Events
SHOP CONCERT FEATURING WOODY HARRIS
SHOP CONCERT FEATURING WOODY HARRIS
JUNE 15th 8:00 PM
On Saturday, June 15th at 8pm, I’ll be having the next shop concert, featuring Woody Harris.
In 1976, my 27 year-old self was making my first “professional” guitar after completing my apprenticeship. While I trained under a classical maker, my first instrument was to be a steel strung guitar that I hoped would possess some of the nuance and dynamism of a fine classical. I was surprised and gratified that it seemed to do that to a degree, but thrilled that it ended up with a fine player who more than did it justice. As time passed I turned to repair and restoration and Woody to music editing as way more stable paths to raising a family. Now, more than 40 years later, we’ve both come full circle with me building full time, and with him resuming composing and playing.
He’ll be on the west coast on business, and to leave his guitar for a bit of maintenance after 40 years, so it’s a propitious time to share his latest work.
A little background:
Trained in New York City as a classical guitarist, but with a pronounced affinity for blues and jazz, Woody Harris settled in the Bay Area in the mid-1970s pursuing a career combining these styles. Active primarily as a recording studio musician he worked on a wide array of recording projects while at the same time recording his own solo albums for Arhoolie and Kicking Mule.
Touring extensively as a solo guitarist in the 1970s he also toured and recorded with the late blues great Michael Bloomfield. After Bloomfield’s death, he put aside his guitars, completed degrees in composition and musicology, and ultimately moved to Germany in the late 1980s where he is a senior editor for chamber and orchestral music at the scholarly music publisher Bärenreiter.
His recent return to active guitar playing feasts on a lifetime filled with music, poetry and art. He’s played the same Mello guitar since 1976.
“This is all new music, a blend of classic, jazz and a dash of the blues - no life is spared this. My music is not ‘flashy’ - I am too old for that. The music is the story of my life in sounds intimately connected with your marvelous instrument - without which I would have no voice to speak of. It is at times modern, melodic and with improvisation, unfortunately I can’t give you a good comparison except to say it embodies threads of Debussy, Bill Evans, Miles Davis and shadows of my own music. While on tour with Mike Bloomfield in Italy, we were playing in an old opera theatre and I was doing a sound check when Michael called down from above ‘ keep playing Woodman, you are the white-man’s Charlie Mingus’, a comment I can’t quite shake from my memory, but certain aspects of this odd thought are present.”
For those of a scholarly bent, Woody will also be giving a talk at Ifshin’s Violins on Thursday June 13 at 1pm. It will be about Urtext editions, why they exist and how they are researched and made. Talk Details Here.
Please reserve your concert spot, as space is limited to about 40 seats. Prepaid admission is $20. All proceeds go to the artist. To reserve a seat for the concert
email me, or call the shop at 510-528-1080.
Shop Concert | June 15 | 8:00 p.m.
437 Colusa Ave, Kensington, California
Reserve your seat.
Space is limited.
Admission $20