Darol Anger
Encyclopedia
Career
Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of The David Grisman QuintetThe David Grisman Quintet
The David Grisman Quintet is an album by American musician David Grisman, recorded with David Grisman Quintet and released in 1977.-Cover:...
. Anger played fiddle to David Grisman
David Grisman
David Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey...
's mandolin in The David Grisman Quintet's (DGQ) 1977 debut. He co-founded the Turtle Island String Quartet with David Balakrishnan in 1985 and performed, composed, and arranged for the chamber jazz group. He frequently collaborates with fellow DGQ alumnus Mike Marshall
Mike Marshall (bluegrass musician)
Mike Marshall is an American mandolin player and multi-instrumentalist who grew up in central Florida and now lives in Oakland, California. Marshall has been a part of New Acoustic Music since the early 1980s. He has performed and recorded with many musicians in a variety of styles, including...
.
Anger met pianist Barbara Higbie
Barbara Higbie
Barbara Higbie is a Grammy nominated, Bammy award winning pianist, composer, violinist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has played on over 65 CD's including 3 tunes on the recent Carlos Santana CD. A longtime Windham Hill recording artist, she has also recorded for Olivia/Second...
in Paris and formed a musical partnership with her. Together they released an early record on Windham Hill, Tideline (1982). Two years later, they formed a group called The Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie Quintet with Mike Marshall
Mike Marshall (bluegrass musician)
Mike Marshall is an American mandolin player and multi-instrumentalist who grew up in central Florida and now lives in Oakland, California. Marshall has been a part of New Acoustic Music since the early 1980s. He has performed and recorded with many musicians in a variety of styles, including...
, Todd Phillips, and Andy Narell
Andy Narell
Andy Narell is a musician and composer specialized in the steelpan.-Biography:He was born in New York City and moved to California in his teens. He took up the steelpan at a very young age in Queens, New York...
. This group performed at the 1984 Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
. The quintet later took the name Montreux
Montreux (band)
Montreux was the name of an American fusion band, specializing in the blend of jazz and bluegrass, with jam elements. The band was active from approximately 1982 until 1990 and recorded on Windham Hill Records...
. After two studio releases, the band broke up in 1990, and Anger continued with the Turtle Island String Quartet, founded in 1985. He still collaborates with Montreux and fellow Psychograss colleague, Mike Marshall, and occasionally also collaborates with Barbara Higbie and Michael Manring.
Using classical, folk, and jazz music as springboards, he currently leads Republic Of Strings, founded with Scott Nygaard. He also co-founded The Duo (with Mike Marshall
Mike Marshall (bluegrass musician)
Mike Marshall is an American mandolin player and multi-instrumentalist who grew up in central Florida and now lives in Oakland, California. Marshall has been a part of New Acoustic Music since the early 1980s. He has performed and recorded with many musicians in a variety of styles, including...
), Psychograss (the bluegrass group including Mike Marshall, mandolin; Todd Phillips, bass; David Grier
David Grier
David Grier is an American acoustic guitarist. He is considered to be one of the premier flatpicking guitarists in the world. His unique phrasing and his ability to create multiple variations on a theme are hallmarks of his playing style...
, guitar; and Tony Trischka
Tony Trischka
Tony Trischka is an American five-string banjo player.-Biography:Tony Trischka was born in Syracuse, New York, and graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A in Fine Arts, and was inspired to play the banjo in 1963, listening to the Kingston Trio's "Charlie and The MTA". Trischka was a...
, banjo), and Fiddlers Four (with Michael Doucet
Michael Doucet
Michael Doucet is a Cajun fiddler, singer and songwriter who founded the Cajun band BeauSoleil from Lafayette, Louisiana.In 2005 Doucet was one of 12 recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA award, which recognizes artistic excellence, cultural...
, Bruce Molsky
Bruce Molsky
Bruce C. Molsky is an American fiddler, banjo player, guitarist, and singer. He primarily performs old-time music of the Appalachian region.Molsky was born in 1955 at New York Infirmary in Manhattan, and grew up in The Bronx...
, violins; and Rushad Eggleston
Rushad Eggleston
Rushad Eggleston is a contemporary improvisational cellist.Eggleston, a graduate of Carmel High School in Carmel, California, United States, played the cello as a member of the Youth Music Monterey orchestra in Monterey Bay. Later he attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts,...
, cello). Anger also plays frequently with pianist Phil Aaberg. He has performed or recorded with musicians ranging from Tony Rice
Tony Rice
Tony Rice is an American acoustic guitarist and bluegrass musician. He is considered one of the most influential acoustic guitar players in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz.Rice spans the range of acoustic music, from traditional bluegrass to jazz-influenced New...
, Stephane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
and Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor is an American bluegrass, jazz, country and classical violinist fiddler, composer and music teacher. O'Connor's music is wide-ranging, critically acclaimed, and he has received numerous awards for both his playing and his composition...
to Marin Alsop, Bill Evans, Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek was an American progressive acoustic music trio consisting of Chris Thile , Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins . The band was founded in 1989 and released 6 albums between 1993 and 2006...
, Chris Thile
Chris Thile
Christopher Scott Thile is an American musician, best known as the mandolinist and a singer for the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek. His current band is Punch Brothers whose most recent album is Antifogmatic...
& Punch Brothers
Punch Brothers
Punch Brothers are a progressive bluegrass band. The band consists of Chris Thile , Gabe Witcher , Noam Pikelny , Chris Eldridge , and Paul Kowert...
, Yonder Mountain String Band
Yonder Mountain String Band
The Yonder Mountain String Band is an American progressive bluegrass group from Nederland, Colorado. Composed of Dave Johnston, Jeff Austin, Ben Kaufmann, and Adam Aijala, the band has released five studio albums and several live recordings to date.- History :The band's history stretches back to...
, Béla Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
, Taarka
Taarka
Taarka is a Portland, Oregon-based musical group, originally formed in 2001 by the husband/wife team of David Tiller and Enion Pelta-Tiller . The group originally included Jarrod Kaplan and James Whiton bass. Since their departure Taarka has largely consisted of a rotating membership...
and Anonymous 4. He can also be heard on the NPR's Car Talk theme song. He is a MacDowell and UCross Fellow.
Anger currently lives in Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
, after moving from his long-time home in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. He has completed the construction of 2 violins under the guidance of luthier Jonathan Cooper and was in 2010 named Associate Professor at the 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...
.
Discography
- Fiddlistics (1981)
- Tideline - with Barbara HigbieBarbara HigbieBarbara Higbie is a Grammy nominated, Bammy award winning pianist, composer, violinist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has played on over 65 CD's including 3 tunes on the recent Carlos Santana CD. A longtime Windham Hill recording artist, she has also recorded for Olivia/Second...
(1982) - Live at Montreux '84 (1984)
- Chiaroscuro (1985)
- The Duo - with Mike Marshall (1988)
- Jazz Violin Celebration (1988)
- Like Minds (1997)
- Jam (1999)
- Diary of a Fiddler (1999)
- Christmas Heritage (1998)
- At Home and On The Range (1997)
- Brand New Can (2000)
- Now Hear This (2001)
- Heritage (1996)
- Republic Of Strings"(2005)
- Generation Nation (2007)
- Woodshop (2007)
- Mike Marshall and Darol Anger with VäsenVäsenVäsen is a Swedish folk music band originally consisting of Olov Johansson , Mikael Marin and Roger Tallroth . Later André Ferrari also joined the group. they have released 14 albums, and have toured every year also outside of Europe...
(2007)
Republic of Strings
- Republic of Strings (2004)
- Generation Nation (2006)