March 2012 Issue:
Welcome to the Ancient Future Times
Twitter: Ancient Future Band (Ancient_Future)
Facebook: Ancient Future Fan Page • Matthew Montfort Fan Page

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In this issue:

A Thank You from Matthew Montfort
•It's Been Quite a Ride

Ancient Future Nominated for Two World Music Awards
•Your Vote for Ancient Future Makes a Difference

Sympathetic Strings & Resonant Reeds: A Benefit Concert for Matthew Montfort
•Featuring Alex de Grassi, Paul McCandless, Jon Mendle, Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble, Teja Gerken, and Ronnie Ray Padilla

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A Thank You from Matthew Montfort

It's been quite a ride for me as of late. As you may have heard, I've had a wrist injury and haven't been able to perform for many months now. Playing music is the reason I'm here on earth, so this is a very difficult thing for me in addition to the fact that it is how I pay my bills and therefore a very scary situation. In the midst of it all I'm thankful and deeply honored that so many people are coming to my aid in unexpected and beautiful ways. Many of my early musical heroes and guitar buddies have put together an amazing benefit concert on my behalf. Mariah Parker has organized a whole community of people around the benefit, even setting up a silent auction where people have generously donated amazing goods and services. People have made donations towards my recovery through the ancient-future.com website and in person. For all this I'm very grateful.

Then on my birthday I received the unexpected news that Ancient Future's World Without Walls release was nominated as Best World Music Album of the Year by broadcasters worldwide. And then just yesterday, I received news that Ancient Future is in the finals for the World Music Trailblazer Award in the About.com Reader's Choice Awards. So while I haven't been able to express myself fully in the way in which I'm accustomed, which is to hide behind my guitar and speak through the music, I have been receiving wonderful support from communities I really didn't quite know were surrounding me.

Thanks so much to everyone, it is deeply appreciated.

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Ancient Future Nominated for Two World Music Awards

Ancient Future Makes Finals in About.com World Music Reader's Choice Awards
Your Vote for Ancient Future Makes a Difference

Finally there is an award that seems tailor-made for Ancient Future: the About.com World Music Trailblazer Award!

To quote About.com, "This award is the second of our two artist's awards, intended for a band or artist who is breaking new territory in the realm of world music. That could mean an artist combining ancient instruments with modern recording techniques, a band who fuses multiple genres of ethnic music into something completely new, a pair of artists who've made a cross-cultural CD together, or any number of other things."

Ancient Future has been doing all of these things for over three decades! The band made the finals, and now you can vote for Ancient Future at:

http://worldmusic.about.com/b/2012/02/21/2012-about-com-world-music-readers-choice-awards-vote-now.htm

You can vote once daily in each category, so vote early and vote often! Voting closes March 21.

'World Without Walls' by Ancient Future Receives Best World Music Album of the Year Nomination from ZoneMusicReporter

World Without Walls by Ancient Future with special guest Zakir Hussain was nominated by broadcasters worldwide as ZoneMusicReporter's Best World Album of 2011. The record debuted at #39 on the October 2011 ZMR Airplay Chart, which covers many different radio genres, from Ambient to Folk, Jazz, and World, and at #34 on the CMJ New World Chart in November 2011. Final award winners will be announced on March 11th, 2012.

On June 7, 2011, the exact lineup of Ancient Future that performed on the band's influential World Without Walls recording reunited to perform for the first time in over 15 years at Yoshi's San Francisco and other venues. To celebrate the reunion, Capitol/EMI Records released the first ever digital version of Ancient Future's classic 1990 World Without Walls recording. Downloads are now available at all major digital retailers (iTunes, etc.). For those who prefer CDs, a limited number of rare collectible original 1990 edition copies signed by Ancient Future leader Matthew Montfort are on sale exclusively at Ancient-Future.Com.

'Turkish Taffy' Recorded at Yoshi's, San Francisco, 6/7/11

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Sympathetic Strings & Resonant Reeds: A Benefit Concert for Matthew Montfort

Financially Supporting his Recovery from a Wrist Injury

Featuring Acoustic Guitar Icon Alex de Grassi, Reed Virtuoso Paul McCandless, Classical Guitar Virtuoso Jon Mendle, Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble, and an Acoustic Guitar Round-Robin with Teja Gerken and Ronnie Ray Padilla

Wednesday, February 29, 7:30 PM
142 Throckmorton Theatre
142 Throckmorton Avenue
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Tix: $20 general, $30 reserved seating.
Info: 415-383-9600

Sympathetic Strings & Resonant Reeds Benefit Concert Program

'Sympathetic Strings & Resonant Reeds' is a multi-artist bill featuring sets by acoustic guitar icon Alex de Grassi; Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble featuring Grammy-winning reed player Paul McCandless, Ancient Future percussionist Ian Dogole, and bassist Fred Randolph; classical guitarist Jon Mendle, who has performed with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble; and an acoustic guitar round-robin with Teja Gerken and Ronnie Ray Padilla. There will be some collaborations between the performers as well. For example, Paul McCandless will be adding his resonant reeds in concert with the sympathetic strings of some of the other artists, such as Alex de Grassi, with whom he has a history of performing.

