Home » Stories » Smaro Gregoriadou, an excellent interpreter guitar has an excellent new album; 'A Healing Fire' / Neuguitars

Stories for January 22, 2021

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    Ed O'Keefe is the CBS news white house correspondent who came to play / 98.7WFMT Q&A
     
    Posted At : January 20, 2021 12:00 AM

    WFMT: Chicago 's Candice Agree writes....From the age of 3, CBS News political correspondent Ed O'Keefe toiled at a keyboard-not in typing, as unintended preparation for his 13 years at the Washington Post, but in studying classical piano in Delmar, a suburb of Albany, NY. Although he loved playing, his interest in current events and politics pulled him into a journalism career. No stranger to Chicago, in 2008, O'Keefe was in Grant Park the night that Barack Obama was elected president. O'Keefe, 37, is about to become a fixture in the White House press room, as he will cover the Biden administration for the TV network he joined in 2018. But he has never left his first passion far behind. He shared some musical memories with us before taking on his new assignment at CBS News as Senior White House & Political Correspondent.    Photo courtesy CBS News) READ Candice Agree's Q&A with Ed O'Keefe.

  • Jane Ira Bloom, Mark Helias 'Some Kind Of Tomorrow' is raw, intimate, and fearless / JAZZ VIEWS
     
    Posted At : January 20, 2021 12:00 AM

    Jane Ira Bloom, Mark Helias 'Some Kind Of Tomorrow' was Reviewed by JAZZ VIEWS Sammy Stein, who wrote........
    Saxophone player Jane Ira Bloom and bass player Mark Helias are long-time collaborators. This album was born out of the need to create music in such a unique time where live audiences and in-person studio recordings were impossible. Recorded remotely from their homes, the music stands as a departure from any kind of release they have done together as all tracks are completely improvised. The resulting sound is raw, intimate, and fearless.​ I asked Jane Ira Bloom about the recording, and she explained, " Given how we had to make this made Mark and I rely on the most basic aspect of our collaborative impulse – our two sets of ears. Mark and I have known one another for over 40 years. We first met in New Haven CT in the 1970s, and when you think about it, you build up so much shared vocabulary when you've played with someone over such a long time. We really didn't plan this recording. It happened because we needed to improvise with one another and so the music emerged from a different place than normal when you plan a recording project." READ THE FULL JAZZ VIEWS REVIEW

  • Signum Saxophone Quartet - Echoes is the WFMT: Featured New Release
     
    Posted At : January 19, 2021 12:00 AM

    An ensemble that attracts rave reviews and sell-out crowds at prestigious venues everywhere from Vienna to New York, the sensational Signum Saxophone Quartet presents their first Deutsche Grammophon album. Featuring inventive arrangements of music by composers from Dowland to Peter Gregson, as well as Guillermo Lago's Sarajevo, a saxophone quartet original, Echoes showcases the full potential of the saxophone – a modern instrument more than capable of capturing the echoes of the past. For January 19, 2021, the Signum Saxophone Quartet: Echoes is the WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release.'

  • Sharon Isbin talks technique, collaboration, and guitar diplomacy with Montana Public Radio
     
    Posted At : January 19, 2021 12:00 AM

    "the Monet of the classical guitar" Sharon Isbin, returns to Montana Public Radio's - Musician's Spotlight to talk technique, collaboration and guitar diplomacy with host John Floridis. Isbin's accomplishments involve big numbers: she has recorded more than 30 albums, premiered 80 new works by composers like John Corigliano, Joseph Schwantner and Lukas Foss, performed as a soloist with over 200 orchestras around the world, appeared on numerous television and radio programs, hit #2 on Billboard, and won dozens of prestigious honors and awards. Montana Public Radio's Musician's Spotlight will Broadcast this segment on Tuesday 1/19/2021. READ THE FULL ARTICLE & LISTEN

  • Robin Spielberg's 'Re-Inventions' is beautiful, translucent, smokey marble with three sides of music / The Final on Vinyl
     
    Posted At : January 18, 2021 12:00 AM

    TFOV Founder - Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck writes.....RE-INVENTIONS takes talent and a lot of courage to take world-renowned and treasured classical pieces by the masters and rework them into your vision. After hearing this album, I think you will agree that Robin should put the crown on her head because she proves why she is piano music royalty. The 2 LP set is a beautiful translucent smokey marble with three sides of music. The sound for instrumental piano is exceptional. I would think most instrumental music is well suited for the vinyl format. Of course, when you have an equally exceptional musician such as Robin Spielberg performing, the sound is that much more beautiful and defined. Robin Spielberg has poured her heart and soul into this music, which becomes apparent quite readily. Track after track you have the opportunity to revisit classic compositions and the old blended with the new reborn into several variations. The color, ambiance, and heavenly beauty of this music is brilliantly performed. I can guarantee if you appreciate piano solo music, you will fall in love with RE-INVENTIONS. I know it did not take me long! READ THE FULL Final on Vinyl REVIEW

  • US Marine Band commission of Peter Boyer's 'Fanfare for Tomorrow' will be performed as part of Biden/Harris inauguration / The Violin Channel
     
