Matthew Montfort's Friends

Matthew Montfort's Page

About Me And My Work: As leader of the world music group Ancient Future, I have devoted myself to the scalloped fretboard guitar since 1978. I've studied with some of the world's best musicians, such as gamelan director K.R.T. Wasitodipuro, North Indian sarod master Ali Akbar Khan, and vina master K.S. Subramanian, with whom I did an intensive study of South Indian note-bending techniques. I was interviewed in the December 2009 Les Paul issue of Guitar Player Magazine about the scalloped fretboard guitar and the application of the rules of Indian raga to the music of Jimi Hendrix as exemplified by 'Purple Raga' from my debut solo recording, "Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar." I've been lucky to have worked with many world music legends, including tabla phenomenon Zakir Hussain and Chinese zither master Zhao Hui. I wrote the book “Ancient Traditions – Future Possibilities: Rhythmic Training Through the Traditions of Africa, Bali, and India,” which has been used by many musicians to improve their rhythm skills.

Places I Would Like To Visit: My first artistic travel experience outside the USA was in 1980 when I traveled to Bali to study Balinese gamelan for four months. I also did some collaborations with Balinese musicians. We recorded music outside with Balinese rice paddy frogs for Ancient Future's second recording, "Natural Rhythms."

I have performed concerts worldwide. I performed in 2003 and 2005 at the Festival Internacional de la Guitarra on the golden coast of Spain, and had a wonderful time meeting the other guitarists from all around the world. It was an honor to represent new horizons for the guitar. I also learned a lot performing in India with luminary Indian classical musicians including Pandit Swapam Chaudhuri, Pandit Habib Khan, Vijay Ghate, and Dr. Kadri Gopalnath.

I would love to return to any of the areas I have performed in the past, and also would very much like to perform with musicians in countries that I have not traveled to in South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Art Forms And Cultures I Would Like To Engage With: I do many of my dream collaborations already with my band Ancient Future, which is the world's longest running musical organization dedicated to the mission of creating world fusion music. There are over 30 musicians who work with this ensemble in various configurations to produce new cross-cultural collaborations.

My Creative Influences & Favorite Artists: The traditional music of the entire world is my inspiration for my compositions.

My Artistic Affiliations: Ancient Future, Pandit Habib Khan, Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble, Georges Lammam

Posted on September 14, 2012 at 4:28pm 0 Comments 0 Favorites

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At 5:28pm on February 18, 2011, cheryl gravitt said…: Read your page, very impressive musical career that you have had Matthew, I am honored by your Friendship.

Music ... ahhhh music, the world would be so diminished without it.

And it starts from an early age doesn't it? One of my fondest memories is working at The parents morning out, at my Church.

I worked with children ages 15 months to 2 years, ( on up to preschool age) well, we had a bag o' musical instruments in there, ( things like drumsticks, bells, simple stuff.)

Some of the children couldn't even talk yet, what I would do, I would grab 1 of the musical instruments, then hand all the children 1 of their own, count 123, go!

It was amazing, loud ( and probably very irritating to the other Teachers there ;>) but it was wonderful to see the smiles on their faces, I'll never forget it.

Right now, as I type this, my youngest son is playing "Guitar Hero."

Yes ... Music, what a wonderful thing it is.

Take care,

Cheryl

At 8:56am on December 8, 2009, Nico Daswani said…: what a treat to have you here, Matthew! Do you know the folks at Gamelan Sekar Jaya up in the Bay area? Where were you based when you went to Bali for those 4 months? Ubud? Our good friends Gamelan Cudamani are in Pengosekan.