Bio:
Among guitarists and critics, Woody Mann is considered a modern master. While the country blues are his touchstone, he seems to draw inspiration from every direction, blending a myriad of influences with ease and grace. Pioneering guitar legend John Fahey said it well: “You can hear classical, jazz and blues approaches somehow converging into a single sparkling sound – a sound completely his own. If there was a category simply called great music Woody’s music would belong there”.
Since his early days when Woody took his first musical schooling with Reverend Gary Davis, the legendary blues, gospel and ragtime guitarist and with Chicago-born jazz pianist Lennie Tristano, Mann has pursued a rich and diverse career. From his first solo recording “Stairwell Serenade” that Guitar Player Magazine included in their “guitar recordings of destiny” he has; performed everywhere from the orchestra pits of Broadway to stages worldwide, recorded extensively as a soloist and in collaboration with legends Son House Bukka White, and John Fahey, been honored by the C.F. Martin guitar company with the release of “Woody Mann” signature model, named as the official USA ambassador the Great Britain International Guitar Festival, and has schooled countless guitarists through his many books and DVDs. Mann’s latest release “Careless Love” features a collection or original tracks ranging from Italian inspired melodies to Southern blues and jazz rhythms. It is yet another inspired set that shows why Woody continues to be an original voice on the music scene.
Acknowledging his artistry, the C.F. Martin guitar company has honored Woody with the release of the “Woody Mann” signature model guitar. He is also the official USA ambassador the Great Britain International Guitar Festival, where he has been a frequent performer.
As a producer, writer and filmmaker he has co-produced the award winning feature documentary, “Harlem Street Singer”, the story of Reverend Gary Davis, the legendary Gospel, blues, and ragtime guitarist, produced the soundtrack CD “Empire Root Band”, and penned his latest book “Just Play”, combines history and stories of artists Woody has known and worked with including jazz guitarist Attila Zoller, Lennie Portuguese composer Carlos Paredes, and his early mentors Reverend Gary Davis and jazz great Lennie Tristano.
Woody has taught at the major guitar workshops in the USA and Europe including Hanover University in Germany and Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch, been a faculty member at the New School in New York City, founded International Guitar Seminars, and created his own innovative online teaching website. Presently, Woody is a visiting artist at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he is teaching a new generation of musicians.
His originality has captured critical acclaim from New York to Tokyo. “Woody takes familiar material and twists and turns it taking a phrase and dynamics into a breathtaking listening experience. And smooth & bluesy vocals.” – the Guardian “What is remarkable is how he can draw from several styles and techniques within a single song and have them blend without the feeling of inconsistency. Woody Mann’s performance is inspired from start to finish.”-Acoustic Musician Magazine
Throughout his career, Woody has not forgotten those early lessons in the Rev. Davis’ living room or the jazz traditions that were his wellspring. He has become one of the world’s renowned guitar masters – bringing the past up to the present – with his own contemporary improvisational style.
Lessons/Workshops:
" What puts American guitar virtuoso Woody Mann so far ahead of the rest is that his lessons are grounded not just in a deep understanding of early blues music, but also in his own superior musicality.”
- Canberra Times, Australia
"Woody was extremely gracious and patient. He presents the material in such a clear and simple way. My adrenaline was pumping just knowing I was learning from someone who is not only a great player, but also a direct link to some of the first generation guys."
-R.F.
"If there was a category simply called "Great Music," Woody's C.Ds. would belong there."
- John Fahey
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).