Jo Jena started playing the guitar at the age of 10 in berlin (the wall had just come down). His teachers were Arion Levy and Michael Gechter. 1 of 100 guitarists with Rhys Chatham. recipient of berklee scholarship. participant of ensemble modern junior forum. Emphasis on improvisation, ambient & avantgarde. Independent release of music recordings via “instauratio minima musicarum“ since 2004
jo jena – Listen on YouTube, Apple Music – Linktree
hydrangea by Jo Jena, Bandcamp, 2022 on #neuguitars #blog #JoJena
▶︎ hydrangea | Jo Jena (bandcamp.com)
the suite “el arpa de la guerrera” was originally freely improvised in four parts (see free solo #38). influenced by latin american guitar literature and pop music of the second half of the 20th century it is now a throughcomposed work for extended range nylon guitar.
it is followed by three arrangements of modal pieces by famous jazz composers who are known for a specific harmonic vocabulary, which may be closer to the language of neoclassical composer paul hindemith then let’s say black american music legend duke ellington.
I allow myself some improvisational liberties in the exploration of the musical material, which in this form and spontaneity are certainly only possible solo. the three pieces are to be heard as a unit and in particular I am interested, similar to a structuralist approach in linguistics, in entering a level behind the respective concrete pieces through improvisation, in which the harmonic and thematic ideas are still much more tangled and not yet fully differentiated – in linguistic terms: making the „langue“ behind the „parole“ accessible.
the album closes with an improvised ambient piece.
downloads come in 24bit/44,1 kHz hi res including 20 page score for 3 part suite “el arpa de la guerrera” and postscore of „illkley moor“.
credits
released November 19, 2022
jo jena – stoll custom 7 string nylon guitar, boden 7 string-guitar, guitar synths, fx & loops
track 1-6 recorded by stefan deistler on november 10th 2022 at loft cologne.
track 7 played & recorded at studio “raumstation”, frankfurt am main on august 6th, 2022
mixed & mastered by jo jena
thanks to stefan deistler and dr. urs-benedikt müller, christian stoll & company, strandberg guitars, jeremey poparad, marc petri, trees hohagen and especially E. for enduring support.
copyrights:
teru by wayne shorter
copyright kobalt music pub america inc. o/b/o miyako music
ma béllè helene by kenny wheeler
copyright sin pays publishing o/b/o e-c-m-records verlag edition zeitgenoessische and mechanical copyright protection society ltd
zarabeth by allan holdsworth
copyright fred bloggs publishing
all other pieces by jo jena
copyright instauratio minima musicarum/GEMA protected
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