Henry Kaiser, Anthony Pirog, Jeff Sipe, Tracy Silverman, Andy West
Biography Henry Kaiser, Anthony Pirog, Jeff Sipe, Tracy Silverman, Andy West
Henry Kaiser
s an American guitarist and composer, known as an idiosyncratic soloist, a sideman, an ethnomusicologist, and a film score composer. Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "second generation" of American free improvisers.
Anthony Pirog
Born in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, but raised in the D.C. suburb of Vienna, Virginia, guitarist Anthony Pirog first came to national prominence as one half of the instrumental duo Janel & Anthony, with virtuoso cellist Janel Leppin. The pair’s 2012 Cuneiform release Where Is Home garnered critical acclaim for their seamless electro-acoustic fusion of myriad styles, ranging from classical and folk to rock and jazz. Pirog’s own multi-faceted approach to the guitar has its roots in the music of regional favorites like Danny Gatton, whose virtuosic fretwork similarly combined numerous styles of popular music.
Pirog has performed with a wide variety of musicians, ranging from avant-garde icons like Henry Kaiser, Elliott Sharp and William Hooker to roots and rockabilly legends such as Billy Hancock, Bill Kitchen and Tab Benoit. He has even played with ex-Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chambelain in the power trio Skysaw. He currently leads a number of ensembles, from trio to septet.
Palo Colorado Dream is Pirog’s debut album fronting a group. Ably supported by esteemed bassist Michael Formanek and ubiquitous drummer Ches Smith, Pirog expands the trio’s sonic palette with a rack of efx, using delay pedals and loops to masterful effect. Recalling the seminal work of Bill Frisell and Nels Cline, Pirog puts his own personalized stamp on innovations proffered by artists he admires. The following interview took place during the autumn of 2014.
Tracy Silverman
Lauded by BBC Radio as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin”, Tracy Silverman is the world’s foremost electric violin soloist, bringing concert hall legitimacy to this next-generation instrument.
Pulitzer and Grammy award winning composer John Adams raves: “No one makes that instrument sing and soar like Tracy, floating on the cusp between Jasha Heifetz and Jimi Hendrix.
As part of Silverman’s vision for the “future of strings”, he has premiered and recorded several major new electric violin concertos written specifically for him by composers John Adams (The Dharma at Big Sur), Terry Riley (The Palmian Chord Ryddle), Nico Muhly (Seeing is Believing), Roberto Sierra (Ficciones), Kenji Bunch (Embrace), and 3 concertos of his own; appearing with the LA Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and many others at Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and stages all over the world.
Formerly first violinist with the innovative Turtle Island String Quartet, Silverman was named one of 100 distinguished alumni by The Juilliard School and is notable not only for his development and use of the electric 6-string violin, but also for what he terms “progressive string playing”, an evolution of classical string playing that embraces contemporary popular idioms such as rock, jazz and hip hop.
TV/internet and radio includes a solo Tiny Desk Concert on NPR, A Prairie Home Companion, Performance Today, St. Paul Sunday, and a profile on CBS News Sunday Morning.
A longtime proponent of string education, Silverman is a leader in the progressive string community and the host of The Greater Groove: The Future of Strings podcast. His Strum Bowing method has been adopted by players and teachers all over the world. Silverman is the author of The Strum Bowing Method: How to Groove on Strings, and The Rhythm String Player: Strum Bowing in Action, as well as several etude books and online courses on his Strum Bowing Groove Academy. Silverman is on the faculty of Belmont University in Nashville, TN.
Jeff Sipe
is one of the best drummers in the industry and has played with the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Jazz Is Dead, Leftover Salmon, and Susan Tedeschi among others.
Sipe is a remarkably flexible drummer who has exhibited great flash and bombast with the Aquarium Rescue Unit and in an expansive power trio with bassist Jonas Hellborg and the late guitarist Shawn Lane, Jeff Sipe is also capable of tastefully swinging support and coloristic textures on the kit, as he demonstrates on his auspicious debut as a leader of his own band Jeff Sipe and The Apartment Projects.
About the trio with Jonas Hellborg and Shawn Lane, Sipe reveils: "I had been laying the roots with Colonel Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, and then after that was over, jumping in with Jonas and Shawn made me blossom, and my individual voice came out in the music." Sipe is also known as a member of the Zambi Corps of Engineers, Susan Tedeschi’s working blues band and appears on the debut recording by Bela Fleck & The Flecktones saxophonist Jeff Coffin.
In April 2005 Jeff Sipe joined The Black Crowes, replacing previous drummer Bill Dobrow.
