Hey there everyone! Happy holidays, and holy-days, from brisk northern California, where you’ll be happy to know I’m still vying to catch a good sunburn or two before the solstice.  I hope you are all more than tip-top and maintaining a sense of peace and clarity as we together ramble through the befuddling commercial hecticism [...]

Hey world! Jeremy Kittel here, writing to you from my cozy, fav Oakland, California, USA coffee joint… which will go unnamed, shrouded in utter mystery for this very moment! But – one hint – did you see Pixar’s UP a few years ago? I’m right down the street from that little ice cream shop, Fenton’s, [...]

Hey all, just wanted to put up a quick post to tell what I’ve been up to.  I flew to Nashville last week to spend a few days arranging and recording strings for My Morning Jacket – a powerful, honest, and thoughtful band that’s been called “the best thing to happen in rock music in [...]

Heyo everyone! Say hello to some, like, totally awesome dudes, man: Josh Pinkham (picks the mandolin), Simon Chrisman (hammers the dulcimer), and Nathaniel Smith (drags horse hair on vicious metal wires).  We had an explosive blast of a time performing together this last summer (see videos below), and we’re looking forward to much fun, games, [...]

Reviews have been coming in all year for Jeremy’s latest solo disc, “Chasing Sparks,” and they’ve been fantastic. Here are some excerpts…

“Over an hour of fiddle music, from the devilish to the divine, played by a consummate musician whose style and repertoire sit somewhere between Nashville and Nairn.…Let me stress again that he is a brilliant and exciting young fiddler… More than half the material here is credited to Kittel, and there isn’t a weak link in the chain. It’s fresh, it’s fun, and it’s technically excellent…

I’ve had the pleasure to be involved somewhat in the Bay Area’s recording scene recently, and one of the biggest projects I’ve been working on is a game called Infamous 2, in development for Sony Playstation 3. It’s been a great project, involving a small group of strings – 1 bass, two cellos, one viola [...]

Recently, I’ve had a wonderful time working with my friend, songwriter/singer/banjo player Abigail Washburn. Last fall I performed her music alongside other supporting musicians Nathaniel Smith (cello) and Bela Fleck (banjo) at Disney Hall in LA; we were opening for legendary comedian/banjo player Steve Martin. That was a challenge; her music has such beauty, honesty, [...]

Jeremy wins the 2010 Emerging Artist Award from the University of Michigan School of Music.  This honor is bestowed annually upon a graduate from within the past fifteen years who has made “significant contributions in the field of music, theatre, or dance, and will have had a positive impact on the School of Music community, [...]

“Fusion” has been a buzzword in Irish music for a while now. Technically defined as “The merging of different elements into a union”, in trad, it usually manifests by a jazz or rock groove being added to whatever traditional piece is being played by a traditional group.

Even in the realm of fusion though, fiddler Jeremy Kittel is unique. A rewarded and accomplished musician in the genres of Celtic, jazz, and classical, Kittel’s new CD “Chasing Sparks” is not meant to be a fusion album but a trad album made by an artist who is constantly trying to stretch his own boundaries.

“I wrote most of these tunes with no intention of combining styles – rather, they were just embellishments of melodies and sounds that were floating around in my head,” says Kittel. “The first CD I did (2000’s ‘Celtic Fiddle’) was more traditional – and I love playing trad tunes – but I had a period of a few years where I was writing a lot of fiddle tunes that were a little quirky in some way or a little bit different like in B major or with a different melodic structure than usual. I wanted the record to be focused around these new melodies and I wanted to use them for branching out into new arrangements and to have some improvisations in there. “

FOLK WORLD JEREMY KITTEL – Chasing Sparks Compass Records 4531 11 tracks, 65 minutes If you’re one of those people who find sleeve notes an irritation, never read them, can’t get them back into the case, and frequently throw them away, then this album is perfect for you.  Over an hour of fiddle music, from [...]