CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Sam Bush
Jerry Douglas
Edgar Meyer

Zankel Hall
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 7:30 PM

Sam Bush, Mandolin and Fiddle
Jerry Douglas, Dobro
Edgar Meyer, Double Bass

Three masters, each known for genre-bending and incomparable musicianship, unite for what is sure to be an unforgettable collaboration.

Sam Bush, Mandolin and Fiddle
Sam Bush is one of the foremost innovators in modern acoustic music. Hailed as the “King of Newgrass” by fans and media alike, Bush played an integral role in changing the face of bluegrass music as a founding member of New Grass Revival. He has continued to forge new ground in his solo career, recording five studio albums (four for Sugar Hill) as well as Ice Caps: Live From Telluride. His most recent release is On The Road—a live concert DVD.

By ignoring orthodoxy, Sam has done as much as anyone since Bill Monroe to shape the destiny of the diminutive mandolin, adding new power and syncopation to its percussive chop and a new harmonic vocabulary that embraces rock, reggae, Afro-pop, and jazz. His decades of popularity at eclectic music festivals like Telluride and MerleFest stem from the fact that he’s also a stage dervish, a rhythm doctor, and a party animal, not to mention an enthusiastic storyteller and a gifted mimic. The fact that his live effort, Ice Caps, is Bush’s biggest seller speaks volumes to the power of his live performance. Bush has a knack for working festival crowds into a frenzy, making him a commodity the most prestigious events can’t live without.

Sam Bush has been one of acoustic music’s great innovators and consummate collaborators. With a dexterity that calls to mind his hero St. Louis Cardinal shortstop Ozzie Smith, Sam can make lightning moves to his left or right, playing neo-classical music with Edgar Meyer, suit-and-tie wearing bluegrass, or country music with Lyle Lovett. In addition to his own studio work, Bush has contributed his trademark sound to countless other artists’ works. After his years with New Grass Revival, Bush went on to lead Emmylou Harris’s Grammy-winning Nash Ramblers for five years. An in-demand session player, Bush, who plays mandolin, fiddle, and guitar, has recorded with such diverse artists as Leon Russell, Doc Watson, Renée Fleming, Steve Earle, Garth Brooks, Soloman Burk, Trisha Yearwood, Edgar Meyer, Leftover Salmon, and many others. Bush has also produced albums by Jon Randall (RCA) and Chris Thile (Sugar Hill). Sam has also been honored with three Grammy awards for his role in projects by Emmylou Harris and Béla Fleck, and in the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.

Sam Bush is a native of Bowling Green, Kentucky. His early exposure to bluegrass pioneers Flatt & Scruggs and Bill Monroe set the young fiddle player and mandolinist on his path. In 2006, Bush was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame. In 2007 he was chosen to host the International Bluegrass Music Association’s awards ceremony at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. Bush is currently touring with The Sam Bush Band as well as instrumental giants Edgar Meyer and Jerry Douglas.

Jerry Douglas, Dobro
Jerry Douglas could have been a musical innovator on any number of instruments. However, as a teenager, Douglas adopted the relatively obscure and unexplored Dobro, and that decision has helped him carve out a unique place in American music.

By discovering the capabilities of this expressive instrument during a period of intense creativity in acoustic music generally, Douglas has wielded incalculable influence on bluegrass and its many related genres.

His transcendent technique and his passionate musicality have helped him net 12 Grammy awards and numerous International Bluegrass Music Association awards. Douglas holds the distinction of being named Musician of the Year by the Country Music Association (2002, 2005), the Academy of Country Music (10 times), and the Americana Music Association (2002, 2003). In June 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts honored Douglas with a National Heritage Fellowship, recognizing his artistic excellence and contribution to the nation’s traditional arts, the organization’s highest such honor.

Jerry Douglas is a most innovative musician, both solo and as a member of groundbreaking bands including The Country Gentlemen, J. D. Crowe & the New South, Boone Creek, Strength in Numbers (of which Mr. Bush and Mr. Meyer were also members), and, since 1998, Alison Krauss + Union Station. As a recording artist, Douglas’s distinctive sound graces more than 2000 albums, including discs released by James Taylor, Phish, Paul Simon, Bill Frisell, Earl Scruggs, Ray Charles, Lyle Lovett, Bill Evans, the Chieftains, and the eight million–plus selling soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?

While a large section of music aficionados may know the sound of Jerry Douglas from albums and concerts with other artists, it is on his own solo projects where the artist truly stretches the boundaries of his musical vision. He has established himself a force in the recording studio, as both musician and as producer, since the release of his debut album, Fluxology, in 1979. The restless creative spirit, which is the common thread in his eclectic discography, also is prominent through every moment of his most recent solo releases, The Best Kept Secret (Koch Records) and the 2007 collection Jerry Douglas: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill Records), highlighting selections from five of his trailblazing recordings.