The concert is a benefit for guitarist Matthew Montfort of the world fusion music band Ancient Future. Funds go to support his recovery from a wrist injury that resulted in the cancellation of many months of performances. Wrist injury recovery donations are also accepted online at ancient-future.com where supporters can help by purchasing CDs and books, signing up for music lessons in person or via Skype, or becoming a subscriber to the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings, which is a crowd funded project to produce the next Ancient Future release. There will be a silent auction at the event as well.

Ancient Future Times Feb 2012: Sympathetic Strings & Resonant Reeds Benefit with Alex de Grassi, Paul McCandless, & Many More!

February 2012 Issue:
Welcome to the Ancient Future Times
Twitter: Ancient Future Band (Ancient_Future)
Facebook: Ancient Future Fan Page • Matthew Montfort Fan Page

In this issue:

RSI Injury Progress Report from Ancient Future's Matthew Montfort
•How You Can Help with the Recovery Process

Sympathetic Strings & Resonant Reeds: A Benefit Concert for Matthew Montfort
•Featuring Acoustic Guitar Icon Alex de Grassi, Reed Virtuoso Paul McCandless, Classical Guitar Virtuoso Jon Mendle, Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble, and an Acoustic Guitar Round-Robin with Teja Gerken and Ronnie Ray Padilla

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RSI Injury Progress Report from Ancient Future's Matthew Montfort

Greetings to everyone at the beginning of this 34th year in Ancient Future's journey in world music!

I recently received quite a few e-mails from people asking how I'm doing. As you may have heard, I have repetitive strain injuries in my right shoulder and left wrist that have caused the cancellation of over six months of concerts.

First, I'm very grateful to the following people who have graciously donated to help cover some of my living expenses and medical costs: Inoshi Elmer, Az Samad (Malaysian guitarist), Marguerite Rigoglioso, Marcia Sloane (cellist on Quiet Fire by Ancient Future), Ralph Kaywin, Arnie Hobbs. Greg Mann, Alan Deikman, Dallas Smith (winds with Mazer and Smith and the Indian jazz band Mynta), Teed Rockwell (performer of Indian music on Chapman Stick), Mitchell Landy, Susan Gawarecki, Warren Kahn (recording engineer for Asian Fusion by Ancient Future and Sangria by Mariah Parker), Stephen Brown, Toby (Tova) Halpern, Mark Forman, Shenshen Zhang (Chinese pipa performer). To each of you, as well as those who expressed concern but were unable to donate, my deepest appreciation. It's heartwarming that such a large number of my fellow musicians have donated.

And thanks to the support of Dr. Behzad and Dr. Patty Weiss (who is also one of Ancient Future's violinists), I've been able to upgrade my computer so that it can run Dragon Dictate, a voice control software system. This means that I'm now able to start working on booking gigs, albeit at a much slower pace. I wasn't able to send out all of the fall booking e-mails, so this means that it will be this summer at the earliest before I'm able to book a normal concert schedule. On the positive side, by then I should be fully healed and able to perform without risking re-injury.

I'm pleased to report that my injuries are slowly healing, and although my progress is not a straight line by any means, I do expect to fully recover. The challenge now is to raise money for several months more living expenses while I'm continuing to heal.

I'm happy to announce there are several ways to help. On leap year day, Wednesday, February 29, a number of extremely talented musicians have volunteered to do a benefit concert (see Sympathetic Strings and Resonant Reeds below) on my behalf at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, California. The bill features acoustic guitar icon Alex de Grassi; Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble with woodwind virtuoso Paul McCandless, percussionist Ian Dogole, and bassist Fred Randolph; classical guitarist extraordinaire Jon Mendle; and an acoustic guitar round-robin with Teja Gerken and Ronnie Ray Padilla.

Music lovers in the San Francisco Bay Area have a wonderful opportunity to hear all of these amazing musicians on one bill while helping provide support during this time of need. You can also help by donating goods or services to a silent auction that will be held at the event. For example, Muffin Mania has offered a gift certificate towards the cause, and Jane Bell has offered one of her flower essence kits. Please get in touch if you have any goods or services to donate for the silent auction.

