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Todd Clouser

Todd Clouser is a composing guitarist, songwriter and performer based between Mexico City and the USA. Combining elements of rock, jazz blues, spoken word and improvised musics, Clouser has toured the world with his group A Love Electric, as a solo act and performed alongside luminaries from John Lurie to John Zorn, Flea, Cyro Baptista, John Medeski, Keb Mo, and more, performing at rock, jazz and world music festivals across the globe.

Clouser's prolific output and genre-evading creativity had NPR call Todd "a fascinating musician ..... (he) doesn't belong to any scene and doesn't want to", Time Out NYC hailing his rock jazz trio A Love Electric as "illuminating", and Mexico City's La Jornada mentioning the group as "one of the most important acts of recent years". A native of Minneapolis, MN, Clouser grew up traveling the USA following his favorite artists and self publishing poetry and recordings before being signed to Ropeadope Records for his first "proper" release, entitled "A Love Electric". As time and tours passed, A Love Electric became a band, first an instrumental act joined by NYC downtown scene heroes Steven Bernstein, Cyro Baptista, and Billy Martin, eventually settling as a trio that explores Clouser's songwriting while honoring the inquisition and fearlessness or jazz tradition, with Hernan Hecht on drums and Aaron Cruz on bass. The trio has gone on to release 6 records on labels in the US and Mexico while performing nearly 1,000 concerts in the span of 7 years.

While Clouser is perhaps most recognized in his Mexico City home as the leader of A Love Electric, he has also released the "psychedelic naked lunch" (Distorsioni Magazine - Italy) record "Butterfly Killer" with the group Magnet Animals (featuring Shanir Blumenkranz, Eyal Maoz, and Jorge Servin) on Rarenoise Records (London, UK). An experimental offering, CHANT found Todd collaborating with street singers, friends, and artists from Mexico City and Minneapolis, the live CHANT show turning into a freewheeling conduction experiment calling the audience to the stage. Clouser also writes songs for a duo project with Mexican singer Renee Mooi, the two performing at festivals and in clubs throughout latinAmerica. His solo song record entitled "Man With No Country" was produced by Anton Fier (Golden Palominos) and released on Billy Martin's Amulet records. A record of "music for unmade film" entitled "Cinema" was self released with pianist Alex Mercado in 2017. As guitarist for the group Klezmerson, Todd has recorded for the prestigious Tzadik Records, going on to perform the compositions of John Zorn at The Village Vanguard in New York City and as part of "Masada Marathons" in Sarajevo and Vienna.

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16
Album Review

Magnet Animals: Fake Dudes

Read "Fake Dudes" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Its press release refers to this band as a “combustible beat-skronk" unit for its follow-up to the 2016 Butterfly Killer album, where guitarist Todd Clouser iterates his poetry under the semblance of a rebel using a small megaphone. It seems as if he could be on a corner somewhere in Greenwich Village, NYC., to forewarn the willing populace of dour sociopolitical issues, along with oddball humor and sober expressionism. Once again, Clouser and guitarist Eyal Maoz (who played with Lou ...

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Album Review

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric: 20th Century Folk Selections

Read "20th Century Folk Selections" reviewed by Mark Corroto


More than rock musicians and more than blues artists, jazz musicians carry the greatest burden of musical legacy. There are not stories about a contemporary rock musician who dedicates his career to mastering The Beatles catalog, or of the one who's playing is paralyzed because she cannot deal with Jimi Hendrix's solos. Nope. Only in jazz does the legacy of the past pose obstacles so large as Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane that many contemporary musicians can never ...

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Album Review

Todd Clouser: Todd Clouser's A Love Electric

Read "Todd Clouser's A Love Electric" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


"A Love Electric is possibility and energy," explains guitarist, composer and bandleader Todd Clouser. “I come from a rock place as a player. I still love Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and the total madness in noise, even if I'm listening to Charlie Parker, Monk, or Wayne Shorter more often these days."“All that was once new was initially regarded as 'out,' 'nasty,' and 'evil,' from Robert Johnson to Ornette Coleman to electric Miles Davis to electric Dylan," he concludes. “That's ...

