GUESTS: Rami El Assar, Corey Dargel, Gustavo Aguilar, Gonzalo Martinez de la Cotera, , Guillermo Cardenas, Randall Woolf, Alain Berge, Guy Kaye, and a cast of thousands.
*KINGDOM OF JONES, announces the release of its eponymously titled CD available on innova Recordings. Buy the CD at innova.mu and iTunes.*
" Guitarist-composer Cristian Amigo straddles the contemporary-classical, improv and rock worlds; no wonder he calls his Kingdom of Jones a “new music jam-band.” During any given performance, Messiaen grapples with Led Zeppelin while Perez Prado teaches Stravinsky to mambo."
- TIME OUT NEW YORK
“Cristian Amigo is an excellent creative artist, guitarist and composer whose works reflect his concern with tradition and innovation in creative music in America."
- AACM composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith
“a defiant sound world of freedom [Kingdom of Jones]”
- composer/producer Philip Blackburn
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Cristian Amigo is an award-winning guitarist, composer, and musician. Known as an acoustic and electric guitarist with an improvising bent, Amigo composes and performs fierce riffs, blues, chamber music, theatre, film, performance works, and art/pop song.
Cristian is the recipient of a 2006 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in music composition, and his work has been supported by many music and cultural organizations including the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the American Composers Forum, and Meet the Composer. Amigo’s “War is Good for Business” was an editors’ pick in the September 2008 issue of Guitar Player magazine, and his song “God is a Bullet” was recently featured on the television show One Tree Hill. His latest solo recording Kingdom of Jones (innova Recordings 2008) showcases his current musical vision-by turns ambient, noisy, heavy, funky, and “beautiful.”
His nylon string and electric guitar playing show a deep connection to American blues, jazz, and folk music, and he has a strong grounding in contemporary classical music, Latin American folk music, and Afropop styles. He has studied classical guitar with Bruce Holzman jazz guitar with Kenny Burrell and Vincent Bredice, Hindustani music with Harihar Rao, and Afro-Peruvian music with the legendary guitar maestro Carlos Hayre.
Cristian is currently an artist-in-residence at Calliope House (Pittsburgh Folk Music Society) and the American Lyric Theater in New York City. New and on-going projects include the November 2008 world premiere of Minotaur at the Live Nude Plays Festival at the Public Theater in New York City, dates with his “new music jam band” Kingdom of Jones, and master classes at universities and colleges (Bates College, UC Riverside, CSU Dominguez Hills, CSU Stanislaus). Amigo’s music has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival, and The Los Angeles Pan-Asian Film Festival. He is currently writing for the Grateful Dead Reader, and the 13th Edition of the Conscious Reader. He is also co-producing the CD NYFA: Music from Composition Fellows with composer Philip Blackburn on innova Recordings (2009).
Amigo has a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UCLA. He currently serves as a music composition advisor for the New York Foundation for the Arts and lives and gigs in New York City.
Some recent music works:
Picasso: Payaso (2008 - ) opera in-progress:
String Quartet 2/Ambiguous dog (2008) in-progress - College of Staten Island/CUNY:
Guitar Quartet 1 (2008) – Corona Guitar Quartet (Copenhagen);
Kingdom of Jones (2008) CD - innova Recordings;
Dos/Two: Fieldnotes (2008) CD – BA Records;
Song suite from David Anzuelo’s Minotaur (2008)– The Public Theater;
Nylons (2008) one-act opera – Symphony Space;
H. Ibsen’s Rosmersholm (2007) – 59E59;
Jon Fosse’s deathvariations (2007) – 59E59 (NYC);
Killing Play (2007) song suite – LAByrinth Theater Company/The Public Theater;
ABC Identity Songs for piano, violin, clarinet, and 2 perc. (2007) – Brooklyn Museum;
Brooklyn Dances for Orchestra (2007) – BAM/Brooklyn Philharmonic;
Songs from a Socialist Cabaret (2007);
Songs from José (2007) – City Center;
Music for Juan Felipe Herrera’s Salsalandia (2007) – La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego);
String Quartet 1 (2006) – The Tank/NYC;
Echoes of Latin America (2006) – Teatro del Pueblo (Minneapolis);
Song suite from John Michael Garces’ Points of Departure (2006);
Songs for Han Ong’s Swooney Planet (2006) – Ma Yi Theatre Company;
Impressions of Energy for cello and guitar (2005) – College of Staten Island/CUNY;
Cristian Amigo: Live LA Sessions (2005) – BA Records;
Monk Sketches (2005) – El Taller Latinoamericano;
Craig Wright’s Grace (2005) – Woolly Mammoth Theater Company (Washington D.C.);
The Upside Down Boy (2004) – Making Books Sing.
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“ I kind of hate myself for digging this abrasive clatter [War is Good for Business] because it’s galaxies away from my Beatles- and Beethoven-forged sense of composition. But it rocks real hard against its orchestra of bloops and bleeps, and then breaks down to a mournful sound collage. A great theme for Halliburton’s symphony of opportunism.
- Michael Molenda/GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE editor-in-chief
"This [LA Live Sessions/Vol. 1] is new music full of passion and simpatico among the players. These fine musicians are very sensitive and supportive as they listen to and help each other. Together, they achieve an overall sound that defies category."
- jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell
“...your songs [points of departure], with their sadness, have beauty.”
Susana Baca (Afro-Peruvian singer, folklorist)
“There are some striking moments [SQ No. 1] and what a propulsive, colorful performance by the Jack Quartet!”
-David Harrington/Kronos Quartet
“...it [String Quartet No. 1] is lovely stuff.”
-Dorothy Lawson of Ethel String Quartet
“Terrific music [Nylons opera]”
- Pulitzer and Academy award-winning John Corigliano
“You’re hot, really...you’re hot.” [reading/performance of Minotaur]
- Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman
“That music is out! [Kingdom of Jones]”
- film composer Tyler Bates (the 300)
“Your track [war is good for business from Kingdom of Jones] is fantastic.”
-composer Randall Woolf
“The guitar playing on there [KOJ] is off the charts.”
-TV/film composer Jim Lang (“Hey Arnold” - loved that cartoon-CA)
“It is indeed your time. Looooved the record. Well done.”
-TV producer extraordinaire Mark Schwahn
Cristian Amigo-Kingdom of Jones's Friend Space (Top 20)
SCREENING AT LA SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL JULY 27 Check out the trailer for WE LOVE YOU the upcoming DOCUMENTARY about the RAINBOW GATHERINGS or www.weloveyoufilm.com
Now, with the help of gimmesound.com, you can download all tracks from the debut album “Mountains in the Sun” for FREE! Not only does Seti Alpha 5 get paid for each download, but each download also generates a donation to a charity of YOUR CHOICE! I’m thrilled that this revolutionary concept will allow the music of Seti Alpha 5 to reach the masses for free and help to change the world at the same time. Please give 5 minutes of your time to do this, if not only to show your support for Seti Alpha 5, but also to help support one of the great charities benefited by your download. Visit gimmesound.com to learn more and download the album now!
Greetings from Las Vegas! Thanks for the add and congratulations on your mention in the Sept 08 issue of Guitar Player Magazine. (I was in the Aug 07 issue)
I like your music, it's very nice classical guitar work. Best wishes to you.
This is Greg from Winds Of Thor - The Music Of Led Zeppelin. Hope to see you at The Madison on August 29th for the ULTIMATE Led Zeppelin concert! www. windsofthor. net
