42 Results for : ascap
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My Softer Side
DYANN WOODY Releases Debut Solo Album 'My Softer Side' Who knew that this country singer was really a closet chanteuse? Dyann Woody makes a seamless transition from 'Yee Haw' to 'Ooh La La'. She not only has the voice of an angelic siren, but what will amaze you even more is just how easy and pleasing her music is to listen to. She reaches across many genres and meshes elements of '70's singer/songwriter style, jazz, blues and pop with the art of a well-crafted lyric. Although this is Dyann's first solo album, she has shared musical success with her husband as part of the Country Music Group, The Woodys. Their debut album on Rounder Records went #1 on the Americana charts, they were voted the Top County Vocal Duo at the International Music News Awards and have received worldwide critical acclaim for all three of their albums. However, there was still a part of Dyann that was musically unfulfilled. She wanted to write songs that expressed all of the emotions and experiences that she and other women have had in their lives in relationship to men. Dyann also wanted to use the full range of her voice bringing into play the years that she studied voice, classical music and jazz. So, inspired by Norah Jones record, Come Fly Away, Dyann felt her time had come. She began writing songs for her own album drawing from earlier musical influences of the artists she loved like Billy Holliday and Bonnie Raitt. My Softer Side is a soulful and heartfelt musical offering that not only highlights great songwriting but her sweet & sultry vocals along with the stellar talents of Rick Vito (Bonnie Raitt, Fleetwood Mac), Barry Walsh (Shania Twain), Dave Pomeroy (Trisha Yearwood) and Steve Turner (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton). Dyann's very talented husband, Michael Woody, not only co-produced the album but played trumpet on it as well. He oversaw the entire project and brought to bear his expertise in songwriting (he is a #1 ASCAP songwriter) and encouraged Dyann's Softer Side to be expressed through her singing. Pat Hutchinson of Warner Chappell Studios put the final icing on the cake as associate producer and engineer. 'I have to admit, I loved this album, every single song. Now how often do you hear someone say that? I would be willing to bet, not nearly enough. This CD is the most down to earth and real expression of artistry you will ever find in recorded music.' - Keith 'MuzikMan' Hannaleck-MuzikReviews.com.- Shop: odax
- Price: 24.04 EUR excl. shipping
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Silver Guitar
Ernesto García de León and Martín Pedreira Ernesto García de León and Martín Pedreira are guitarists and composers who enjoy active concertizing and teaching careers in their mutual countries. They are great admirers of each other and have dedicated music to each other. García de León's Acere, Op. 27 (1988) is not only dedicated to Pedreira, but contains themes from Pedreira's own music. Likewise, Pedreira's Homenaje a Heitor Villa-Lobos (1994) is dedicated to his old friend, both composers are ardent aficionados of the great Brazilian composer. Yet, they have much more in common. Both hail from very tropical regions in which folk and popular music play an integral role in the everyday life of everyone. García de León comes from the state of Veracruz, the easternmost region of Mexico on the Gulf, a part of the country more akin musically and ethnically to Cuba than any other part of Mexico. Both have been guests in each other's country, giving recitals and master classes and acting as tour guides for the benefit of musical "a-nationalism". After a consummate analysis and integration of styles, each composer has filtered the folk and popular music of their country and applied it, newly conceived, in their own compositions. Thus we hear the logical result of the 20th century's music in their work. Their music is the subsequent product of Amadeo Roldán and Alejandro García Caturla, Stravinsky and Bartok, Villa-lobos and Brouwer, Ponce and Revueltas, or Chavez and Copland. But it could also easily be said that this is the result of the son-montuno, the son jarocho, the guajira, danzón, the rumba, of Pablo Milanés, of Guty Cárdenas, of Pérez Prado, Toña la negra, Agustín Lara, Silvio Rodríguez, Benny Moré, the Trio Matamoros, Los Panchos, the Beatles, and just about anything else either composer ever heard as a child. It is an important characteristic of the world in which they exist to appropriate, take apart, and reassemble - leaving and adding as they go. Martín Pedreira (b. 1952, Havana) Martín Pedreira (b. 1952, Havana) is a guitarist and composer who is continuing in the compositional tradition of his teacher Leo Brouwer. He has sought to create music that can successfully express a unique voice that is knowledgeable of the music of a post-modern world, while using his beloved traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms and music as the template within which to manipulate these ideals. Although his catalog of work is small, the quality is of a high standard which only bears witness to his meticulous craftsmanship. His Divertimentos (1987), for which he was awarded the Premio Nacional de Composición