Ken Perlman: Ken Perlman Ensembles

Ken Perlman Ensembles

Ken Perlman & Alan Jabbour

Old-Time Fiddling and Clawhammer Banjo Picking by Two of the Greats!

Check Out Their New CD, Southern Summits

Fiddler Alan Jabbour present a program of Appalachian tunes, featuring most prominently the music Alan learned in the 1960s from his mentor, West Virginia fiddler Henry Reed. Stories that evoke the lives and cultural milieu of Reed and his contemporaries add an extra dimension to the presentation.

Alan and Ken have redefined that great American invention, the fiddle-banjo duet, and brought it to new heights of complexity. Alan’s powerful fiddling style, with its syncopated bowing patterns and lyrical texture, is offset perfectly by Ken’s inspired approach to clawhammer banjo, which explores chord inversions, harmony lines, voice leading, note-for-note playing, and counter-melody. Their performances testify to the grace, beauty, and power of Appalachian music.

Ken and Alan’s new joint CD, Southern Summits: 21 Duets for Fiddle and Banjo, made the “Best Records of 2005” list in The East Bay Express (Oakland, California). Click here for reviewers' comments.

Ken and Alan have toured together in Britain, Ireland, continental Europe, Canada, and much of the United States. They have also served on the faculty of more than a score of prestigious music camps and teaching festivals, including Augusta Heritage Workshop, Banjo Camp North, Common Ground on the Hill, Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Midwest Banjo Camp, Northeast Heritage Music Camp, the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, Swannanoa Gathering, and the Tennessee Banjo Institute. Programs.

They play concerts, dances, and teach workshops on banjo, fiddle and old-time music history. They also teach a class called "The Fiddle & Banjo Team," in which students study new skills on their own instruments, then learn how to function in this most fundamental of old-time music ensembles.

Ken Perlman & William Coulter

A Powerful Dialogue Between Guitar and Banjo

Ken Perlman & William Coulter present a powerful and lyrical interpretation of the traditional dance tunes of Atlantic Canada and New England. Renowned 5-string banjoist Ken Perlman spent years on Prince Edward Island in Eastern Canada learning the repertoires of dozens of traditional fiddle players, and he has translated the beauty and liveliness of their music to his instrument. You have simply never heard 5-string banjo played like this before! Guitarist William Coulter has performed on stage and on recordings with some of the world's best-known Celtic musicians. He creates a complex background that supports the melodies with syncopated rhythms, intensive close-harmonies and complex counter-melodies. The result is an astoundingly beautiful dialogue between the guitar and banjo.

Ken Perlman with James Stevens & Nathan Curry

A Canadian-American Alliance featuring Banjo, Fiddle and Guitar

Ken spent years collecting tunes from traditional fiddle players on Prince Edward Island and years more translating them, with all their native spirit and soaring sound, to his own instrument, the 5-string banjo. When Ottawa residents James and Nathan join him on fiddle and guitar, they create what amounts to a banjo-centered band in which counter melodies and harmonies are woven with skill and care about these timeless down-east melodies. If you enjoyed Ken's CD, Northern Banjo this ensemble probably most closely captures that sound.

In addition to their ensemble numbers, a portion of each set is also devoted to solo presentations by these diverse musicians.

As a dance band these three extraordinary musicians create a rich tapestry of sound that is firmly rooted in tradition, exquisitely phrased, and rhythmically rock solid.

James Stephens is an all-around fiddle virtuoso, adept not only at Down East, Cape Breton, Ottawa Valley and a number of other native Canadian styles, but also at Irish, Scottish and American-old-time fiddling. An amazingly flexible musician, he segues with ease from lead to intricate back-up parts. He currently performs with the Finest Kind, the Brian Pikell Band, Bobbie Watt and Nicholas Williams. Also a gifted producer and recording engineer, over the years he has recorded most of the groups he plays with.

Nathan Curry is an extraordinary fretted-instrument specialist, who plays guitar and "bazouki/cittern" in the ensemble, moving with ease from solid rhythm, to elaborate bass lines, to elaborate unison and conter-melody parts. He has played in the Pierre Shryer Band and Six Mile Bridge, and he also tours in a duo with Linda Miller. He is also keeps busy in his other incarnation as luthier, turning out highly coveted mandolins, bazouki/citterns guitars and violins.

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