Concert Archives
Alternative Guitar Summit, Tues., April 11 7:30-10:00 // Details
Drom: 85 Avenue A, New York, NY
Future Voices and 90 year old guitars: A night of younger, cutting edge guitar players, plus a first time duo with AGS founder Joel Harrison and icon Marvin Sewell on 1930’s resonator guitars
7:30 pm: Max Light Trio
8:00 pm: Wendy Eisenberg
8:30 pm: Joel Harrison and Marvin Sewell: National Steel Resonator Guitar duo
9:00 pm Max Kutner‘s Partial Custody
Ben Stapp – tuba
James Paul Nadien – drums, percussion
Wendy Eisenberg was a student of the legendary free improviser Joe Morris. She has evolved a set of extended techniques on the guitar that are as arresting as they are expressive. She also writes lyrics and sings, but you’ve never heard song forms quite like these.
Max Light, originally from Washington DC, won second place in the Herbie Hancock institute of jazz guitar competition in 2019. He combines fearsome technique with an expressive touch, and writes in a way that is both intellectually challenging and emotionally appealing.
Max Kutner has been described as nerdy and fiery, and focuses on unusual contexts for new music on the guitar. Coming from rock, jazz, free improv, and much else, Max brings a sense of humor and drama to his ever- surprising work.
Rounding out the show will be a first -time duo between AGS producer Joel Harrison and guitarist Marvin Sewell. Younger artists they are not. Marvin has an illustrious list of folks that he has performed with including Jack DeJohnette, Cassandra Wilson, and Gary Thomas. For this outing the two will focus on their 1930’s National Steel guitars. Both musicians are steeped in Americans roots music, and both are committed to finding new ways to repurpose that history.
Sun., April 23: 7-10pm Nublu 151 Ave. C, NY NY https://nublu.net/ 7 pm: Brandon Seabrook: Solo Guitar https://brandonseabrook.bandcamp.com/ 7:30: Joel Harrison and Anthony Pirog: The Great Mirage CD RELEASE SHOW, feat. Stephan Crump (bs) and Dan Reiser (dr) 9pm: David Gilmore Trio http://www.davidgilmore.net/
—
===
Bill Frisell Invitational
6/21/18 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York, NY
Featuring the Bill Frisell Trio and guitar guests Julian Lage, Brandon Ross, Matt Munisteri, and Marvin Sewell. A rare event with the esteemed master Frisell as he collaborates with four distinctive guitar voices.
Jazz-Rock-Funk Throwdown
6/22/18 at NUBLU 151 in New York, NY
Featuring Harriet Tubman (Brandon Ross, J.T. Lewis, Melvin Gibbs), Adam Rogers and DICE (with Nate Smith, Fima Ephron), Dave Fiuczinski & Micro Kif Jamz, plus special guests. A nod to some of the greatest electric guitar music ever: the Jazz-Rock- Funk nexus that produced heroes such as Jimi Hendrix, Reggie Lucas, John Scofield, Larry Coryell, and John McLaughlin.
Across the Generations – First Time Duos
6/23/18 at Jazz Gallery in New York, NY
Featuring Rez Abbasi and Jeff Miles, Peter Bernstein and Gilad Hekselman, Joe Morris and Matteo Liberatore, Joel Harrison and Anthony Pirog. An intimate meeting of older and younger players in a series of duets that ranges from straight ahead, to ethereal, to avant-garde and all things in between.
Workshop with Bill Frisell
6/23/18 at Jazz Gallery in New York, NY
In this rare, intimate setting master guitarist Bill Frisell will play and talk about his life and musical process. Guitarist Joel Harrison will moderate for the first part of the event, asking Bill questions about various parts of his career. Bill will take questions from the audience in the latter half of the program. Please do not bring an instrument, as this will not be a participatory event.
Alternative Guitar Summit Woodstock
6/8/17 at The Colony in Woodstock, NY
Featuring performances by Marc Ribot, Oz Noy, Miles Okazaki, Steve Cardenas, and Joel Harrison. Joined by Harvey Sorgen (drums) and Stephen Rust (bass). As part of the first ever Alt Guitar Summit Camp at Full Moon Resort, Summit founder Joel Harrison has organized a concert featuring a singular combination of creative, cutting edge improvisers. The night will include solos, duos, and various formations of group interactivity. These players have performed with a huge variety of legendary musicians, including Tom Waits, Carla Bley, Steve Coleman, John Zorn, Leon Russell, Hot Tuna, Charlie Haden, and more.
