Anthony Michael Peterson

Tru Born (a.k.a. Anthony Michael Peterson) is a multi-faceted guitarist, and a native of St. Louis, Mo. At the age of thirteen, he received a scholarship in classical guitar at the St. Louis Conservatory of Music. At fourteen, he began teaching guitar and theory, which was the beginning of a wide-ranging career in music. Tru Born is at home in many different genres: Jazz, classical, rock, R&B, and world music. Tru Born also plays soprano and tenor ukulele, dobro, and electric lapsteel. He also plays shakuhachi flute (bamboo flute from Japan), Native American flute, and the Armenian duduk. Tru Born earned his Bachelor's degree in Music Education from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. A year later, Tru became one of the youngest faculty members at Berklee, teaching there for three years. After Boston, Tru moved to Brooklyn New York, where he toured, performed or did recording projects with Joan Baez, Hassan Haukmon (a project produced by Peter Gabriel for Real World Records), Spike Lee (a recording project featuring vocalist/actress Lonette McKee), Vernon Reid (guitarist and leader of the band "Living Color"), Cassandra Wilson, Oliver Lake, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Michele Rosewoman. Tru's first solo recording was a jazz trio project, "The Book of Days" (to be available on this website later this year), produced by author/producer Sam Charters for Gazell Records. Three days after this project, Tru went on tour with legendary folk singer Joan Baez. In 1996, after a tour with singer Cassandra Wilson, Tru moved to San Francisco, CA, and began teaching and performing throughout the Bay Area. One of his foremost teaching posts was with Jazz Camp West, and continues to the present. During this period, he performed with Pharoah Saunders (Tenor saxophonist with John Coltrane), Booker T. Jones (organist and leader of Booker T. and the MGs), and a European tour with singer Lizz Wright. In 2004, Tru released his first recording as a singer-songwriter, "I'm Not Through Dreaming" (available from this website!). Showing his ability to switch genres, Tru orchestrated the performance of singer-songwriter Goapole for the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Michael Morgan, in 2010. Tru, sensing a change was needed, moved to Durham, North Carolina, in 2012, earning his Masters Degree In Music Composition and Jazz Studies from North Carolina Central University in 2014. Currently Tru Born is completing his new EP "Let Grace Tell her Story", and has a new book out, "Three Masters, Five Ways", a book on jazz improvisation for all instruments. The book is available for purchase in the website store.