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Amanda Monaco

Guitarist/composer Amanda Monaco has performed at venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, Jazz Standard and Flushing Town Hall, and with artists such as Milt Hinton, Steve Wilson, Rufus Reid, and the Mingus Orchestra. She has released six albums to date and her current jazz projects include her eclectic quartet Deathblow, rambunctious organ quartet Glitter, and all-female jazz sextet Lioness. Her New Music ensemble The Pirkei Avot Project performs her original music with lyrics from selected verses (from a collection of rabbinical teachings with the same name) compiled in the third century C.E.

Amanda’s guitar playing is “well within the modernist canon, but quite distinctive: her phrasing is often made up of tartly dissonant chords and insistent yet off-kilter repetitions that remind one of Grant Green by way of Andrew Hill… her playing is utterly unique, a breath of fresh air in the cookie-cutter climes of both mainstream and free jazz.” (Clifford Allen, The New York City Jazz Record)

An educator since 1990, Amanda is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music where she teaches private instruction, labs and guitar ensembles. Amanda’s book, Jazz Guitar for the Absolute Beginner (Alfred Publishing), is available worldwide.

Amanda is the Artistic Director of Convergence Arts, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to share the art and fun of improvisation with people of all ages. Since 2013, Convergence has received funding from the Queens Council on the Arts for myriad projects including the Six String Summit Guitar Festival, The Queens Jazz OverGround Spring Jazz Fest, and the Lioness: Women in Jazz concert series.

Amanda received her M.A.from The City College of New York in 2008. In her undergraduate years, Amanda studied with Ted Dunbar, Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid and Harold Mabern. She received her B.Mus from William Paterson University.

Gear

Brian Moore Electric Guitar D'Addario Strings


Tags

5
Album Review

Amanda Monaco: Glitter

Read "Glitter" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


The multi-talented Mae West once said that “personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit into that big black space where the audience is." West, of course, thrived in a different era, worked in different formats, and was more than likely addressing another artistic discipline entirely with that specific statement. But those remarks still apply here. In fact, everything in there--minus the orchestra pit and footlights--is really dead-on. Guitarist ...

486
Take Five With...

Take Five With Amanda Monaco

Read "Take Five With Amanda Monaco" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Meet Amanda Monaco: Playing guitar has led Amanda Monaco to perform at the Blue Note, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Birdland, Tonic, Joe's Pub, and the JVC Jazz Festival, as well as other venues in the United States and Europe. Amanda has recorded several CDs as both a leader and a sideman, and has shared the stage with musicians such as Milt Hinton, Matt Wilson, Matana Roberts, and Harvie S. As an educator, Amanda has served on the ...

177
Album Review

Amanda Monaco: I Think I'll Keep You

Read "I Think I'll Keep You" reviewed by Stuart Broomer


Amanda Monaco is a guitarist whose style is deeply rooted in her instrument's lyrical lineage, at times channeling the singing tone of Jim Hall, at others declaring her own, more forceful sound. Most of the tunes here are Monaco originals and she's created efficient vehicles for both her own voice and the collective dialogues that seem to come so naturally to her quartet. Monaco's affinity with Hall is especially evident in the tremendous swing she can generate with ...

272
Album Review

Amanda Monaco 4: Intention

Read "Intention" reviewed by Clifford Allen


The midrange frequently offers more interesting textures, colors and possibilities in improvised music, precisely because it is sometimes a music that's, even to the initiated, thought of as an art form that embraces the extremes. But for every John McLaughlin or Wes Montgomery, there is a Joe Morris, an Attila Zoller, or an Amanda Monaco. Guitarist, composer and educator, Monaco's music is unassuming but complex free bop, and hinges mostly on the situations she has set up ...

269
Album Review

Amanda Monaco 4: Intention

Read "Intention" reviewed by John Kelman


It's been four years since Amanda Monaco 4 released its self-titled debut, although guitarist Monaco has been far from inactive. She's appeared on Get Lucky (Eastway, 2004), the second album by all-female cocktail pop band The Lascivious Biddies, published an instructional guitar book, Jazz Guitar for the Absolute Beginner (Alfred Publishing, 2005) and is in a new jazz group, Playdate, along with saxophonist Wayne Escoffery.

Intention builds on the successes of the quartet's debut, placing an even more modern spin ...

151
Album Review

Amanda Monaco 4: Intention

Read "Intention" reviewed by Elliott Simon


Over and above ability, it takes chops, confidence and cool for jazz guitarists to invite a tenor saxophonist to partake in their music. When it gels, such as the classic Rollins/Hall pairing or the more recent Lovano/Scofield tandem, it can result in a meeting that blends the strengths of both instruments into a stylistic whole. Intention, Amanda Monaco's second CD as leader, succeeds as such and plainly demonstrates her proficiencies across all these areas. Tenor saxophonist Jason ...

455
Book Review

Jazz Guitar for the Absolute Beginner

Read "Jazz Guitar for the Absolute Beginner" reviewed by AAJ Staff


By Karen Hogg

Amanda MonacoJazz Guitar for the Absolute Beginner (Book+CD)Alfred Publishing ISBN: 0739036718 47 pages 2005 Jazz Guitar for the Absolute Beginner, the debut instructional tome from New York City-based musician Amanda Monaco, is a well-thought out, step-by-step guide for the jazz guitar novice. Monaco starts out with basics that everyone needs to know, from what kind of guitar to purchase to how to ...

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"A crisply resourceful guitarist." — Nate Chinen, The New York Times

"Impressive chops and a penchant for adventure." —Time Out New York

"Edgy, well-crafted compositions." —David Adler, All About Jazz

Primary Instrument

Guitar

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

An educator since 1990, Amanda has served on the faculty of New School University, and presently teaches at the National Guitar Workshop, on the innovative web site WorkshopLive, and at Berklee College of Music. Her book, Jazz Guitar for the Absolute Beginner (Alfred Publishing), is available worldwide. Amanda also teaches privately in New York City.

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Lioness: Pride and Joy

Posi-Tone Records
2019

buy

Glitter

Posi-Tone Records
2017

buy

I Think I'll Keep You

LateSet Records
2009

buy

Intention

Innova Recordings
2007

buy

Amanda Monaco 4

Genevieve
2003

buy

Old Skool Flava

From: Intention
By Amanda Monaco

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