Honoring Danny Gatton
5/24/17 at Joe’s Pub in NYC
Danny Gatton (1945-1994) was a legendary Washington D.C.- based guitarist who was often called the greatest unknown player in the world. A guitarist’s guitarist, he was an encyclopedia of American styles, jazz, rockabilly, blues, country, and rock n’ roll, a virtuoso of the highest order who yet remained humble and true to his roots. Gatton counted as his admirers Vince Gill, James Burton, Mike Stern, Les Paul, and Russell Malone. These were the first NYC concerts to honor Gatton since the memorial shows that were held after his death in 1995 at Tramps. Summit founder Joel Harrison grew up listening to Gatton in DC clubs.
Guitars of Heaven, Guitars of Hell
3/15/17 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY
Featured the Dither Guitar Quartet, Steve Mackey and Jason Treuting, and the debut of The Resophonic Guitar Orchestra led by Joel Harrison, with Elliot Sharp, Brandon Ross, Dither, Dave Tronzo, and more. New music for multiple National Steel resophonic guitars in a piece entitled “Blind Willie Johnson Rising.” Also featured Steven Bernstein’s group, with Dave Tronzo and Steve Cardenas.
Solo Voices and Communal Raptures
3/11/17 at Club 151 Nublu in NYC
Featured the Nels Cline Solo, John Schott Trio, Rafiq Bhatia Collective with Marcus Gilmore and Rahsaan Carter. Adam Rudolph’s Go Organic Guitar Orchestra: feat. Rez Abbasi, Kenny Wessel, Jerome Harris, Miles Okazaki, Nels Cline, Joel Harrison, Liberty Ellman, David Gilmore, Damon Banks, Marco Cappelli and more.
While We’re Still Here: Pat Metheny
3/10/17 at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC
Metheny was celebrating the release of a book of 150 of his compositions. Seven acts performed 14 of those pieces. Joel Harrison interviewed Metheny on stage before the show. Music performed by Nels Cline Trio (Gerald Cleaver and Jorge Roeder), Liberty Ellman and Miles Okazaki Quartet (w/ Damion Reid and Stephan Crump), Rez Abbasi Trio (with Michael Gam and Samir Gupta (tabla), Joel Harrison String Choir (w/ Christian Howes, Zach Brock, Tanya Kalmanovich, Hank Roberts and Liberty Ellman, Nir Felder Trio (with Matt Penman and Nate Wood), Mike Moreno Trio (with Doug Weiss and Kendrick Scott) and Camila Meza.
While We’re Still Here: Joni Mitchell & Carla Bley
5/11/16 at Drom in NYC
Honoring Living Composers. Featured Nels Cline and Julian Lage, Dave Douglas with Camila Meza and Heather Masse, Ben Monder with Becca Stevens, Wolfgang Muthspiel Solo, Sheryl Bailey: Plucky Strum with Harvie S, Steve Cardenas Trio, Joel Harrison and Everett Bradley, with Allison Miller and Jerome Harris, and Mike Baggetta with Jerome Harrison and Billy Mintz.
Beauty and Noise
5/9/16 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY
Electronic Frontiers, Sonic Rapture, and Wild, Mysterious Textures Rarely Imagined. Featured David Torn, Dither Guitar Duo, Elliot Sharp, Anthony Pirog, Ben Monder, and Patrick Higgins.
Alt Guitar Summit 2015
2/8/15 at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC
Enjoy four pairs of improvisers debuting singer/songwriter projects. Featuring Doug Wamble (guitar and voice), Mino Cinelu (percussion), Joel Harrison with Glenn Patscha (keyboard), Adam Levy w/ Sheryl Bailey, and Michael Gregory Jackson with Keith Witty.
Alt Guitar Summit 2015
2/7/15 at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC
Sonic Youth has had an enormous impact on countless indie rock bands and new music improvisers over the past thirty years. A main ingredient of their sound was the new, bracing, textural elements that Lee and Thurston Moore brought to the forefront of their songs. They posited the guitar (much like Hendrix, or Frith) as an instrument with an almost unlimited potential.Adam Rudolph’s guitar orchestra brings forth new textures and sound worlds as well. This collection of top-notch improvisers will bring listeners a garden of sonic delights guided by Rudolph, from psychedelic soundscapes, to intimate duos, to walls of unearthly wails, to hypnotic layers of groove.
Alt Guitar Summit 2015
2/6/15 at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC
Experience three guitarists blending jazz improvisation and composition with techniques and sounds from India and the Middle East. Featuring Gyan Riley with David Cossin, Prasanna (south Indian music meets modern jazz), and the David Fiuczynski Planet MicroJam Trio with Adam Matta: beatboxer, vox, mouth bone, real-time sonic manipulations and Utar Artun-microtonal keyboards. 
Alt Guitar Summit 2015
2/4/15 at Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn, NY
Enjoy three ground-breaking guitar duos. Featuring Anders Nilsson with Aaron Dugan (Hot and Cold), Marco Capelli with James Ilgenfritz (Unplugged), and Ava Mendoza with Chris Corsano.
