-TIME OUT NEW YORK

Welcome to my official site and blog, and thanks for supporting my creative work in music. I hope you’ll find the site useful. There is information about my musical self, and gigs and recordings,  as well as posts about guitar playing, composing, producing, and teaching. Also, ruminations on our sonic lives.      -Cristian

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“ I kind of hate myself for digging this abrasive clatter [War is Good for Business] because it’s galaxies away from my Beatles- and Beethoven-forged sense of composition. But it rocks real hard against its orchestra of bloops and bleeps, and then breaks down to a mournful sound collage. A great theme for Halliburton’s symphony of opportunism.

-GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE

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Cristian Amigo is an American composer, guitarist, and producer who explores connections  between art (classical and jazz) music and American popular and roots musics; and between through-composed and improvised music.  Known as an acoustic and electric guitarist, Amigo writes avant-music for chamber ensembles, opera, theater, and film; he composes and performs fierce riffs and songs in roots, improvised, and experimental music groups.

His awards include fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and Meet the Composer. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the American Composers Forum, and Innova Recordings, among many others. The 2012 New Grove Dictionary of American Music will contain an entry on Cristian and his music.

Cristian holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from UCLA where he specialized in the guitar-centric folk musics of Argentina, Chile, and Peru. He is currently composer-in-residence @ INTAR theater in New York City. Cristian fronts the Americana/Blues band THE GOTHAM ROOTS ORCHESTRA and is partial to the Gibson Les Paul Standard and Fender telecaster deluxe. He lives in New York City with his wife and two cats.

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I’ve got about 8 NYC gigs between now and July 1 including 3 with the GOTHAM ROOTS ORCHESTRA. I play duo with reedman Blaise Siwula, and with guitar great Dom Minasi.. I also play with the Inner Banks for our/their CD release WILD. Come check a couple out. happy summertime!

Also coming up: The John Cage Variety Show Big Band w Miguel Frasconi, John Zorn, and others @ The Stone; and BIRDFEST in Rotterdam with drummer Gustavo Aguilar and trumpeter Michael Varekamp. ’nuff said.

THE MASK/LA MASCARA

“The aim is to speak a clear unaccented English free of localisms and colloquialisms.”

– Sister Mary Ann (St. Aedan’s 5th Grade Teacher)

Above, The Burning Sun

Music and original Spanish Lyrics: Violeta Parra/English Lyrics: Cristian Amigo – Lyric ballad in 3 sections/7 stanzas

I.

When I came to New York city with ten dollars in my hand

Bought some bread to fill my stomach

Caught the rain to wash my hair

Hoped that my fine education

Would help me find a job there

And above, the burning sun

You can’t do much with ten dollars

But I felt a millionaire

Among homeless children, drunkards and old people who lived there

Under scaffolds under bridges

Under boxes, underwear

And above, the burning sun

II.

When I sleep here on the subway

In the last car of the train

Folks don’t want to be too near me

They treat me with clear disdain

Like I’s stupid or I’s lazy, certifiably insane

And above, the burning sun

I have seen ten million faces

But for few I got blank stares

Their eyes go on past or through me

It’s as if I wasn’t there

When I play a Bach sonata

No one listens

No one cares

And above, the burning sun

Maybe I’m too tired or crazy

Cause I can’t pretend to care

’bout the market, or celebrities, success, career, affairs.

You could say that I’ve gone fishing

Though my body remains here

And above, the burning sun

III.

I had just come to the city

When the towers burned and fell

When four thousand  souls departed

I awoke as from a spell

A man dressed up like a pirate

Said well what did you expect?

And above, the burning sun

When I get out if this city

I will be an older man

I’ll be leaving with four dollars

That’s six less than when I came

I have played and talked with princes, men of god, and sons of Sam

And above the burning sun

FOR RECYCLED RIFFS!!!!!!

<click on image to buy the GRO EP>

BLUE IN GREEN (Miles Davis)

Amigo – telecaster