Commissions
Mr Sun
Mr Sun comprises some of the most original musicians to apply themselves to the American String Band.
Legendary fiddler Darol Anger is at home in a number of musical genres, some of which he helped to invent, and is a member of the original "nuclear" generation of pickers who extended Bluegrass, Jazz, and Classical music to find their common ground; Mr Sun is the latest iteration in that legacy. Joe K. Walsh is one of the foremost contemporary mandolinists, with 4 award-winning years in the Gibson Brothers, 3 solo recordings, and a Berklee professorship. Grant Gordy is a standout in the crowded field of Acoustic Guitar Wunderkinds. Grant's work was quickly recognized for its kaleidoscopic excellence and startling emotion, fusing Jazz, R&B, and Bluegrass concepts to an unprecedented degree. The group recently added the masterful bassist Aidan O'Donnell, a Brooklyn, New York (by way of Scotland) jazz veteran.
The 4 musical personalities of Mr Sun are so strong that one might imagine the group could explode if not for the palpable love and humor that emanate from every note they play together.
Composition Commission
Produced by the FreshGrass Foundation, in association with Studio 9, "Mr Sun Plays Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite" is an astounding work that we were grateful to commission and experience live at FreshGrass | North Adams 2023 at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA!
American Roots Music thrives on growing new branches from its grand traditions, and the band Mr Sun, and its individual members, have long been actively reimagining the acoustic musical landscape. For Mr Sun’s tenth anniversary, this celebrated company of virtuoso string players has reinterpreted the legendary Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker Suite, bringing this monumental rearranged adaptation of the iconic Tchaikovsky piece into the acoustic string band world. Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite contains some of the most beloved and familiar melodies in the Western world. Mr Sun has seized upon the inspiration of Duke Ellington’s brilliant, sly, and urbane re-interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Suite, recorded in 1960 to universal acclaim.
Mr Sun took the opportunity to salute and re-invent this wildly multi-faceted work anew through the lens of the American String Band, a musical format that encompasses myriad styles and is engaged in a marathon upheaval of innovation and expansion. In Mr Sun's new reading, the pieces of the Suite range from close interpretations of Billy Strayhorn’s original charts to intense extrapolations based on the spirit of the material. Mr Sun is legendary fiddler Darol Anger (founding member of the hugely influential David Grisman Quintet, Turtle Island String Quartet) mandolin master Joe K. Walsh(Joy Kills Sorrow, the Gibson Brothers, Danny Barnes), guitar hero Grant Gordy (David Grisman Quintet, Karen Casey, Danny Barnes) and the great bassist Aidan O’Donnell(Maeve Gilchrist, Steve Kuhn).
