Photo by GEO

BIOGRAPHY | printer friendly | 1 of 5

"One of the most unique jazz guitarists to emerge in decades."
~ Harvey Pekar, JazzTimes

"About as revolutionary as music can actually get." ~ The Wire

"Strikingly original." ~ Downbeat

"Outrageously exciting." ~ Ben Watson

"Disarmingly hypnotic." ~ Derek Taylor

"a matchless voice" ~ Jazzreview.com

"This guitarist often sounds as if he's disassembling the instrument. He isn't; he's breaking down preconceived notions of harmony, melody, rhythm, and sound itself - and the effort can be as exhilarating as the results."
~ Francis Davis, Village Voice

"Eisenbeil's prophetic voice comes like a streak of light out of nowhere surprising us with his range of intensity and extensive vocabulary of sounds that quickly develop into torrid dialogues with Evans and Robinson building into a fiercely collective conversation."
~ Jazz Improv Magazine

Bruce Eisenbeil is a composer, improviser, and guitar instrumentalist who has dedicated his life to the advancement of modern guitar techniques through the growth and evolution of modern improvised music. He has twelve CD's released on a variety of labels including: ESP, Pogus, Nemu, Konnex, Cadence, C.I.M.P and Nine Winds. Eisenbeil has performed and recorded with some of the best musicians throughout the USA, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Brasil, and at many festivals. Eisenbeil has been living in New York City since 1995.

In addition to his musical developments, Eisenbeil is trained in advanced mathematics, physics - general relativity and quantum mechanics, organic chemistry, computer languages, electrical engineering, acoustics, art history, philosophy and psychology. He has worked as an electrical technician, mechanical draftsman, auto mechanic and in construction.

Although Eisenbeil was born in Chicago, he grew up in Plainfield, NJ which is where he began playing the guitar when he was 4 years old. He has been performing professionally since he was 15. Mostly self-taught, Eisenbeil studied with a few great teachers including Joe Pass, Howard Roberts, Joe Diorio, and Dennis Sandole - teacher of John Coltrane and Pat Martino.

Critics have compared him not only with guitarists such as Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, Grant Green, Billy Bauer, Derek Bailey, Sarnie Garrett, Sonny Sharrock, Curtis Mayfield, John McLaughlin, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck but also with saxophonists John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman and pianists McCoy Tyner and Cecil Taylor. His ensemble writing has been associated with that of Miles Davis, Don Cherry, Brian Ferneyhough, Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Revolutionary Ensemble.

Eisenbeil has performed and/or recorded with many fine musicians including Cecil Taylor, Milford Graves, David Murray, William Parker, Andrew Cyrille, Matt Shipp, Kent Carter, Edgar Bateman, Nasheet Waits, Badal Roy, Peter Evans, Rob Brown, Ellery Eskelin, Karl Berger, Perry Robinson, Michael Manring, Alex Blake, Lukas Ligeti, Jon Lindberg, Katsuyuki Itakura, David Fox, Aaron Ali Shaikh, Jimmy Stewert, Biggi Vinkeloe, Steve Swell, David Taylor, Lisle Ellis, Wilbo Wright, Hill Greene, Tom Abbs, Nate Wooley, Tom Hamilton, Charles Cohen, SKFL, Jay Rosen, William Hooker, Lou Grassi, Ian Ash, Klaus Kugel, Shiro Onuma, Michael Lopez, and many others. In the 1980’s he worked with Jeff Buckley, Paul Gilbert, and in R&B bands.

His current trio, TOTEM>, includes Tom Blancarte and Andrew Drury.

Eisenbeil has performed at these festivals:

2009 Hell's Kitchen Festival (NYC)
2008 Sonic Circuits Festival (Washington D.C.)
2008 New Languages Festival (NYC)
2008 Boise Experimental Music Festival
2007 Edgefest (Ann Arbor)
2006 Montreal Jazz Festival
2006 Silent Art Festival(Bochum)
2005 Silent Art Festival(Bochum)
2001 Vision Festival
1998 CMJ Music Conference
1997 Texaco New York Jazz Festival
1997 Buffalo Interprov Festival
1997 Philadelphia Mellon Jazz Festival
1997 Trenton Avant-garde Festival
1997 Philadelphia Fringe Festival
1997 CMJ Music Conference, NYC
1996 Philadelphia PSFS-Mellon Jazz Festival

Eisenbeil's work has been featured in Guitar Player magazine (May 2010), Jazz Review (August 2008), All About Jazz (Los Angeles: November 2007), Cadence (Feb. 2003), Avant (Autumn 2001), and Staten Island Advance (1999). He has been interviewed on several online sites including: Kronosonic, Jazzweekly.com, modernguitars.com, one final note.com.

