Barefield Super String Quartet:
Creative Transformation in Detroit's
Corktown Neighborhood
Sunday, August 28, 3–5 pm
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Barefield @ Imagination Station
A. Spencer Barefield & Creative Arts Collective
Barefield awarded the prestigious 2010
Kresge Foundation Arts Fellowship
Since that time, CAC has made its mark both locally and internationally. Its 13-year concert series at the Detroit Institute of Arts boldly presented collaborations between Barefield and other Detroit-based artists — such as Tani Tabbal, Jaribu Shahid, Dave McMurray, Tony Holland, Roy Brooks, Faruq Z. Bey, James Carter, Regina Carter, Geri Allen, Marcus Belgrave and many others — with jazz greats such as Roscoe Mitchell, Leroy Jenkins, George Lewis, Douglas Ewart, Muhal Richard Abrams, Richard Davis, Andrew Cyrille, Anthony Davis, Lester Bowie, Reggie Workman and a long list of others. CAC's contributions to the cultural scene in Michigan earned it the Governor's Arts Award for most valuable arts organization.
CAC continues to present concerts throughout the US and internationally. Many of its concerts have been broadcast on National Public Radio and have been released on CDs. CAC is currently partnering with Detroit's Palmer Woods neighborhood to produced Palmer Woods Music in Homes, palmerwoods.org
Check back for news, event postings, and updates on Detroit Jazz Guitarist and Composer A. Spencer Barefield and the Creative Arts Collective.
Kresge Foundation Arts Fellowship
"A. Spencer Barefield is the best guitarist ignored by the U.S. jazz industry. He melds the techniques of Segovia and Jimi Hendrix into a startling jazz lexicon. The Detroit-based Barefield’s ensembles have included the likes of James Carter, Andrew Cyrille and Richard Davis, and his compositions have made bold use of string quartets." Bill Shoemaker, JazzTimes
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| Clockwise from top left: A. Spencer Barefield, Richard Davis, Dave McMurray, Marian Hayden, Dave Young and Marcus Belgrave. Photo: ©2011 Barbara Barefield |
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| Read more at artxdetroit.com/artist/a-spencer-barefield/ Photo: ©2011 Barbara Barefield |
Described by JazzTimes as “an extraordinary guitarist/composer,” Barefield has received numerous awards for composition and performance from National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, Kresge Foundation and others. He has toured and recorded in the US, Canada, and Europe, extensively as a leader, soloist, and with Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Richard Davis and many more. Barefield’s Creative Arts Collective has received international recognition for its innovative presentations, including its Creative Music at the Detroit Institute of Arts series and current Palmer Woods Music in Homes series.
Creative Arts Collective
A mainstay on the Detroit music scene, Barefield is the director of the Creative Arts Collective (CAC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the presentation, preservation and creation of jazz and creative music. Inspired by Chicago's legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), two members of AACM, Roscoe Mitchell and Dushun Mosley, were founding members of CAC with Spencer in the early 1970s in East Lansing, Michigan.
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| Recordings from the historic Creative Music at the DIA concerts are now part of the Beneath Detroit CD series. A 2-disc set with Douglas Ewart, Barefield and Tani Tabbal; a 2-disc set with Leroy Jenkins with Barefield, Tabbal, Faruq Z. Bey, Jaribu Shahid and Anthony Holland; and Transdimensional Space Window with Barefield-Holland-Tabbal Trio can be purchased from itunes, Amazon.com, jazzloft.com. Read more at www.jazzloft.com/p-53160-beneath-detroit.aspx |
"Like Kenny Burrell, Spencer Barefield hails from Detroit. And like that of the esteemed bop veteran, his approach to the guitar is smooth, lyrical and elegantly understated. So much for cornerstones. In drawing deftly from classical and West African forms on acoustic guitar, this self-effacing young innovator is in all other respects an intriguing original."
Chicago Sun Times
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| Spencer Barefield at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit Photo: ©2011 Barbara Barefield |
Spencer Barefield Quartet
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| Left to right: A. Spencer Barefield, Dave McMurray, Djallo Djakate Keita, Dave Young Photo: ©2011 Barbara Barefield |
Performances are presented by the Creative Arts Collective with support from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts and Metro Times. Since 1978, the Creative Arts Collective has been committed to presenting the best of cutting-edge jazz and creative music in Detroit and throughout the world. "Soul Steppin' Through the Fabulous Ruins" the Spencer Barefield Quartet's latest CD release, has receiving rave reviews and has delighted jazz aficionados. For more information: 313-891-2514.
B I O G R A P H I E S
"Barefield's lovely solo has the presence of a Segovia piece
with its majestic chords and runs.
His composition constantly shifts from European
to African influences and back with ease.
It is truly a fine musical moment that reveals more of its
complexity with each new listening."
with its majestic chords and runs.
His composition constantly shifts from European
to African influences and back with ease.
It is truly a fine musical moment that reveals more of its
complexity with each new listening."
— Cadence Magazine
Guitarist/composer A. Spencer Barefield has received numerous awards for composition and performance from ArtServe Michigan-MCACA, Meet-the-Composer/NEA Commission USA, Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest, National Endowment for the Arts, Michigan Council for Arts, Arts Midwest and others. He has toured and recorded in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, extensively as a leader, soloist, and with Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Richard Davis and others. Barefield's recordings "Live Detroit" and "Xenogenesis 2000" (CAC label), and his Sound Aspects (Germany) releases "After the End" and "Live at Leverkusen" have received rave international reviews and honors. He is the Artistic and Executive Director of the Creative Arts Collective (CAC) — its concerts at the Detroit Institute of Arts and elsewhere earned CAC the Michigan's Governor's Arts Award for excellence and international recognition for its innovative presentations. More than a hundred of CAC's concerts have been broadcast on National Public Radio. Barefield has taught guitar and improvisation at the University of Michigan School of Music and elsewhere.
Barefield's Music & the Cosmos
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| Read more at artxdetroit.com/artist/a-spencer-barefield/ Photo: ©2011 Barbara Barefield |
A. Spencer Barefield's Music & The Cosmos
When internationally renown jazz guitarist and composer A. Spencer Barefield is not creating music, he is researching Black Holes, String Theory and other mysteries of the universe. As a 2010 Kresge Arts Fellow, Barefield had the opportunity to merge these passions with two unique presentations of his Music & The Cosmos project at the ArtXDetroit Festival and perform with other worldclass musicians, such as Detroit Symphony Concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert and Canada's Juno Award-Winner bassist David Young.
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