Talking about African Guitar Scenes with Nathaniel Braddock

Adult Group Class / Guitar Program

Former OTS teacher Nathaniel Braddock returns to share his recent research of guitar music from his travels in West and Central Africa. For this talk, he will focus on his chapter, "African Electrical Networks," from the newly-published Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar, as well as from his forthcoming article in the Fretboard Journal, “Mathématiques Congolaises: The Hidden Luthiers of Modern Kinshasa.” This program is designed as a presentation and conversation with the school community, and not as a hands-on workshop. Braddock will share videos, audio, and photographs, and discuss new ideas in how people are writing about guitar music.

Musician, composer, and educator Nathaniel Braddock performs acoustic fingerstyle guitar music, and has recorded with many indie rock bands, but he is most known for his work in African groups including Occidental Brothers Dance Band International, Trio Mokili, the Accra Quartet, and The Palmwine Session. He has performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Music Meeting Nijmegen, Pitchfork Festival, the Whitney Biennial, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and many other venues. Braddock received a 2019 project grant from New Music USA for Three Rites, a collaboration with choreographer Edisa Weeks. He has collaborated with musicians from Ghana, Uganda, DRC, Mali, Zambia, Tanzania, Mocambique, and Guinea, including Jupiter et Okwess, Balla Kouyate, and Koo Nimo. Nathaniel earned a Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology from Tufts University and is completing a PhD on Central African guitar music at Boston University. He produces podcasts for Afropop Worldwide and has written for the Fretboard Journal. His chapter "African Electrical Networks" is included in the 2024 Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar. 
http://nathanielbaddock.com

Grouped with: African