Les Dexters with Robert Amyot, pipes, whistle, clarinet.
Le Cetre Galante with Taro Takeuchi, 18th-century cittern and baroque guitar.
Quartet with The Bacheler Consort.
Cinqui So
Influences
"I started out trying to play like Glenn Gould - and I'm still trying!"
GG's approach has had an enormous impact on me, as has Clarence White's - a day doesn't go by that I don't think about him and how he played, especially his phrasing and sense of time.
Donal Lunny - especially his interplay with Andy Irvine - within the tradition but with a rock sensibility: an approach similar to GG's, and exactly what I try to do.
Important guitarists are Roger McGuinn and Norman Blake for their overall sound, Martin Carthy for his approach to traditional material, Leo Kottke and FZ for virtuosity and creativity, and slack key guitar greats Ray Kane and Leonard Kwan for their sense of beauty. Jack Casady, Grace Slick, The Beatles, Fripp & Eno and Indian Classical music have affected me a great deal.
An album that had a tremendous influence was Paddy in the Smoke. I eventually got to play with Reg Hall and the Rakes, Lucy Farr, Tommy Healy and Jimmy Power - a dream come true. Recordings of Martin Byrnes, Willie Clancy and Louis Beaudoin were also very important, as were those of Roscoe Holcomb, Woody Guthrie, Earl Scruggs and David Munrow. Several composers have influenced my work for various reasons - JSB, Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, Francois Couperin, Robert de Visée, John Cage, Henry Cowell, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen.
Doc Rossi is one of the foremost experts on the English guittar or cetra - an 18th-century cittern. He performs across Europe and North America as a soloist and with several groups, playing Early Music and Irish and North American traditional music.
Doc plays all sorts of citterns and bouzoukis and specializes in the links between traditional and baroque music. He has recorded the works of Pasqualini Demarzi with Andrea Damiani, and La Cetra Galante, a recital CD of 18th-century solos and duets for Cetra. Copies of these CDs are available directly from Doc.
Doc Rossi performs baroque and classical music with Taro Takeuchi, and renaissance music with The Batchelor Consort. Les Dexters, a duo with Robert Amyot, features traditional music from Quebec, Michigan, France, Italy, and Ireland. They are also collaborating on a project involving 18th-century French Contradance music with Taro Takeucchi on baroque guitar and Claire Chabert on violin.
Doc's publications include The Compleat Cittern or Guittar, the English translation of Andrea Damiani’s Tutor for Renaissance Lute, and the acclaimed Original Guitar Styles of Jerry Donahue. Also a scholar, Doc has prepared a modern edition of Thomas Robinson’s complete music for cittern, several editions of 18th-century cittern music, and has published several articles on cittern and guitar history. The tutor and the Robinson edition are also avaliable directly from Doc.
Doc Rossi est le plus éminent expert de la guittar anglaise, appelée aussi « cetra ». Il se produit à travers l'Amérique du Nord et l'Europe. Il joue toutes sortes de cistres et bouzoukis et a fait des liens entre musique traditionnelle et musique baroque sa spécialité. Il a enregistré les « six sonates pour cetra de Pasqualini Demarzi » avec le luthiste italien Andrea Damiani, un album qui comprend aussi six pièces solos de musique populaire irlandaise, et « La Cetra Galante », un récital de solos et duos du 18ème pour Cetra. Ses publications comprennent « The Compleat Cittern or Guittar », la traduction anglaise de la méthode de luth renaissance écrite en italien par Andrea Damiani et le très acclamé « Original guitar styles of Jerry Donahue ». Docteur ès Lettres et passionné d'histoire et plus particulièrement d'histoire de la musique, il a préparé une édition moderne des « New Citharen Lessons » de Thomas Robinson et a écrit de nombreux articles sur le cistre et la guitare.
Rossi a appris la musique traditionnelle irlandaise au sein de la communauté irlandaise de Londres. Il a joué chaque « Sunday session » dirigé par le légendaire Jimmy Power au Victoria. Il a souvent joint le groupe « The Rakes » (guidé par Reg Hall) pour faire danser, accompagné par d'extraordinaires musiciens traditionnels comme Lucy Farr et Tommy Healy. Il a accompagné Margaret Barry lors de son dernier concert londonien et a également joué avec le chanteur et conteur traditionnel Freddie McKay. Bien que plus jeune que les musiciens traditionnels qui l'ont pris sous leurs ailes et venant d'une culture et d'expériences musicales différentes des leurs, Rossi prit pied au sein de la scène traditionnelle avec aisance. Il a également beaucoup étudié les enregistrements de nombreux musiciens avec lesquels il est devenu ami, absorbant leur sens du rythme et leurs phrasés.
Loin d'être un traditionaliste intransigeant, Rossi est surtout un innovateur, apportant ses propres influences musicales et culturelles à la matière traditionnelle. Rock, country et influences baroques s'ajoutent à la musique que les musiciens traditionnels ont toujours accepté comme étant la preuve d'une expression naturelle qui lui est propre, non pas comme étant quelque chose pouvant choquer ou attirer l'attention. Pendant sa vie londonienne, il était constamment sollicité pour des concerts de musiques folk, country au sein des festivals britanniques.
Le théâtre est un autre aspect important de la vie artistique de Doc Rossi. Titulaire d'un doctorat de littérature après avoir analysé l'influence de Shakespeare sur l'oeuvre de Bertold Brecht, il a travaillé comme directeur musical et dramaturge de pièces de « medieval mystery » et de mimes, interprétant aussi bien les oeuvres de Ben Johnson et de John Synge que celles de Shakespeare et de Brecht. La direction qu'il a eu de « The Beggar's Opera » de John Gay présente le plus clairement sa passion de la musique baroque mêlée à la musique traditionnelle et aux danses populaires.
Thank you for joining us on Myspace. Music from our side project VocaMe is now online. We hope you enjoy and join us on 23. January in Frankfurt. www. myspace. com/vocamemusic
Thank you so much for your friendship, and for listening to my musical sounds! Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead :)
Also, some exciting news - my new album, Meridians, has just been release on iTunes, Amazon. com & CDBaby. com! I'm very happy to be able to share it with listeners in a high-quality format. Just click on the links/image above to check it out...music like autumn leaves falling...
Thank you so much for your friendship, and for listening to my musical sounds! Wishing you a wonderful week ahead :)
Also, some exciting news - my new album, Meridians, has just been release on iTunes, Amazon. com & CDBaby. com! I'm very happy to be able to share it with listeners in a high-quality format. Just click on the links/image above to check it out...music like autumn leaves falling...
There's always room for some cittern! Are you coming to England at any point or did you have more of a digital collaboration in mind? Either way, that'd be great!
Sure, I'd love to have it. Yet, alas, I play the lute, not the cittern (twas the nightingale and not the lark...). On the other hand, if there's a tab file or Fronimo file available...?
HI, Doc! Thanks for the add and message. Ask Danny Boucher at www. myspace. com/danielboucherauetats about the FINE site. He initiated it. Maybe when you get to New England and thereabouts you could pay a visit to one of our local sessions as well? www. myspace. com/saratogapancelticsession. Cheers from Vonnie of 2 Bits...
Recording with you was a memory that I will never forget, thank you! Everything is going great on the homestead! can I have that empty bottom corner on your top friends list? ;)
