Lighting up the strings before a packed house at The Grand in Ellsworth Saturday night, Darol AngerÕs Republic of Strings wowed and dazzled, with a satisfying show that was at turns exotic, sweet and lush, and fast and furious. The five musicians showed incredible prowess on their instruments. But that was just part of what made the show such a success; their spirited playing, easy back-and-forth, and obvious enjoyment were clear to the crowd, which responded in kind, with lengthy applause between songs and two standing ovations at the end of the night.
After kicking off the first set with a rousing Irish fiddle tune, the multi-generational Republic proceeded to take the audience on what Mr. Anger called Òa little travelogueÓ of string music from around the world. The tour hit the Appalachian Mountains, Brazil, Scandinavia and England, with stops along the way for some original pieces composed by members of the band.
Through each piece, the group played with incredible skill and poise. The fiddles, played by Mr. Anger and Brittany Haas, blended and twisted upon one another, and danced delightfully over the low moan of Lauren RiouxÕs fivestring viola and Tristan ClarridgeÕs even lower cello, which echoed clear as a bell throughout the performance. Scott NygaardÕs exceptional acoustic guitar-playing brought in elements of bluegrass, Gypsy, and jazz, all played with subtle understatement and fiery precision.
For the second, nearly hour-long, set, the group continued to entertain and inspire with a set of eclectic covers and original music. The musicians maintained a solid groove, with swing pieces, neo-bluegrass-type jams, and interesting covers, from a hilarious rendition of Nat King ColeÕs ÒThe Frim-Fram SauceÓ to a sweet and tender version of The Left BankeÕs, ÒJust Walk Away Renee,Ó both sung by Ms. Rioux.
Like a more typical bluegrass band, the lead was passed among the group throughout many of the songs. Mr. Anger largely hung back, more often allowing Ms. Haas and Ms. Rioux to step into the spotlight. When he did come forward, it was clear that 25-odd years of working with some of the countryÕs greatest bluegrass and Americana musicians has propelled him to the top of his game. His solos were characterized by a powerful cascade of notes and an intense flourish, all thrown off with a jazzmanÕs sensibility and a masterÕs ease.
After ending the second set to great fanfare with a smoking medley of fiddle tunes written by Ms. Haas, Republic ramped up the energy even higher with a rousing version of Bill MonroeÕs ÒOld Dangerfield.Ó Local fiddler Fiona Schubeck joined the group for the piece, which ended the night on a high note and left the excited crowd smiling and cheering for more.
Republic strings together a diversified, virtuosic show
Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2006
World Music Review
By Don Heckman, Special to The Times
Despite impressive contributions in bluegrass and country music as well as jazz, folk and swing, the violin and cello are still viewed by many listeners as instruments of classical music Ñ instruments that occasionally go out slumming to a jam session or a hootenanny but generally feel more comfortable with Bart—k, Beethoven, Brahms and Bach.
Fortunately, violinist Darol Anger never accepted that sort of thinking. With a rŽsumŽ that includes the Turtle Island String Quartet, the bluegrass-tinged group Psychograss, the folk jazz of Montreux and the virtuosic Anger-Marshall Duo (with mandolin player Mike Marshall), Anger has been a pioneer of a continually diversifying string-band movement that reaches to the Õ70s.
He surfaced Friday at the Theatre Raymond Kabbaz with yet another intriguing string ensemble, the Republic of Strings. The group Anger describes as an Òinternational, intergenerational ensembleÓ is a kind of cutting-edge string quartet, with violinist Gabriel Witcher, cellist Tristan Clarridge and guitarist Scott Nygaard completing the lineup. Singer Chris Webster also performed, adding steamy vocals to a spicy musical gumbo.
The music darted from one part of the world to another: a Swedish polska was followed by a Brazilian choro; Chicago blues blended with an Irish jig (appropriate for St. PatrickÕs Day). Webster offered a stunning take on Don CovayÕs ÒChain of Fools.Ó Most fascinating was the wildly virtuosic individual playing. Anger moved almost casually from bebop to blues to classical licks. Witcher was cool, fluid and fast. Nygaard balanced solid accompaniment with crisp, articulate solo lines. And Clarridge, inventive with his cello improvisations, added an impressive turn on violin, whipping through a hoedown, a waltz and a jaunty swing number.
