Events at

New Expression Music

 

New Expression Music Open House!


Saturday, June 23: 10am-5pm

featuring:

Teacher performances
Student showcases
Jam sessions
Meet & greet teachers & NEM staff
Refreshments
Live music: pop, jazz, classical,
bluegrass, folk and more!

And it's all FREE!
Be there!

Coming in July:

Mike Compton, mandolinist

New Expression Music is proud to present a modern master of the bluegrass mandolin, Mike Compton. Protege of Bill Monroe and an expert on Monroe's iconic mandolin style, Mike is a Grammy award winner and perhaps best known as the featured mandolin player on the "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou" movie and soundtrack. He also performed on the "Down From The Mountain Tour", as well as the "Cold Mountain Tour".

Mike has made a powerful mark in the bluegrass and old-time music circles as one of the most influential mandolin players in the world. Mike plays with the Nashville Bluegrass Band (winners of two Grammy Awards, two Entertainer of the Year honors from IBMA, and four wins as IMBA's Vocal Group of the Year) and has collaborated with such diverse notables as John Hartford, Ralph Stanley, David Grier, Sting, Elvis Costello, and T-Bone Burnett. Mike treasures his memories of a friendship with his mentor, Bill Monroe, and has "wholeheartedly concentrated on the art of Bill Monroe and the furtherance of his musical legacy." Mike's new solo CD, Rotten Taters, was recorded in Australia this past summer while on a solo tour. For more information about Mike Compton please visit his website at www.mikecompton.net .

Please plan ahead for Tuesday, July 3:
MIKE COMPTON MANDOLIN WORKSHOP, 5-7pm:
A two-hour, hands-on workshop on the mandolin artistry of bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe. The workshop will emphasis a toolbox of techniques, including Monroe
blues trademarks, playing out of traditional chord voicings, rhythmic patterns and how they affect solo lines, Monroe songs, and right hand technique. $75

Pre-registration and advance payment required for workshop: (619) 280-9035
MIKE COMPTON CONCERT, 8-10pm:
$18 advance, $20 door.

Non-refundable prepayment required for advanced concert tickets & workshop reservations.
Call NEM today! (619) 280-9035

Next Acoustic Pop Jam: Monday, May 14th!
Kev & Drew's Fantastical Fun Show:
Acoustic Pop Slow Jam & Social Club
Second Monday of the month, 7-9pm, $5

Learn tunes! Play and sing along! Make friends! Have fun! Acoustic instruments welcome! Led by KEV Rones and Drew Decker.

Sign up NOW for Phil Boroff's continuing

Swing Guitar & Music Theory Classes!

Basic Music Theory for Guitar Players: the fundamentals of entry-level theory.
6 Sundays, June 3-July 8, 11am-12:30pm, $125

Basic Swing Chords for Guitarists: everything you need to know to get started on swing guitar chord shapes.
6 Sundays, June 3-July 8, 1-2:30pm, $125

For more info call Phil at (619) 920-1274.

Phil Boroff is NEM's resident guitar expert and multi-talented performer and teacher of Classical, Flamenco, Bluegrass, Folk and Old Time guitar styles.

Coming in August:

John Mailander Fiddle Workshops

John Mailander Fiddle Workshops

Saturday, August 4

11am-12:30pm: Beginning & Lower Intermediate

Bluegrass fiddle basics.

1-2:30pm: Intermediate & Advanced Improvisation, theory and its

applications in acoustic music.

Fee for each class: $30

 

Join San Diego's own young fiddle & mandolin phenom, John Mailander, as he unravels the mysteries of bluegrass and old time fiddle playing! Although John is currently studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, he is still in high demand here in the San Diego area for performance, session work and instruction. John has shared the stage with artists including the Alison Brown Quartet, Victor Wooten, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall and Tony Trishka. He worked with IBMA winner Rob Ickes on his upcoming instructional DVD Fiddle Tunes for the Dobro. In the Southern California area, John has worked with Sara Petite, Robin Henkel, Gregory Page, Berkley Hart, Chris Clarke, Shawn Rholf and the Heavy Guilt. He has performed at venues including the Berklee Performance Center, Club Passim, Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, One Longfellow Square, and House of Blues Hollywood, and at events including the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, Adams Avenue Music Festival, Summergrass and the San Diego Symphony Summer Pops. At Berklee, John studies with Darol Anger, Julian Lage, and Matt Glaser.

