Episode 047 - feat. Dana Leong Quintet (featuring Baba Israel), Geert de Belder, Kevin Mathie, Murray Gay

Dana Leong Quintet (feat. Baba Israel) - "Beer Goggles"
Geert de Belder - "Mein Kaempfert"
Kevin Mathie (feat. Linda Clark) - "The Long Goodbye"
Murray Gay - "Cruel Freedom (part one)"

Hosted from the Ohio Quarter Horse Congress

http://bowed.org/047/047.mp3

Hello kids,

Had a busy weekend... a little late getting the whole baby out, but hey... it's a good show, it was worth the wait.

I have been trying to get Dana Leong on the show for some time now. His group is totally unique -- nobody else sounds like this. I LOVE it when a cello (or other string instrument" takes on this kind of shuffle rhythm feel -- can't get enough of it. Hip, cool, fun. You'll love it. Oh - and by the way, the guy plays trombone too.

I confess I don't know much about the next artist Geert de Belder beyond that he is based in Antwerp and is for the most part a one-man-band. His MySpace page bills him as "Stillerman" -- but it's a great tune - a re-working from a famous composer from earlier in the 20th century. Hopes you likes!

Kevin Mathie is a pianist and composer out of Salt Lake City - and his piece features the playing of violinist Linda Clark (who will be featured in an upcoming episode with one of her own compositions here in the coming weeks). His work is emotional and evocative.

... and closing up the show is a tune by Australian double bassist Murray Gay. Speaking here as an arco bassist myself, I really appreciate what the man is doing here. Highly textural, well-layered and... to top it all, this is a live improvisation. Most cool.

Thanks everybody! Take care!

Mark Allender, producer-host
web: www.bowed.org
email: string@bowed.org
phone: 330-781-4387
skype: mark.allender

Episode 046 - feat. Jamie Laval & Ashley Broder, Enter the Haggis, Sirous Malek, The Beatles

Jamie Laval & Ashley Broder - "Levantine's 'Spinning' Barrel"
Enter the Haggis - "Congress"
Sirous Malek - "Esfehan 100"
The Beatles - "Eleanor Rigby"

http://bowed.org/046/046.mp3

Hello kids,

Here's who's on tap this week.

Violinist Jamie Laval and multi-instrumentalist Ashley Broder have put together a fun collction of duets called Zephyr at the Confetti Factory. Quirky and off-center with hints of old-time and bluegrass, these guys are like trippimg thru a slightly demented nursery rhyme.

Enter the Haggis is a Scottish themed band from Toronto - in the States, you may have seen their hour-long PBS special. With fiddle and bagpipes and a full rhythm section, they incorporate Scottish idioms into a contemporary rock sound. This is a contemorary take on the classic Congress Reel.

Sirous Malek is a self-taught violinist out of the Persian tradition, though violin is very much his side project. He is a visual artist working in acrylic and pastels - many of his works are available for sale online.

And finally, a version of the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby. You ever actually listen to the strings on this one?

Thanks everybody! Take care!

Mark Allender, producer-host
web: www.bowed.org
email: string@bowed.org
phone: 330-781-4387
skype: mark.allender

Episode 045 - feat. Zach Brock, Sophie Serafino, Jeff Shippy and Matt Gray, Ben Heaney

Zach Brock and the Coffee Achievers - "Now I Know"
Sophie Serafino - "Summertime"
Jeff Shippy and Matt Gray - "Old Joe Clark"
Ben Heaney - excerpt from "Dust Blower"

http://bowed.org/045/045.mp3

Hosted from the New Madrid Bend

Hello kids,

This week finds me in the New Madrid Bend. I found myself with an open weekend - and I have wanted to see this place for some time. So I went out there to shoot some pictures, record the show, and see what exactly goes on there. For the uninitiated, the New Madrid Bend is a small hunk of land at the western end of Kentucky - physically separated from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River and a small finger of Missouri. A very peaceful place.

Zach Brock is a jazz violinist from New York City. He has released a new disc entitled Live At the Jazz Factory with his band The Coffee Achievers - and I have to say I haven't been able to stop playing the thing. This is the opening track from that disc.

Australian violinist Sofie Serafino appeared earlier on Episode 012 of this program. She dips her toes into many different styles including electronica and jazz. She appears on this show with a recording of Gershwin's "Summertime."

Jeff Shippy and Matt Gray are a pair of musicians from Portland Oregon. They have played together in several bands - notably one called Mollybloom. Jeff is the current reigning Oregon state fiddle champion and Matt is the reigning Oregon state banjo champion.

