Monday, November 16, 2009

Some New Guitar Music; Jeff Furst Passes Away

Originally posted on February 13, 2008

When you talk about acoustic players, the field is vast and not as accessible as it could be. My old friend George turned me on to some really interesting music in this vein last week. There is a guy named Erik Mongraine who taps with both hands while the acoustic is on his lap. It’s amazing what sounds he gets. Check out the harmonics alone. See the youtube clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbndgwfG22k&feature=related

What about flamenco meets fusion? Go to www.myspace.com and look up Paco Fernandez. Listen to “Gandi” and/or any of the others. Wow. Then look up the Brazilian acoustic master Lenine. Next, for a more rock influenced thing, listen to Cibelle. If you want more there is "ojos de drujo." Try a Google or a Yahoo search for them. I love the new and unknown. Surely these are interesting examples of that.

On a less bright note, I stumbled across an obituary on the net yesterday that shocked and saddened me. Jazz pianist and music educator Jeff Furst died last November. He was a brilliant pianist and an innovator in music ed. He was in a group in the sixties called fourth stream and he and clarinetist Bob Fritz did some out stuff with that group that gained critical success and a loyal following in the Boston area. I still have their first and, I believe, only album. It sounds good to me to this day. Then Jeff formed the Contemporary School of Music in the mid-70s in Brookline, Mass., which I attended for a while. It was a great place to learn, jam, and a sort of free-form deal where you took classes in what interested you. I also jammed with him, and that was a real moment. His touch on piano was amazingly vibrant, and he probably got that from the great piano teacher Madame Chaloff. He was only 63 when he died. I hope those who were affected by his musical vision will not forget. I won't.

6 comments:

  1. I attended The School of Contemporary Music and taught there after I graduated. Jeff was a great musician and educator. I remember how demanding he was in jazz theory class. I learned so much from this man, it is a loss. He is not forgotten.

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  2. Thanks for your input JL. I agree--he was demanding and had a philisophy that was the antithesis of the cookie cutter approach to pedagogy. He allowed you to choose a curriculum that gave you what you needed to learn but also what you wanted to learn.

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  3. I stumbled across this blog looking for info about Jeff. I am so terribly saddened. I just completed two new CDs, one of which acknowledges Jeff as one of the teachers that "kicked my butt." He was a innovator, a risk taker and a friend.

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  4. He was all that, AC. Thanks for weighing in on Jeff. He was an important influence for me as well.
    Grego

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  5. Sorry to hear Jeff is gone. I was at Contemporary Music School in 1975. It was a great place to learn and grow. I loved the music in those days. Now I renovate houses. Go figure. Thanks for all you did Jeff. God bless.

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  6. It was. We must have just missed each other since I believe I was in New York by then. He was a force and the way the school was structured was great for developing as a musician. Thanks for your input!
    Grego

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