Portland, OR-based American primitive guitarist Marisa Anderson makes an appearance in Madison during her spring US tour. Local musician Patrick Best (Pelt, GHQ, The Sprial Joy Band) opens.
Marisa Anderson with Patrick Best
Marisa Anderson channels the history of the guitar and stretches the boundaries of tradition. Her playing is fluid, emotional, and masterful, featuring compositions and improvisations that re-imagine the landscape of American music. The New Yorker calls Anderson ‘one of the most distinctive guitar players of her generation’, and NPR refers to her as among ‘this era’s most powerful players’. Her music has been featured in Rolling Stone, NPR, The New York Times, Pitchfork, the BBC and The Wire. Festival appearances include Big Ears, Pitchfork Midwinter, Le Guess Who and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Anderson is the recipient of the 2025 Spark Award for Oregon Artists presented by the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation.
In addition to her solo work, Anderson is sought after as a collaborator and composer. Swallowtail, her second record in duo with drummer Jim White was released May 2024 on Thrill Jockey Records. 2024 also saw the... Read More
Patrick W. Best is an industrial designer with a long history of working in sound. With early experience as a guitarist in jazz and punk bands, Best has been a member of the internationally touring music ensemble Pelt for more than 20 years, sculpting dense, organic, in-the-moment compositions based on oceanic drones and endlessly inventive improvisation. He has also been a longtime member of Spiral Joy Band. He turned to a more stripped palette as a solo performer, returning to a variety of guitars to produce spiraling, minimalist figures whose stark outlines carry outsize emotions. Professionally a designer of everything from furniture to packaging to children's museum exhibits, Best's music is a study of minute aspects of sonic variety, an exploration and highlighting of textures and tones torn down to their barest roots and recast in often-surprising patterns.
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