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Strunz & Farah have set off a chain reaction in the world of the guitar. These fieras de la guitarra (ferocious ones of the guitar) have profoundly influenced guitarists everywhere, creating a new genre. Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah, originally from Costa Rica and Iran respectively, have pioneered a new expression for the acoustic guitar, bringing the cultural riches of their native lands to their highly virtuosic, rhythmic and improvisation-rich original compositions. Jorge, given his first guitar at age 6, grew up in an Afro-Caribbean milieu playing flamenco and classical guitar, incorporating jazz, Afro-Latin and Latin American folk forms. Ardeshir Farah was raised in Iran and England, and also played guitar since childhood, focusing on popular music and improvisation. Both began performing professionally in their early teens. The travels of his diplomat father brought Jorge to the United States, while Ardeshir arrived as a student of architecture. Fortune and music brought the two together, when Ardeshir came to see Jorge perform with his Latin jazz-fusion group Caldera (which put out 4 albums on Capitol). When the two guitarists subsequently met, it was instantly obvious that they were brothers of the guitar from opposite ends of the earth. They quickly prepared a repertoire, began performing, and recorded their first project, Mosaico in 1980. Although record companies at that time were not yet ready for this exotic new music, jazz radio embraced it enthusiastically, and the duo caught the attention of Milestone, with whom they put out two CDs in the early 80s, Frontera and Guitarras. The intimate audiophile recording Misterio was commissioned and recorded by Waterlily Acoustics in 1989. Following this came the phenomenally successful recordings Primal Magic (1990) and Amricas (1992) on Mesa/Atlantic, which won Billboard's World Music Album of the Year and a Grammy nomination, respectively. The artists then started their own record company, Selva, as a humane alternative to the majors and put out Heat of the Sun, (top 10 Billboard World Music chart) and Live, the artists first live performance recording.
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