Closing up the show is another repeat guest, Ben Heaney - an experimental violinist from the UK and the first electric violinist in the UK to be invited to advertise in the British & International Music Year Book and in Classical Music Magazine. His work plays predominantly with tone and texture over melody. Challenging and breathtaking.

Check out my photo gallery The New Madrid Bend.

Thanks everybody! Take care!

Mark Allender, producer-host
web: www.bowed.org
email: string@bowed.org
phone: 330-781-4387
skype: mark.allender

Episode 044 - feat. Cellolitis, Jesus Florido, David Wilson, Peter Hawkes

Cellolitis - "Horrorfrieden"
Jesus Florido - "Con Todo"
David Wilson - "Night Watch"
Peter Hawkes - "The Warlock's Dream"

http://bowed.org/044/044.mp3

Greetings!

Sort of a Halloween theme this time around - starting with "Horrorfrieden" (literally "horror-peace") and finishing up with "The Warlock's Dream." I swear this was unintentional! The tunes just fell into my lap.

Cellolitis is the stage name for Nikolaus Herdieckerhoff, a cellist and performance artist living in Berlin. His latest disc Himmelblau ("Blue Sky") is akin to his performance act - dramatic, comic, quirky, and diverse. As a street performer, he utilizes a looping sampler to build a bed of sound over which he plays, sings, and otherwise waxes dramatic. Each tune on his disc is wildly different from one another - quite a trip!

Jesus Florido is Venezuelan by birth, currently lives in Los Angeles. His broad mix of styles include Techno, World, Trance, Salsa, Rock, Funk - along with generous nods to his own classical traning. His most recent disc Heading North spans from gentle latino-jazz arrangements to killer kick out the funk jams. This track is from the latter category. Hopes you likes!

David Wilson is another repeat guest on the show -- his last apperanace was on epiosde 021 with a tune from his disc Elegencia. This time thru, he features a track from his forthcoming disc Consordino - rich with flamenco and other Spanish music stylings.

Finishing off the show is Australian guitarist Pete Hawkes. For his 2006 disc Witchcraft, he utilized a string trio that pretty much dominates the sound. Gentle, yet ominous -- for fans of strings, this disc is a real treasure.

Thanks everybody! Take care!

Mark Allender, producer-host
web: www.bowed.org
email: string@bowed.org
phone: 330-781-4387
skype: mark.allender

Episode 043 - feat. Mark Allender & Matt Coffman, Copal, Ashia, Local Lingo

Mark Allender & Matt Coffman - "Jack Szechuan"
Copal - "Ice Crystal"
Ashia - "Fossil"
Local Lingo - "Third Sight"

http://bowed.org/043/043.mp3

Hi everybody! This comes to you from my new place of employment - Mars Horsecare US, Inc. I am outside of the main plant as I recorded this - fighting the wind - so please don't mind the odd gusts that blow into my microphone! It adds character, right?

First up on the show is a collaboration between me and my longtime friend Matt Coffman. He and I have been friends since high school. In the wake of the events of the past year, I have asked a lot of my friends to contribute artwork as I rebuild my new life (an incredibly healing thing to do by the way if you find yourself in a similar situation and have a lot of creative friends). So in the spirit of this, I asked Matt if he would help me put together a recording of one of the old tunes we used to do in a we were in together called North River Company. So over the past couple weeks we got together and laid down some tracks -- with me on violin. I'm far from being a competent violinist, but I can put out a fire with it ... so I hope you enjoy it!

Copal is a group out of Boston featuring violinist Hannah Thiem and cellist Joe Ball. Together with electronica artist Ammon Ep, they create a wonderful mix electronica and Arabic idioms. Fascinating work. This group has recently released a full-length disc entitled eso-terra.

Ashia - a cellist with Cirque de Soleil in Las Vegas, makes her second appearance on this show. Her passionate, vaguely sinister delivery brings a unique quality to what she calls her "songs about nostalgia, desire, transcendence, and love." Wild, seductive, yet understated.

Local Lingo is the collaboration of violinist Jason Kao-Hwang and Sang Won Park, who plays traditional Korean instruments such as kayagum and ajaeng. Both are veterans of the celebrated Far East Side Band, but in this incarnation, they bring an intimacy to their intercultural improvisations.

Thanks everybody! Take care!

Mark Allender, producer-host
web: www.bowed.org
email: string@bowed.org
phone: 330-781-4387
skype: mark.allender

Episode 042 - feat. Kersten Stevens, Fran Kent, NeoCollage, EntropiK

Kersten Stevens - "Walk With Me Lord"
Fran Kent - "Wallace"
NeoCollage - "Broke"
EntropiK - "Rhythm"

http://bowed.org/042/042.mp3

Hey everybody -- sorry about the late start on this... had some bugs in the XML feed that were giving me issues -- plus I just started a brand new job. Very difficult to find extra time this week to tweeze up these code issues...

