California Guitar Trio

Infobox musical artist
Name = California Guitar Trio


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Genre = Classical Guitar
Years_active = 1991-present
Label = Inside Out Music
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URL = http://www.cgtrio.com
Current_members = Paul Richards
Bert Lams
Hideyo Moriya
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California Guitar Trio (CGT) is a band of three guitar players founded in 1991. Paul Richards of Salt Lake City, Utah, Bert Lams of Brussels, Belgium, and Hideyo Moriya of Tokyo, Japan first met in England at one of Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft Courses in 1987. After completing several of these intensive courses, the three toured worldwide with Fripp's League of Crafty Guitarists. Wanting to continue together after the League had run its course, Bert, Paul and Hideyo convened in Los Angeles and founded The California Guitar Trio in 1991, honing their intricate original compositions, surf covers, and classical re-workings.

With a whirlwind of instrumental styles fusing classical, rock, blues, jazz, world music, bluegrass, as well as the quintessential California musical genre surf music, the California Guitar Trio's stunning virtuosity and sly sense of humor have earned them a rabid following and wide notoriety, with significant crossover in the progressive, acoustic and classical music scenes.

Notably, CGT music was featured on the television coverage of the 1998 and 2000 Olympic Games, and on CBS, NBC, CNN WorldBeat, and ESPN TV programs. The CGT performed on the 2003 Grammy Awards nominated track Apollo on Tony Levin's CD Pieces of the Sun; and CGT music was sent into outer space as wake up music for the crew aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle "Endeavour".

Over the past 12 years of nearly incessant touring, the California Guitar Trio has shared the stage with superb musicians and performers such as: King Crimson, John McLaughlin, David Sylvian, Tito Puente, Leftover Salmon, Taj Mahal, Steve Lukather, Simon Phillips, Adrian Legg, Enchant, and many more.

Since their inception in 1991, the Trio has released 12 Cds: 7 studio Cds featuring original works from the CGT and a variety of classics such as Bach’s Toccata and Fugue and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. Four live releases that show the trio at their best onstage, and a Christmas CD with familiar and not-so familiar Christmas music, which continues to receive rave reviews.

In August 2004, they released Whitewater, produced by Tony Levin (King Crimson/ Peter Gabriel). With shimmering clean acoustic sounds blended with ambient and pungent electronics, Whitewater is a benchmark CD in the CGT’s catalog. It features mainly original works of the CGT, offset by a puzzle work arrangement of a Bach lute suite and an unorthodox mashup of the cowboy classic "Ghost Riders" with The Doors' "Riders on the Storm".

Discography

*"The California Guitar Trio" (1991, not listed in CGT's own discography)
*"Yamanashi Blues" (1993)
*"Invitation" (1995)
*"Pathways" (1998)
*"An Opening Act: Live On Tour With King Crimson CD"(1999)
*"Rocks the West" (2000)
*"10 Christmas Songs" (2001)
*"CG3+2" (2002)
*"The First Decade" (2003)
*"Whitewater" (2004)
*"Highlights" (2007)
*"Echoes" (2008)

External links

* [http://www.cgtrio.com/ California Guitar Trio home page]
* [http://www.tonylevin.com Official Tony Levin Site]