Woody Mann via giant steps through a matrix based in the phenomenon placing most of the 7.8 billion of us within 6 or fewer degrees — steps — of each other...
- Steps from Woody Mann:
I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶
'mātriks / "source" / from "mater", Latin for "mother". We're real mothers for ya!
I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶
- Steps forward by: The Matrix
Who I Am & Where I Live
- Name: Woody Mann
- City: New York City
- Country: United States
My Life & Work
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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.
Contact Information
- Email: acousticsessionsinc@gmail.com
My Media & Markets
- ▶ Buy My Music (downloads/CDs/DVDs): http://woodymann.com/online-store/
- ▶ Book Purchases: http://woodymann.com/product-category/books-2/
- ▶ Twitter: woodymannmusic
- ▶ Instagram: woodymannmusic
- ▶ Website: http://woodymann.com
- ▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/HaywoodstudioUSA
- ▶ YouTube Music: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UCb39kUHwLvpSS4NYDbfGLaQ
- ▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/62c6lQqBQZXfqPXrFVqvfJ
- ▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/0RxIEKBduv0kCId5hbdD8m
- ▶ Spotify 3: http://open.spotify.com/album/1ZfJGgX8cawYfP3WUTOoJr
- ▶ Spotify 4: http://open.spotify.com/album/3XmNrJCCwIyGs5yLhHJC7c
- ▶ Spotify 5: http://open.spotify.com/album/4CzR53MpCCpWBQeQ0TRD7T
- ▶ Spotify 6: http://open.spotify.com/album/7e09OaKRoelcDRVQsQDR6n
My Instruction
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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 - Instruction: http://www.woodymannguitarlessons.com
The world's artistry via giant steps through a matrix based in the phenomenon placing most of the 7.8 billion of us within 6 or fewer degrees — steps — of each other ...
... a project conceived and built in the fertile, fecund and atavistic ground zero of Bahia, Brazil initially for the discoverability of this singular region's dispossessed genius.
All explained in the window immediately below. Followed — beneath this window — by scores of magnificent artists, each leading to myriads more artists/categories. Inside this window also may be found our Brazilian record store radio, named by British journal The Guardian as one of 10 of the Best Radio Stations Around the World!
IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT
Brazil is not a European nation. It's not a North American nation. It's not an East Asian nation. It straddles -- jungle and desert and dense urban centers -- both the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. It absorbed over ten times the number of African slaves taken to the United States of America, and much of its aboriginal population was absorbed into the general population-at-large. Its people have lived under oligarchy, plutocracy, dictatorships and massive corruption, with elements of these still strongly entrenched today.
But!
Brazil has buzz...not the shallow buzz of a fashionable moment...but the deep buzz of a population which in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- the tough slog through life they've been allotted by humanity's dregs-in-fine-linen, have chosen not to simply pull themselves along but to lift their voices in song and their bodies in dance...to eat well and converse well and much and to wring the joy out of the day-to-day happenings and small pleasures of life which are so often set aside or ignored in the European, North American, and East Asian nations.
For this Brazil has a genius perhaps unparalleled in all other countries and societies, a genius which thrives alongside peeling paint and holes in the streets and roads, under bad organization by the powers-that-be, both civil and governmental, under a constant rain of societal indignities...
Which is all to say that if you don't know Brazil and you're expecting any semblance of order, progress and light, you will certainly find the light! And the buzz of a people who for generations have responded to privation at many different levels by somehow rising above it all.
Raimundo Sodré, in a conversation ranging from New Orleans to Harlem and the South Side of Chicago ... through Appalachia and Irish villages and Russian shtetls and the unofficial symbol of Brazil's Bahian-born national music (the pandeiro) almost certainly having arrived in Brazil in the hands of Sephardic Jews (including conversos) fleeing the Inquisition, once remarked: "Where there's misery, there's music!"
A pandeirista on the roof. And it's not just music. And it's not just Brazil.