By the end of the evening, any remaining perceptions regarding the narrow range of string instruments were long gone. AngerÕs group, in fact, more than a mere Republic, had the sound of a musical United Nations of strings.
Progressive fiddler is changing the world
Anger's string ensembles continue his efforts to chart new territory
PHOTO: This virtual nation of string band players from all over the world is built on the idea of the string band as a complete little symphony in itself, a dance band that generates its own rhythms. That goes back to the Hot Club of France combining jazz, gypsy and classical influences, right up through the Grisman Quintet.
Darol Anger
In the Virtual Republic of Strings, fiddler Darol Anger may not be the paramount leader, but he's certainly the standard bearer. Since his first major gig with mandolin master David Grisman in the mid-1970s, through his long tenure as a founding member of the jazz-infused Turtle Island String Quartet and his work with neo-grass ensembles such as Psychograss and Newgrange, Anger has spent a quarter-century in the vanguard of an international movement of string players steeped in traditional musical stylesbut eager to push into uncharted territory.
His latest project, the American Fiddle Ensemble, celebrates the recent release of its gloriously eclectic album "Republic of Strings" (Compass Records) with a series of Northern California gigs, including performances Wednesday at Espresso Garden and Cafe and on Feb. 21 at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley.
While the band's moniker locates it in a specific geographic realm, the album's cover art, an elegant, Anger-designed internationally recognizable string logo seen on three colorful fluttering flags, gives a better sense of the music contained within, which ranges freely around the globe from Appalachia and Scandinavia to Motown and Mali.
"Working in the David Grisman Quintet from 1975 to 1984, the whole ethos of that band was moving the music forward," says Anger, a longtime Oakland resident, in a phone conversation from Hawaii. "I don't think I've ever been in a band that didn't share that ethos, taking the string band and combining music from all over the world.
"Now there's this virtual nation of string band players from all over the world," he says. "They've built on the idea of the string band as a complete little symphony in itself, a dance band that generates its own rhythms. That goes back to the Hot Club of France combining jazz, gypsy and classical influences, or to" jazz violinists "Joe Venuti and Stuff Smith, right up through the Grisman Quintet.'
The American Fiddle Ensemble is the latest manifestation of the string band as sonic laboratory, a multi-generational Bay Area supergroup featuring guitar virtuoso Scott Nygaard, cellist Rushad Eggleston and 17-year-old fiddler Brittany Haas. Anger describes the lineup as "a phenom, a master, a prodigy and a legendary weirdo. Scott's the master; Rushad is the phenomenon; Brittnay's the prodigy; and I'm the weirdo, though I think Rushad's working really hard to take that title away from me."
For the Espresso Garden and Freight shows, Wayfaring Strangers singer Aoife O'Donovan is scheduled to perform as special guest on Joni Mitchell's "Help Me" and Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground," vocals covered on the album by Laurie Lewis and Sara Watkins, respectively.
The seeds of the American Fiddle Ensemble were planted several years ago, when Anger and Nygaard were looking for opportunities to play together. Nygaard made his reputation as one of the most prodigious modern bluegrass guitarists through his work with Laurie Lewis' Grant Street and Tim O'Brien's O'Boys but had largely dropped off the scene to spend more time with his family. His job as editor of Acoustic Guitar Magazine still allowed him to play occasional gigs around the Bay Area. So he and Anger formed an acoustic bar band called the Improbables.
Through his educational work at clinics and music camps, Anger encountered Eggleston, an amazing young cellist versed in bluegrass and jazz. Almost finished with a degree from Boston's Berklee College of Music, where he's the first string player awarded a full scholarship, Eggleston made his recording debut in Fiddlers 4 with Anger, Michael Doucet and Bruce Molsky on a self-titled Compass CD that was nominated for a 2002 Grammy.
"Basically, he does everything on the cello that I do on the fiddle," Anger says of Eggleston. "He's a fantastic soloist with incredible flair. He has a great grasp of musical structure and can play bass and drums on the cello simultaneously."
