Max ZT

Max ZT Cloud-Bursting, Ear-Opening Hammered Dulcimer Music

Soundcheck | May 5, 2022

Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based musician Max ZT, “the Jimi Hendrix of the hammered dulcimer” (-NPR), uses hammered dulcimer techniques learned from around the world from Senegal’s Mandinko tradition on the kora and India’s santoor master Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, along with traditions of Irish and American folk music. He incorporates pitch-bending, plucking, and a cloud-like resonance, using different hammers, muting the strings, and can even approximate the sound of a Japanese koto.

During the Covid times, he practiced daily improvisations and from these, came his solo record, Daybreak, a collection of instrumental meditations. Max ZT performs one of these tunes, and a new improvisation remotely for the Soundcheck Podcast. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: “Yield,” “Improvisation”

Watch "Yield"

Watch "(untitled) Improvisation":

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