Ian Dogole

Ian Dogole utilizes a wide array of percussion instruments from a variety of world cultures to deliver a form of music that's been dubbed global fusion. He mixes a blend of cultural styles with jazz to create his own distinctive offering. Dogole plays percussion instruments that hail from the Native American culture as well as from China, India, the Middle East, and Africa. A native Philadelphian, Dogole was five years old when he took up the piano. His attention shifted to jazz guitar two years later. He studied ethnomusicology at Brown University and went on to earn a master's degree from Villanova University in classical language. He also earned a degree from Stanford University. While at college, his interest in percussion was piqued, and now Dogole passes on his love of music to another generation through his workshops, assemblies, and other presentations aimed at California children in kindergarten through 12th grade. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded Dogole a Jazz Performance Fellowship in 1991. The Marin Arts Council awarded him three grants, the first in 1994, the second a year later, and the third in 1998. He has recorded as a solo artist as well as with different ensembles named Global Fusion. These outfits are set up as a five-member unit, a four-member unit, and as a trio. Other members of his groups are keyboard player Gary Fisher, fiddler and viola player Eric Golub, flute player and bassist Bill Douglass, and Sheldon Brown, who plays reeds. Dogole has played a variety of venues in Pennsylvania, California, Florida, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. He also composes, and his works have appeared on recordings by Ancient Future, a group that also counts him as one of its core musicians. His music was featured in a video made for baseball's San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies, as well as for the Indonesia Park Service and his alma mater, Brown University. In addition to performing, recording, and composing, the multi-percussionist has produced his own albums and several for Ancient Future. He also acted as producer on Just the Beginning, the 1998 debut from jazz vocalist Daria; Red Reflections, the 1995 debut from flügelhornist Dmitri Matheny; and the 1997 self-titled debut from jazz violinist Yehudit. ~ Linda Seida, Rovi