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| A Brief Biography
As one of the "first generation" of American free improvisers, born in Oakland, California, on 19 September, 1952, Mr. Kaiser has helped unfetter the guitar from the conventions of genre-bound techniques, but his instrumental virtuosity and technological breakthroughs are always deployed in the service of deep and immediate personal expression. Likewise, he has developed a highly individual, inimitable style from an uncommonly varied range of influences. Some of his musical sources include traditional blues, East Asian, Classical North Indian and Hawaiian music, free jazz, free improvisation, American steel-string concert guitar, and 20th century classical, but like any probing artist he also draws creatively from other abiding interests, which for Mr. Kaiser include Information Theory, experimental cinema, mathematics, experimental literature and SCUBA diving. (He was employed for the last 15 years as a senior instructor in Underwater Scientific Research at the University of California at Berkeley. Sadly, Berkeley's excellent scientific diving program was terminated in the summer of 1996.) Since taking up the guitar in 1972, Mr. Kaiser has built an ever-mounting reputation as one of the foremost musicians of his time. The respect of his peers has earned him membership on the advisory board of Guitar Player Magazine, and the appreciation of his creativity by the music, film and television industries has kept him in command as a composer and producer. He scored the weekly television series, Secrets & Mysteries, and has assisted dozens of artists from Ali Akbar Khan to Richard Thompson with their recording projects. Guitar players and devoted fans can delve deeper into Mr. Kaiser's instrumental and philosophical approaches to music via Eclectic Electric, Exploring New Horizons of Guitar and Improvisation a very unusual 97 minute guitar instructional video released by Silver Eagle/Backstage Pass/Music Video Projects. Mr. Kaiser returned from the island of Madagascar in 1991, where he and his friend David Lindley recorded 6 CDs for the Shanachie label, in collaboration with various Malagasy musicians. The first of these CDs to be released, A WORLD OUT OF TIME, HENRY KAISER AND DAVID LINDLEY IN MADAGASCAR, is, perhaps, the most successful of all American World Music releases of all time! VOL. 2 of A WORLD OUT OF TIME was nominated for a Grammy award. Two more Madagascar releases have also been recently produced by Mr. Kaiser in Madagascar and Louisiana. Kaiser & Lindley's second project, THE SWEET SUNNY NORTH VOLs. 1 & 2, were recorded in Norway and features collaborations with most of Norway's greatest musical artists, as well as many surprising "discoveries". Henry and David are planning several new series of collaborative recordings that may someday take the duo "on the road" to Korea. Richard Thompson and Henry are presently considering preparation of a similar type of collaborative project for the Islands of Fiji. Another recent and very successful project is Wadada Leo Smith's and Henry's YO MILES!, a tribute to the mid 70's works of Miles Davis. A live version of this project will debute on Oct. 21, 1999 at the San Fancisco Jazz Festival. INTERVIEWS AND ARTICLES
RECENT RELEASES Recently released are THE GUITAR LESSON and THROUGH, guitar duet CDs with, respectively, Eugene Chadbourne and Roberto Zorzi, and THE PASSWORDS, a trio with Paul Plimley-piano & Danielle DeGruttola-cello. COMING SOON THE SOCIAL SCIENCE SET: (old Metalanguage free improvisations) forthcoming on the Rastascan label. IN POST-PRODUCTION Works-in-preparation-for-release include three new solo CDs: TONE HAIKU (99 solos on 99 different guitars), TIME FOR THE TRUTH, and SNIPE HUNT!; HEAVY META: a trio with Greg Goodman-piano and Luka Ligeti-drums; ; a guitar duo project with MX-80's Bruce Anderson; the Final Crazy Backwards Alphabet CD: WE ARE NOT AMUSED; and finally two as-yet-nameless band projects currently being mixed: one with Kiyohiko Semba, Kazuhisa Uchihashi & Masahiro Uemura and the other with Raoul Bjorkenheim, Alex Cline, Michael Manring, & Mike Keneally; and numerous other projects.
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Widely recognized as one of the most creative and innovative guitarists, improvisers, and producers in the fields of rock, jazz and experimental music, California-based musician Henry Kaiser is one of the most extensively recorded as well, having appeared on more than 140 different albums. A restless collaborator who constantly seeks the most diverse and personally challenging contexts for his music, Mr. Kaiser not only produces and contributes to a staggering number of recorded projects, he performs frequently throughout the USA, Europe and Japan, with several regular groupings as well as solo guitar concerts and concerts of freely improvised music with a host of diverse instrumentalists. Evidence of his exceptional musical breadth and versatility can be found in a partial list of the extraordinary artists with whom he has recorded and/or performed: Herbie Hancock, Richard Thompson, David Lindley, Bob Weir, The ROVA Sax Quartet, Elliot Sharp, John "Drumbo" French, Raymond Kane, Michael McClure, Bill Laswell, Steve Lacy, Fred Frith, Barbara Higbie, John Abercrombie, Leo Smith, moe., Negativland, Michael Stipe, Terry Riley, Jim O'Rourke, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sergei Kuriokhin, Zero, Critters Buggin', Diamanda Galas, Sonny Sharrock, Hans Reichel, Chris Cutler, Henry Cow, John Zorn, Andy West, David Torn, Bill Frisell, Joey Baron, Davey Williams, Eugene Chadbourne, Evan Parker, Sang-Won Park, Material, The Golden Palominos, Victoria Williams, Jin-Hi Kim, John Oswald, Glenn Phillips, Toshinori Kondo, John Stevens, Tom Constanten, Kiyohiko Senba, Bruce Anderson, Sang-Won Park, Yuji Takahashi, John Medeski, Zoogz Rift, Ngoc Lam, Dama Mahaleo, Merl Saunders, Freddie Roulette, Mari Kimura, Harvey Mandel, Danny Carnahan, Robin Petrie, Rakoto Frah, Rossy, Alan Senauke, John Tchicai, George Lewis, Kazumi Watanabe, Peter Brotzmann, Zero, Bob Bralove, Greg Allman, Billy Kreutzman, Jerry Garcia, Miya Masaoka, Miroslav Tadic, Cecil Taylor, and Amos Garrett.