by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), is a collection of 25 studies intended to improve the technical abilities of the performer. However, these pieces go far beyond mere technical drivel, passing through many moods and sonorities which contradict the collection's humble intent. In an email, Pedreira comments about these pieces: "With strains of Cuban "country" and African music, the Divertimentos, at their essence, are short pedagogical studies inspired by traditional Cuban music. These references are sometimes direct and obvious, like the Oriki Iyá (ritualistic Lucumí chant), or indirect, as if from a dream, like the series of Islas or Preludios. In some cases, there is an emphasis on specific techniques, but these procedures are applied without losing sight of the principal objective - that of maintaining the expressive character of the music. " In the present recording, Carlo Pezzimenti has chosen a selection of 13 from the Divertimentos, while the "Guajira" is taken from a separate work, Pedreira's Suite Simple. Ernesto García de León Ernesto García de León is represented on this recording by two different works. La Guitarra de Plata (The Silver Guitar), Op. 56 dates from 2001 and has a tragic story. One of García de León's students at the National Conservatory of of Music in Mexico City, Noé García Alcaraz, commissioned a set of twenty etudes that he would perform in his graduating recital. The commissioned work was written (20 Estudios, Op. 50, 1998) and the recital went off without a hitch. As a present for the occasion and for his professorial guidance, Noé presented García de León with a small silver guitar. This piece had been made by artisans in Alcaraz's home city of Taxco, famous for it's silver mines, silver jewelry and crafts, in whose traditional style this 'silver guitar' had been made. Later, García de León learned of the tragic and senseless death of his student in a botched surgery. García de León wrote The Silver Guitar as an elegy to his student that was fittingly premiered in 2001 by Juan Carlos Laguna at the annual guitar festival held in Noé García Alcaraz's home of Taxco. It's structure is in three parts (Introduction, Dance, Elegy) with a coda in the "Elegy". The composer uses free atonality and chance procedures, as well as an ethereal, sometimes sardonic, mood to evoke the melancholic essence from which the piece is born. The "Canción" and "Final" are the last two movements of García de León's Suite, Op. 35 (1992) for two guitars. The tone in these pieces is lighter and more nostalgic, focusing on rhythmic qualities so pervasive in his music, such as the habanera rhythm in his "Canción" and the son jarocho in his "Final". Interestingly, the composer urges a certain amount of improvisation from both performers in the "Final", yet another quality of his style that is representative of the post-modern world. Brian Clemént-Foreman (b. 1952) Lousiana native Brian Clemént-Foreman (b. 1952) has an extensive catalog of compositions featuring the guitar, his own instrument. His latest addition, the triptych Contes Normands (2006) is the product of a vacation the composer took to Normandy. Inspired by the same countryside and hamlets that were such fruitful muses for Guy de Maupassant, Clément-Foreman has produced three pieces for two guitars imbued with the colors and harmonies of what one can aptly call neo-impressionism. While never easily falling into a cliché, the composer weaves a luxuriant fabric of harmonic denseness clearly evoking the reminiscences of his visit. This recording features the first two movements, "Les Andelys" and "Honfleur", named after communities in Normandy. - Notes by Pedro A. Haley Ernesto Garcia De Leon's compositions are published by Michael Lorimer Editions. (ASCAP). Michael Lorimer Editions, 175 west 73rd street (10G) New York 10023 USA. Brian Clement is also a member of ASCAP Martin Pedreira's music is published by Editora Musical de Cuba (EMC) Carlo Pezzimenti Carlo Pezzimenti, who studied under the great Spanish Guitarist Andres Segovia, is the director of the guitar programs at Texas Woman's University in Denton Texas and Brookhaven College in Dallas Texas. He has given concerts around the world, and to date has released 18 recordings. His work has been reviewed by many publications including Gramophone Magazine and the New York Times, which stated, ' In his hands the music made it's effect with reserved eloquence' Brian Rowe Brian Rowe, born in Huston, Texas, studied classical guitar with Carlo Pezzimenti, and earned a bachelor's degree of music from Texas Women's University in 2009. Brian plans to continue studying with Carlo and obtain a master's degree in guitar pedagogy The Silver Guitar Again I am proud to present another in our series of recordings that feature the poetic beauty that can be realized on the classical guitar playing well composed contemporary music, music that is truly inspired, not hatched out based on a formula. The music recorded on this CD will invoke images of nature, of faraway lands, of anguish at a loss, joy of love and the bliss of surrender to life itself... Just listen and allow the silvery notes of Carlo's Fleta guitar and Brian's Rozas guitar take you on a magical ride to worlds that words cannot describe...enjoy. ---Austin Audu.- Shop: odax
- Price: 21.05 EUR excl. shipping
