Allan Jaffe (guitarist)

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Allan Jaffe (born July 19, 1950 in Boston ) is an American jazz and fusion musician ( guitar , composition ).

Live and act

Jaffe began learning classical piano as a child, which he did for two years, after which he switched to the violin and then to the cello, which he learned for four years. At the age of thirteen he began to play the guitar , initially as a self-taught , and was later influenced by Jim Hall . He studied music theory and history at Yale University . Together with Anthony Davis he founded the duo Sweet Rain , which was then expanded to include Mark Helias and Gerry Hemingway . He graduated in 1972 to play in New York clubs and parties in 1975. Then he married a French woman and moved to Paris, where he formed a band. In 1978 he came back where he recorded with James Newton . Also in 1978 he presented his debut album Soundscapes with his own compositions under his own name . Then he joined the band of Ray Anderson , with whom he performed at the Moers Festival in 1980 ( Harrisburg Half Life ).

In 1981 he founded the funk band Slickaphonics with Anderson, Jim Payne , Mark Helias and Steve Elson , with whom he recorded five albums for Enja and Teldec in the 1980s and toured several times in the USA and Europe. In 1984 he also played with John Lindberg and with Bobby Previte's jazz rock group . In 1990 he toured with the JBHorns under the direction of Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley . He also worked with James Brown , Julius Hemphill , Marty Ehrlich , Tim Berne , Earle Howard and George Russell . He later played in a duo with the Canadian violinist Terry Kane , in the IO Kreativ and with Stephen Haynes / Taylor Ho Bynum .

For the past twenty years, Jaffe has focused on interpreting ragtime for solo guitar. In 2005 Hal Leonard released the music folio / CD Ragtime Guitar , which contains three rags by Jaffe along with his arrangements of eleven piano rags for guitar. In 2007 his CD Rags For Guitar followed with further compositions of his own.

With the librettist Deborah Atherton he has written two music theater works so far, first Carmilla , an adaptation of the vampire story of the 19th century by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu , then the opera Mary Shelley , based on the life of the author von Frankenstein , which premiered in New York City in 2002 has been.

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