Dennis Rea profile picture

Dennis Rea

Guitarist / Composer / Author

About Me

Purchase Dennis Rea's book and music online .

Dennis Rea's adventurous guitar playing blends modern jazz, creative rock, experimental music, and world musical traditions into an approach that is uniquely his own, encompassing haunting lyricism, enigmatic textures, agile improvisation, and the raw dynamism of rock. He has performed on three continents at such venues as the WOMAD Festival, Beijing International Jazz Festival, Sichuan-China International TV Festival, Bumbershoot Arts Festival, Columbia Gorge Amphitheater, and Earshot Jazz Festival. Over the years Dennis has led or been a key contributor to numerous innovative groups, including Land, Stackpole, Axolotl, Savant, Earthstar , Ink, Eric Apoe & They , Identity Crisis, the Gang of Formosa, Moraine , and Ting Bu Dong. He has performed or recorded with such prominent creative musicians as European free jazz legend Han Bennink, Chinese rock megastar Cui Jian, acclaimed French composer Hector Zazou, German electronic music pioneer Klaus Schulze, trombone virtuoso Stuart Dempster, and jazz mainstay John Clayton, as well as members of King Crimson, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Ministry, and the Sun Ra Arkestra. He has collaborated with many of the most important figures in contemporary Chinese music and was one of the first Western musicians to record an album for the state-owned China Record Company. His activities have spanned film, theater, radio, and modern dance, and he has appeared on more than two-dozen recordings to date. He was a finalist for Best Guitarist in the 2005 Seattle Weekly Music Awards, and won a Golden Ear Award for Best Northwest Outside Jazz Group in 2000 as leader of the improvising quartet Stackpole. He is also an accomplished author whose most recent work is the book Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan . For more information, see Dennis Rea's Web site .

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/22/2006
Band Website: dennisrea.com
Band Members: Current and recent projects include Moraine, Tempered Steel, Ting Bu Dong, Iron Kim Style, Identity Crisis, Chekov, Eric Apoe & They, and the Rea/Chiaverini/Jaskot Trio.
Influences: MUSICAL INFLUENCES: John Abercrombie, Art Ensemble of Chicago/AACM, Derek Bailey, Paul Bley, Anthony Braxton, Brotherhood of Breath, John Cage, Eugene Chadbourne, Don Cherry, Nels Cline, John Coltrane, Cui Jian, Miles Davis, Stuart Dempster, Eric Dolphy, ECM, Bill Evans, free improvisation, Fred Frith, Stan Getz, Egberto Gismonti, Jimi Hendrix, King Crimson, Gyorgy Ligeti, John McLaughlin, Charles Mingus, Ben Monder, William Parker, Harry Partch, Annette Peacock, psychedelia, Terje Rypdal, Elliott Sharp, Soft Machine, Sun Ra, Toru Takemitsu, Keith Tippett, Ralph Towner, Robert Wyatt, and the music of Brazil, Cambodia, China, Korea, the Naxi people, North Africa, Vietnam, and Xinjiang. NON-MUSICAL INSPIRATIONS: Edward Abbey, J.G. Ballard, Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Dadaism, deep ecology, Philip K. Dick, Marcel Duchamp, Federico Fellini, Fluxus, William M. Gaines, Allen Ginsberg, Andy Goldsworthy, Brion Gysin, Ken Kesey, Stanley Kubrick, James Howard Kunstler, Bob Marshall, John Muir, Mardy and Olaus Murie, Pacific Northwest coast native cultures, Man Ray, Gary Snyder, David Suzuki, Ichiro Suzuki, Taoism, William T. Vollmann, Zen
Record Label: First World Music (firstworldmusic.com)
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Composer Spotlight presentation 3/12

For the past two years I've been working on a projected CD of unusual adaptations of traditional East Asian music combined with my own Asian-influenced pieces. I'm happy to report that, thanks largely...
Posted by Dennis Rea on Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:05:00 PST

Latest news

I'm happy to report that I am now the subject of an unsolicited, and very substantive and well-researched, article on Wikipedia.An April '08 tour of Taiwan is shaping up for my intermittent internatio...
Posted by Dennis Rea on Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:05:00 PST

Read Dennis Rea profile in Earshot Jazz magazine

Dennis Rea profile in Earshot Jazz magazine, 6/07
Posted by Dennis Rea on Sat, 26 May 2007 11:31:00 PST

Listen to Dennis' guest appearance with Chekov

While in Munich this spring to record and perform with my old comrades Atze Ton, Volker Wiedersheim, and Olli Klomp, I was honored to contribute a solo to the track "For Absent Friends" by Atze's Muni...
Posted by Dennis Rea on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 02:36:00 PST

Listen to Dennis' multinational band recorded in Munich 2007

Dennis and Seattle drummer Olli Klomp traveled to Munich in March 2007 to record several of Dennis' tunes with his former Taiwan bandmates Atze Ton, and Volker Wiedersheim. Listen to the rou...
Posted by Dennis Rea on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 01:56:00 PST

Listen to Dennis Rea interview on NPR affiliate KUOW

Listen to Dennis Rea Live at the Forbidden City interview on NPR affilate KUOW.
Posted by Dennis Rea on Wed, 15 Nov 2006 06:32:00 PST

Now Available: Live at the Forbidden City

Im pleased to announce that, at long last, my book Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan has been published and is now available for purchase online at http://www.iunivers...
Posted by Dennis Rea on Wed, 24 May 2006 03:30:00 PST