KURATED NO. 252
VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL 48
Featured Act
• Derek Gripper + Guy Buttery: Stretching Musical Traditions
Recorded in 2019 this live 9-song set was the duo’s first improvised concert together.
Gripper plays classical guitar and Buttery is on guitar, sitar and mbira.
Contents
• IN CONCERT: Gripper and Buttery in Salem, Oregon, April 2025 (19:37 mins)
– The excerpt shows the guitar interplay they’ve been sharing on stage during their current tour
• PLAYLIST: Cape Town 2019 – Gripper and Buttery on Spotify
• SONG VIDEOS:
– Ancient Stone Quarry 2023 by Derek Gripper (guitar) and Ballaké Sissoko (kora) (1:17:03 mins)
– Kya Baat from the album Orchestrations by Guy Buttery with Kaki King (4:32 mins)
• VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL – Check it out below including the full weekend schedule
Innovative and celebrated South African guitar virtuosos Guy Buttery (left) and Derek Gripper will perform on the Vancouver Folk Music Festival stages twice next weekend. On Saturday they are part of a workshop on the West Stage; on Sunday they are in concert on The South Stage.
STRETCHING MUSICAL TRADITIONS
Top acoustic guitarists jump genres from classical Bach to South African, West African and East Asian music
When Derek Gripper and Guy Buttery play guitar they take tradition to new places. Calling on centuries of musical history they forge novel sounds drawing from classic Bach and South African, West African and East Asian genres.
The South African duo are longtime friends and collaborators with independent careers and regarded as their country’s best acoustic guitar players. This is Gripper’s second appearance at the Festival – his first was in 2023 – and this time he’s travelling with Buttery.
“I first saw Guy play after he won the coveted South African Music Award for his debut album when he was only 19,” Gripper told the Sandgate Guide in June. “We’ve crossed paths many times over the years, being the most active acoustic performers in South Africa, and naturally started to become friends over the years, guest on each other’s shows and albums, and record and perform together.”
Gripper earned his excellent reputation for the groundbreaking work he’s done transferring the music of West Africa’s 21-string kora onto his classical guitar. When his Malian mentor Toumani Diabaté heard Gripper’s first kora album – 2012’s One Night on Earth – he asked for confirmation that it was the work of only one player. Classically trained and a big fan of of Johann Sebastian Bach, Gripper incorporates both the classical and kora influences in his work.
“Generally, the conversation with West African music has been a backwards and forwards conversation between Bach’s music and the kora’s music,” he told Vancouver Stir magazine writer Alexander Varty in a 2023 interview. “When I learn something from Bach I can apply it to the kora music, and when I learn something there I can apply it back. It’s been a continuous conversation between the two.”
Multi-instrumentalist Guy Buttery started his career as a prodigious talent on acoustic guitar. At age 18, his 2001 debut album earned nominations for ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Best Instrumental’ at the SAMA’s (South African Music Awards). He’s earned more prizes over the years culminating in the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 2018. It was the first time the honour went to a non-classical player.
“Guy Buttery is something of a National treasure”, says South Africa’s leading newspaper The Mercury. He’s regarded as an inspirational ambassador of South African music. Like Gripper, he has embraced other genres including East Indian music and traditional African sounds. He’s also a part-time sound engineer. His latest achievement is the opus work Orchestrations, an album 12 years in the making released this February. The work comprises 14 compositions with a full orchestra and 17 different collaborators. Buttery’s acoustic guitar is at the centre of the work.
Buttery is also known for his many collaborations including Dave Matthews, Jethro Tull, Shawn Phillips, Will Ackerman, Salif Keita, Kaki King, The Violent Femmes, Dan Patlansky and many others.
For their current tour Gripper says he and Buttery are “focusing on long-form exploration, minimalist textures and immersive sounds”. Festival fans can expect intuitive and spontaneous improvisation with stellar jams.
About Festival 48
WHEN
The 48th Annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival runs from July 18 to 20
TICKETS
Tickets are available at The Festival
HEAR
Listen to the excellent 42-song Festival sampler curated by artistic director Fiona Black
SEE
The full weekend schedule
VIEW
The full artist line-up
12 July 2025