Haas, who started playing violin at 4, first discovered old-time music at 8 while attending Alasdair Fraser's Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School in Boulder Creek. Later she began studying with Molsky, who eventually felt that she had tapped him dry of information. With her growing interest in jazz, he recommended she start taking lessons with Anger, which led to her joining the American Fiddle Ensemble.
"I spent a year and a half teaching her pretty much everything I know about playing the fiddle," Anger says. "She's just a wonderful, beautiful musician. As my old boss David Grisman says, if you can't beat these kids, you better hire 'em."
For Haas, whose older sister Natalie plays cello on three "Republic of Strings" tracks, performing in American Fiddle Ensemble has opened new musical doors. A junior at Menlo School in Atherton, she wasn't familiar with the Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder tunes covered on the album.
"It was really cool doing these songs," Haas says. "It made me go out andbuy the CDs, and I checked out stuff I hadn't heard before."
The group's repertoire includes many Anger and Nygaard originals, as well as tunes even more unlikely for string band arrangements than "Higher Ground," including a piece by the fusion band the Yellowjackets. American Fiddle Ensemble not only has developed its own music and sound, but it also will be flying its own flag soon, modeled after the faux-photo on the CD cover.
"Those are the beautiful colorful flags they fly over Moscone Center, and we used some photographic trickery to impose this string logo that I put together," Anger says. "But we're actually making a flag of this virtual republic, and we're going to bring it to some of these concerts. We're extending an invitation to everyone interested in this music to become a citizen of the Republic of Strings."
Strings Attached
American Fiddle Ensemble are a dream come true
"I've come to realize that music is about melody, harmony and rhythm in only the most incidental way," says fiddler Darol Anger when asked to characterize the American Fiddle Ensemble, his latest string-band project. "It's mostly about people and how they do what they do together. This particular group of people is quite special and works together in a way unlike any other group that I've been involved with.
"[Guitarist] Scott [Nygaard] is one of the most thoughtful and reliable, yet reactive, musicians I know. [Cellist] Rushad [Eggleston] is constantly mercurial and brilliant. And [fiddler] Brittany [Haas] has her incredible talents. Everyone has their ear focused on the total sound. It's like a superhero team where they all have complementary powers."
For Anger, this musical terrain is so distinct that he's titled the AFE's newly released album Republic of Strings. The disc brings together musical styles from around the world in a boundary-crossing blend of jazz, bluegrass, classical and folk music. The CD includes guest vocalist appearances by fiddlers Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek and Laurie Lewis.
"Scott and I both wanted to focus on the international string-band concept," Anger says, "so we picked a lot of music from Scandinavia, Brazil, Africa and other regions as well as our original stuff."
The ensemble itself crosses generational lines, pairing two seasoned veterans (Anger and Nygaard) with a couple of talented newcomers (Haas and Eggleston).
The seemingly tireless Anger--violinist, fiddler, composer, educator and producer--is a veteran of the groundbreaking David Grisman Quintet, which 25 years ago helped define the new-acoustic music genre. Anger is also a founding member of the jazz-oriented Turtle Island String Quartet, which revolutionized chamber music by infusing it with jazz improvisation. He also contributes to the all-star vernacular string band Fiddlers 4 (a 2002 Grammy-nominated collaboration with Michael Doucet, Bruce Molsky and Eggleston) as well as the virtuosi chambergrass groups Psychograss and NewGrange.
Nygaard, regarded as one of the top five flatpickers in the world, is a former member of Tim O'Brien's O'Boys and Laurie Lewis and her Grant Street String Band. Eggleston, the first student admitted on a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music string program, is a skillful improviser with an easy command of fiddle styles. "He's the best bluegrass cellist in the world," Anger boasts, adding with a laugh, "Oh, heck, he's the only bluegrass cellist in the world."
Haas, a talented South Bay teen, is nothing short of a revelation. "It's a joy to see these two excellent young players in two different stages of their development. Rushad is breaking into all kinds of unexplored territory all the time," Anger says of the ensemble's younger members. "He's in a very free place where his technique has become transparent and he's inventing concepts that go far beyond just his instrument.