If you can't make it, you can help with direct donations, by purchasing CDs and books through ancient-future.com, by signing up for music lessons with me in person or via Skype, or by becoming a subscriber to the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings, which is a crowd funded project to produce the next Ancient Future release. The project already has almost an hour of meticulously mixed live recordings available exclusively to supporters, and basic tracks for three studio recordings are awaiting funding for mixing and mastering so that they too can be added to the archive.

I'm feeling optimistic and I thank everyone for their support and especially for your good wishes for my fast healing.

Sincerely,

Matthew Montfort
info@ancient-future.com

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Sympathetic Strings & Resonant Reeds: A Benefit Concert for Matthew Montfort

Financially Supporting his Recovery from a Wrist Injury

Featuring Acoustic Guitar Icon Alex de Grassi, Reed Virtuoso Paul McCandless, Classical Guitar Virtuoso Jon Mendle, Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble, and an Acoustic Guitar Round-Robin with Teja Gerken and Ronnie Ray Padilla

Wednesday, February 29, 7:30 PM
142 Throckmorton Theatre
142 Throckmorton Avenue
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Tix: $20 general, $30 reserved seating.
Info: 415-383-9600

Sympathetic Strings & Resonant Reeds Benefit Concert Program

'Sympathetic Strings & Resonant Reeds' is a multi-artist bill featuring sets by acoustic guitar icon Alex de Grassi; Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble featuring Grammy-winning reed player Paul McCandless, Ancient Future percussionist Ian Dogole, and bassist Fred Randolph; classical guitarist Jon Mendle, who has performed with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble; and an acoustic guitar round-robin with Teja Gerken and Ronnie Ray Padilla. There will be some collaborations between the performers as well. For example, Paul McCandless will be adding his resonant reeds in concert with the sympathetic strings of some of the other artists, such as Alex de Grassi, with whom he has a history of performing.

The concert is a benefit for guitarist Matthew Montfort of the world fusion music band Ancient Future. Funds go to support his recovery from a wrist injury that resulted in the cancellation of many months of performances. Wrist injury recovery donations are also accepted online at ancient-future.com.

Performers

Alex de Grassi (Acoustic Guitar Icon)

Alex de Grassi grew up in San Francisco, California, where his grandfather played violin for the San Francisco Symphony and his father was a classical pianist. At age thirteen he learned to play the trumpet but soon taught himself the guitar, the instrument for which he is now famous. Alex is the subject of a PBS concert/interview television show, Alex de Grassi: The Artist's Profile, and is both a Grammy Award and Indie award nominee. He performed as a guest artist on Ancient Future's 1986 release, Quiet Fire, on Montfort's composition, 'Caged Lion (Escapes).'

Paul McCandless (Reed Virtuoso)

During a distinguished career spanning three decades, Paul McCandless has brought a soaring lyricism to his playing and composing that has been integral to the ensemble sound of two seminal world music bands, the original Paul Winter Consort and the relentlessly innovative quartet, Oregon.

Performing with Mariah Parker's Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble with Mariah Parker (piano), Ian Dogole (percussion), and Fred Randolph (bass)

"Parker and friends blend the rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz music with the entrancing, asymmetrical meters of East Indian rhythms resulting in first-class world music." - LATIN BEAT MAGAZINE

Jon Mendle (Classical Guitar Virtuoso)

Since making his Carnegie Hall debut at age 19, classical guitarist Jon Mendle is rapidly building a career as a performer, teacher, arranger, and composer, which has already included a tour with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.

Acoustic Guitar Round-Robin with Teja Gerken (Fingerstyle Guitar) and Ronnie Ray Padilla (Guitar, Vocals)

This format is well-known to Bay Area acoustic guitar fans. Teja Gerken, an editor of Acoustic Guitar Magazine, has hosted round-robins at venues such as San Francisco's Bazaar Cafe, the Sleeping Lady Cafe, and Freight and Salvage for over a decade now, performing over 100 shows with over 100 players! Born in Germany in 1970, Teja began his journey on the guitar at the age of six and became a serious student of the instrument after his family moved to California in the mid '80s. A San Francisco Bay Area musician, Ronnie Ray Padilla is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and vocalist whose style spans pop, funk, jazz, afro and several global styles. He has recorded with Billy Young (formerly of Earth, Wind and Fire), Kenneth Nash (formerly with Herbie Hancock, Weather Report and many more), Lion of Juda (Jamaican reggae band), Rocker-T (dance-hall recording artist), and many other artists.