More info about the tunes in my player: Cuz Mapfumo, from the Boiled in Lead album, From the Ladle to the Grave , is a combination of aThomas Mapfumosong calledShumba , and two Irish tunes by Cuz Teahan of Chicago: All My Grandchildren, and The Teahan Clan. They came together serendipitously one evening when I was exploring adding Zimbabwean rhythms to Irish jigs, by playing Cuz's tunes over the recording of Shumba. Imagine my surprise and joy when I discovered that, not only did it work rhythmically, but the jigs also fit nicely harmonically with Mapfumo's song. Boiled in Lead wasRobin "Adnan" Anders on drums,Todd Mentonon guitar,Drew Miller on bass, and myself on fiddle andSchwab electric mandolin .Guest artists includeLaura MacKenzieon flute and tin whistle, Celso Maldonado on congas,Willie Murphy on sequencer programming,Rick O'Dell on soprano saxophone,Steve Tibbets on guitar, andMarcus Wise on tabla.
His Eva/Tracking the Owls comes from the CDSkyline to the Seaby Bob Zander, kalimbist extrordinaire.Mick Labriola plays hand percussion,Peter O'Gorman is on drums, andAndy LaCasseplays bass.
Sevan and Bandar come from the album Music of the Heart, by the bandRobayatSevan is an Armenian tune with improvisations fromMaryam Yusefzadehon vocals, myself on violin,Tim Sparks on oud, Tim O'Keefe on percussion, andTom Lewis on bass. Bandar features Tim Sparks on chumbush.
I work at theMinneapolis Public Libraryand play violin and tenor sax with various groups, includingBoiled in Lead ,Honeysuckle Rose ,Felonious Bosch ,Sunplug'd ,Robayat ,American Swedish Institute Spelmanslag ,Voices of Sepharad , andCrossing Borders .I also sometimes play withParisota Hot Club and Cafe Accordion Orchestra .My daughter and I are involved with theYoung Fiddlers Association .My wife grew up inKuala Lumpur , Malaysia, and went to the University of St. Catherine in St. Paul, and the University of Minnesotaand my daughter goes toSouth High School .
I enjoy playing a wide variety of music including jazz, country, Irish, Swedish, Klezmer, Arabic, Balkan, etc. Minneapolis groups I've played with in the past include Infinity Art Unit, The Radio Rangers, Jan Reimer Band, Intuitive Bikers,Ethnic Dance Theater Orchestra ,Yiddische Folksmenchn, Imp Ork,Electric Arab Orchestra , Shalita,Dusty Drapes and the Dusters ,The Deadbeats, and You, Me, and Betsy. I love shows onKFAI radio likeFubar OmniverseandInternational Jazz Conspiracy , and I go to many great shows at theCedar Cultural Center .I was born in Springfield, Illinois on January 5, 1950, grew up in Cheyenne Wells, Boulder, Denver, and Estes Park, Colorado, Sioux Falls South Dakota, and Minnetonka, Minnesota.I went to Hopkins High School, St. Olaf College, and Augsburg College.
The first band I played in after college was Infinity Art Unit, with my brotherPeter Stenshoel ..boards, Stu Mathews on bass, Damon Mathews ..boards and saxophone, Kyle Huggins on guitar, and a couple of different drummers.
Next came Sky King (not the one headed by the Brubeck brothers), which featured Peter Stenshoel ..boards, Mark Freeman (who went on to Red House, and NNB) on guitar,Steve Almaas (who went on to Suicide Commandos and Beat Rodeo) on bass, and Jim Wilson on drums.
In 1976 I formed a band with fiddler Mike "Razz" Russell, guitarist/singer Frank Boyle, guitarist/singer Al Butler, bassist/singer John Hanson, steel guitarist Jay Braastad, and drummer Ron Hanson. We called ourselves the Radio Rangers, a name which had been used several times before and has also been used since we used it. We played Western Swing in the tradition of Bob Wills and Spade Cooley. We played locally and also on western tours of Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado. Later we added Marya Hart on piano, carrying an actual upright piano on the road with us in an old schoolbus painted red and black.
More info at my Yahoo Group .See photos at Flickr .On April 5 and 6, 2008, I was honored to play withSumunar Gamelan and Dance Ensembleat F.K. Weyerhauser Aunditorium in Landmark Center, St Paul Minnesota. I played two pieces with the Gamelan, Ladrang Turunsih (below) and Ketawang Sari (In David's Video's under my Photo above). I retuned my violin to match the tuning of the gamelan. Turunsih means "descendant of love" and is based on the azan the call to prayer by the muezzin, familiar in Muslim countries. The vocalist is Joko Sutrisno, the musical director of Sumunar Gamelan.