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Album Review

Todd Clouser: A Love Electric

Read "A Love Electric" reviewed by Chris May


Musicians and painters from the US have long since been relocating to Mexico, hoping to deepen their art through immersion in a slower pace of life. Guitarist Todd Clouser is a recent emigré, who moved south in 2006. Back then, Mexico's drug war was just starting to heat up, and has grown more vicious with each passing year. By the end of the decade, it resembled a particularly nasty, full-blown civil war, with an appallingly high level of civilian attrition. ...

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Take Five With...

Take Five With Todd Clouser

Read "Take Five With Todd Clouser" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Meet Todd Clouser:A young, genre-defying guitarist, composer, and writer, Berklee graduate Todd Clouser is an accomplished musician across the modern jazz and rock spectrum, leading a unique path to recognition as an up-and-coming act, finding his own voice performing with musicians from Keb' Mo' to Downtown NYC jazz legend, Steven Bernstein.Clouser's impassioned performances run from piano balladry to dense jazz and groove, exciting audiences with an approach meant to bend the rules of artistic labeling. A ...

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Award / Grant

Todd Clouser and Erik Deutsch Crack New Music Seminar's 2012 "Artist On The Verge" Top 100 Chart

Todd Clouser and Erik Deutsch Crack New Music Seminar's 2012 "Artist On The Verge" Top 100 Chart

Source: All About Jazz

Guitarist/Composer Todd Clouser and Pianist/Composer Erik Deutsch were selected for the New Music Seminar “Artist On The Verge" Top 100 Chart. All About Jazz participated in the nominating process and both Todd and Erik were included on AAJ's recommendation list. About the NMS “Artist On The Verge" Program NMS “Artist On The Verge" (AOV) project offers emerging artists the opportunity of a lifetime! The New Music Seminar (NMS) presents the “Artist On The Verge" – Top 100 Chart, the most ...

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Performance / Tour

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric Announces US Tour Dates to Support "20th Century Folk Selections"

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric Announces US Tour Dates to Support "20th Century Folk Selections"

Source: Chris M. Slawecki

Baja, Mexico-based—by way of Minneapolis—guitarist Todd Clouser and his band, A Love Electric, release their sophomore album, 20th Century Folk Selections, on February 14 via The Royal Potato Family. The set features eight renditions of songs that Clouser calls “folkloric in nature," including those by the likes of Nirvana, Lou Reed and Beastie Boys among others. The recording will be released in conjunction with a tour that extends over 30 dates in the US plus shows in Spain and Mexico. ...

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Performance / Tour

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric Touring Spain - Midwest through September

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric Touring Spain - Midwest through September

Source: Calabro Music

Ropeadope Records Artist, guitarist Todd Clouser continues touring behind his new release, the quintet's self titled debut, which the Philadelphia Inquirer recently called “A gem of an album, Clouser spices the All- American vibe of Bill Frisell with some Jimi Hendrix Fire, 3.5/4." The exhilarating modern jazz based quartet, with its roots in electric era Miles Davis, 70's rock and the strength of song, is touring throughout Spain for the first half of September before returning to its midwestern roots ...

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Performance / Tour

A Love Electric Announce Summer Tour

A Love Electric Announce Summer Tour

Source: Calabro Music

Ropedope Records artist Todd Clouser and his quintet, A Love Electric, have announced their summer tour, spanning the upper midwest and east coast. The band's press release “A Love Electric, on leave from touring overseas and under the border, take their genre bending, “blistering neo-jazz rock (The Prague Post, June 2011)," “sporting avant flourishes and grooves galore (Minneapolis Star Tribune)" to the American road for their inaugural summer tour, an east coast heavy dog days of July run designed to ...

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Performance / Tour

Toddd Clouser's A Love Electric (Ropeadope Records) Coast to Coast to Mexico Tour Apr 13 - May 9

Toddd Clouser's A Love Electric (Ropeadope Records) Coast to Coast to Mexico Tour Apr 13 - May 9

Source: Calabro Music

Guitarist and Composer, Ropeadope Records Artist Todd Clouser takes his exhilarating modern jazz and groove based quintet, 'A Love Electric' back on the road for dates from Cali's Bay Area to an NYC debut, and a Philadelphia slot opening for DJ Logic. With tours of Latin America and the US behind them, and summer dates in Europe, Todd and A Love Electric have rapidly established themselves as an original and passionate voice on the modern music scene, performing what has ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Ray Vega, Chris Botti, "Soundart" with Troupe, Bell and Bluiett, Craig Pomranz, Todd Clouser, and More

