Jeremy Kittel Band
Friday, December 4
Doors
7:45pm, Concert 8:00pm.
US National Scottish Fiddle Champion and winner of
6 Detroit Music Awards leads an exceptional band whose musical roots transverse
the world. With the drive of Celtic fiddling, the spontaneity of jazz,
soul of bluegrass, rhythms of Africa and Latin America, layered melodies of Eastern Europe and intricacies of chamber music, the
Jeremy Kittel Band consistently captivates audiences.
Fiddle: “Outstanding Michigan Celtic-jazz-bluegrass fiddle wiz Jeremy Kittel” (Boston Globe).
Kittel grew up with Scottish, Irish and American music traditions and explored
the rich jazz traditions of Detroit and New York as a young man, earning a Bachelors in Jazz from
the University of
Michigan and a Masters in
Jazz Violin from Manhattan School of Music. A true multi-stylist, the 24
year-old fiddler has received numerous accolades including the U.S. National
Scottish Fiddle Championship, three Detroit Music Awards for Outstanding Folk
Artist, two Alternative Strings Awards from the American String Teachers
Association, the University of Michigan Stanley Medal and Detroit Music Awards
for Outstanding Jazz Recording, Jazz Composer, and Acoustic
Instrumentalist. Kittel has produced three CDs of traditional and original
material, and his second, Roaming, was named the 4th best Celtic CD of
2003. He has performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Milwaukee
Irish Fest, Detroit International Jazz Festival, and “A Prairie Home Companion”
been guest artist with the Rochester Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony and
Detroit Symphony orchestras; toured with fiddle legends Darol Anger and Mark
O’Connor; and currently tours internationally with the Grammy-winning Turtle
Island Quartet.
Hammer dulcimer / bass: Simon
Chrisman is an existentially confused hammer dulcimer player who
lives in Boston
and isn't very good at writing about himself. Most often, he plays with The Bee
Eaters. Aside from the dulcimer, he plays double bass and various forms of body
percussion, and wishes that the key of E flat didn't exist.
Percussion: Polish-born Bodek Janke is an exceptional musician in the Jazz and World Music
scenes, a cultural commuter between the USA,
Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland
and Germany.
In 2008, he received the “Jazzpreis Baden-Wirttemberg”, the highest-endowed and
most acclaimed jazz award of Germany.
Janke creates a distinctive style, merging drumset with a wild variety of
instruments, drawing upon African, Indian, Eastern European and Latin American
music traditions. Playing World music with a jazz attitude, his energetic and
expressive performances and compositions captivate every audience.
Cello: A talented multi-instrumentalist from the northern
mountains of California,
Tristan Clarridge is the youngest
person to ever win the Grand National Fiddle Championship, and he did it for
three consecutive years. An inventive cellist, Tristan plays with the bluegrass
sensation Crooked Still, and has toured with Natalie McMaster and Darol Anger's
Republic of Strings. For six years he’s been
an instructor at Mark O'Connor's String Conference and Alasdair Fraser's Valley
of the Moon Scottish Fiddling
School. Mark
O'Connor says,"...[Tristan] has a lot going on in that musical mind of his
and will step out in life to make wonderful contributions through his
music".