jugalbandi June 1 at 8 PM at the Fort Mason Chapel. Mariah Parker brings her Indo Latin Chamber Jazz Sextet June 3 at 6 PM to Gallery 308. Scalloped fretboard guitar pioneer Matthew Montfort, master Italian guitarist Giacomo Fiore, and German fingerstyle guitarist extraordinaire Teja Gerken hold a Global Guitar Summit June 4 at 3 PM at the Fort Mason Chapel.

June 1, 8 PM, Fort Mason Chapel:

Ancient Future Guitar-Sitar Jugalbandi

Shown: Pandit Habib Khan, Matthew Montfort

Featuring Pandit Habib Khan (Sitar), Matthew Montfort (Guitar), and Ferhan Qureshi (Tabla)

Jugalbandi is a classical North Indian musical duet (meaning literally "tied together"). The guitar is not often used in the music of India. However, Matthew Montfort has studied sitar and is a pioneer of the scalloped fretboard guitar, an instrument combining qualities of the South Indian vina and the steel string guitar. This jugalbandi works well because Matthew Montfort is a guitarist with knowledge of sitar, and Pandit Habib Khan has been described as the "Jimi Hendrix of the sitar" by L'Orient le Jour, Beirut's French language newspaper. They will be accompanied by tabla master Ferhan Qureshi.

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 in 1978 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.

Thursday, June 1, 2017, 8 PM
San Francisco International Arts Festival
Fort Mason Chapel
San Francisco, CA 94109
Adm.: $25 gen., $12.50 under 18. Students with ID and seniors, $4 off cover price. Festival Pass (5 shows for $70).
Box office: 415-345-7575. Buy Tix.
Event page. Facebook artist page. Facebook event page. Full press release.

Poster (pdf)

Concert Review

"Their concert was billed as a guitar-sitar ‘jugalbandi’ concert – a blend of classical Eastern and Western music featuring Montfort on guitar and Pandit Habib Kahn on sitar, with guests on dulcimer and percussion – and was simply an outstanding presentation. What made the 'jugalbandi' concert so special was the fact that guitar is seldom featured in Indian classic music – yet Montfort is a pioneer of such and uses the scalloped fretboard guitar to bring out the best in Indian sounds. His background as a student of the notoriously-difficult sitar lends to translations which shine on guitar; and by having a blend of sitar and rare guitar interactions, the concert became an extraordinary presentation indeed, spiced by the intimacy of stage which felt nearly small and close enough to be a living room. Ancient Future’s focus on world fusion music has always produced extraordinary artist interactions and results; but this concert was an exceptional meld of East and West and offered up unique fingerings, approaches and collaborative efforts. It also held the unique ability to reach out not only to audience members already versed in Indian classic music, but to newcomers to the genre. It’s not to be missed." — WorldDiscoveries.net

Video

Guitar-Sitar Jugalbandi version of 'Dawn of Love' by Matthew Montfort (229k YouTube views)

June 3, 6 PM, Gallery 308, Fort Mason:

Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Chamber Jazz Sextet

Shown: Mariah Parker, Matthew Montfort, Paul McCandless, Ian Dogole, Sascha Jacobsen, Jim Hurley

Featuring Mariah Parker (piano, santur), Paul McCandless (woodwinds), Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar), Jim Hurley (violin), Sascha Jacobsen (bass) and Ian Dogole (percussion)

Pianist Mariah Parker has just released her second recording of original compositions, Indo Latin Jazz Live In Concert, on Ancient-Future.Com Records. For this concert, Mariah adds chamber music to her mix. Her all-star Indo Latin Chamber Jazz Sextet features Grammy winner Paul McCandless on woodwinds and chamber bassist Sascha Jacobsen along with guitarist Matthew Montfort, violinist Jim Hurley, and percussionist Ian Dogole from the world music group Ancient Future.

According to Latin Beat Magazine, "Parker and friends blend the rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz music with the entrancing, asymmetrical meters of East Indian rhythms resulting in first-class world music." This chamber variation of the ensemble with its emphasis on strings will explore new compositions as well as rearrangements of existing work.

Shown: Mariah Parker

Saturday, June 3, 2017, 6 PM
San Francisco International Arts Festival
Gallery 308, Fort Mason
San Francisco, CA 94109
Adm.: $25 gen., $12.50 under 18. $30 reserved table, $35 reserved front table. Students with ID and seniors, $4 off cover price. Festival Pass, 5 shows for $70.
Box office: 415-345-7575. Buy Tix.
Event page. Facebook artist page. Facebook event page. Full press release.

