California Guitar Trio (CGT) is a

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

of three

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

players founded in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in 1991 by Paul Richards, Hideyo Moriya, and Bert Lams around the concept of playing acoustic guitars in the

New Standard Tuning New standard tuning (NST) is an alternative tuning for the guitar that approximates all-fifths tuning. The guitar's strings are assigned the notes C2-G2-D3-A3-E4-G4 (from lowest to highest); the five lowest open strings are each tuned to an i ...

taught by

Robert Fripp Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is a British musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session ...

Guitar Craft Guitar Craft (GC) was a series of guitar and personal-development classes, founded and often presented by Robert Fripp, who is best known for his work with the rock band King Crimson. Guitar Craft courses introduced ...

courses.

History and Formation

Formation: The California Project

The original members of California Guitar Trio met on the series of

courses in England in 1987. The three original members-—Paul Richards of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, Bert Lams of Affligem, Belgium, and Hideyo Moriya of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan--toured as part of Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists. After completing the 1991 tour of Europe with the League of Crafty Guitarists, Fripp asked Lams to write down a list of musical aims, materials, strategy, and possible collaborators for what was called the California Project. Lams named two other Guitar Craft students as potential collaborators who would be willing to move temporarily to Los Angeles to work with him on this project based out of his home: Richards and Moriya. Thus the California Project ultimately became the California Guitar Trio. The first official performance of the California Guitar Trio took place on February 7, 1991. They continue to play in the New Standard Tuning using amplified acoustic guitars and various combinations of effects, guitar synthesizers and live loop recording as part of their performances. Their performances and recordings include original compositions, surf covers, and arrangements of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

created for the New Standard Tuning and their tight interplay style known as "circulation" in the Guitar Craft parlance. Their influences include European classical music,

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, world music, and

surf music Surf music (or surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental s ...

Robert Fripp String Quintet

In 1992 and 1993 with Fripp and

Trey Gunn Trey Gunn (born December 13, 1960) is an American musician, known for his membership in the progressive rock band King Crimson from 1994 to 2003, playing Warr Guitar and Chapman Stick. Biography A native Texan who now resides in Seattle, Washi ...

, they toured and recorded as The Robert Fripp String Quintet. Several recordings of those performances are available through Fripp's DGMLive website.

First Albums on DGM Records

In 1991, the CGT self-released their self-titled demo album, recorded in Bert Lams’ home just outside Hollywood, California. The recordings on this release were remastered by Tony Arnold and augmented with two additional tracks to form their first CD released on Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile record label (now Inner Knot Records), the 1993 album ''Yamanashi Blues'', In 1995, the trio were invited by physicist and Nobel Laureate

Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann (; September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) was an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. He was the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Theoretical ...

to record at his residence near Lamy, New Mexico. The resulting album ''Invitation'' includes pieces that were inspired by the landscape ("Train to Lamy Suite"), and arrangements of pieces inspired by their surroundings, such as the theme from "

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' ( it, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, literally "The good, the ugly, the bad") is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood as "the Good", Lee Van Clee ...

" and " Apache". Later in 1995, Fripp asked the trio to be the opening act for King Crimson. CGT opened for King Crimson for more than 130 shows in the US, Europe and Japan, exposing their music to a global audience. A sample of these performances were released on their album ''An Opening Act''. In 1998, CGT released ''Pathways'', in similar format to the first two albums, with combinations of original compositions, arrangements of classical pieces, and surf guitar songs.

Collaborative Era

In 1999, the trio began touring with bassist and Stick player

Tony Levin Anthony Frederick Levin (born June 6, 1946) is an American musician and composer, specializing in electric bass, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (since 198 ...

whom they had met on their tours with King Crimson. Levin appears on the CGT albums ''Rocks The West'' and ''Monday Night in San Francisco'', and contemporaneously invited CGT to play his album Waters of Eden. Other collaborators of the time included saxophonist Bill Janssen and percussionist Jarrod Kaplan. In 2001, CGT toured with Tony Levin and King Crimson drummer

Pat Mastelotto Lee Patrick Mastelotto (born September 10, 1955) is an American rock drummer and record producer. He has been a member of King Crimson, Stick Men, Mr. Mister and O.R.k., as well as working as a session drummer with XTC, The Pointer Sisters an ...