But that said...

Starting off the show is gospel violinist Kersten Stevens. A recent graduate of Yale, Kersten has already built quite a resume with some of the hottest acts in the R&B and gospel world. She has a sound that reminds me very much of Regina Carter - a little less dangerous and a little more sass. This is a cut from her most recent disc Walks Of Faith - a collection of gospel standards featuring Kersten's violin front and center - a remarkable innovation of the classic gospel convention. Fun. Lively. Spirited. Incredible.

Fran Kent is a bluegrass artist from Portland Oregon. This track features the fine fiddle of Skip Parente. Every member of this group has a very well-rounded experience in many different traditions. A lot of fun.

NeoCollage is a group of students from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Intelligent pop hooks mixed with a touch of hiphop swagger, these guys create an impressive, finely crafted sound. Their new disc City Nights was just released on 22 Sept.

And finally, we hear from another repeat offender, EntropiK. These guys were featured on Episode 013 under just their own names, Daryn Yuill and Dan Cullen. Newly rechristened and refocused, they have just released a new batch of songs -- as tense, as brooding, and as ominous as ever.

The background music in the breaks on this episode is a tune called "Yugen" by my old group Pointless Orchestra. Our entire catalog is about to be released for free download.

Thanks for listening everybody! Take care!

Mark Allender, producer-host
web: www.bowed.org
email: string@bowed.org
phone: 330-781-4387
skype: mark.allender

Episode 041 - feat. Sibiel, Anna Stafford, Colin Greenlaw, Parham Nassehpoor

Sibiel - "Cirque Sibiel"
Anna Stafford - "Today's Saturday"
Colin Greenlaw - "Pistachio Ranger"
Parham Nassehpoor - improvisation in Dastgah Bayat Esfahan

###

Hello everyone,

Sibiel is a Paris-based trio featuring the cello of Jean-Philippe Feiss. They are a wonderful mixture of early jazz ala Django Reinhardt and Eastern European gypsy music. The group takes its name from a Romnanian town where they claim "the adventure began." These guys are wonderful.

Anna Stafford is a violinist out of Pasadena. Unlike many rock violinists, she does not simply solo over a bass-and-drums rhythm section - these rhythm duties are handled by cellist John Krovoza. Aggressive, melodic, and full of that arco scratch I love so well. We'll be hearing much more from her in the future, I'm certain.

Colin Greenlaw is a jazz violinist currently based in Boston. I had a difficult time picking which tune of his to use - his stylings are so disparate, it's harder with him than most to capture "what he does" in just one tune. This piece "Pistachio Ranger" has an exotic feel that I enjoy very much, though other tunes incorporate distortion and electronica. A demo of his work will be made available very soon.

And finishing off the show is Parham Nassehpoor, an Iranian national currently living in Germany. Parham is a performer on the Kamanche, a traditional fiddle out of the Persian tradition. I actually ran across Parham in the Yahoo Fiddle-Crazy forum. You can read about this instrument and see videos from some of the Kamanche masters of the early 20th century at this URL: www.parhamnassehpoor.com/html/kamanche.html. A fascinating tradition.

Thanks for listening!

Mark Allender, producer-host
web: www.bowed.org
email: string@bowed.org
phone: 330-781-4387
skype: mark.allender

Episode 040 - feat. Zikrayat, Archybak, This Is Where The Fish Lives, Jayu

Zikrayat - "Rasqat Karkaday"
Archybak - "Dança de Cordas"
This Is Where the Fish Lives - "The American Cousin"
Jayu - "Joy Everlasting"

http://www.bowed.org/040/040.mp3

Hello everyone,

This episode comes to you from the Lucky Inn, a fried chicken and spirits establishment on the eastern end of Center Of The World, Ohio, located just five miles east of Warren. Stop by my photo gallery Pictures From the Center Of The World.

The show starts off with an energetic performance by the Arabic music and dance ensemble Zikrayat, led by violinist Sami Abu Shumays. This NYC-based group creates elaborate performances with pieces based on traditional Egyptian forms. Exhilrating and thrilling. This piece is an homage to the Egyptian film music tradition of the 1950s.

