Listen to Bruce Molsky Ale Möller

One of the most influential old-time fiddlers of his generation, Bruce Molsky is also a remarkable guitarist, banjoist and singer. His high-spirited music melds the archaic mountain sounds of Appalachia, the power of blues and the rhythmic intricacies of traditional African music. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune calls him “old-time music’s answer to Ry Cooder – a commanding musician with a voracious appetite for traditional music styles.” Darol Anger has dubbed him “The Rembrandt of Appalachian Fiddling.”

Bruce grew up in the Bronx listening to rock and blues and played bluegrass guitar in college, but after going to an old-time fiddle festival with a friend, he discovered his true vocation. In the early 70s, he moved to Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to learn from renowned musicians like Tommy Jarrell and Albert Hash. Thanks in part to his time spent with these old masters, he has earned numerous awards at fiddle and banjo contests around the south, including Galax, Virginia; Mount Airy, North Carolina; and the Appalachian String Band Festival in West Virginia and his albums have won “Indie” awards for Best Traditional Folk Recording, received great praise from the Washington Post, Washington Times, Bluegrass Unlimited and others, and become staples for traditional music enthusiasts everywhere.

While Bruce approaches southern roots and blues with great depth of spirit, intimacy, and huge respect for the past, he is also known for his collaborations with musicians from many other traditions, including Irish, Scottish, Cajun, and Swedish and his wide-angled approach to traditional folk music has influenced a generation of players.

Ale Möller‘s first musical passions were jazz, swing and be-bop. After several years playing trumpet and guitar, he became seriously interested in Greek music, but soon realized that the verve of that music springs from the players’ sense of identity and ethnic history. This awareness brought him back to his own background in Sweden and the surviving Swedish folk music.

Ale spent 10 years in Darlarna, a region that has preserved the Swedish fiddling tradition. He studied the tunes in depth, but instead of playing them on a fiddle, he translated them into bouzouki. To reconcile the traditional Swedish music with his Greek instrument Ale had to alter the bouzouki. He had a number of instruments crafted until he obtained the appropriate scales and sound and became a key figure in the overall recreation of Swedish music tradition that took place in the 80s.

Ale’s innovative approach found expression in his following projects, such as “The Fiddling People” and “Bouzoukispelman.” Ale not only combined music traditions from the various regions of Sweden, but he merged them with Brazilian and African tunes.

Ale Moller Band follows the above line of musical search. It features musicians with expertise in Swedish, Greek, West African, Norwegian, Afro-Cuban, Indian and Latin traditionsm as well as jazz. This colorful group uses a variety of instruments to communicate with its audience. Reflecting their diverse background, Ale Moller Band searches for the right notes to tell the stories it has learned – and plays them.

More information

On Bruce Molsky: http://www.brucemolsky.com/
On Ale Möller: http://www.alemoller.se
http://www.rootsworld.com/rw/feature/moller2.html