LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts/ Ancient Future) - Strains of ancient Celtic music and Indian raga emanate from this high energy improvisatory duet featuring world guitar pioneer Matthew Montfort and tabla wizard Ferhan Qureshi. One of the variations of the virtuoso world fusion music ensemble, Ancient Future, this duet has performed in a variety of settings, from the huge audience (police estimate of 35,000 people) at the Summer of Love 30th Anniversary Celebration in San Francisco, to a standing room only three hour bar gig in Southern Oregon, to the Festival Internacional de la Guitarra on the golden coast of Spain near Barcelona.
Saturday, June 26, 2 pm
Petaluma Regional Library
100 Fairgrounds Dr.
Petaluma CA 94952
Free Admission
Info: 707-763-9801
Venue Website: www.sonoma.lib.ca.us
Ancient Future Duet Celtic Raga Program
Celtic (kel'tik), adj. of the Celts, their Indo-European languages, culture, etc.
raga (rag'a), n. [Hind.] a melodic recipe for a mood including ascending and descending note patterns and a hierarchy of note importance
"It was heart-warming to see teenage girls in swirling dresses swaying and twirling to the Indian themes (almost like morning ragas) of Ancient Future, one of the morning performing groups."-Philip Elwood, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER (review of Summer of Love performance, that according to the San Francisco Chronicle, was famed concert promoter Chet Helm's "crowning achievement")
Planet Passion by Ancient Future (Ancient-Future.Com AF 2010)
Planet Passion by Ancient Future has been re-issued with 64-Bit Tuned Harmonic Mastering to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band. The seventh Ancient Future recording features nineteen top masters of of Indian, Nepalese, African, Cuban, Celtic, Arabic, Palestinian, Jewish, Indonesian, Chinese, Eastern European and American music traditions performing music on the theme of mythical stories of love.
'If the members of the United Nations formed a world-fusion band, it might look and sound a little something like Ancient Future's re-issue of their seventh recording. Featuring instrumentation from Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East, Planet Passion is a mythical story of love, flirtation, seduction, courtship, marriage and longing. Manose Singh's bansuri flute and Matthew Montfort's scalloped fretboard work stand out in this eclectic, visionary global village, where each track features its own unique set of players. At its best, Planet Passion strives to preserve the world's vast musical heritage via international collaboration: the idea that one protects the old by creating something new. This is at the heart of fusion music and the heart of Ancient Future's global aesthetics, too: a diverse, unified world without borders, a multicultural community, a new, reconstituted sonic reality.' - Ryan Allen, LEO WEEKLY, Louisville, Kentucky
Matthew Montfort
As leader of the world music group Ancient Future, Matthew Montfort has devoted himself to the scalloped fretboard guitar since 1978. Montfort is a pioneer among guitarists who have had their fretboards scalloped in order to play various forms of world music that require intricate note-bending ornaments while still being able to play chords. Montfort immersed himself in an intensive study with vina master K.S. Subramanian in order to fully apply the South Indian gamaka (note-bending) techniques to the guitar. He has performed concerts worldwide, from the Festival Internacional de la Guitarra on the golden coast of Spain to the Festival of India in Mumbai. He has worked with many world music legends, including tabla phenomenon Zakir Hussain and Chinese zither master Zhao Hui. Montfort wrote the book Ancient Traditions - Future Possibilities: Rhythmic Training Through the Traditions of Africa, Bali, and India, which has been used by many musicians to improve their rhythm skills. Matthew Montfort's debut CD, Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar earned rave reviews and a feature in the December 2009 commemorative Les Paul issue of Guitar Player Magazine.
Ferhan Qureshi (tabla)
Ferhan Najeeb Qureshi is a senior disciple of tabla maestro Ustad Abdul Sattar Tari Khan, who is universally recognized as one of the foremost tabla players performing today. Ustad Tari Khan learned tabla from Miyan Shuakat Hussain Khan, the most celebrated tabla nawaz (performer) in Pakistan's musical history. Prior to studying with Ustad Tari Khan, Ferhan took his initial lessons in Hindustani (North Indian classical) music theory and practice with Surrinder Mann Singh (a senior disciple of the late Ustad Allah Rakha). Ferhan studies the Punjab gharana of classical tabla which both of his teachers represent. Primarily performing the tabla lehara (tabla solo), Ferhan Qureshi has also accompanied numerous distinguished classical artists both in the United States and in Pakistan, including: (Vocalists) Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan, Ustad Latafat Ali Khan, Ustad Sukhawat Ali Khan, Ustad Altaff Hussain, Riffat Sultana, Rita Sahai, Shri Mukesh Desai, and Tina Mann, (Instrumentalists) Ustad Habib Khan, Ustad Ghulam Farid Nizami, Ustad Zunain Khan, Ustad Asad Qizilbash, Arshad Syed, Srinivas Reddy, Parag Chordia, Nasir Syed, Dr. Waheed Siddiqui, Josh Feinberg, Arnab Chakravarty, among others and (Kathak dancers) Farah Sheik and Sonia Mann. Ferhan has also had the honor of accompanying Ustad Ali Akbar Khan for many years during Khansahib's vocal and instrumental classes at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael. Although his primary focus is classical and traditonal music, over the years Ferhan has also collaborated and/or performed with numerous organizations and artists in modern applications of the tabla, including the Dhamaal Artist Collective, (for which he is a founding member), The Lines Ballet, Non-Stop Bhangra, and Dj ChebiSabaah, among others. Ferhan currently is the Director of Artist Management at Bol Records and is diligently working towards the promotion of traditional Pakistani and Indian music in the Bay Area.