Poster (pdf)

Video

Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble performs 'Sol de Barcelona'

June 4, 3 PM, Fort Mason Chapel:

Global Guitar Summit

Shown: Matthew Montfort, Giacomo Fiore, Teja Gerken

Featuring Matthew Montfort, Giacomo Fiore, and Teja Gerken

This Global Guitar Summit presents three international acoustic guitar virtuosos who will perform solo and ensemble pieces. The summit features American scalloped fretboard guitar and world fusion music pioneer Matthew Montfort, master Italian guitarist and musicologist Giacomo Fiore, and German fingerstyle guitarist extraordinaire Teja Gerken. The music performed will include new arrangements of classical works, Celtic music, Indian classical, contemporary compositions, popular songs, and much more.

Sunday, June 4, 2017, 3 PM
San Francisco International Arts Festival
Fort Mason Chapel
San Francisco, CA 94109
Adm.: $25 gen., $12.50 under 18. Students with ID and seniors, $4 off cover price. Festival Pass, 5 shows for $70.
Box office: 415-345-7575. Buy Tix.
Event page. Facebook artist page. Facebook event page. Full press release.

Poster (pdf)

Videos

Matthew Montfort performs 'Soul Serenade' at Ancient Future's 30th Anniversary Concert.

Giacomo Fiore performs 'Sarabande pour Guitare' by Francis Poulenc.

Teja Gerken performs '1948' live.

Bios

Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar)

Performing June 1 with Ancient Future, June 3 with Mariah Parker, & June 4 at the Global Guitar Summit

Matthew Montfort is a pioneer of the scalloped fretboard guitar, an instrument with a modified fretboard in which the wood between frets has been carved out in order to facilitate intricate note-bending ornaments. The leader of the world music group Ancient Future, he is recognized as one of the world's 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists by DigitalDreamDoor.com for his work expanding the boundaries of guitar playing through the study of the world's great music traditions. For example, in 1979 Montfort immersed himself in an intensive study with vina master K.S. Subramanian in order to fully apply the South Indian gamaka (note-bending) techniques to the scalloped fretboard guitar. He has performed worldwide, from the Festival Internacional de la Guitarra in Spain to the Festival of India in Mumbai, and live on national radio and TV shows such as the Echoes Living Room Concerts on PRI and the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. He has worked with many world music legends, including tabla phenomenon Zakir Hussain and Chinese zither master Zhao Hui. 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.

These will be the first San Francisco performances on Montfort's new custom Martin guitar. C.F. Martin's Dick Boak, who has been involved in the conception of more than one hundred and forty signature guitar collaborations with the top musical talents of our time, worked with Montfort to help design the instrument, which features a large sound hole to add volume, an extra upper bout sound hole so that Montfort can hear the guitar better, a cutaway with extra frets protruding into the sound hole to accommodate his extended playing range, and a short scale yet wide neck to allow for greater string bending capability. Master luthier Alan Perlman scalloped the fretboard and added finishing touches to complete this amazing instrument in 2016.

"Because Montfort’s guitar has a scalloped fretboard, his fingers touch only the strings, enabling him to produce ornaments more characteristic of the sitar. This album reveals a thorough knowledge of Hindustani microtonal ornaments, transferred in ways that create one of the most distinctive guitar sounds in contemporary music. However, it also reveals a lifetime of exploration in world music, which can be immediately summoned in a flash of inspiration. When this level of mastery is reached, there is no need to rewrite. The first improvisation has the depth of a reworked composition." – Teed Rockwell, INDIA CURRENTS, March 2009

Pandit Habib Khan (sitar)

Performing June 1 with Ancient Future

Pandit Habib Khan is regarded as one of the best sitar players in the country today. He was born into a family of musicians and can trace his lineage back several generations to when classical music enjoyed the patronage of the nobility and royalty of India. He began his training at the tender age of five under the strict eye of his accomplished father, Ustad Hameed Jaffer Khan. The Jaffer Khan family was from Indore and were well known for their unique style of playing the sitar, melding the effect of the human voice and the instrumental tone into a harmonious whole. Habib Khan has carved out a distinct style of his own which is a blend of his father's traditional techniques and his own imaginative inventions. He is as much at ease with light classical and religious music as he is with pure classical renderings of ragas.

Ferhan Qureshi (tabla)

Performing June 1 with Ancient Future

Ferhan Najeeb Qureshi is a senior disciple of the legendary tabla master Ustad Tari Khan. Prior to his ongoing training with Ustad Tari Khan, Ferhan took his initial lessons in Hindustani (North Indian classical) music theory and practice with Surinder Singh Mann. Ferhan studies the Punjab gharana (school) of classical tabla which both of his teachers represent. In addition to performing tabla lehara (tabla solo), Ferhan Qureshi has also accompanied numerous distinguished classical artists (vocalists, instrumentalists and dancers) both in the United States and in Pakistan.

