On Wednesday afternoon, I interviewed guitarist Kevin Gallagher for an upcoming TONY article about an exciting three-concert series devoted to the music of Jacob ter Veldhuis (a.k.a. Jacob TV), which will be presented at the Whitney Museum on May 2, 3 and 4. After we’d wrapped up that business, we talked a bit longer about his own activities: Gallagher is a highly regarded classical guitarist who also leads the band Electric Kompany, a group at the forefront of a current wave of rock-oriented combos playing formally scored pieces by contemporary composers. (A few folks over at Sequenza 21 might drub me for that bit of shorthand, but you get the basic gist.) Under John Zorn’s aegis, Gallagher also coordinated two lively mini-festivals, Full Force: The New Rock Complexity, last July and October at the soon-to-be-late, already lamented Tonic. I blogged about one of those shows here.

Not long ago, Gallagher sent me a terrific demo CD his band had made, so I asked if he was shopping it around to labels. He is, he said, but he’s also considering alternate routes to reach an audience. Specifically, Gallagher was intrigued by the potential of YouTube. As an example, he cited the current success of another local guitarist, Dominic Frasca, best known for playing technically daunting solo-guitar pieces — transcriptions of Glass and Reich, new works by Marc Mellits, and his own attractive compositions, which he charmingly referred to as "New Age music for people who grew up listening to Black Sabbath" in a TONY feature that ran in August 2002.

A Frasca video titled "Impossible Guitar" was posted on YouTube in July 2006. The music in the clip, mostly Frasca’s own (save for the first piece, correctly identified by commenter Gerald Blackhammer as Marc Mellits’s Dometude — thanks, Gerald!), demonstrates his dextrous style in music that draws equally upon classical technique, the mellifluous complexity of the late New Age guitar phenomenon Michael Hedges and the rock-gamelan style of ’80s-era King Crimson. Since it was posted, Gallagher noted, the video had racked up "a million views," helping Frasca sell CDs and, maybe even more importantly, secure bookings. As far as Gallagher was concerned, Frasca had thrown open the doors to an entirely new means by which to circulate and promote new music.

I didn’t doubt Gallagher’s logic for a moment, but assumed that his claim of "a million views" was hyperbolic shorthand, and couldn’t possibly be accurate. Turns out it wasn’t, not exactly: As I type this on Thursday night, Frasca’s video has been viewed 1,793,238 times. But don’t take my word for it. See for yourself…

Playlist:

Black Sabbath – Headless Cross, Tyr, Cross Purposes and Forbidden (IRS)

Jacob ter Veldhuis – Rainbow, Shining City and Suites of Lux (Basta)

Giuseppe Verdi – La Traviata – Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill, Rome Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Fernando Previtali (RCA Red Seal)

Napalm Death – Utopia Banished (Earache)

Amiina – Kurr (Bláskjár)

The Bad Plus – Prog (Do the Math/Heads Up, due May 8)

Rob Brown Trio – Sounds (Clean Feed)

Maria McKee – Late December (Cooking Vinyl, due April 24)

Amy Cervini Quartet – Famous Blue (Orange Grove Jazz)

Genesis – Duke and A Trick of the Tail (Atlantic/Rhino, due May 15)