Nigel Gavin
Guitarist, composer & Gitbox Rebellion founder.
American & Kiwi.
www.nigelgavin.com
The distance from Nigel Gavin’s Long Island, New York birthplace to Auckland, New Zealand, where he now lives, may explain the original working title for his album Thrum - Off the Beaten Track. At first a visitor, now a resident, Nigel has long been a featured player in New Zealand’s eclectic music scene, particularly in Auckland, playing guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass, glissentar – indeed, almost anything with strings – with the Nairobi Trio, the Fondue Set, the Jews Brothers, Lorina Harding, Wayne Gillespie, Whirimako Black, Richard Adams, Caitlin Smith, the Blue Bottom Stompers, Below the Bassline, Jonathan Besser’s Bravura and his own Snorkel, to name just a few.
An active and keen mentor to young artists, Nigel is the founder and director of the Gitbox Rebellion ensemble.
In 1990, he received an invitation from Robert Fripp, of ‘King Crimson’ fame, to travel to the US in order to teach the latter’s own guitar ensemble ‘Guitarcraft’ some of his ‘Gitbox’ techniques and material. Following this international collaboration, he was further hired to tour around the world with them, giving concerts and workshops, as well as to work on several of their albums.
Nigel’s original compositions are a cross-cultural combination of a vast variety of musical traditions and philosophical influences. His beloved acoustic seven-string guitar was hand-made from native New Zealand Kauri tree woods by the master luthier Laurie Williams. He has also been known to play a Glissentar, made by Godin – an 11 string fretless acoustic instrument at the crossroads between East and West, a deeply resonant Oud-like variation on the guitar.
For a list of all the albums Nigel has played on, please refer to the following page on his website: http://www.nigelgavin.com/recordings.php or his fan-made Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Gavin