Archybak is a strings and percussion trio based out of Portugal. Using violin, cello, percussion, and foot-controlled digital samples, this group creates a unique kind of "acoustic house music." This group appeared under in a more traditional incarnation on episode 017 of this program under the name Almaplana

This Is Where the Fish Lives is Ruadhan J McElroy (aka Rowan Alpha Zeta)'s experimental music project based on collaborations with and ideas from friends. "The American Cousin" was originally a track by the avant-garde punk music project known as Lemon Kittens, which he recorded with flautist X for Lemon Kittens co-founder Karl Blake's 50th birthday in November of 2006. The original version was for piano and alto sax and this cover was learned by ear and recorded in a single take into a single microphone over the course of just under ten minutes.

...and closing up the show is the strings-and-piano jazz trio
Jayu. Led by cellist Choi Fairbanks, this group creates a broad jazz texture while dipping their toes into various forms over the course of their compositions - from swing to bebop to even gospel.

Thanks for listening!

Mark Allender, producer-host
web: www.bowed.org
email: string@bowed.org
phone: 330-781-4387
skype: mark.allender

Episode 039 - feat. Maxi Geil! and Playcolt, Paul Mercer, Maya Beiser, and Bellevue Rendezvous

Maya Beiser - Far Off Country, (Ten)
Bellevue Rendezvous - "Tolka Polka set"
Paul Mercer - "Trains"
Maxi Geil! & Playcolt - "Cold Genius"

http://bowed.org/039/039.mp3

Hello everyone,

Maya Beiser is one of the premiere American cellists, frequently performing the works of today's contemporary composers. I first heard Maya on her 2000 disc Kinship - a collaboration with various Arab and Indian composers. She recently was the featured performer in Steve Reich's Cello Conterpoint - the latest in his ongoing "Counterpoint" series. Her latest disc Almost Human features the sprawling Eve Beglarian piece Far Off Country. Her piece starts the episode without introduction.

Scottish group Bellevue Rendezvous is a world fusion group of sorts, with influences that spread well into northern and eastern Europe. Music is performed on the violin, the bazouki, and the nyckelharpa -- a traditional fiddle of Swedish origin that stops the strngs with keys (much like a hurdy gurdy). This selection, called simply "Tolka Polka Set" is a medley of tunes: Donal Lunny's "Tolka Polka," "Breton Hanter An Dro," "Welsh Fairy Dance," and "French Mediaeval Tune."

Paul Mercer's recent Ghosts project features works composed or improvised based on the unique acoustic and physical qualities of the various instruments. The featured track on this program was performed on an 1820 Hungarian viola made of Carpathian spruce - an instrument that Paul describes has having a "special affinity with rain" and incredible pizzicato tones. This piece emerged spontaneously in the studio after seeing a light reflected in the studio glass that resembled a distant train lamp.

Maxi Geil! and Playcolt is a Brooklyn-based rock band whose latest disc Strange Sensation features a cello-and-voice interpretation of the "Cold Genius Rises" passage of Henry Purcell's opera King Arthur. Their perforance is faithful to the original score. Features Okkyung Lee on cello

Thanks for listening!

Mark Allender, producer-host
www.bowed.org

Episode 038 - feat. Paul Giger & Marie-Louise Dähler, The Section Quartet, Spring Creek Bluegrass Band, Elucian

Paul Giger & Marie-Louise Dähler - "From Silence to Silence"
The Section Quartet - "Juicebox"
Spring Creek Bluegrass Band - "Bowling Green"
Elucian - "Hidden Place"

http://bowed.org/038/038.mp3

Hello everyone,

Hot show this week!

I have been a fan of Paul Giger's work for many years and consider him one of the finest players alive today. His latest project is a collborative piece with harpsochorist Marie-Louise Daehler. This recording is not yet available in North America
. The guy's amazing! Those unfamiliar with Giger's work can check out his write-up in the All Music Guide - I have a lot of respect for this particular critic.

The Section Quartet, self-billed as the world's loudest atring quartet, recently stormed the SXSW festival this past March with a killer set that was much-talked about in the press. These guys have provided string section accompaniment for many pop artists today (I first saw them play with Sam Phillips back in 2005). Their new full-length disc Fuzzbox has just been released.

The Spring Creek Bluegrass Band combines traditional bluegrass music with a solid dose of 21st century optimism - what they call "Rural and Cosmic." Each member of this group doubles as a vocalist, making for an incredible powerhouse of a group. Plus, they made their actual physical CD look like a 45-RPM (looks really cool).

And British expatriate vioinist Ian Peaston rounds off the show in his stage persona elucian. Ian makes original and highly stylized interpetations of popular tunes plus his own original pieces. This piece is an interpretation of Bjork's "Hidden Place," performed live at a music festival in Banff.

Thanks for listening!

Mark Allender, producer-host
www.bowed.org