. After the tour, they released a live recording from this tour (''Live at The Key Club'') and recorded the album ''CG3+2'' in Austin, Texas with Levin and Mastelotto. 2001 also saw the release of ''10 Christmas Songs'', which has accounted for some of the most popular CGT renditions on streaming services such as

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

and

Pandora (streaming service) Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by Sirius XM Holdings based in Oakland, California, United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the " Music Genome Project" — a means of classifying indi ...

. In August 2004, they released ''Whitewater'', produced by Tony Levin. It features mainly original works of the CGT, offset by a circulation arrangement of a Bach prelude and a mashup of " (Ghost) Riders in the Sky" with

The Doors The Doors were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential ro ...

' "

Riders on the Storm "Riders on the Storm" is a song by American rock band the Doors. It was released in June 1971, as the second single from '' L.A. Woman'', their sixth studio album and the last with lead singer Jim Morrison. The song reached number 14 on the U.S ...

." During this period, CGT began touring with their own sound engineer, Tyler Trotter. Trotter would often accompany the trio on melodica during live improvisations and performances of

Tubular Bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...

. The next studio release by CGT was 2008's ''Echoes'', with reworkings of other artists' songs, such as Pink Floyd's Echoes,

Mike Oldfield Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and documen ...

, Music For a Found Harmonium, and Queen's

Bohemian Rhapsody "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth album, '' A Night at the Opera'' (1975). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack ...

, which became a staple of their live performances. This was followed in 2010 by ''Andromeda'', the first CGT album with all original compositions. Trotter served as co-producer and engineer of both albums.

Montreal Guitar Trio

In 2009, CGT performed their first shows with the Montreal Guitar Trio. The album ''Montreal Guitar Trio + California Guitar Trio'' captures these first live performances, with each trio performing their own works and playing as a sextet for the encore. They toured together on a shared bill, and in 2019 recorded ''In A Landscape'', showcasing all six musicians playing together as a single ensemble.

2012 to present

The 2012 release, ''Masterworks'', is an all classical music compilation featuring music by Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi,

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

and

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...

. Guitarist

Fareed Haque Fareed Haque is an American jazz guitarist, based in Chicago, Illinois. Education Haque was born in Chicago in 1963. His father was from Pakistan, his mother was from Chile. When he was a child, Haque traveled with his parents all over the worl ...

played on Vivaldi's "Winter", and Tony Levin played upright bass and cello on four tracks. The next album was the 2016 release of ''Komorebi'', which was the first CGT album to utilize crowdfunding to offset the production costs. The album is notable for its purely acoustic sound, whereas most previous CGT recordings featured some use of audio effects, amplification, loops and synthesized sounds integrated with acoustic guitars. It was recorded by Tom Griesgraber in his Encinitas, California studio. Mastering for this album was done by Brian Lucey, another

student and notable mastering engineer and producer. Their latest studio album is 2020's ''Elegy'', and a subsequent tour was planned and later rescheduled as a result of the global

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The group resumed touring in July 2021 as an opening act for King Crimson, followed by a brief tour of the US in the fall of 2021.

Members

The three founding members of California Guitar Trio recorded and performed together continuously from 1991 until 2020. When the trio were asked to open for

King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...

on their 2021 US tour, Moriya was unable to accompany them. Stick player, producer and recording engineer Tom Griesgraber, who had collaborated with CGT as an opening act, record producer and touring/recording partner with Bert Lams, was asked to step in as the third touring member in the summer of 2021. Griesgraber has been a touring member of the band since. As of 2022, Moriya is on hiatus as a touring member of CGT. The members of CGT all reside in different places but continue to come together for touring and recording projects. Richards lives in

West Hollywood, California West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most ...

; Lams resides in Jupiter, Florida; Moriya lives in

Chiba-ken is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

, Japan; Griesgraber lives in

Encinitas, California Encinitas (Spanish language, Spanish for "Small Oaks") is a beach city in the North County (San Diego area), North County area of San Diego County, California. Located within Southern California, it is approximately north of San Diego, between ...

Tours

California Guitar Trio maintains an exhaustive list of their appearances on their website dating back to their first formal show in February, 1991. In February, 2022, they will have performed more than 2,000 live shows since their inception.

