Guitar Sunday @ PMAC Featuring Eric Hofbauer

Join us at Portsmouth Music and Arts Center for our last Guitar Sundays concert before the summer hiatus! The final concert features jazz guitarist, Eric Hofbauer.

Eric ​Hofbauer has been an integral member of Boston’s jazz scene as a musician, bandleader, organizer, and educator for the past twenty-five years. He has performed and recorded alongside such notable collaborators as Han Bennink, Roy Campbell, Jr., John Tchicai, Garrison Fewell, Cecil McBee, George Garzone, Sean Jones, John Fedchock, Steve Swell, and Matt Wilson.

​Hofbauer has been recognized multiple times in the DownBeat Critics’ Poll for Rising Star. He is perhaps best known for his solo guitar work featured in a trilogy of solo guitar recordings (American Vanity, American Fear, and American Grace). Of the trilogy, Andrew Gilbert of The Boston Globe writes, “No other guitarist in jazz has developed a solo approach as rigorous, evocative, and thoughtful as Hofbauer. His 2016 solo release Ghost Frets, was described by Chris Haines of The Free Jazz Collective “as a real testament to Hofbauer’s musical style and vision…The playing is virtuosic throughout providing a real master class in creative solo performance.” “Eric Hofbauer has become a significant force in Boston’s improvised-music scene,” declares Stereophile’s David R. Adler. “His aesthetic evokes old blues, Americana, Tin Pan Alley, bebop, and further frontiers. There’s a rule-breaking spirit but also an impeccable rigor, a foundation of sheer chops and knowledge, that put Hofbauer in the top tier of guitarists,” he writes.

​The latest large-scale endeavor by Hofbauer is a five-part series of original suites, each named after one of the elements (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth) featured in the Chinese philosophical construct known as Wu Xing. The first release, 2019's Book of Water, is a classic jazz-sextet lineup that Jerome Wilson of All About Jazz describes as "a thrilling ride that rolls, swirls and crashes like an elemental force. The horn players are exuberant, the rhythm section is buoyant, and Hofbauer, whether carving out single notes like Derek Bailey or tossing off busy runs like Joe Morris, threads the music together. There is delicacy and power in equal measure on this excellent release, one of the best of the year so far." The second release in the series, 2020’s Book of Fire, was conceived in a duo format with Anthony Leva on upright bass. The duo’s acoustic performance is augmented by the addition of electronic instrumentation (MPC1000 drum machine and turntables) and the intertwined recordings of literary giant James Baldwin. The result is an intense amalgam of consonance and texture; tradition and innovation. Burning Ambulance’s Todd Manning describes the project in this way, “the virtuosity displayed by Eric Hofbauer is staggering at times, but his acumen as a composer is even more impressive. Despite the varied influences and elements at play, Book of Fire is both remarkably coherent yet sonically unpredictable.”

For the past seven years, his primary ensemble has been the Eric Hofbauer Quintet. The EHQ performs Hofbauer’s jazz arrangements of groundbreaking 20th-century pieces which he describes as “prehistoric jazz.” These arrangements celebrate the common ground between modern jazz and the works of Stravinsky, Messiaen, Ellington, and Ives by using the shared rhythmic and harmonic concepts of the 20th-century modernists as a bridge to postmodern jazz improvisation.

​Hofbauer received a Master’s degree from New England Conservatory and a Bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory. Hofbauer is the chair of the Jazz and Contemporary Music Dept. at Longy School of Music of Bard College where he teaches jazz theory, artist portfolio, chamber ensembles, solo repertoire class, and guitar lessons. For over 20 years he has taught jazz history at Emerson College. Hofbauer has also been visiting professor at Wellesley College, and faculty at Clark University and the University of Rhode Island. In 2009, he was honored with the Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Music Composition.

Registration is not required. Just drop in for a free concert at PMAC, 973 Islington St. Portsmouth. 

About Guitar Sundays

Portsmouth Music and Arts Center and Portsmouth Public Library, in association with the Boston Classical Guitar Society and with support from Service Credit Union present Guitar Sundays, a series of live guitar performances. Produced and curated by Mitch Shuldman, these free concerts will be held at 3 PM each month, alternating between the Levenson Room at the Portsmouth Public Library and the Haas Family Gallery and Recital Hall at PMAC.

Guitar Sundays draws from a rich selection of talent from both New Hampshire and the greater Boston area, this series of recitals highlights the versatility and range of the guitar with both classical and jazz performances.