Gyan Riley is a guitarist and composer based in Brooklyn, New York. His diverse work takes him across the globe for performances as a soloist and with various ensembles. Please take a look around and check out his latest updates below.
September 25th, 2012
Heading back to Lebanon today, this time playing with Al-Madar at the Beirut Jazz Festival on Thursday. Then coming up in early Oct, I’m playing several shows at the Stone as part of Timba Harris’ residency there. The schedule is here…
September 16th, 2012
Friday’s show at NYU was a real blast! And we even got to sit in with Lou Reed, John Zorn, Bill Laswell, and Milford Graves at the end of their set!
August 21st, 2012
Sound check for the last show I played at the Sound Res Festival in Lecce, Italy. 
August 21st, 2012
This was such a fun show! Our set (Secret Chiefs 3 and John Zorn) starts around 31:55. Not the whole set, but I was glad to see and hear it from another perspective!
August 13th, 2012
Had my first concert for the Sound Res Festival in the Puglia region of Italy last night, with a bunch of amazing local singers who sing a type of tarantella called Pizzica . I arranged a couple of these traditional tunes, and we had an amazing festival house band of about 25 musicians to back up the singers. Now I’m off to play a completely improvised show in a women’s prison, with David Cossin on drums and Luca Tarantino on bass. I’ve never done anything quite like this…very exciting!
August 8th, 2012
In Rome for a few days before heading down to Lecce for the Sound Res Festival. Really looking forward to meeting and playing with all the musicians there! See my shows page for details about the concerts, or visit the festival website here.
July 24th, 2012
I’m playing with Al-Madar today and tomorrow at a festival on San Simon, a beautiful tiny island off the NW coast of Spain. It’s a protected park and they only allow 500 people here per day for the festival, shuttled in one boat load at a time. Can’t wait!
July 16th, 2012
I’m excited to play again tomorrow at Razz’zz in Beirut! (yes, there really are that many Z’s. ). The first show with Al-Madar on Sunday was really fun, and since w had today off, we had to force ourselves to swim in the sea and eat this ridiculously tasty Lebanese food…
July 12th, 2012
Today, I am thrilled to be heading out to play the first shows with Al-Madar, a brand new band led by composer/multi-instrumentalist Bassam Saba. Starting off in Beirut (exact show info coming soon), we will then have 7 shows in Portugal and Spain, playing at some great festivals…
Al-Madar Tour
Bassam Saba – ney, flutes, oud
Timba Harris – violin, trumpet
Gyan Riley – guitar
Brian Holtz – bass
April Centrone – drums and percussion
Please check out my shows page for my most recent tour schedule…