A guitarist leaves town, a guitarist comes to town

You don't necessarily have to believe explicitly in the concept of karma to think that the universe somehow usually manages to balance things out, but you rarely see it happen as quickly as in the story of how guitarist Matthew Von Doran (pictured) recently moved from southern California to the St. Louis area.

Our tale begins with guitarist Corey Christiansen, who's lived in St. Louis for the past six years working for Mel Bay Publications as an author and clinician and doing occasional gigs and recordings. In what's certainly a loss for the local music scene, Christiansen recently decided to move back to Utah, where he grew up and earned his music degree from Utah State University.

That's where the whole universe-balancing thing comes in. As Von Doran recounted by email, "Corey and I have been buddies for a while and I called him a few months ago to see if he was going to be in town this fall so I could stay at his house when I did (a) clinic at Fazio's. That's when he told me he was leaving Mel Bay to move to Utah. I made a joke about buying his house just to use for my show and one thing led to another. Believe me, the last thing I was thinking about this year was to move to STL, but I loved this house and neighborhood so here I be."

The guitarist and his wife are now comfortably ensconced in Christiansen's former digs in Webster Groves, and he's got his debut performance in St. Louis coming up at 7 p.m. this Thursday, when he'll do the aforementioned free concert and clinic at Fazio's Frets and Friends, 14239 Manchester Rd, accompanied by drummer Miles Vandiver and bassist Bob Deboo.

Von Doran studied at GIT in Los Angeles and has gigged in a variety of settings from trio to big band, playing straightahead jazz and fusion as well as many other different types of music. His debut CD as a leader, In This Present Moment, was produced by Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip and features an impressive roster of musicians including Bob Mintzer, Larry Goldings, Peter Erskine, James Genus, Terri Lyne Carrington and more. You can download a track from the CD by visiting his Web site, and check out more audio samples on his MySpace page.

Though it's always a shame to lose a player of Christiansen's caliber, Von Doran seems like he could be a nice addition to the local music community. So, with apologies to science fiction writer and blogger Cory Doctorow for the headline of this post, StLJN wishes the best to Corey Christiansen and welcomes Matthew Von Doran to St. Louis.

(Edited 8/23/07, with apologies, to correct spelling errors, etc.)