Fanous & Ulrich

Ayman Fanous & Tomas Ulrich

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Ayman Fanous and Tomas Ulrich met while both were playing in Simon Shaheen's Near East Music Ensemble and quickly realized they had a mutual love of free improvisation. Middle Eastern classical music provided a common point of reference, given flamenco's Arabic roots, Fanous' Egyptian origins, and Ulrich's discovery of a more profound musical emotionality in this repertoire. They soon began giving regular performances of duo improvisation. The chemistry was immediately evident, as two unique combinations of collective musical memory ran against one another, collided, and embraced. The cello's dark-wood tones provided a warm and anguished mooring for the guitar's searching, restless arpeggios. Flurries of violent rasgueados from the guitar fueled impassioned single-note lines from the cello. The duo has performed at several venues in New York, including the Knitting Factory, Issue Project Room, and the Stone. They have mostly remained under the radar, however, preferring to enrich and deepen their unique improvisational language as it is nourished by a constant stream of unconscious material, away from the harsh glare of commercial and critical pressures. However, the listening public will now be able to listen to this unique and authentic musical expression with the release of this, their first CD.

Ayman Fanous began classical violin studies at age seven and switched to the guitar at twelve. Mostly self-taught, he was first exposed to flamenco at age fifteen and absorbed as much of the great players as he could, especially Paco de Lucia. A chance encounter with Ornette Coleman's playing in high school led him on a path of discovery which has included serialism, free jazz, and several of the world's great improvisational music traditions. He is the first guitarist to bring classical and flamenco guitar technique deeply into contemporary free improvisation. These two worlds, although disparate, share much: fiery virtuosity, a genesis in pain, and historical disenfranchisement. In addition to hundreds of solo performances, he has had a long-standing guitar duo with Bern Nix. He has also performed in duos with Jason Hwang, William Parker, Joe Morris, Tim Reynolds, and Greg Howard. Guitar Player magazine praised his "passionate execution and wicked tremolando", while Richmond's Style Weekly said "it would be fair to call [him] a musical visionary". Early on, Fanous decided not to earn a living making music. This has given him the freedom to cut his own path, inspired by the examples of Charles Ives and others. He is an Assistant Professor of psychiatry at both Georgetown and Virginia Commonwealth Universitites, focusing on genetics research.

Cellist-composer Tomas Ulrich received music degrees from Boston University and the Manhattan School of music. Jazz Now has characterized him as "the total package. incredible chops, great imagination, and superb pitch. He fulfills t he roles of bassist, guitarist, and additional horn player and is endlessly talented and creative." After attending a performance by the great Soviet cellist Mstislav Rostropovich at the age of eight, Mr. Ulrich was inspired to begin his musical journey on the cello. In addition to the traditional classical repetoire, Mr. Ulrich's work clearly demonstrates the influence of such diverse artists as Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Dmitri Shostakovich and Olivier Messiaen. Mr. Ulrich has performed and recorded with such diverse artists as Anthony Davis, Joe Lovano, Gerry Hemingway, Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, Simon Shaheen, Herb Robertson, Dominic Duval, Ben Allison, Kevin Norton, Ted Nash, Uri Caine, Dave Douglas, Mark Whitecage, Mark Feldman, Jason Hwang, Gregor Huebner, Ivo Perelman, Dom Minasi and Ken Filiano. He is also a member of the Diller-Quaile String Quartet, which premiered his Quintet for Trumpet and Strings (featuring guest soloist Herb Robertson) in May of 1996. He has written music for theater, film, and instrumental performance and has concertized in Europe, Japan, South America, Canada, and throughout the United States. Mr. Ulrich can be heard on more than sixty CDs in a wide variety of musical styles and settings.