From: levy-update@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: June 11, 2006 7:02:32 PM EDT
To: <levy-update@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Howard Levy-update] News update at Levyland.com
Reply-To: levy-update@xxxxxxxxxxxx
As always, you can tune into Levyland.com for updates about Howard
and related info. Here is the latest news update posted at
Levyland.com
From Howard:
June 10, 2006
For those of you who wonder what I’ve been up to
recently- I wrote 9 new compositions for a new harmonica
instructional video filmed at my house by my webmaster Chris
Sampson with filmmaker Otis Maclay. They are in 9 keys, and I
played them on a C harmonica for the sake of music theory. There is
an Indian - style piece in Db, a Spanish tune in Ebm, a swing tune
in E, a Klezmer- style piece in Fm, a Tango in F#m, a funk tune in
Abm, a bossa in A, a bluesy swing tune in B, and some Blues in C
and Bb.
Recently, I read the biography of film composer Bernard
Hermann- Citizen Kane, Psycho, etc. An amazing story. Also another
book of interviews with film composers. On my long plane rides to
Europe and back, I became addicted to crossword puzzles. I did them
till my brain shut down and I fell asleep.
On piano, I have been trying to become more proficient at
playing classical piano music. As someone who is primarily a jazz
musician, this can be an incredibly frustrating endeavor. But it is
very gratifying, and the hard work pays off, especially for my left
hand. I’ve been tryiong to play some of the 24 Preludes and Fugues
of Shostakovich- they stuck in my head from hearing Sviatoslav
Richter recordings years ago. I’ve been revisiting several Mozart
Piano Sonatas, the Debussy Arabesque #1, several Scarlatti Sonatas
that I used to play 30 years ago (…), the Brahms Rhapsody
Passionato and his beautiful Intermezzo in Bbm.
Fox and I have been playing a lot of Dvorak pieces- the
Sonata in G, Songs my Mother Taught Me, 4 Romantic Pieces, and the
Romance in Fm, as well as playing through the Beethoven,
Tchaikowsky, Brahms, and Glazounov violin concertos, with me
stumbling through the more difficult orchestral passages. We always
go back to the Mozart and Beethoven sonatas, too.
In Jazz, I continue exploring the ins and outs of
Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” period, trying to more thoroughly
internalize the 7 modes of the Lydian Augmented scale system, and I
am always writing little tunes, which sometimes develop into bigger
ones.
Just last night (June 9), I sat in with The Flecktones at
The Chicago Theater. It was a lot of fun- we played “Sex in a Pan”
and “The Sinister Minister”, with an amazing Victor Wooten bass
solo at the end. A few months ago in the same theater, I sat in
with Donald Fagen, playing “What I Do” from the “Morph the Cat” cd.
That was a thrilling experience for me. I had to rush down there on
a break from Chévere at The Green Mill, play, and then rush back.
It was an experience I will never forget.
Also went on a wonderful outing to Iceland in May, courtesy
of Garrison Keillor. We played a 3 hour show carried live on
Icelandic Radio, which was edited down and broadcast May 20 as “A
Prairie Home Companion”. The morning after the show, I got to see
some spectacular scenery- waterfalls, geysers, etc. The images
stayed in my mind for weeks. I hope to go back some time.
I recorded 4 tracks on harmonica for bassist/composer Matt
Geraghty at CRC in Chicago. Also recorded 12 tracks on piano for a
very diverse cd featuring Alberto Mizrahi, produced by Stuart
Rosenberg at The Tone Zone in Chicago, Roger Heiss engineering. But
wait, there’s more….Anthony Molinaro and I recorded our June 3
concert for our 2nd cd, Joel Fox engineering.
A project released earlier this year is Bonnie Koloc’s “Here to
Sing”. I produced it at my house. Joel Fox engineered and mastered.
I played piano and harmonica, and hired great musicians who played
their hearts out on this. It’s special. The cd is available at
www.bonniekoloc.com. Here is a review from Sing Out Magazine:
Sing Out! review
BONNIE KOLOC
Here To Sing
Reviewed by Rich Warren
Bonnie Koloc is not a folk singer. Now that is out of the way, I
can say she is fabulous. She sings blues, jazz and the odd folk
song. Her versatile, fluid soprano pours forth effortlessly
wrapping itself around whatever song it touches. Similarly, the
songs wrap themselves around Koloc. Wisdom and passion burnish her
performance to a fine patina. While Koloc has been singing and
recording since the early 70s and is something of a super star in
the Chicago area, Here to Sing is the first album to do her
justice. Much of this can be attributed to producer and multi-
instrumentalist Howard Levy. Although Levy is joined by other
accompanists, the CD is far from over-produced and the musicianship
shows exceptionally high quality. Koloc penned seven of the 12
songs on this CD. Her opening “Red Hot Red” ignites the CD with a
sizzle, but her song that follows “Slow Dancing to the Blues” shows
the remarkable range of her voice. Her intriguing song “The Snake”
is an involving allegory. Koloc also does great justice to North
Dakota farmer Chuck Suchy’s folk-style songs “Dancin’ in the
Kitchen” and “Its Great When It Rains.” She has a lot of fun with
Willie Dixon’s “Little Red Rooster.” Her interpretation of
“Skylark,” the classic by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer is an
absolute keeper. If I set the CD player to repeat a single track,
that would be it.
Koloc’s “I Love You Waltz,” written for her husband, sure sounds
like a folk song. However, on the next track Koloc also displays a
sense of humor with her song about the foibles of marriage “Crumbs
in the Butter,” which she performs like a 1950s doo-wop classic.
If you want to hear a knockout performance of diverse, well-chosen
material, Koloc is Here To Sing.
Reprinted with permission from Sing Out! v.50#3. (c) 2006 Sing Out!
All rights reserved.
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