The Artists
Wu Man •
Sharon Isbin •
Patty Larkin •
Memphis Minnie •
Mimi Fox •
Kaki King
Ellen McIlwaine •
Badi Assad •
Alex Houghton •
Vicki Genfan •
Muriel Anderson
Rory Block •
Jennifer Batten •
Elizabeth Cotten
Wu Man
The renowned pipa (pronounced pee pah) virtuoso, Wu Man, has been cited by
the LA Times as 'the artist most responsible for bringing the pipa to the Western
World.' She is internationally recognized as an extraordinary exponent of
traditional Chinese repertoire and as a leading interpreter of contemporary pipa
music. She performs works from composers such as Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and
Lou Harrison, among others, and has collaborated with distinguished artists
including Yo-Yo Ma and the Kronos Quartet. She has performed with many of the
world's great orchestras and at many music centers worldwide, including
Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and at the White House alongside Yo-Yo Ma, with
whom she performs in "The Silk Road Project." www.wumanpipa.org
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Sharon Isbin
Internationally acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and
versatility, Grammy Award-winner Sharon Isbin has been hailed as 'the
preeminent guitarist of our time.' Her 25 recordings reveal remarkable technique
and versatility - including baroque, Spanish/Latin, 20th Century cross-over and
jazz fusion - and have garnered accolades from around the globe. Her Dreams of
a World earned her a 2001 Grammy Award, making her the first classical guitarist
to receive a Grammy in 28 years. Her widely praised recording with the New York
Philharmonic of concerti by Rodrigo, Ponce and Villa-Lobos has been a Billboard
Top 10 Classical bestseller and received a 2005 Latin Grammy nomination for
"Best Classical Album." This is the first-ever recording in the history of the New
York Philharmonic with a guitarist. The breadth and depth of her repertoire is
astounding, her performances illuminating. She is a gifted and inspired
performer who is not to be missed. www.sharonisbin.com
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Patty Larkin
Patty is that rare combination of talents - a superlative singer, an accomplished
songwriter and an exquisitely inventive guitarist. Guitar World calls her "genre-stretching,
string-popping alterna-folk." As an instrumentalist, she skillfully and
effortlessly mixes celtic, rock, folk, blues and funk. She is a musical sorceress
whose creativity and comfort level in the studio includes loops, effects and
other digital wizardry commonly found in all sorts of contemporary music, but
rarely among the acoustically inclined. A favorite with critics over her 10-CD
history, she has honed a reputation as a 'musician's musician' and is that unique
level of artistic sophistication that transcends borders and redefines genres. www.pattylarkin.com
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Memphis Minnie
Tracking down the seminal woman blues guitar hero is challenging because
women blues singers seldom recorded as guitar players. The notable exception
was Memphis Minnie (1897-1973) who recorded over 200 sides during the 1930s
and '40s. Born in Walls, Mississippi, Memphis Minnie settled in Memphis in the
'20s where she married guitar player Joe McCoy (Kansas Joe) and subsequently
landed a record deal with Columbia. Her recordings guide us through the
evolution of recorded blues as her life and music moved from the Mississippi
Delta to urban Chicago. There, reigning blues king Big Bill Broonzy recalls her
beating both him and Tampa Red in a guitar contest and claims she was the
best guitarist he ever heard. She was one of the first blues players to use a
National guitar in 1929 and to play an electric wood-bodied National and
various other electric guitars in the '40s and '50s.
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Mimi Fox
Mimi Fox is "jazz guitar at its best" (Just Jazz Guitar). Fleet fingered on both
steel string (acoustic) and hollow body jazz guitars, Mimi Fox is a fiery virtuoso
who has performed solo as well with fellow jazz greats Charlie Byrd, Charlie
Hunter, and Grammy award-winner David Sanchez, among countless others. With
her two most recent releases, Standards and She's The Woman, Mimi maintains a
whirlwind touring schedule and is a favorite among fans and critics alike. She is
both a respected educator and performer. Regarding technique, Guitar Player
magazine calls her, "A prodigious talent who has not only mastered the
traditional forms, but has managed to reinvent them." www.mimifoxjazzguitar.com
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Kaki King
Kaki King "is the most striking young musician to emerge in decades"
(LA Times). Her unique style is a rare combination of percussion,
composition and technique - all played with fire that comes from
thinking outside the box. In 2003, she released her acclaimed Velour
debut Everybody Loves You and was then signed to Epic Records. In 2004
she released Legs To Make Us Longer, catapulting her into the national
arena with rave reviews and an appearance on Letterman. Kaki crafts
beautiful and quirky compositions that transport the listener off the map.
