World Fusion Music Documentary
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World Music and Dance Collaborations
This video documents the history of the world music movement and shows archival clips of many of the variations of the band Ancient Future. BILLBOARD calls the group "trendsetters" for contributing to the emerging movement for “world fusion music,” a term Ancient Future coined at its inception in 1978 for music that blends musical ideas from many different cultures. Ancient Future is the world's first and longest running band dedicated exclusively to the creation of world fusion music. Ancient Future has expanded its musical vision through collaborations with traditional musicians from around the world who are now an integral part of what is today more than just a band. Ancient Future has grown to become a large chamber ensemble of world music masters with many smaller ensembles within it, enabling Ancient Future to realize its core mission of creating world fusion music. Many configurations are available, from a small number of the musicians on up to large ensembles. Videos from some programs are shown below.
Guitar-Sitar Jugalbandi: Jugalbandi is a classical North Indian musical duet (literally "tied together"), in this case with the unusual configuration of sitar and guitar accompanied by tabla. Pandit Habib Khan (sitar) and Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar) have enthralled audiences from St. Louis, Missouri, to Beirut, Lebanon. Matthew Montfort specializes in performing Indian classical music on the scalloped fretboard guitar. This jugalbandi works so well because Matthew Montfort is a guitarist with knowledge of sitar and Pandit Habib Khan has been described as the "Jimi Hendrix of the sitar" by L'ORIENT LE JOUR, Beirut's French language newspaper. |
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Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble: Performs music from Mariah Parker's debut CD, 'Sangria.' The program is available in trio, quartet, quintet, and sextet formats and includes musicians who have performed with Oregon, Sun Ra, and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. |
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Matthew Montfort: Ancient Future's leader and pioneer of the scalloped fretboard guitar performs material from his debut solo CD, 'Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar.' |
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Slavic Trance: 100% loop-free organic world trance grooves played live by master musicians and fronted by Irina Mikhailova (Eastern European vocals). This program is quite popular at dances and festivals as an organic alternative to DJs and drum machines. The program was a dance favorite at the Harmony Festival's Techno Tribal Dance, where they debuted new material with Irina singing in English in addition to her native Russian language. |
