Morgan Kraft

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Morgan Kraft (ASCAP) is a composer and band leader currently living in Asheville, North Carolina. He performs and records with the Kraft Quartet and is a producer/engineer. Morgan Kraft's primary instrument is a fretless guitar.

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[edit] Background

Morgan Kraft is a classically-trained composer who found his primary musical voice through the fretless guitar, playing a heavy blues-infused rock-n-roll. He was born in Seattle, WA in 1972. After leaving his childhood home of Laramie, WY, he spent 1992-1997 studying composition with Sherwood Shaffer at the North Carolina School of the Arts. He also studied conducting with Serge Zehnacker, piano with Douglas Buys and theory with Kenneth Frazelle.

[edit] Recording and performance career

Since departing music conservatory in 1997, Morgan Kraft has worked in the rock/pop genre, with notable exceptions being an electronic music piece "Alone" featuring text by Edgar Allan Poe and the voice of New York Metropolitan Opera Soprano Jennifer Welsch, a duet for Oboe and Viola recorded by Coa Schwab and Richard O'Neil (John Zorn) and an orchestra work commissioned by the North Carolina Chamber Symphony. He has worked with trumpet player Bryan Lipps (Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Michael Buble) and toured as a bassist with Greg Garing. He was featured on the Fretless Guitar compilation CD "Village of the Unfretted" and released his first full-length CD "Don't Fade Away" November 7, 2006 on Microearth Records. In 2006 he performed a weekly residency at Bar 9 in NYC's Hell's Kitchen district. His recording credits include production and engineering for several albums including assistant engineer credits on records for Nappy Brown, Brian Vander Ark, Insanity Wave, Drunk Stuntmen, Birds of Avalon, Amy Speace and producer/engineer credits for the Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble, Wayne Robbins and the Hellsayers, and the Kraft Quartet. He has also received credits working with musicians Bob Margolin, Sean Costello, Tom "Mookie Brill, Willie Weeks, Joe Vitale, Steuart Smith, and producers/engineers Mark Williams, Mitch Easter and mulitple Grammy Award winners (producer/engineer) Bill Szymczyk and Jaime Lagueruela.

[edit] Instruments

[edit] Backing musicians

  • Lex Samu - trumpet (1993-present)
  • Madison Rast - bass (1993-present)
  • Wesley Rast - drums (1993-present)
  • Aaron Bachelder - drums (2002-present)
  • Dave Durst - drum kit (2006)
  • Luke Mueller - drums (2004-2005)
  • Ryan Crowley - guitar, songwriter (2002-2006)

[edit] Discography

All Music Guide entry

All Music Guide entry

All Music Guide entry

All Music Guide entry credits include bass guitar and co-production with Aaron Bachelder

  • Various Artists - Village of the Unfretted released on Unfretted Records in the UK, 2005

All Music Guide entry

[edit] Newspaper Articles

"Crowley and company weren't your average sloppy rock band . . . they'd obviously honed their skills as a unit, and played tightly and solidly. Some of their songs had slightly progressive detours, but only for an odd bridge section here and there. Otherwise the music was basic, blunt and tough. The highlights ended up being [Morgan Kraft's] own "Great Riff in A," a phenomenon in which rock bands, probably not on purpose, build a song around a variation of the classic opening riff of "I Want To Tell You" by the Beatles like "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by the Monkees, "Who Is Moving" by the Lilys, "I'll Be There For You" by the Rembrandts, "Doing Nothing" by Of Montreal, the list goes on . . . . [Morgan's] "Peggy Sue Ain't Got Nothing On You" song was propulsive and catchy, and those watching the band were visibly into it.”

[edit] External links