Jazz Articles about Joel Harrison
About Joel Harrison
Instrument: Guitar, electric
Article Coverage | Calendar | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsGuitar Talk: Conversations with Visionary Players
by Mark Sullivan
Guitar Talk: Conversations with Visionary Players Joel Harrison 256 Pages ISBN-13 : 978-1949597134 Terra Nova Press 2021 As founder of the Alternative Guitar Summit, guitarist/composer Joel Harrison has gotten to know a lot of adventurous contemporary guitarists: this book collects far-ranging conversations with twenty-seven of them. In fact, several of these conversations actually took place onstage during the Summit when the guitarists were either performers or honorees (every year a living guitarist/composer ...
read moreJoel Harrison and Anthony Pirog on AGS Recordings
by Mark Sullivan
After more than a decade of advocating new and creative approaches to the guitar, the New York-based Alternative Guitar Summit is branching out with a guitar-centric record label called AGS Recordings. Its pair of inaugural albums come from the label co-founders Joel Harrison (also the founder and director of the Summit) and Anthony Pirog (a frequent performer on the Summit). Joel Harrison Guitar Talk AGS Recordings 2021 Joel Harrison's Guitar Talk focuses ...
read moreAlternative Guitar Summit 2021
by Mark Sullivan
Alternative Guitar Summit New York, NY March 20-21, 2021 The Alternative Guitar Summit was founded in 2010 by guitarist/composer Joel Harrison. Every year it has included a Music Camp with Master Classes by notable guitarists, and a Music Festival featuring a wide array of guitar styles. In this pandemic year the decision was made to go virtual rather than skip a year. Recognizing that economic hardship could be a barrier, the festival was presented as “Pay ...
read moreJoel Harrison: Angel Band: Free Country Vol. 3
by Peter J. Hoetjes
Possessed of restless creativity and a desire not to repeat himself, guitarist/vocalist Joel Harrison took a 14-year hiatus between albums in his Free Country series to release over a dozen other efforts before returning with Angel Band: Free Country Volume 3. Building on the foundation set by the first two albums, he recruits a few returning musicians as well as a menagerie of new talent, including a handful of vocalists. Harrison takes an amalgamation of folk, country, bluegrass ...
read moreJoel Harrison 5: Spirit House
by Troy Collins
Throughout his storied career, Washington DC-born guitarist Joel Harrison has demonstrated an interest in a wide range of musical styles. Since his leadership debut in the mid-1990s, Harrison has explored an array of genres, from pan-global collaborations with North Indian classical musicians to radical rearrangements of Appalachian folk tunes. Spirit House, the premiere of his most recent ensemble, the Joel Harrison 5, features yet another unique configuration, with Harrison joined by trumpeter Cuong Vu, bassoonist Paul Hanson, bassist Kermit Driscoll ...
read moreJoel Harrison: Spirit House
by Blaine Fallis
Spirit House is a Joel Harrison original! Original compositions, ideas, instrumentations, and grooves. While jazz sometimes repeats itself (in style, instrumentation, or choice of songs etc.), Harrison creates completely new music worth listening to, “repeatedly." I say this because he wrote the music “specifically for this unique group of individuals," using electric guitar with bassoon (Paul Hanson), and the echoed voicings of trumpeter Cuong Vu. Add in veteran drummer Brian Blade and bassist Kermit Driscoll, and you have ...
read moreJoel Harrison: Mother Stump
by Dave Wayne
Given his proclivity for wildly eclectic, big-concept musical projects featuring improbable combinations of multi-ethnic instrumentalists, Joel Harrison is about the last guitarist I'd expect to record a funky slab of power-trio jazz-rock-funk fusion. Across the board, his guitaristic skills have taken a back seat to compositional concerns and rich, detailed arrangements. Yet, here is Mother Stump, Harrison's paean to 70s-era jazz-rooted, rock-powered, funked-up guitar-centric instrumental music. Moreover, Harrison has pointedly eschewed all of the studio polish and post-production nonsense that ...
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