Mariah Parker (composition, piano, santur)

Performing June 3 with Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Chamber Jazz Sextet

Mariah Parker has been playing music from the time she could reach the keys on the grand piano in her family home. While completing her degree in music at UC Santa Cruz, she worked with ethnomusicologist Fred Lieberman and drummer Mickey Hart on the “Planet Drum” project and became fascinated with the possibilities of bridging musical concepts from different traditions. She has performed her original compositions in festivals in the US and Europe. A gifted composer and band leader, she released her first solo recording of her compositions, “Sangria,” in February of 2009. This release received extensive airplay and critical acclaim worldwide.

“Dazzling…. Parker’s subtle and sensuous sounds reflect exotic flavors of India, the Middle East and Latin America.” — Palo Alto Daily News

Paul McCandless (woodwinds)

Performing June 3 with Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Chamber Jazz Sextet

Grammy Award winner and world renowned jazz superstar, Paul McCandless has brought a soaring lyricism to his playing and composing that has been integral to the ensemble sound of two seminal world jazz bands – the original Paul Winter Consort and the relentlessly innovative quartet, Oregon. A gifted multi-instrumentalist and composer, McCandless has specialized in an unusually broad palette of both single and double reed instruments that reflect his grounding in both classical and jazz disciplines. As a collaborator and solo artist, he has performed on more than 200 albums and appeared with such renowned all-star musicians as Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Wynton Marsalis, Lyle Mays, and Mark Isham.

Jim Hurley (violin)

Performing June 3 with Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Chamber Jazz Sextet

Influenced profoundly by South Indian violinist L. Shankar, Jim Hurley incorporates styles from bebop to zydeco, European classical to Zairean soukous. He has been musical director and composer for several theater productions, including an entire score in the Balinese gamelan style. His compositions have received widespread acclaim and extensive airplay. Live TV appearances include Saturday Night Live (with Queen Ida) and CNN's Showbiz Tonight (with Dan Hicks). 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.

Sascha Jacobsen (acoustic bass)

Performing June 3 with Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Chamber Jazz Sextet

In addition to leading his own group, the Modern Art Quintet, which plays his original works, Sascha Jacobsen has performed with Rita Moreno, Hugh Jackman, Martin Short, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman among others. He has served on the faculty at Humboldt State University, Laney College, Golden Gate Bass Camp, and the Sequoia Chamber Music Festival. Sascha is in demand as a performer, composer, and arranger with commissions from the San Francisco Arts Council, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, San Jose Dance, San Jose Youth Symphony and SF Friends of Chamber Music.

Ian Dogole (global percussion)

Performing June 3 with Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Chamber Jazz Sextet

For nearly 30 years, Ian Dogole has articulated his vision of Global Fusion Music as a multipercussionist, bandleader, educator, recording artist, composer and producer. He has released seven recordings as a band leader, and has recorded and performed with artists such as Hamza el Din, Tito La Rosa, and Alex DeGrassi. His instrumental array includes drums and melodic instruments from Africa, South America, the Middle East and Asia. He has received numerous grants, including a Jazz Performance Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and multiple grants from the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music.

Giacomo Fiore (guitar)

Performing June 4 at the Global Guitar Summit

Giacomo Fiore is an Italian guitarist and musicologist who has performed across the United States, Brazil, Canada, and Europe, giving world and U.S. premieres of classical, just intonation, and electric guitar works by Larry Polansky, Ron Nagorcka, Kenji Oh, Garry Eister, Agustin Castilla-Avila, and many others. He has appeared at the Sarzana, Healdsburg, Sierra Nevada, Santa Barbara, and Cervo Guitar Festivals, released several solo recordings, and published articles in Classical Guitar and Ukulele magazines. Currently he teaches at USF, the SF Conservatory, and UCSC, and is a member of the new music ensemble Wild Rumpus.

"Scenes from Nek Chand ... was given an inspired performance by Fiore, who brought appropriate character to each movement: sensitive introspection for 'Leaning Lady,' mercurial dancelike energy for 'Rock Garden,' and an admirable flexibility for 'Sinuous Arcade With Swings in the Arches.'" – SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE

Teja Gerken (guitar)

Performing June 4 at the Global Guitar Summit

German-born Teja Gerken is a contemporary steel-string fingerstyle guitarist whose playing merges the styles of European guitar pioneers such as John Renbourn and Pierre Bensusan with the distinct sounds of American players such as Leo Kottkeand Micheal Hedges. Known for his original compositions, many of which employ alternate tunings, two-handed tapping, percussive effects, and other extended guitar techniques, Teja will also bring Celtic, jazz, and classical styles to the Global Guitar Summit.

