Adam Fulara & Fool-X trio Adam Fulara (born 1977) – musician, composer, guitarist, and playing a unique guitar approach – two- handed tapping. He is a master of computer engineering and a computer science collage teacher. Musical life events -1994 – graduation from Entry Level Musician School, Ostrzeszow, accordion class. 1992 – start to play guitar, 1996- start to play with two-handed guitar with usual guitar. - 2002- elaboration of innovative type of tapping – so-called “Portato” style and designing a special kind of musical instrument: doublenecked guitar, which can be used for playing a particularly unique technique. - 2003- first reviews of Adam’s recording in “Guitar and Bass” (musicians’ magazine) – since then they have published about Adam regularly – concert of Fool-X for Opole Polish Radio -2004- certified teacher of Master Class on Bach Playing during European Tap Seminar 2004 and 2005 (Neufachateau, Belgium, English, look at the picture) and also music…. In Poland (in Grodzisk Wielkopolski, Warsaw, Koszalin, during jaZZlot Festival 2003, 2004 and 2005) – he was awarded for the best musician in the Polish National Jazz Festival in Sieradz (jury consisted of well-known names such as Marek Napiorkowski, Henryk Miskiewicz, Dorota Napiorkowski). - Cooperation and concerts with well-known polish jazz and fusion musicians like Krzysztof Misiak, Artur Lesicki, Arkadiusz Skolik, Dariusz Ziółek (including playing with them in a framework of “JaZZlot 2004” and “JaZZlot 2005” festivals: www.jazzlot.org) -2005 – Adam is the winner of The National Competition of Guitar Improvisation in Kielce (called “Gitarowe Harce”). The competition is open for all guitar players in age below 30. – Adam has recived honourable (special prize) for “ expanding jazz guitar area ” in "Guitar City 2005" Jazz Guitar Masters Comepetition in Warsaw – most prestige jazz guitar competition in Europe. Final gig was broadcasted in Polish National Radio “3”. - Adam is given a sponsorship for instruments (so-called endorsement) from REK luthier workshop, which began producing a special line of double neck guitar – REK portato signed by Adam. Many of Fool-X fans (guitar players) have bought this instrument. - Tapping show in biggest Polish music store RIFF (www.riff.net.pl) - Concerts in Berlin and Darmstadt turned out to be a big success. The events were in German national press like “Guitar Und Bass”, “Frankfurter Randschau” etc. It seems that there will be more international concerts soon. - Adam became a regular redactor of “Top Guitar” – Polish edition of famous magazine for guitar players. We are preparing a book (with a DVD) in English, which is designed for young guitar players and contain guitar’s transcriptions for 12 hits of classic music. These transcripts are designed for two-hand tapping played on typical, 6-strings electric guitar. It is probably the first of such transcriptions book in the entire world. Adam had his performances mainly with the whole band, but he has also played solo in Poland and abroad (in the picture we can see the the cadr from a concert in a famous jazz club – Arts-o-Base in Brussels we can see the trio playing: Adam Fulara, Wolfgang Daiss and Pierre Narcise, who play concerts and conduct instrument workshops for guitar players and tappers). Rhythmic section Fool-X Tomasz Fulara (Fool-X, bass) and Marek Niechcial (Fool-X, drums) since 2003 create the rhythmic section of A. Cireniewski’s band, famous Polish singer, with whom they often perform, including concerts for Polish TV (TVP 1 and TVP2) Why Fool-X trio sounds unique? 1. Two hand tapping is a unique and extremely spectacular way of playing guitar, but that’s not the reason the band sounds so unique. 2. Adam plays the touch technique with unusual (even between tappers) very fat , jazz- guitar sound (harmony and solos at the same time, or contrapuntal solos based on the jazz tradition and J. S. Bach's music, or sometimes a walking bass line and chords when the bass player plays solo). No other guitar player sounds similar; all tappers use soprano sounds (like S. Jordan, who plays stick). This unique sound is enriched by the author’s kind of articulation – Portato. 