Mike Baggetta
unknown
“…vintage twang in service of Americana-meets exploratory Jazz-psych…”
-Rolling Stone
“Baggetta is a player of immense subtlety across all dimension, working with an impressive palette of tones … distilling Fripp’s loopscapes with hints of John Fahey.”
-The Wire, UK
“Mike Baggetta makes stealthy, mysterious music … he’s trying to do something personal with collective improvisation without ever getting in the way of beauty.”
-New York Times
“Think pressure, combustion, power, and hissing clouds of sonic poetry, and you're in the right pipeline.”
-Premier Guitar
“…a kind of post-Frisellian sonic explorer … with his wild whammy-bar articulations, ambient looping and rippling arpeggios … full of subversive surprises, hellacious skronking, string-scraping and a general hornets’ nest of fuzz-toned dissonance”
-Slate Magazine
“Mike Baggetta is a genre-blurring guitar hero … at the forefront of an army of guitar innovators”
-JazzTimes
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It has been said that MIKE BAGGETTA is “a guitarist of slippery proficiency” (New York Times), that his performances are “totally compelling” (Jazz Journal, UK) and that “his melodic sense is truly beautiful.” (JazzReview.com)
Mike’s singular and very personal musical style seeks to blur the lines between song and solo, while connecting a wide range of musical genres that influence him. The press says this approach is “…beguilingly atmospheric…” (Time Out New York) and that “Baggetta’s music is quietly transgressive… Even when he plays a lot of notes, his playing can sound almost static, as though ideas were being snagged out of thin air.” (Hartford Courant)
Baggetta’s most recent release is the album Everywhen We Go, his second album with drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Mike Watt on the BIG EGO label. He also leads the band mssv, is a post-genre power trio featuring the iconoclastic rhythm team of drummer Stephen Hodges and bassist Mike Watt. They have just released their self-titled debut studio album, Main Steam Stop Valve, on BIG EGO Records, following up 2020’s Live Flowers album on Striped Light Records, recorded live in Philadelphia, PA and Northampton, MA (with special guest J Mascis), as well as 3 limited edition 7” releases recorded solely over quarantine, featuring guest artists Petra Haden and Nels Cline. After completing their first full US tour in spring 2022 mssv recorded their second full length album for release next year. This band grew out of Baggetta’s first album for BIG EGO, Wall of Flowers, which featured a reimagining of his music alongside bassist Mike Watt and drummer Jim Keltner.
Baggetta has had the pleasure to work all over the world with a wide range of visionary musicians across many generations including David Torn, Jim Keltner, Mike Watt, Nels Cline, Psychic Temple, Jeff Coffin, Henry Kaiser, Petra Haden, Rev. Fred Lane, Donny McCaslin, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Joseph C. Philips’ Numinous, Imani Uzuri, Viktor Krauss, David Wax Museum, Julian Lage, Jon Irabagon, Jerome Harris, Tom Harrell, Eivind Opsvik, Jeremy Udden, and Ruth Brown among many others. Baggetta is an Endorsing Artist for Koll Guitars, Benson Amps, and Stringjoy Strings.