"Releasing his second CD, Postcards, is San Francisco area fingerstyle guitarist Teja Gerken, who delivers solo instrumental compositions with enough surprises and innovative twists to delight aficionados of the world music and folk genres. His tunes employ physical techniques such as two-handed tapping, alternate tunings, and percussive effects, but his developed sense of melody is what will keep his CD playing in your mind long after the 'stop' button is pressed. Another impressive feature is that Gerken's playing is captured without overdubs; the intricate arrangements delivered as you might hear the artist in concert. Gerken is one of a rare breed - a guitarist's guitarist with equal appeal for the non-musicians out there. His Postcards album is highly recommended." – GUITAR9.COM

Ancient-Future.Com Records Featuring Artists Performing at SFIAF

The Archive of Future Ancient Recordings

The Archive of Future Ancient Recordings by Ancient Future (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2030)

The next Ancient Future record is fan funded. There is already over an hour of music in A.F.A.R available right now to supporters, with more tracks coming as money is raised for production. Two of the tracks feature both Pandit Habib Khan and Matthew Montfort.

Yearning for the Wind

Yearning for the Wind by Ancient Future (Ancient-Future.Com AF 90352)

Yearning for the Wind is the first audio/video release in Ancient Future history, available both as a digital download and an enhanced CD that includes an HD video with 96/24 audio. Composed by Matthew Montfort, Yearning for the Wind is a poignant piece based on Rag Kalyan, an evening raga that corresponds to the Lydian mode. A duet with Indian tabla virtuoso Vishal Nagar, who is considered one of the most gifted tabla players of his generation, Yearning for the Wind is set in matta tal, a nine beat rhythmic cycle. Yearning for the Wind rose to the top of the Ethnocloud World Music Charts, earning #1 spots in both the video and audio track categories, and propelling Ancient Future to the #1 rated artist spot.

Planet Passion

Planet Passion by Ancient Future (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2010)

"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." — LEO WEEKLY

Indo Latin Jazz Live in Concert

Indo Latin Jazz Live In Concert by Mariah Parker (Ancient-Future.Com AF 20142)

In 2009, Mariah Parker launched her Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble with a sold-out debut concert at Yoshi's in Oakland, California. Mariah’s new release for AncientFuture.com records, “Indo Latin Jazz Live in Concert,” captures the magic of that first performance, as well as subsequent Northern California concerts at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, the Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley and a studio session at Bob Weir's TRI Studios in San Rafael. These multi-track live recordings were painstakingly mixed and mastered over a seven-year period by veteran Ancient Future producer Matthew Montfort.

"This is sophisticated stuff, an album of global fusion performed by a group with character, charisma and the confidence that comes across when world-class musicians at the top of their games come together and create magic in the here and now of a live performance." — Marin Independent Journal

Sangria

Sangria by Mariah Parker (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2017)

This debut recording features her original compositions that draw musical inspiration from Brazil, Cuba, Spain, and India, and includes musicians from the bands Ancient Future, Oregon, Sun Ra, and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. Sangria received airplay on over 468 New World, Jazz and Latin jazz radio programs, and earned over 365 reviews and media placements, including two songs that ascended to the Smooth Jazz Now Top 100 Songs of 2009 chart.

Sympathetic Serenade

Sympathetic Serenade for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2012)

Matthew Montfort was added to DigitalDreamDoor's 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists list partly in response to the release of this EP. When Montfort was working on his 2009 solo recording, he recorded a number of spontaneously improvised serenades. Were it not for some serendipitous sequencing coupled with the allure of alliteration, it's likely that 'Sympathetic Serenade' would have been released as the eighth improvisation on what became Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar. Instead, this evocative Spanish serenade/raga hybrid receives a mini EP treatment on Matthew Montfort's Sympathetic Serenade for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar. The nearly 11 minute long track is available as a download complete with nine pages of digital liner notes, and as a signed CD-R exclusively at Ancient-Future.Com.

Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar

Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2008)

The debut full length solo recording by Ancient Future leader Matthew Montfort showcases his pioneering work on the scalloped fretboard guitar. While previously known more for his compositions for the trendsetting world music group Ancient Future, this first solo effort features his improvisational music. The recording debuted at #8 on Zone Music Reporter's Top 100 February 2009 World Radio Chart, and held the #34 spot on the Top 100 2009.