2011

Concert at Roulette MusicCircus (Brooklyn)

Concerts with: Lynne Portis, Dan Godston, Orin Buck, Edmund Mooney, Andrew Drury, Tom Blancarte, Evan Lipson

2010

Concert at Roulette(NYC) - Dennis Sandole Tribute

Concert at Sullivan Hall with Melissa Reaves & Dave Fox Group

TOTEM> performances at Bowery Poetry Club

Concerts with: Matthew Shipp, Andrew Drury, Tom Blancarte, David First, Ian Ash, Bobby Zankel, Rob Brown, Brian Groder, Dylan Taylor, Denise Sandole, Melissa Reaves, Dave Fox, Dave Moss, David Licht

2009

Hells Kitchen Festival with Tom Hamilton

New CD - Shadow Machine (Pogus) released

TOTEM> performances at Zebulon(Brooklyn)

Performance in New Orleans with Jesse Morrow and Dave Cappello

Concerts with: Andrew Drury, Tom Blancarte, Tom Hamilton,Ian Ash, Wilbo Wright, William Hooker, Tony Larokko, Mercedes Figueras, Bill Mason, Samej Williams, Fred Berryhill,

2008

Spring tour in France and Switzerland with TOTEM>

The legendary label E.S.P released Solar Forge, TOTEM>’s debut CD. Solar Forge received over 40 critically acclaimed reviews worldwide and was picked as one of the Top 10 Releases for 2008 by Trevor Hunter (New Music Box, American Music Center), Mark Saleski (Blogcritics.org), Pico (SomethingElse.com), Stuart Broomer (All About Jazz—New York, pointofdeparture.org) and Phil Freeman (The Wire, Village Voice).

Sonic Circuits Festival (Washington D.C.) with Deep End Ensemble
New Languages Festival (NYC) with TOTEM>
Boise Experimental Music Festival with Deep End Ensemble
Ten city Midwest Tour with The Deep End Ensemble

TOTEM> performances in NYC at Roulette, Issue Project Room, Yippie Café, Jimmy’s Bar, Bowery Poetry Club, Alain Kirrili’s Loft

Concert at The Stone with Tom Hamilton

Concerts with: Andrew Drury, Tom Blancarte, Tom Hamilton, Ian Ash, Wilbo Wright, Drew Gress

2007

Performed at The Edgefest(Ann Arbor) with Carnival Skin

New CD Release - Inner Constellation Volume 1 (Nemu 007)

INNER CONSTELLATION received over 30 critically acclaimed reviews worldwide and was voted one of the Top 10 Jazz CD’s in 2007 by: Ken Waxman (Coda), Budd Kopman (All About Jazz), Stuart Broomer (Village Voice) , Eyal Hareuveni (All About Jazz), and Improv.hu (Hungary)

Denmark and Sweden - Two week Spring Tour
The Stone in NYC - Two nights with Lisle Ellis' band
55 Bar - concert with Fay Victor Quartet

Concerts with: Andrew Drury, Tom Blancarte, Tom Hamilton, Lisle Ellis, Ellery Eskelin, Blaise Siwula, Fay Victor, Nat Janoff, Kat Hernandez, Dave Fox, Pat Lawrence, Jon Marc Ryan Dale, Ian Ash, Eddy Rollin, Wilbo Wright, Jon Rowan Reitzes, Claudio Rochat-Felix, Michael Attias, Jose Davila, Dan Marmorstein, Peter Brunn, Biggi Vinkeloe, Arne Forsen, Andreas Axelsson, Jim Ryan, Dave Sewelson, DeePop, Eric Deutsch, Gustavo Aguilar

2006

MONTREAL JAZZ FESTIVAL with CARNIVAL SKIN
SILENT ART FESTIVAL - Cologne, Germany
GERMANY TOUR
JAPAN TOUR: 10 cities
The Stone in NYC - premeired new quartet
CARNIVAL SKIN concerts

CARNIVAL SKIN (Nemu 003), was voted by Hank Shteamer (Time Out NY) one of the Top 10 new releases. DJ’s at WNUR voted it one of the Top 50 records in 2006. Based on airplay at WNUR it was one of the Top 50 albums of 2006. Carnival Skin appeared on dozens of Top Ten radio playlists throughout the year.

Concerts with: Klaus Kugel, Perry Robinson, Peter Evans, Hill Greene, Ute Kaiser, Ludger Schmidt, Kent Carter, Roby Glod, Ellery Eskelin, Alex Blake, Soon Kim, Nate Wooley, David Chiesa, Blaise Siwula, Lisle Ellis, Elliott Levin, Fay Victor

Performances in Japan with: Shiro Onuma, Junji Mori, Keiko Komori, Katsu Itakura, Hiroyuki Eizuka, Kumi Wakao, Yu Wakao, Keigo Iwami

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5