Notable Collaborations

The following artists have appeared on CGT recordings: * Bonnie Prince Billy on ''Echoes'' * Nora Germain on ''Komorebi'' * Tom Griesgraber on ''Andromeda'' and ''Komorebi'' *

on ''Invitation'' *

Petra Haden Petra Haden (born October 11, 1971) is an American musician and singer. She is the daughter of the jazz bassist Charlie Haden, and is the triplet sister of bassist Rachel Haden (her bandmate in That Dog) and cellist Tanya Haden (married to ...

on ''Komorebi'' *

on ''Masterworks'' * Bill Janssen on ''Rocks The West'' *

on ''Rocks The West'', ''Monday Night in San Francisco'', ''Live at the Key Club'', ''CG3+2'', ''Masterworks'', ''Andromeda'' ''Komorebi'', ''Elegy'' *

on ''Live at the Key Club'', ''CG3+2'' * Fabio Mittino on ''Elegy'' *

Davide Rossi Davide Rossi (born 7 August 1970) is an Italian violinist, string arranger, composer, conductor and a record producer, perhaps best known for having been the violinist, guitar and keytar-player for the British electronic music duo Goldfrapp f ...

on ''Komorebi'' and ''Elegy'' *

Eric Slick Eric Slick (born May 15, 1987) is an American singer, songwriter and drummer. He is the drummer of Dr. Dog, performing on their albums ''Shame, Shame'' (2010), ''Be The Void'' (2012), ''B-Room'' (2013), ''The Psychedelic Swamp'' (2016) ''Abandone ...

and

Julie Slick Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew (born December 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual and impressionistic approach to ...

on ''Echoes'' and ''Andromeda'' * Tyler Trotter on ''Echoes'' and ''Andromeda''

Appearances on Other Artists' Recordings

* 1995 Alice's album Charade * 2000 ''Waters of Eden'' on Tony Levin's album Waters of Eden * 2003

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

-nominated track "Apollo" on

's ''

Pieces of the Sun ''Pieces of the Sun'' is bassist Tony Levin's third solo album. It is an instrumental record blending elements of jazz, progressive rock, experimental, and international music. It featured his touring group of the time, which included keyboardist ...

''.

Opening Acts and Shared Bills

In addition to their collaborations, California Guitar Trio have shared the stage as either an opening act or headlining performance with musicians as varied as

John McLaughlin John or Jon McLaughlin may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John McLaughlin (musician) (born 1942), English jazz fusion guitarist, member of Mahavishnu Orchestra * Jon McLaughlin (musician) (born 1982), American singer-songwriter * John McLaug ...

Jerry Marotta Jerome David Marotta (born February 6, 1956, in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American drummer who resides in Woodstock, New York. He is the younger brother of Rick Marotta, who is also a drummer and composer. Career Marotta was a member of the bands ...

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly ...

Tito Puente Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz c ...

Leftover Salmon Leftover Salmon is an American jam band from Boulder, Colorado, formed in 1989. The band's music is a blend of bluegrass, rock, country, and Cajun/Zydeco. Over their thirty years as a band Salmon have released seven studio albums and three li ...

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

, Guy Pratt,

Steve Lukather Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...

, Simon Phillips,

Adrian Legg Adrian Legg (born 16 May 1948) is an English guitar player who has been called "impossible to categorize". He plays custom guitars that are a hybrid of electric and acoustic, and his fingerstyle picking technique has been acknowledged by the re ...

Jon Anderson John Roy Anderson (born 25 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire. He was a member of the band across thre ...

, the

California Symphony The California Symphony is a professional orchestra based in Walnut Creek, California, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The orchestra, which "may be the most forward-looking music organization around", performs in the Lesher Cen ...

Monte Montgomery Monte Patrick Montgomery (born August 11, 1966) is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter. Early life Born in Birmingham, Alabama, at age 13 he moved to San Antonio, Texas. Career The Austin, Texas based guitarist first gained notoriety i ...

, Enchant,

Spock's Beard Spock's Beard is an American progressive rock band formed in Los Angeles. The band was formed in 1992 by brothers Neal (lead vocals, keyboards) and Alan Morse (vocals, guitars), John Ballard (bass) and Nick D'Virgilio (drums). Ballard was r ...

