Brian Rolland (April 16, 1954 - April 14, 2018) was an American guitarist, composer, and songwriter raised in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

, Massachusetts. His instrumental sound is characterized by a mix of Latin and North American guitar styles.

Background

Starting out on the piano and clarinet as a child, switching to folk guitar at age 12, and continuing as a largely self-taught blues and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

player, Rolland moved into formal training in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

through summer programs and lessons at

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on ...

and

Berklee School of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cou ...

while attending

Cambridge Rindge and Latin The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, also known as CRLS or "Rindge," is a public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of the Cambridge Public School District. In 1977, two separate schools, the Rindge Technical ...

high school. His first live performance was at age 14 with a rock band at the Club Casablanca in Harvard Square. Youthful influences included frequenting the

Club 47 Club Passim is an American folk music club in the Harvard Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was opened by Joyce Kalina (now Chopra) and Paula Kelley in 1958, when it was known as Club 47 (based on its then address, 47 Mount Auburn Stree ...

and The

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell ...

in the later 1960s, and an appearance at the 1976

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

backing jazz trumpeter

Clark Terry Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke ...

in a

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

setting. His father was an amateur piano and cornet player from

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pu ...

, Missouri who, as a teenager in the early 1940s, moonlighted playing jazz on Mississippi

riverboat A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury u ...

s, before moving East with his mother after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

to attend

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools ...

under the

GI Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

. Rolland studied classical theory and composition with

Douglas Leedy Douglas Leedy (March 3, 1938; Portland, Oregon – March 28, 2015; Corvallis, Oregon) was an American composer, performer and music scholar. Biography Born in Portland, Oregon, Leedy studied with Karl Kohn at Pomona College and at the Universit ...

Reed College Reed College is a private university, private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor style architecture ...

, then completed a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four ye ...

degree at the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, m ...

, where he studied under

Mark DeVoto Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Finn ...

and graduated in 1977. He resumed recording with the release of a solo guitar album, ''Long Night's Moon'' (2000), followed by ''Dreams of Brazil'' (2002/2006), and ''The Tide's In'' (2007/2008). ''The Tide's In'' was named in

Zone Music Reporter Zone Music Reporter (formerly ''New Age Reporter'') is a website tracking New Age, world, and instrumental music. The site features weekly playlist, monthly airplay charts, and album reviews. Premium services are also offered to artists and their ...

's "Top 100 Airplay Chart for 2008" at #3, was nominated for "Best Instrumental Album – Acoustic" at the New Age Reporter Awards in 2006, peaked at #12 on Zone Music Reporter's "New Age / Ambient / World" charts in April 2006 and at #3 in April 2008. The single "Doliber's Cove" spent 28 weeks on Sirius Satellite's "Top 10 New Age Singles" chart, from early May to mid-October 2008, reaching #1. Awards include an Honorable Mention in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition for his instrumental single "Catch Me If You Can".
ISC Winners

Discography

*''The Tide's In '' (2007/2008) *''Dreams of Brazil'' (2002/2006) *''Long Night's Moon'' (2000)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rolland, Brian 1954 births Living people Musicians from Cambridge, Massachusetts American fingerstyle guitarists American jazz guitarists Songwriters from Massachusetts Reed College alumni American jazz composers American male jazz composers Guitarists from Massachusetts American male guitarists Cambridge Rindge and Latin School alumni 20th-century American guitarists Jazz musicians from Massachusetts 20th-century American male musicians American male songwriters