Album Notes
"Listening to No Regrets, Randy Armstrong's tenth album, is like listening to a whole season of concerts in one sitting. As one of the pioneers of the world fusion music genre in the early 70s with Do'ah World Music Ensemble, Randy brings all of his experience and performance genius to a collection of songs that range from the evocative sounds of a Lakota courting flute to a most sophisticated jazz guitar arrangement of Miles Davis' "Blue in Green." In between, Randy explores the full range of emotions and captures them in ground-breaking arrangements that further his reputation as one of the most innovative musicians of the era.
In No Regrets, Randy provides a showcase album not only of his lyrical flair, but also of his virtuosity with a widevariety of instruments and musical styles. Randy performs on two rare Michael Jacobson-Hardy handmade cutaway guitars, as well a 1948 vintage Gibson L7 jazz guitar and a Godin Jazz Multiac synth-guitar. In addition, he deftly coaxes echoes from cultures around the world playing the North Indian sitar and tabla, West African djembe, balafon, djun-djun, Lakota flute, and other instruments which he plays with equal virtuosity.
And of course in No Regrets, Randy explores a genre-defying variety of styles, including jazz, world fusion, western classical counterpoint, flamenco, North Indian, and Native American."
Artist's Bio
"Hailed by the Boston Globe as a ""sure-fingered guitar virtuoso"", Randy Armstrong is the co-founder of DOAH WORLD MUSIC ENSEMBLE and The ARMSTRONG•NAHRMANN GROUP, formerly UNU MONDO and leader of the RANDY ARMSTRONG TRIO. With a collection of over two hundred instruments from around the world, including acoustic-synth and nylon string guitars, sitar, balofon, djembe, koto, charango, mbira and a wide variety of percussion and stringed instruments, he has amazed audiences throughout the United States, Canada, Alaska, Croatia, South Africa and India.
He has performed at Carnegie Recital Hall and festivals at Lincoln Center in New York City. In 1998, Randy was selected as an artist representative to attend a Cultural Trade Mission to Ireland, Northern Ireland and England sponsored by Governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and in May 2005 attended a Curatorial Research trip on Son Jarocho music in Xalapa and Veracruz, Mexico for the New England Foundation for the Arts. He was appointed as an Arts Councilor for the NH State Council on the Arts by Governor Craig Benson in 2003 and serves on the board of directors for the New Hampshire Alliance for Arts Education.
In the summer of 2004, Randy performed and studied with Garifuna musicians and drummers in Dangriga and Hopkins, Belize in Central America and with Ewe, Ga and Fanti master drummers in Ghana, West Africa at the Arts Centre in Accra and at the University of Ghana in Legon. In July and August of 2007, he toured Croatia and Slovenia as a soloist, arranger and accompanist for Voices from the Heart and also toured as percussionist and composer for the KAT Company South Africa Arts and Culture Institute.
As a composer and performing artist with DOAH WORLD MUSIC ENSEMBLE, his music has been acclaimed as ""a marvelous kaleidoscope of shifting melodies, rhythms, and instrumental colors"" by DOWNBEAT magazine. CD REVIEW stated, ""guitarist Randy Armstrong?has composed some of the brightest contemporary instrumentals this side of the hemisphere."" DOAH’s fifth album, WORLD DANCE, released in 1988, reached the top 10 of several national charts including #7 in BILLBOARD. Randy has also appeared on over 30 albums and film scores.
Randy Armstrong scored the music for a four-part PBS series, DINNER ON THE DINER (click for PBS Web site), produced by British filmmaker, Jon Guilbert. The series explores four famous train rides through Spain, Scotland, South Africa and Malaysia/Thailand with a double-CD to be released concurrently with its premiere. The programs aired on the PBS network in June 2000.
Randy holds a degree in composition and world music studies and has conducted workshops at schools, universities and cultural institutions throughout the United States. He is an adjunct faculty instructor of West African drumming and North Indian sitar and tabla at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter NH and on the faculty of the Plymouth State University Graduate Program.
He also performs with the award-winning storytelling, music and movement duo, ARMSTRONG & AICHELE: WORLD TALES that has been receiving wide critical acclaim. With DOAH WORLD MUSIC ENSEMBLE and as a solo artist, he has been the recipient of numerous grants from the New Hampshire State Council for the Arts, The New England Foundation for the Arts, the state arts councils of Arkansas, Arizona and New York and the National Endowment of the Arts. He has shared the stage with such artists as Dizzy Gillespie, King Sunny Ade, the Paul Winter Consort, Pierre Bensusan, Michael Hedges, Richie Havens, Babatunde Olatunji, and Eddie Palmieri."