"Brittany's relationship to her main mentor, Bruce Molsky, can be compared to the young Mark O'Connor's relationship to the great Benny Thomassen; she has taken a traditional style that already had been perfected by one great innovator and has further turbocharged it, combining an incredibly deep feeling for Appalachian fiddle style with extensive knowledge of all kinds of other styles such as Celtic, jazz and my style.
"The fact that she can pretty much do everything else technically on the violin and is using a five-string fiddle as her main axe put the glow on the picture. She's intelligent and informed, conscientious, prompt, has fantastic powers of concentration, a great memory, a monster groove and she listens even better than she plays. These qualities would make her an MVP in just about any band in this galaxy, let alone the American Fiddle Ensemble."
For Anger, Republic of Strings represents a natural progression in his 35-year quest to explore the fringes of progressive bluegrass. He sees the project as an outgrowth of a vast musical movement. "The last few years of well-organized fiddle camps and clinics run by Mark O'Connor, Alasdair Fraser, Jay Ungar, Matt Glaser, Randy Sabien, Julie Lieberman, David Balakrishnan and others have brought up a new generation of brilliant players who accept no limitations or boundaries to their chosen music," he says.
"It really is like a string republic stretching all through the world's music, and it's the fulfillment of a beautiful dream that I and those I just mentioned--and many others--have had for years. I can't tell you how exciting it is to see it happening."
From the February 19-25, 2004 issue of the North Bay Bohemian. Copyright © Metro Publishing Inc. Maintained by Boulevards New Media.
Darol Anger, Diary of a Fiddler
Chet Williamson, Rambles website/multi-cultural review magazine.
Here is one of the best, most varied fiddle CDs you're likely to hear for a long time to come. Fiddler extraordinaire Darol Anger has long proved himself at home in any musical abode the fiddle can enter, be it bluegrass, classical, jazz, Celtic or those still undiscovered. On this new CD from adventurous Compass Records, he chronicles a three-year odyssey across the continent in which he played duets with other fiddlers. The result is a truly jaw-dropping array of music, a CD any fiddle fan (and anyone who just loves music) will listen to over and over.
On most of these cuts, Anger plays a baritone violin, a regular violin strung with thick baritone violin strings. The sound is deep and resonant, providing a solid bottom when his duet partner takes the lead, and a beautiful contrast when Anger does. The twin fiddle sound also benefits from the wider tonal range the lower instrument brings to the party. On many of these cuts with double stops, you'd swear you were hearing a string quartet rather than two fiddles, so full is the range of sound.
The CD starts with a bang, a slashing duet with Cape Breton fiddler Natalie McMaster called "Melt the Teakettle," and the intense, searing sounds might do just that. Bluegrass master Stuart Duncan is next, with a "Lee Highway Blues" in which two very non-traditional bluegrass fiddles create a Coplandesque suite that ends with the finest fiddlistic impressions of truck horns and Doppler effects you'll ever hear. Anger and Suzy Thompson's fiddles are tuned down for the next tune, "Les Barres de la Prison," a Cajun-style classic that glows and rumbles with sweet menace. "Banish Misfortune" with Martin Hayes turns to Celtic music, with an arrangement adapted from the Fiddles of Doom that turns the two instruments into an entire rhythm section along with the melody and harmony. The baritone violin is especially low and rich here.
Next is one of the real highlights, "John Henry," performed by an aggregation called the Nashville Lumberyard, which consists of Anger, Duncan, Vassar Clements, Sam Bush, Tim O'Brien, John Hartford and Matt Glaser, ALL on fiddle, and Derek Jones on bass. If you've heard those mass fiddle tunes at bluegrass festivals, you may shudder at the thought, expecting something along the lines of "Golden Slippers," in which half the fifty fiddles are out of tune. Put your mind at rest. This is more like a prayer meeting, complete with call and response, the respondents muttering "Amen" and "Hallelujah" while the preachers trade off homilies, but only in music. An amazing and audacious cut that you really shouldn't try at home!
A complete change of pace follows, with Anger and Hayes doing "A Little Help From My Friends," a cut that starts with a classical-sounding pulse reminiscent of the beginning of that other Sgt. Pepper classic, "She's Leaving Home." Gorgeous and glorious. The rock vein continues to be mined with Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile (slight return)" in which Bruce Molsky shares fiddle duties. I'd always thought of Molsky as an oldtime player, but he proves he can rock on this one!