Visit John’s website: www.johnmailander.com

Non-refundable prepayment required for workshop reservations.

Call NEM today! (619) 280-9035

Phil's Corner: Benito Huipe


I think it must have been in the late 1980s when I walked into McCabe’s Guitar Shop, where I had taught guitar since 1973. There it was on the west wall. A brand new Flamenco guitar, golden blond honey-colored Cypress back and sides, with a Spruce top. Even suspended above my head it was “talking.” I pulled it down and checked it out right away. Wow! So much power, heat, and sweetness. I still remember being shocked at the low price. It was far less than half of what I expected. Who was the maker?
Benito Huipe. Never heard of him. Not a Spaniard, but a Mexican Indian from the guitar-making town of Paracho, in the state of Michoacán. He had left Paracho some twenty years ago and had worked away in the back room at Valdez’ Guitar Shop in Hollywood
on Sunset Blvd.

Though trained since childhood to make guitars, it appears that it was in that two-decade period at Valdez’ that he matured as a builder. At the time that I saw his Flamenco at McCabe’s, he had just left Valdez’ and had opened his own shop in Culver City. He supported himself by making and selling guitars, and by waiting tables at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

It took me a day of deliberating to decide to buy that guitar at McCabe’s and to sell the Spanish guitar I’d played for fifteen years. It was the right move. A short time later I called Benito to tell him I would play his guitar on “Soundboard”, John Schneider’s weekly live radio show featuring nylon string guitar music on KPFK. Benito was grateful to have a “champion” and made his friends and family listen.

We soon became friends and ultimately went into a partnership where he made guitars in his workshop and I displayed them, and gave guitar lessons in my adjoining studio. I was able to secure him a small but steady number of commissions from my students. In this period I learned some interesting things about Benito.

He thinks like an artist. Every guitar he makes, commissioned or not, is just the next experiment in an infinite process to refine his creations. Some guitars have easy right hand action, some don’t. Some, if he is interested, have a beautiful finish, but most are flawed. Some have slightly arched tops so he can use lighter braces, based on his observations of the violin. A few have dense knots in the back to push the sound “forward.”

One Flamenco I played in a large restaurant was very plain but a study in projection. The manager came to me and demanded that I “turn it down”, that people 25 feet away couldn’t talk or think because the guitar was too loud. I tapped the microphone to show it wasn’t on and he accused me somehow of plugging in the guitar, and stormed away believing no guitar could be that loud on its own.

I remember one student’s disappointment when he got his guitar, because it looked nothing like what he expected and was promised. I felt bad for him, and after two months I found a buyer for this guitar at substantially more money than my student had paid for it. He was very put off by the offer, as he had become completely attached to the guitar in the interim. He made it clear he would never consider selling his guitar and wouldn’t even let anyone else play it.

What I am trying to get across here is that Benito is a guitar maker with close to 55 years of professional experience. He has never focused on his career or reputation but has concerned himself deeply with developing his intuition as a builder to create ever-greater guitars.

New Expression Music is currently able to order guitars from Benito Huipe. We never know what we are going to receive from him, Classicals or Flamencos, or the woods he will use, Palascrito, Indian Rosewood, Coco Bolo, Spruce or Cedar. We just know they will play and sound very well, and possibly have an imperfect finish here and there.

We also know they are an incredible deal for the $1500-$1800 price range, and will play and sound like guitars in the $3500-$4000 range that we also carry. If you’re looking for a fine Classical or Flamenco guitar, come on into New Expression Music and meet the work of Benito Huipe.

Phil Boroff
January 2012

Phil Boroff is NEM's resident guitar expert and multi-talented performer and teacher of Classical, Flamenco, Bluegrass, Folk and Old Time guitar styles.