Jazz This Week: Ray Vega, Chris Botti, "Soundart" with Troupe, Bell and Bluiett, Craig Pomranz, Todd Clouser, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week's noteworthy jazz and creative music performances in St. Louis include visits from two traveling trumpeters, and two shows featuring St. Louis expats coming home. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, trumpet player Ray Vega (pictured) brings his Latin jazz-meets-hard bop quintet to town to open a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro, continuing through Saturday. For more about Vega and some video clips of him in action, see this post from last week. On Thursday evening, the ...

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Recording

Todd Clouser's "A Love Electric" Available Now on Ropeadope Records

Todd Clouser's "A Love Electric" Available Now on Ropeadope Records

Source: Michael Ricci

On Monday, February 14th 2011 Ropeadope Records is very pleased to announce their first release with guitarist/composer Todd Clouser entitled A Love Electric. Joined with a bevy of talented musicians including Greg Schutte, Bryan Nichols and Steven Bernstein from Sex Mob, “A Love Electric" is a throw-back to 1970's electric jazz. Also included in the release is a unique take on Leonard Cohen's “Hallelujah" and Harry Nilsson's “One." Ripe with groove and piano balladry, A Love Electric encompasses an era ...

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Performance / Tour

Todd Clouser to Play at Lola on Tuesday, February 22

Todd Clouser to Play at Lola on Tuesday, February 22

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Jazz-rock guitarist Todd Clouser (pictured) is coming to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 22 at Lola, 500 N 14th St downtown. Clouser, who's from Minneapolis but now is based in Baja, Mexico, is touring with his band in support of their new CD A Love Electric, just released by the indie label Ropeadope Records. Described as “a blend of 70's rock, Curtis Mayfield funk, and modern jazz," A Love Electric features a guest appearance from NYC ...

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Performance / Tour

Todd Clouser Announces US Tour: "A Love Electric" out February 15 on Ropeadope

Todd Clouser Announces US Tour: "A Love Electric" out February 15 on Ropeadope

Source: Calabro Music

TODD CLOUSER Announces Midwest Tour As Momentum Builds For New Record, A LOVE ELECTRIC out February 15 on ROPEADOPE Listen to Todd Clouser's rendition of Harry Nilsson's “One" Listen to Todd Clouser's original “Autumn City Portrait" featuring Steven Bernstein Minneapolis-by-way-of-Baja, Mexico-based guitarist Todd Clouser and his collective, A Love Electric, will take their energy-driven jazz rock on the road beginning February 18 in Minneapolis for a 15-date tour spanning the Mid and Mountain West. Celebrating the February 15 release of ...

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Event

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric On Tour in Mexico through Dec 7

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric On Tour in Mexico through Dec 7

Source: Calabro Music

Berklee educated guitarist Todd Clouser and his internationally composed collective, A Love Electric, are on the road south of the border, performing in clubs throughout Mexico Nov 24 through Dec 6. Highlights include a night at Mexico's legendary Zinco Jazz Club, an evening at the Centro de Cultura in Coyoacan, and a tour closer in the open air at Guadalajara's Via Recreativa. More information and calendar at www.toddclouser.com Joining Todd are drummer Hernan Hecht (Tim Berne, Brainkiller, Sho Trio), a ...

"Like Bill Frisell and Marc Ribot, Clouser is a formidable jazz guitarist who doesn't shy away from playing other musical styles." - The Madison Isthmus (thedailypage.com)

"Does it all, musically, socially, politically. Enjoy" - Steven Bernstein, Grammy nominated trumpeter "Todd Clouser has been a Multi talented entity at my studio as an independent engineer, producer, and contributor to tribute record production for me. As well as being an excellent producer, songwriter, singer and musician, his band has recorded here, showing exciting potential to national attention." - Brian Bart — winner of multiple Minnesota Music Awards, Logic Recordings, Producer, Engineer, Composer

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Fake Dudes

RareNoiseRecords
2021

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20th Century Folk...

Royal Potato Family
2012

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A Love Electric

Ropeadope
2011

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Videos

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