Jazz is next, as fiddle legend Richard Greene and jazz legend (and former Cecil Taylor bandmate) Buell Neidlinger join Anger in a rollicking "Bemsha Swing," which swings into the infinitely bluesy Vassar Clements and "Tone Guys' Boogie," in which Anger's baritone underneath gives a great blues boost to Vassar's always soulful playing. An eerie, ceremonial sounding Celtic strain is next, with Alasdair Fraser and the lovely "Aran Boat Song."
A live improvisation with Matt Glaser follows, based on "Working on a Building," and it's a joy to hear these two virtuosi trading ideas back and forth. There's a softer and sweeter creation at work with "Willow Garden Fantasy," recorded by Anger, Greene, and Michael Kott on cello "in a cabin way after midnight" at Mark O'Connor's fiddle camp. The sound is suitably late night and dreamy (but where is Mark? It would have been nice to have an O'Connor/Anger duet). Stuart Duncan makes a reappearance for another taste of blues and bluegrass with the "Carroll County Suite," and the CD ends with Anger jamming with two up-and-comers, Hanneke Cassel and Casey Driessen, a nice look at the future of fiddling after such a comprehensive tour of its present.
This is a flawless CD, offering a wide variety of the many styles in which Darol Anger is not only comfortable, but in which he excels. It's a great gift from an amazing musician, and if the sound of the fiddle touches your heart, even a little, you'd be a fool to miss it.
Darol Anger's American Vernacular
Bluegrass Jazz: Darol Anger and His Jazz Guys at Freight & Salvage, 8/21/1998
Review by Derk Richardson, The East Bay Express.
Darol Anger chose the right song to kick off his recent Freight & Salvage gig - Oliver Nelson's "Hoe-Down," which Anger introduced as "What you might call a jazz musician's idea of what country music might have been." Amend that description slightly and turn it around, and you get a fair approximation of what violinist Anger was up to with His Jazz Guys - "a bluegrass musician's idea of what jazz can be."
"Hoe-Down" appeared on Nelson's classic 1961 album The Blues and the Abstract Truth as a 44-measure extrapolation of blues conventions and "I've Got Rhythm" chord changes. Played by a band that included Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Roy Haynes, it was a sleek and swinging amalgam of American musical idioms. With its simultaneously old-time and throroughly modern flavor, the tune was a perfect opener for Anger and His Jazz Guys - electric guitarist Adam Levy, upright bassist Derek Jones, and Drummer Aaron Johnston - who entertained a half-full house with two sets of mostly standard jazz tunes.
Anger, who lives in Oakland and has played the Freight in countless folk-oriented configurations, launched his career in 1975 as a member of mandolinist David Grisman's Quintet, playing the innovative acoustic bluegrass-jazz hybrid known as "Dawg Music." During his DGQ tenure, Anger cemented a relationship with Mike Marshall, with whom he co-founded both the popular eclectic group Montreux (with pianist/fiddler/vocalist Barbara Higbie and others) and the offbeat all-star Psychograss band.
To many, Anger is best known as a founding member of the Turtle Island String Quartet, which pushed the parameters of the string quartet into jazz and blues, playing everything from original compositions to the music of Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, George Gershwin, Robert Johnson, and Jimi Hendrix. In April 1997, after 11 years, Anger left TISQ. He was exploding with musical ideas. His first solo project was Heritage, an ambitious recording in interpretations of historic folk material with contributions by Willie Nelson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dar Williams, and many others. He has also been busy wood-shedding with keyboardist Philip Aaberg to "re-vernacularize" the music of Copland and Gershwin; producing a recording for singer-songwriter April Cope; organizing a "Four Generations of Jazz Violin" project (which will play the San Francisco Jazz Festival on Nov. 6); and forming a new Anger-Marshall band (with Johnston and Jones).
