EPISODE 89 - Amanda Monaco

Amanda Monaco has performed at venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, Jazz Standard, and the Blue Note, and with artists such as Milt Hinton and the Mingus Orchestra. She has released eight albums as a leader. Her current jazz projects include her eclectic quartet Deathblow, rambunctious organ quartet Glitter, and all-female sextet Lioness. Her Pirkei Avot Project performs her original music with lyrics from selected verses (from a collection of rabbinical teachings with the same name) compiled in the third century C.E.

Monaco’s guitar playing is “well within the modernist canon, but quite distinctive: her phrasing is often made up of tartly dissonant chords and insistent yet off-kilter repetitions that remind one of Grant Green by way of Andrew Hill... her playing is utterly unique, a breath of fresh air in the cookie-cutter climes of both mainstream and free jazz.” (Clifford Allen, The New York City Jazz Record)

Monaco is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music, where she has taught private instruction, labs, and ensembles since 2011. She also teaches for Berklee Online and recorded a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), available worldwide at www.coursera.com. Monaco's book, Jazz Guitar for the Absolute Beginner was published by Alfred in 2004. In 2022, she joined the guitar faculty at Boston’s New England Conservatory.

Monaco is the Artistic Director of Convergence Arts, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to share the art and fun of improvisation with people of all ages. Convergence has presented festivals in New York City such at the Six String Summit (showcasing guitarists Nels Cline and Julian Lage, among others), the Queens Jazz OverGround’s Spring Jazz Fest, and the Lioness™: Women in Jazz Concert Series.