G.E. STINSON - Guitar
G.E. Stinson's exploration of American folk music
forms began as a child immersed in the gospel music of his family
in Oklahoma. He continued in Chicago, studying blues with Cash
McCall, Hound Dog Taylor among others and eventually received a
composition scholarship with William Russo at Columbia College.
In 1972, he co-founded the seminal fusion/world music group,
Shadowfax. During his tenure with this group, he performed and
composed on seven recordings, toured extensively in the U.S.,
Europe, South America and Japan including performances at
Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Academy of Music, and Wolftrap. In
1988, Stinson along with the other members of Shadowfax were
honored with a Grammy Award from the National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences and the following year began a
collaboration with Momix Dance Theater which culminated in a
national tour.
1990 brought the formation of the G.E. Stinson Group in Los
Angeles and the subsequent completion of a recording entitled
"The Same Without You" in 1993. This was to be the
first of many collaborations that would lead to Stinson becoming
a prominent member of the Los Angeles New Music community. Among
these projects are the Wayne Peet Trio recording "Fully
Engulfed"; Adam Rudolph's opera "The Dreamer";
"Right of Violet" featuring Alex Cline and Jeff
Gauthier; Unique Cheerful Events (an improvising collective);
guitar duets with Nels Cline and A Thousand Other Names, a
Stinson led group which completed a self titled recording in 1996
on Birdcage records. Stinson continues to compose for dance and
has contributed to several motion picture soundtracks.
PRESS
"On the left side of stage, G.E. Stinson lets his fingers
scratch out an almost funky guitar riff about three-quarters of
the way to a standard realization before strangling it and
beating it into a dissonant chord. The mass gets denser. The
intervals between beats get smaller and smaller, until everything
blends into a roar. It sounds as if the roof has been ripped off
of Hell." L.A. Times, August 1994
"Guitarist Stinson maltreats his instrument Henry
Kaiser-style or lurches into post modern funk..... keens a
penetrating space song or augments the band's ambiance with
digital-delay boxes... they coalesce into a grand wave of
feedback and industrial pollution." L.A. Weekly February
1993
"G.E. Stinson is a gutsy guitarist with a gritty post-modern
outlook ...for all of their uninhibited and scenery-chewing
bravado (and sensitivity), Stinson and company are superb players
with superlative skills. In all, it's serious fun filtered
through Stinson's unadulterated aesthetic lens. Bravo!" Jazz
Times, December 1993
"Stinson (guitar) and company come firing out with a melody
built of staccato phrases ...shifts and dissipates, with long
guitar stretches of minimal notes creating a soundscape. ....Some
guitar work a la Miles Davis' 'Bitches Brew' era, but more
bristling energy and more driving direction, with brief thrash
forays, blues stretches and jazz tone coloring extraordinaire.
Electric but not fusion; wildly magnificent." Victory
Review, October 1993
"Guitarist G.E. Stinson's Los Angeles quartet offers an
indication ....of how forceful fusion music can be when done by
players who aren't seeking a commercial crossover." Jazz
Sounds, October 1993
"G.E. Stinson shows himself to be a multi-faceted guitar
player. He's part Hendrix-like energizer...part hard urban
bluesman...and part avant-texturalist."
Cadence, November 1993
"After two decades with the Grammy Award-winning and musical
genre breaking Shadowfax, guitarist extraordinaire G.E. Stinson
has re-emerged with a new project, the likes of which we have not
yet been treated to.......a full sensory assault which will leave
you breathless after only one listening." the Island-Ear,
February 1994
"Guitarist G.E. Stinson is one of the regulars who have
helped make New Music Monday at the Alligator Lounge a place to
be in Los Angeles...Stinson specializes in a kind of post-ECM
ethereal/electric blend,...a dark, sensuous, roiling sound for
the naked, shaken city." JAZZIZ, May 1994
"The antipodes of the group are Stinson's guitar and
Liebig's bass, positioned at opposite sides of the stage, the
energy arcing between them. The two bounce off each other's riffs
and rhythms, stretching or chopping up ideas, simultaneously
concentrating on the dynamics of silence. It's not the string of
notes thing; both employ feedback, echo and assorted dangerous
effects to send waves across the beats and add dimension."
L.A. Weekly, March 1996
DISCOGRAPHY
Shadowfax
1975 Watercourse Way ABC/Passport
1982 Shadowfax Windham Hill
1983 Shadowdance Windham Hill
1984 The Dreams of Children Windham Hill
1986 Too Far to Whisper Windham Hill
1988 Folk Songs for a Nuclear Village Capitol Records
1989 The Odd Get Even Private Music
G.E. Stinson Group
1993 The Same Without You 9 Winds
A Thousand Other Names
1996 (self titled) Birdcage
Also appears on:
1971 Harvey Mandel Get Off In Chicago Ovation
1992 Adam Rudolph's Moving Pictures Flying Fish
1995 Brad Dutz Krin Interworld
1995 Wayne Peet Trio Fully Engulfed 9 Winds
1995 Adam Rudolph The Dreamer Meta Records
1996 Jeremy Toback (self titled) Cherrydisc
1996 Cline, Gauthier, Stinson Right of Violet 9 Winds