Balancing his solo career, his work in Union Station, and a variety of collaborative efforts has kept Jerry Douglas sedulously active in 2007. Having been honored with opening act slot for the legendary Paul Simon in 2006, and in the process acquiring a completely new set of fans, his eponymous band has continued to break new stylistic barriers. The Jerry Douglas Band has appeared at prestigious festivals (Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, and Bonnaroo), as featured artists on the A Prairie Home Companion live radio show, and on televised specials of A Prairie Home Companion.

Jerry Douglas was a featured player at Eric Clapton’s 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago. He has recently completed work as Music Director for Transatlantic Sessions 3, a weekly television special airing on BBC TV during the months of September through December 2007, featuring highly acclaimed artists from Scotland, Ireland, and America. This BBC project has reunited Douglas with his long time collaborator, Sir Aly Bain.

Edgar Meyer, Double Bass
Prominently established as a unique and masterful instrumentalist, Edgar Meyer delights his audiences both as a vibrant performer and an innovative composer. Mr. Meyer’s unparalleled technique and musicianship in combination with his gift for composition have brought him to the fore, where he is appreciated by a vast, varied audience. His uniqueness in the field was recognized by a MacArthur Award in 2002.
Mr. Meyer’s most recent album is a self-titled solo recording released in April 2006, on which he wrote and played all of the pieces on instruments including piano, guitar, mandolin, dobro, banjo, gamba, and double bass. As a solo classical bassist, Mr. Meyer has released a concerto album with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra featuring Bottesini’s Gran Duo with Joshua Bell, Meyer’s Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma, Bottesini’s Bass Concerto No. 2, and Meyer’s Concerto in D for Bass. Just prior to that, he released an album with three of Bach’s unaccompanied suites for cello.
As a composer, Mr. Meyer has carved out a remarkable and unique niche in the musical world. In the 2006–07 season, he premiered a triple concerto for double bass, banjo, and tabla (written with Béla Fleck and Zakir Hussain) for the opening of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, as well as a piece for double bass and piano performed with Emanuel Ax. During the 2005–06 season, he premiered the revised version of his Double Bass Concerto No. 2 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and was commissioned to write a piece for violin and piano to be performed by Joshua Bell at the Montalvo Arts Center and New York’s Lincoln Center. Mr. Meyer premiered his Double Bass Concerto No. 1 in 1993 with Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra, and in 1995, he premiered his Quintet for Bass and String Quartet in collaboration with the Emerson String Quartet, which was later recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Also in 1995, he premiered his Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with cellist Carter Brey and the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Orchestra led by Jeffrey Kahane. Mr. Meyer has also performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, featuring the premiere of one of his own works, the Meyer Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma. In October 1999, Mr. Meyer’s violin concerto written for violinist Hilary Hahn was premiered and recorded by Ms. Hahn with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra led by Hugh Wolff.
Fruitful collaborations are also an important part of Mr. Meyer’s work. His inventive performing and recording projects—as a duo with Béla Fleck; a quartet with Joshua Bell, Sam Bush, and Mike Marshall; a trio with Béla Fleck and Mike Marshall; and a trio with Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O’Connor—have been widely acclaimed. Mr. Meyer also works with pianist Amy Dorfman, his longtime accompanist for solo recitals, featuring both classical repertoire and his own compositions. Mr. Meyer’s vast musical interests have also led him to be a widely sought-after guest bass player for an assortment of recording artists, including Garth Brooks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Hank Williams Jr., Emmylou Harris, James Taylor, Lyle Lovett, T-Bone Burnett, the Indigo Girls, Travis Tritt, and the Chieftains.
An exclusive Sony artist who is ever-involved in imaginative projects, Mr. Meyer and colleagues Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O’Connor have been widely acclaimed for Appalachia Waltz, which soared to the top of the charts and remained there for 16 weeks. Appalachia Waltz toured extensively in the US, and the trio was featured both on Late Night with David Letterman and the televised 1997 Inaugural Gala. Mr. Meyer joined Mr. Ma and Mr. O’Connor again for Appalachian Journey, the March 2000 follow-up to Appalachia Waltz. This time, their tour took them not only to major venues across the US but also to Europe and parts of Asia. Appalachian Journey won the Grammy Award that season.
Mr. Meyer began studying bass at the age of five under the instruction of his father and continued with Stuart Sankey. He is the winner of numerous competitions. In 1994 he became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant and in 2000 became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Prize.
A frequent guest at music festivals, Mr. Meyer has appeared as performer and composer at Aspen, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Chamber Music Northwest, and Marlboro. At the Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival, he was a regular guest from 1985 to 1993 and composed six works for the festival during that time. In 1994, Mr. Meyer joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and continues to perform regularly with this ensemble. Currently, he is also visiting professor of double bass at the Royal Academy of Music and at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.