Bruce Arnold
Encyclopedia
Bruce Arnold is an American
jazz
guitarist
, composer
, educator and author
residing in New York City
. His explorations into the applications of 20th century classical theory in contemporary forms such as rock
and jazz has created a unique compositional and improvisational sound. As a guest artist Arnold has toured Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the United States.
His performance and recording activities include work with a wide array of styles. He has played with such diverse musicians as Stuart Hamm
, Peter Erskine
, Joe Pass
, Joe Lovano
, Lenny Pickett, Randy Brecker
, Stanley Clarke
, the Boston Symphony Orchestra
and the Absolute Ensemble under the baton of Kristjan Järvi
.
Bruce Arnold's recording credits include over twenty five CDs and DVDs (on Muse-eek Records, MelBay Recordings, Truefire and other labels), ranging from the standard jazz repertoire to free improvisation to the reinterpretations of classical music with the ensemble Spooky Actions. His compositions are published by Muse Eek Publishing and MelBay Productions.
Mr. Arnold's theoretical works have explored the use of Pitch Class Set Theory within an improvisational setting. He has also written more than 60 music instruction books covering Guitar Pedagogy, Ear Training and Time Studies. He is the director of Guitar Studies at New York University
and Princeton University
as well as the creator of the New York University Summer Guitar Intensive. He has taught at the New England Conservatory, Dartmouth College
, Berklee College of Music
, New School University, and City College of New York
.
in 1988 where he became an active member of the jazz community, producing many recordings as a sideman and leader. He is one of the few electric guitarists in the world to utilize the computer program SuperCollider in both his compositions and improvisations.
His recordings as a leader include:
His recordings as a sideman include:
Mr. Arnold is a co-founding member of Spooky Actions, a jazz group which explores improvisations using classical music
repertoire.
, and Berklee College of Music
from 1984 to 1988. He is also on the faculty at:
, ear training
, time
, sight reading
, and the overall mastery of high-level performance skills. These books are published by Muse eek Publishing Company.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, educator and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
residing in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. His explorations into the applications of 20th century classical theory in contemporary forms such as rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and jazz has created a unique compositional and improvisational sound. As a guest artist Arnold has toured Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the United States.
His performance and recording activities include work with a wide array of styles. He has played with such diverse musicians as Stuart Hamm
Stuart Hamm
Stuart "Stu" Hamm is an American bass guitar player, known for his session and live work with numerous artists as well for his unconventional playing style and solo recordings.-Beginning career:...
, Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine is an American jazz drummer and composer. He has enjoyed a long and successful career as a session drummer, recording and touring with many famous jazz and rock artists, including Steely Dan and Weather Report...
, Joe Pass
Joe Pass
Joe Pass was an Italian-American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century...
, Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
, Lenny Pickett, Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker
Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
, Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
, the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
and the Absolute Ensemble under the baton of Kristjan Järvi
Kristjan Järvi
Kristjan Järvi is an Estonian-American conductor. Järvi is the younger son of Neeme Järvi, and the brother of conductor Paavo Järvi and flutist Maarika Järvi....
.
Bruce Arnold's recording credits include over twenty five CDs and DVDs (on Muse-eek Records, MelBay Recordings, Truefire and other labels), ranging from the standard jazz repertoire to free improvisation to the reinterpretations of classical music with the ensemble Spooky Actions. His compositions are published by Muse Eek Publishing and MelBay Productions.
Mr. Arnold's theoretical works have explored the use of Pitch Class Set Theory within an improvisational setting. He has also written more than 60 music instruction books covering Guitar Pedagogy, Ear Training and Time Studies. He is the director of Guitar Studies at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
as well as the creator of the New York University Summer Guitar Intensive. He has taught at the New England Conservatory, Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
, New School University, and City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
.
Performance background
Mr. Arnold moved to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1988 where he became an active member of the jazz community, producing many recordings as a sideman and leader. He is one of the few electric guitarists in the world to utilize the computer program SuperCollider in both his compositions and improvisations.
His recordings as a leader include:
- 1994 Blue Eleven MMC Recordings
- 1998 A Few Dozen Muse Eek Recordings
- 2001 Give em' Some Muse Eek Recordings
- 2004 Duets with Olivier Ker OurioOlivier Ker OurioOlivier Ker Ourio is a jazz musician of Breton ancestry known for playing Chromatic harmonica. He has worked with Bruce Arnold, Franck Amsallem and David Kikoski among others. He has also shown an interest in Creole music and Celtic music.-References:...
Muse Eek Recordings - 2007 Blue Lotus Bruce Arnold Trio
- 2009 Multiplicity Bruce Arnold Trio
- 2010 Art of the Blues Bruce Arnold Trio
- 2010 Heavy Mental Bruce Arnold Trio
His recordings as a sideman include:
- 2002 Spooky Actions: Music of Anton WebernAnton WebernAnton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
for Jazz Quartet - 2003 Spooky Actions: Songs of the Nations
- 2004 Spooky Actions: Early MusicEarly musicEarly music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...
- 2005 Spooky Actions Olivier MessiaenOlivier MessiaenOlivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
Quartet for the end of TimeQuatuor pour la fin du tempsQuatuor pour la fin du temps, also known by its English title Quartet for the End of Time, is a piece of chamber music by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. It was premiered in 1941... - 2007 Spooky Actions plays Arnold SchoenbergArnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
Five Piano Pieces Op.23
Mr. Arnold is a co-founding member of Spooky Actions, a jazz group which explores improvisations using classical music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
repertoire.
Teaching background
Mr. Arnold taught at New England Conservatory, Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, and Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
from 1984 to 1988. He is also on the faculty at:
- Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1989, - New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in 1989, - New School University, 2002,
- City College of New YorkCity College of New YorkThe City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
. 2003 - In 2005 Mr. Arnold became director of the New York University Summer Guitar Intensive, a program focusing on advanced improvisational skills.
Author background
Mr. Arnold is the author of more than 50 music instruction texts devoted to crucial aspects of guitar technique, music theoryMusic theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
, ear training
Ear training
Ear training or aural skills is a skill by which musicians learn to identify, solely by hearing, pitches, intervals, melody, chords, rhythms, and other basic elements of music. The application of this skill is analogous to taking dictation in written/spoken language. Ear training may be...
, time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
, sight reading
Sight reading
Sight-reading is the reading and performing of a piece of written music, specifically when the performer has not seen it before. Sight-singing is often used to describe a singer who is sight-reading.-Sight-reading:...
, and the overall mastery of high-level performance skills. These books are published by Muse eek Publishing Company.
External links
- http://www.muse-eek.com Muse-Eek Publishing New York, N.Y.