Jamie Janover is recognized as the most innovative hammered dulcimer player
on tour today. His approach to this ancient percussion stringed instrument
is revolutionary both technically and stylistically. Janover¹s intuitive
sense of compositional improvisation and his impeccable timing helped him to
win the 2003 National Hammered Dulcimer Championship. Jamie is also an
accomplished drummer, percussionist and a veteran of hundreds of guest
appearances with artists including Phish, Stanley Jordan, Bela Fleck, Keller
Williams, and Umphree¹s McGee. His Evolutions CD is solo dulcimer. The
Realms CD has many styles and guests including members of Phish, String
Cheese and Garaj Mahal. The CD All Strings Considered is hammered dulcimer
duets with Michael Masley. Now, Center of Time is the new solo dulcimer CD.
Jamie is also a core member of the band Zilla that features Michael Travis
(String Cheese Incident), Aaron Holstein (Future Jazz Project) and Steve
Vidaic (Citizen Cope). Zilla is remarkable for it¹s ability to create
spontaneous compositions, especially considering that they are 100%
improvisation. You see, these guys are the best of friends and they all
believe in the group mind. For them, a good show is all about listening to
each other so well that each individual musician¹s voice melts into the
collective whole to the point where the sky cracks open and the music plays
the band!
Jamie Janover's new CD is called "All Strings Considered". It is an album of hammered dulcimer
dialogues by himself and the innovative hammered dulcimer player, Michael Masley.
Michael Masley invented “bowhammers” - his own technique for playing the hammered dulcimer enabling
him to pluck, bow and strike the strings simultaneously. Attached to four fingers on each hand, they
are similar in shape to traditional hammered dulcimer hammers, except the striking surface is covered
with horsehair, like miniature violin bows. They produce bell-like tones when used to strike the strings
and violin-like tones when used to bow the strings. Michael also uses thumb-picks, which create the
“plucked” string tones. He has recorded with artists as diverse as Ry Cooder, Butch Vig, Tom Waits and
Zakir Hussain and is included in “Bakers Biographical Dictionary of Musicians -8th edition”.
“Jamie Janover takes both the idea of dulcimer as drum and idea of
travel through music to their logical extremes.” - Carrie Crompton,
Dulcimer Player News
“(The) instrument is a hammered dulcimer and Janover is it’s master.”
- David Surchuk, The Boulder Weekly
“Excellent fusion knows no boundaries. And this sampling of jazz, rock,funk
and folk shakes your moneymaker in delightful ways. Gotta give Jamie Janover
an “A” with creative engineering on the songs (on this CD).”
TJM - Dirty Linnen - The magazine of folk and world music.
“An artist who scores heavily in the originality stakes is Jamie Janover.
He plays the hammered dulcimer, and boy, does he play it! Realms is his
(fifth) album to date, and what a gem it is. Janover has an all-star cast
of heavy friends including members of Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident,
Phish and The Jazz Mandolin Project, as well as Darol Anger, Sally Van Meter,
Tony Furtado, (Kai Eckhardt and Howard Levy). But rest assured; it’s Janover’s
incredibly diverse and imaginative playing that occupies the limelight.
The music he tackles is far more complex and experimental than of most hammered
dulcimer players.”
Mick Skidmore, Relix Magazine
“All musicians play music, but it’s rarer the player who’s so at home in
his craft that he can let the music play him. Jamie Janover is that precious sort
of musician who seems to create from the very source of music itself. His liquid,
haunting, seemingly effortless lines ring with uncanny familiarity because there
are so many traditions flowing through Jamie’s dancing hands: Celtic Highland folk
forms, modal jazz reflections and odd time mountain echoes, all in the flux of
improvisation. Jamie’s music always sounds fresh because it’s always in the process
of discovering itself. It can be followed note-for-note with all the intensity a
careful listener can muster, and it’s fertile explorations weave shimmering backdrops
for deep human occupations, like reflection on What Matters and making love.”
Steve Silberman, coauthor of Skeleton Key: A Dictionary For Deadheads (Doubleday)
“I’ve never seen anything like it - amazing! A
very great musician!” - Trey Anastasio, guitarist, Phish
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