Eric Hofbauer Jazz Guitarist / Composer / Educator
Posts Tagged ‘jazz guitar’
I Have A Confession – John Tchicai Memorial Concert Reflections.
I have to make a confession. I wake up almost every morning and decide not to quit playing music. Let me clarify, I decide not to quit playing and teaching music, jazz specially, as a vocation. I know I can’t quit playing my guitar, in the same way I can’t just quit breathing and expect [...]
CNM Announces Two New Releases – American Grace and Recontradoble
In lieu of the world ending today my little DIY, shoe-string budget, pull yourself up by the boot straps, fly by the seat of your pants, rip the shirt off your back (and any other clothing metaphors) jazz record label, Creative Nation Music is announcing the release of two new CDs, Recontradoble by the Pablo Ablanedo [...]
BOLT Live @ Open Sound – 12/15/12
I have written in past blogs about BOLT (our motto is Adventurous Improvised Music) which features Jorrit Dijkstra on alto and lyricon, myself on guitar, Junko Fujiwara on cello and Eric Rosenthal on drums. For every BOLT show we improvise a completely new set pulling from multiple vocabularies (jazz, free music, minimalism, modern classical, folk, [...]
American Grace
Creative Nation Music 022 MORE INFORMATION
The Jazz Omnivore and Individuality
The summer can be a great time for an artist of any discipline to take stock in the direction of their work by reflecting on past projects and starting new ones. Many visual artists, musicians, actors, dancers teach during some of year and usually the summer affords us the time (for we can usually afford [...]
‘American Grace’ Recorded! – Trilogy Nears Completion
The recording of the music for the last CD in my American Trilogy is complete! 4 days of total solitude at my home studio, hours of preparation, contemplation, creative consternation and finally revelation! All the compositions and improvisations have been documented and recorded. What an experience. Very intense and certainly rewarding, if you have not [...]
Ghost of Caesar Pt. 1 – Resurrection
We arrived in Bogota late Saturday night. The next day starting in on rehearsals. Lots of new casting changes and a few new actors in the mix so there was a lot of work to do…. for everyone but the jazz trio. We basically had a day off on Monday so we went to the [...]
Prelude: The Ghost of Caesar – On Tour with ‘Julius Caesar’ 4/12 in Bogota
Next week the Centre Dramatique National production of Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ goes on tour again. This is our fourth tour in as many years since our original run in 2008, in Boston. In case you are unaware of this part of my music life, let me catch you up. In 2008 the American Repertory Theatre in Harvard Square put [...]
Pablo Ablanedo Octeto – Kickstarter Campaign in Underway
Below is a message from my good friend, composer, pianist and bandleader Pablo Ablanedo. The Octet is beginning a journey into the world of crowd sourced funding to help finance the next CD recording, and I am excited to be a part of it and help Pablo raise the money to realize this project. It [...]
Solo Set From House Concert @ Garrison Fewell’s Place – 2/12/12
This is a 13 minute mini set where I play straight through connecting 4 different pieces together. I start with my own ‘Jac Mac Talkin’ from the Infrared Band recording Myth Understanding. Next I move to ‘I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry’ into Joe Oliver’s ‘West End Blues’. Both of which are [...]
The Toy-chestra @ Junk Kitchen – 1/27/12
My friends Esther Viola and Ben Dicke just started a concert series called the ‘Junk Kitchen’, which runs the first Friday of every month at the Outpost in Cambridge MA, and our group, First Worst Thirst, is the house band for each show. Each month there is a different theme to the concert and this brings in a myriad of [...]
Rock You Like A Hurricane: Why The 80s Matter To Jazz
One of the most lasting innovations coming out of Louis Armstrong’s revolutionary period of development and growth in the late 20s and early 30s was the use of pop songs in jazz repertoire. By jazz repertoire, I mean songs that are basically blueprints, structures or contexts for improvisation and specifically jazz soloing. This is distinctly [...]
One From The Vault: Part 2
Or… this could be called One From the Dusty Old Duffle Bag, because that is where I found this week’s selection. Apparently I have a black duffle, stuffed away on a shelf in my studio after my move, which is filled with old CD and DAT masters and live recordings. Basically, the contents of this [...]
Hofbauer, Karayorgis, William, Gray at Johnny D’s 11/2/11 + Upcoming shows
It has been a long while since I have posted. There has been a lot going on in the last month. The last half of October I was in France on my first ever solo tour out of the U.S. It was an amazing experience and I plan on blogging about it all in detail [...]
Music as Memory: 9/11, American Vanity and Fear
During this week of remembrance and reflection I would like to share two pieces from my American series. Of all my work, my two solo albums have been most influenced by the events of September 11th, 2001. In the wake of the tragedy of that day, I recorded American Vanity, an exploration into what I [...]
One From The Vault: Part 1
Every once and a while it is fun to dig into my library of recorded material, brush off the dust of a track or two and take a listen. I have tons of ‘never-been-released’ material that is ‘in the can’ (record label jargon for a finished product sitting on the shelf waiting to be released) [...]
New Projects, New Music, and New Look Site
In the last month I have connected with some of my favorite musicians in town (Boston) and not only did we play some great gigs but decided to pursue working together as ensembles. The first group is a quintet formed by the amazing saxophonist Tom Hall (check out his site, he is a prolific performer [...]
New Reviews and Palindromes
Since the release of LEVEL, there have been some wonderful and interesting reviews of the work. While some have addressed the overt ‘avant-guard’ tendencies of the recording, some have, almost inexplicably, insisted just the opposite – that it is quite traditional. Truth is, they are both correct. But the point is not to just comment [...]
LEVEL drops (6/21/11) & The IRB vs. The Stanley Cup
Happy LEVEL day! I am excited to announce that the Infrared Band’s second CD is officially out today. It is available at all online retailers (Amazon.com etc) and digital stores (i-tunes etc) worldwide. Here is the first paragraph from my line notes, explaining the thematic concept behind the new work, “The music on LEVEL, explores the human condition [...]
LEVEL in the Phoenix and IRB @ Johnny D’s June 15.
The Infrared Band was recently featured in the Boston Phoenix (click here to read) along with Jeremy Udden’s Plainville and James Farm. John Garelick wrote the piece and it focuses on our new release (street date June 21) LEVEL. He does a great job addressing the concept of duality in the music, particularly in terms [...]