In the motley context he's created for himself, Anger's Jazz Guys concert was a relatively straight-ahead affair. After "Hoe-Down," the quartet played the one original of the night, Anger's "Blue Book," and later in the set took a brief side trip into folk with "Down in the Willow Garden" from Heritage. Those two tunes were exceptions to the evening's rule of standards, including "Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me" (which, because of "all the applications to guyness," Anger dedicated to an unnamed chief executive), "Night in Tunisia" (by "that great bluegrass trumpeter" Dizzy Gillespie), "Taking a Chance on Love" (which Anger heard on a 1950s Stephane Grappelli record), Thelonious Monk's "Well, You Needn't" and "Bemsha Swing," and "Milestones" (by "another great bluegrass trumpeter," Miles Davis).
But just as Ike and Tina Turner never did anything "nice and easy," Anger never does anything squarely straight-ahead. He has developed his own idiosyncratic "American vernacular" style which is applicable to all kinds of genres. He can play long classical- or jazz-inflected melodic phrases or rushing bluegrass-inspired streams of sixteenth notes, and pinctuate everything with staccato chops of thge bow to the strings or guitar-like rhythm strums with his thumb. Factor in his shadowed timbres and finely grained tones and Anger's sound is unique, while harking back at times to such jazz violin pioneers as Stuff Smith or Ray Nance.
On most songs during their eighty-minute first set and fifty-minute second set at the Freight, the Jazz Guys started out with tight arrangements and then exchanged solos for five to ten minutes. Jones and Johnston were rock solid and tasteful, keeping the pulse surging ahead while mixing in intriguin;g rhythms. Levy (who has spent considerable time as Tracy Chapman's guitarist) proved a marvelous foil for Anger. His melodic ideas seem rooted in those of Jim Hall and Bill Frisell, but he tossed in some Wes Montgomery-like octaves and plenty of original chord substitutions, harmonic variations, and strangely-shaped notes to create novel flavors within the old chestnuts. The delicate Anger-Levy duet rendition of "Nature Boy" was a highlight of the first set, and Levy's rich and lovely solo reading of Carla Bley's "Ida Lupino" stood out in the second.
At a time when swing has commodified accompaniment to cocktails, and much of the newest mainstream jazz comes off as pallid reiteration of "the tradition," Anger and His Jazz Guys are modestly digging into the same veins but coming up with music full of personality and spirit.
New Folk Recordings Combine Old And New
The Washington Post, Oct 8, 1997
This summer generated a windfall of recordings for fans of traditional folk music. The Smithsonian label alone released a series of impressive compilations devoted to Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, along with anthologies of landmark recordings compiled by Alan Lomax and Harry Smith. Now come two albums, "Last Forever" and "Heritage", that feature contemporary artists drawing inspration from some of these sources.
Violinist Darol Anger is the mastermind behind Heritage (six degrees/Island). Best known for his groundbreaking work with the David Grisman Quintet and the Turtle Island String Quartet, Anger enlisted the help of several prominent pop, folk, and country artists in an effort to reinterpret a broad variety of folk tunes, from spiritual refrains to harrowing laments. The most compelling vocal performances feature Mary Chapin Carpenter and Mavis Staples. Carpenter's version of "Pretty Polly" is powerfully rendered, stark and tense, while Staples joins guitarist David Lindley in charging "Oh Death" with a sense of desperation that's nearly palpable. A wonderfully dreamy version (and reprise) of "Shenandoah" by Jane Siberry and a solid, if predictable, version of "Hard Times" by Willie Nelson further contribute to the album's appeal.
Of course, given Anger's string background and virtuosity, it isn't surprising that "Heritage" also leaves plenty of room for imaginative instrumental solos and arrangements. "Golden Slippers" finds him collaborating with an all-star fiddle section that includes Vassar Clements, John Hartford and Stuart Duncan. Another great fiddler, Michael Doucet, joins Anger on the spirited Cajun tune "La Ville Des Manteau".
Several other pieces are colored and animated by a stellar cast that boasts mandolinist Grisman, banjoists Bela Fleck and Tony Trischka, reedman Paul McCandless, bassists Victor Wooten and Edgar Meyer, dobroist Jerry Douglas, and guitarists Russ Barenberg and John Jennings. Because many of these musicians share Anger's strong jazz sensibility, they're able to move easily between chamberlike orchestrations and passages that call for fleet-fingered small-combo interplay.
As a result, Anger and company keep adding delightful twists to the tunes, producing music rooted in tradition but not bound by it.