The Flower Kings The Flower Kings are a Swedish progressive rock band formed in 1994 by guitarist and singer-songwriter Roine Stolt. The group began as Stolt's touring band to support his third solo album ''The Flower King''. They continued performing after the ...

Slash's Snakepit Slash's Snakepit was an American rock supergroup from Los Angeles, California, formed by Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash in 1994. Though often described as a solo or side project, Slash stated that Snakepit was a band with equal contributions b ...

Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. Born and raised ...

, Primus,

Zoë Keating Zoë Clare Keating (born February 2, 1972) is a Canadian-American cellist and composer once based in San Francisco, California, now based in Vermont. Music career Keating performed from 2002 to 2006 as second chair cellist in the cello rock band ...

, Adrian Belew Power Trio,

Jake Shimabukuro Jake Shimabukuro (born November 3, 1976) is a Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso and composer known for his fast and complex finger work. His music combines elements of jazz, blues, funk, rock, bluegrass, classical, folk, and flamenco. Shimabukuro has writt ...

and

Trace Bundy Trace Bundy is an American acoustic guitar player who lives and performs in Boulder, Colorado. He is known to fans as "The Acoustic Ninja" for his legato and tapping, finger tapping skills. Bundy's guitar playing style is percussive and harmonic: ...

Lams Side Projects

In 2005, Lams released ''Nascent'', a collection of Bach preludes and violin partitas transcribed for the guitar in New Standard Tuning. Chapman Stick player Tom Griesgraber opened for CGT on several beginning in 2005. As an offshoot of this collaboration, Griesgraber and Lams began a series of smaller tours and "house concerts" starting in 2008. In 2012 they released the album ''Unnamed Lands''. Lams, along with Italian guitarist Fabio Mittino have recorded and toured as a duet performing the music of

George Gurdjieff George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (; rus, Гео́ргий Ива́нович Гурджи́ев, r=Geórgy Ivánovich Gurdzhíev, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj ɪˈvanəvʲɪd͡ʑ ɡʊrd͡ʐˈʐɨ(j)ɪf; hy, Գեորգի Իվանովիչ Գյուրջիև; c. 1 ...

and

Thomas de Hartmann Thomas Alexandrovich de Hartmann (russian: Фома́ Алекса́ндрович Га́ртман; October 3 .S.: September 21 1884March 28, 1956) was a Ukrainian-born composer, pianist and professor of composition. Life De Hartmann was born o ...

. They have released three albums to date.

Discography

California Guitar Trio has released 22 albums, including twelve studio albums with a mixture of original CGT compositions, classical arrangements and cover songs and seven live albums. California Guitar Trio are also feature players in the Robert Fripp String Quintet, which included

and

. The three founding members of CGT can also be heard on two albums recorded by Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists.

Studio Albums

*''The California Guitar Trio'' (1991) *''Yamanashi Blues'' (1993) *''Invitation'' (1995) *''Pathways'' (1998) *''10 Christmas Songs'' (2001) *''CG3+2'' (featuring

and

) (2002) *''Whitewater'' (2004) *''Echoes'' (2008) *''Andromeda'' (2010) *''Masterworks'' (2011) *''Komorebi'' (2016) *''Elegy'' (2020)

Live CGT Albums

*''An Opening Act: Live on Tour with King Crimson'' (1999) *''Rocks the West'' (2000) *''Monday Night in San Francisco'' (2000) *''Live at the Key Club'' (2001) *''Live at Freight and Salvage'' (2021) *''Live in Scottsdale On Tour with King Crimson'' (2021)

Compilations

*''The First Decade'' (compilation) (2003) *''Highlights'' (compilation) (2007)

with Montreal Guitar Trio

*''Montreal Guitar Trio + California Guitar Trio Live'' (2011) *''In a Landscape'' (2019)

with the Robert Fripp String Quintet

*''The Bridge Between'' (1993)

with Robert Fripp & The League of Crafty Guitarists

*''Show of Hands'' (1990) *''Intergalactic Boogie Express - Live in Europe 1991'' (1995)

Citations

Notes

References

* * * * * *