At 25, she has been sent to wake up anyone with a preconceived notion
of what one woman and one guitar can do. www.kakiking.com
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Ellen McIlwaine
"You've got attitude." Those were the parting words of Ellen's ex-manager
right after she fired him for telling her that including Jimi Hendrix in
her band was a bad idea because he was black. A groundbreaking artist
of the '70s, she is probably the only guitar player in the world who has
played with Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Taj Mahal and Jack Bruce. Long
known as one of the world's great slide players, Ellen McIlwaine's music
is based in the blues. But hers is a gutsy brand of blues, based on
tradition but drawing on influences as far east as Egypt, India and
Japan and as close to home as R&B. Influential and highly spirited,
she is revered worldwide by guitarists and songwriters alike. With 10
recordings under her belt, she continues to blaze trails with slide guitar
in hand across North America and abroad. www.ellenmcilwaine.com
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Badi Assad
Tom Jobin once said it seems that Brazilians were born with a guitar in
their arms. Badi Assad (pronounced bah-JEE ah-SAHJ) epitomizes this
innate musical sensibility. Throughout the 90s, Badi's music - featuring
classical guitar, percussion and vocals - paid homage to the music
traditions of her home country while extending them in new and
unprecedented directions. Today - and six CDs later - her body of work
explores everything from interpretations of traditional Brazilian guitar to
world beat-influenced originals to neoclassical compositions. In concert,
she simultaneously plays guitar and percussion while singing and doing
vocal improvisations. The result: an unabashedly powerful one-woman
ensemble that defies categorization. www.badiassad.com.br
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Alex Houghton
Alex Houghton was a late comer to the instrument. She picked up her first
guitar in her mid-teens, strummed a few chords and stopped playing until
her early twenties when she began to play in earnest. A native of Ottawa,
Canada, Houghton studied composition at Carleton and Ottawa Universities.
A keen fingerstyle player, she soon expanded her repertoire and now
utilizes numerous alternative tunings and techniques in her compositions.
As witnessed by her composition, "The Bear," she has a fearless approach
to the instrument and a creative and adventurous spirit that, after three
CDs and a fourth to be released this year, still seems limitless. www.alexhoughton.com
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Vicki Genfan
Vicki Genfan is a fiercely original musician, singer, composer. "Her dazzling
display of two handed tapping, bell-like harmonics and funky bass note
slapping along with her deft fingerstyle approach, have guitar aficionados
sitting slack-jawed in sheer awe" (Acoustic Guitar). Transmuting jazz, funk
and world music in a contemporary folk alchemy, Vicki draws from a diverse
palette of harmonies, rhythms and modal tunings. Studied in both classical
and jazz guitar, she has been featured on numerous recordings, radio and
television. Vicki performs extensively to an ever-growing audience. A
native New Yorker, she has been touring internationally in support of her
two CDs - Outside The Box and Vicki Genfan-Live. www.vickigenfan.com
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Muriel Anderson
Widely regarded as "one of the world's best, and most versatile guitar
instrumentalists" (Chicago Tribune), Muriel Anderson is the first woman to
have won the National Fingerpicking Guitar Championship. Her unique
approach to the instrument virtually transforms the guitar into a lyrical
choir, a marching band, Japanese koto, bluegrass band, and then a
flamenco dance. Her compositions include commissioned classical works
and her Heartstrings recording traveled as far as outer space, accompanying
astronauts on their mission. Muriel has released seven CDs, hosts the
renowned Muriel Anderson's All Star Guitar Night® and is the founder of
the Music For Life Alliance/Music for Lifelong Achievement charities. As
one of the country's foremost fingerstyle guitarists, her playing is revered
by guitarists worldwide. www.murielanderson.com
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Rory Block
The Blues Foundation describes Rory Block as being "... widely regarded as
the top female interpreter and authority on country blues worldwide." A
lifelong purveyor of the great Delta blues, she is a songwriter and slide
guitarist par excellence. A native of Manhattan, she left home at the age
of 15 and headed south where she learned her blues trade at the feet of
Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, and Son House, her greatest influence.
She tours constantly in support of her numerous recordings. She has
accumulated a wealth of accolades, including four WC Handy Awards - two
for Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year, and two for Acoustic Blues
Album of the Year. She has also won NAIRD awards in 1992, '94, and '97.
In her hands, traditional is timeless. www.roryblock.com
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Jennifer Batten
The buzz on Jennifer Batten rose from the guitar underground, enticing
guitar magazines to track her down and chronicle her savvy musicianship
and highly original approach to electric guitar. A pioneer and innovator of
the "two-handed tapping method," Batten�s music encompasses rock, heavy
metal, jazz, blues and fusion. In 1987 she was selected from over 100
guitarists to play in Michael Jackson's "Bad Tour" which traveled the world
performing to over 4.5 million people. In the years that followed, she
joined him on two additional tours and performed at the 1997 Super Bowl
halftime that aired to the largest audience in television history (1.5
billion). In her own right, Batten has recorded two innovative releases.
She additionally tours and records with Jeff Beck and looks forward to a
new solo release in 2005. www.jenniferbatten.com
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Elizabeth Cotten
Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (1895-1987) was among the most influential
guitarists to surface during the roots music revival era in the late 1950s
and early 1960s. Cotten was born in 1895 near Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
As a child, she picked up a guitar, laying it flat out on her lap, and, over
time, developed a picking pattern and eventually chording. A domestic by
trade, Cotten did not record until 1957, a few years after the Seeger family
(her employer) learned of her extraordinary guitar skills. Her recording
debut came out on Folkways in 1958 and included her folk classic "Freight
Train," which she wrote when she was a child. Festivals and tours followed
in the subsequent decades. During the final years of her life, Elizabeth
Cotten received a National Endowment of the Arts National Heritage
Fellowship Award and a Grammy.
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