3. Unusual, not typical instrument played by Adam – double neck guitar 4. A polyphonic (counterpoint) interpretation and composition – the band is working on three- voice interpretation of standards and three-voice compositions (concerning topics and improvisations) based on bebop tradition and method used by J. S. Bach. Only few pianists, such as K. Jarrett or B. Mahldau, use the polyphonic method. They use this method in a little different way, though, and we can be fairly sure that no other current guitar player or tapper use it. 5. Composition of above trio’s features with: 1. Brilliant clang and walking parts of bass 2. Dialogues of drum player and guitarist during the improvisation Fool-X trio is playing its own composition and famous jazz standards, creating an unusual sound consisting of different kinds of music, like fusion, funk, and bebop. The band’s music is not only to show music technique; we were presented an award in a jazz festival in Sieradz, Poland by a jury consisting of well-known polish musician. The band performs mainly in jazz clubs all over Poland and abroad (Berlin, Brussels), but also during big concerts, for example during the Juwenalia 2003 festival (this concert was played for 5000 people and was partly shown on TV Polsat). Fool-X trio has also played concerts with famous polish jazz players (Artur Lesicki, Krzysztof Misiak etc.). Local media Local media are willing to write about 2 kinds of musician events: - concerts of famous artists - unusual (untypical) music events. Concerts of Fool-X trio can be classified in the second group. It is an excellent opportunity to promote artistic events and places. Until now we could hear or read about Fool-X in: TV Polsat (parts of Juwenalia concert in 2003 in Wroclaw), TV MAX Koszalin (interview, fragments of concert and workshop), TV ProArt (Ostrow wlkp.), Radio Woobie-Doobie, Radio Opole (concert), Radio Kielce (Koncert), Radio “Afera” Poznan, Radio SUD, Radio Centrum, “Guitar and Bass”-magazin for musician (Polish and German editions), “Top Guitar”, “Voice of Wielkopolska”, “Voice of pomorze”, “Ziemia Kaliska” (local paper), “Czas Ostrzeszowski” (local paper as well) and many more. Web site www A very popular side of the band’s activity is its website, which was visited in 2005 by 140,000 Internet users (in general a website is visited by approximately 350,000 people). It is the amount close to what is achieved by famous Polish jazz musicians. This kind of web’s popularity is very fruitful for the band because it causes the cooperation with a lot of artists from abroad (there are planned concerts of Fool-X trio with Daniel Schell (Belgium), Bob Zabek (Austria) and EggNoise band (Czech Republic) in 2005. Opinions “For me he is a musician who proved that there has not yet been said the last world in guitar-playing technique. Fulara is not only the best tapper in Poland he is also the first one who applied two hand tapping technique from Bach to jazz. His achievements are simply impressive and lay a new goal to be accomplish by the others guitarists. “ Zbigniew Dubiella (“World of Guitar” Polish ed., main redactor) „Adam Fulara (...) is a promising talent in two hand tapping. His specialty is polyphonic compositions (…)” K. “Partyzant” Toczko, (“Guitar and Bass” no. 1/2005) „I like the idea of contrapuntal improvisation, presented by Adam. It sounded interesting and seems to me that is the right direction of musical search.” (Artur Lesicki, www.arturlesicki.com) „Adam Fulara is anxious and seeking nature with passion.” (K. Misiak, www.misiak.elpec.com) “Adam Fulara has discovered new level of jazz guitar. He’s music is as interesting, as innovate”. (J. Smietana, jury “Guitar City 2005” International Jazz Guitar Masters Competition – Warsaw 2005). “Adam Fulara has shown in his recordings musical versatiity accompanied with solid basics(…); he is playing in a freemanner in various polyphonic composition (…); his approach to music makes us aware of how much it is to be discovered [in the area of music]” (Janusz “Macek” Mackiewicz, “Guitar and Bass” nr 2/2004) “Adam Fulara and his Fool-X trio music – very interesting and creative use of rare guitar playing technique called tapping (that I myself apply sporadically). And his fluency!” (Marek Raduli, www.raduli.info) “ Music of Adam Fulara is much above other, contemporary tappers; not only on the esthetic level but also on the level of conception and sound. Records of Fool-X are some of the best amateur recorded compositions I have ever heard (…)” (Daniel Anthony Stearns, “rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz.”, I 2005) “Given remarkable mastery of the instrument we have sponsored Adam Fulara as a teacher for masterclasses in the July 2005 session. He has demonstrated a remarkable ability to perform both classical – specially Bach – as jazz pieces. Adam has given his lessons in English. There were interesting and well uderstood by the audience.” (Daniel Schell, The European Tap Seminar Director, www.clicmusic.be). Adam Fulara - contact: web site www.adam.fulara.com e-mail: [email protected] phone no. (+48) (062) 730 94 30 cell phone (+48) 604 695 855 .