    Posted At : January 18, 2021 12:00 AM

    THE Violin Channel writes......The United States Marine Band commissioned American composer Peter Boyer for special fanfare at Biden/Harris Inauguration, to be performed at the U.S. Capitol on January 20th, 2021. Boyer's new work, "Fanfare for Tomorrow," will be performed as part of the one hour prelude music of the inauguration, conducted by Colonel Jason K. Fettig., the Marine Band's Director. The piece was originally for solo French horn, was commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra. Boyer significantly expanded and developed it for a full concert band for this inaugural commission. The United States Marine Band, the "The President's Own," is America's oldest continuously active musical organization. It is said that debuted in 1801 for Thomas Jefferson's inauguration. "I had just over a week to compose and orchestrate the piece," Boyer said. "Col. Jason Fettig had cautioned me about writing too high for the brass, due to the very cold conditions in which the piece would be performed outdoors. I had just a few hours to create and deliver this lower key version of the piece to the Marine Band. Happily, It seems to have worked out well!" READ THE FULL Violin Channel ARTICLE

  • With 'Four Questions,' Arturo O'Farrill finds inspiration, not just of the musical kind / Hollywood Soapbox
     
    Posted At : January 17, 2021 12:00 AM

    Hollywood Soapbox - John Soltes writes......Arturo O'Farrill, who heads The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, has always brought the real world into his musical compositions, and that's especially true of his latest release, Four Questions, featuring well-known academic Dr. Cornel West. The album was met with acclaim in 2020 and received a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album. The title of the album is pulled from the original composition featuring West on the album. The 16-minute piece pairs the academic's voice with the measured musical musings of the orchestra. Surrounding this central tune are other songs that speak to the versatility of O'Farrill's creative output, including "Baby Jack," "Jazz Twins," "Clump, Unclump" and the "A Still, Small Voice" series. "What happened was I had been very interested in Dr. West's speaking for many, many years," O'Farrill said in a recent phone interview. "You can't help but be aware of Dr. West, and periodically he would come to a show. And I'd see him in the audience." READ THE FULL Hollywood Soapbox ARTICLE

Top 10 for Jan

  • SIGNUM saxophone quartet :

    Echoes

     An ensemble that attracts rave reviews and sell-out crowds at prestigious venues everywhere from Vienna to New York, the sensational SIGNUM saxophone quartet are now set to present their first Deutsche Grammophon album.
  • Laila Biali :

    A Case of You - LIVE

     SOCAN Music and JUNO Award winner Laila Biali shares an intimate acoustic cover of Joni Mitchell's classic love song, A Case of You, captured live off the floor at Revolution Recording Studios.
  • Ilan Eshkeri :

    A Perfect Planet

     Sony Music today announces the January 8, 2021 release of A PERFECT PLANET (SOUNDTRACK FROM THE BBC SERIES) with music by composer ILAN ESHKERI (Stardust, The Young Victoria).
  • Jane Ira Bloom, Mark Helias :

    Some Kind of Tomorrow

     Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and bassist Mark Helias come together to create duets discovered in the moment in a way that is rarely heard today with Some Kind of Tomorrow.
  • Yo-Yo Ma | Kathryn Stott :

    Comfort and Hope

     Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott come together again, this time for Songs of Comfort and Hope, set for release on December 11, 2020 on Sony Classical.
  • Catalyst Quartet :

    Uncovered Vol. 1 - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

     On Friday, February 5, 2021, GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet releases UNCOVERED Volume 1 on Azica Records.
  • Chad Lawson :

    When the Party's Over

     Pianist and composer Chad Lawson shares his cover of Billie Eilish's song "When the Party's Over" today; listen/watch HERE.
  • Ezinma :

    Drummer Bae

     Violin sensation, Ezinma, releases "Drummer Bae," (Decca Records) an imaginative medley of cherished Christmas melodies.
  • The Comet Is Coming :

    Imminent

     "The London-based trio The Comet Is Coming-made up of the saxophonist King Shabaka, the percussionist Betamax, and the keyboardist Danalogue-thrusts empyrean jazz into an apocalyptic future, where raucous psych rock and danceable electro-grooves ride lush tenor lines to outer space.
  • Nick Cave - Nicholas Lens :

    L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S

     Belgian composer Nicholas Lens & Australian singer and songwriter Nick Cave present their lockdown album L.

Smaro Gregoriadou, an excellent interpreter guitar has an excellent new album; 'A Healing Fire' / Neuguitars

Posted: November 30, 2020 12:00 AM | By: Admin
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"The earliest experience of art must have been that it was incantatory, magical; art was and instrument of ritual.The earliets theory of art, that of the Greek philosophers, proposed that art was mimesis, imitation of reality."

I met Smaro Gregoriadou's music a few years ago, in December 2016. I was struck by a couple of her records "Reinventing Guitar II" (2012) and "El Aleph" (2016), in both there was a strong tension towards innovation, towards forms different from those already known and stabilized in the classical field.

"It is at this point that the peculiar question of the value art arose. For the mimetic theory, by its very terms, challenges art to justify itself."*

The style and vision shown by Smaro Gregoriadou was, and still is, very different from Plato's "mimesis", with a focus not only on the content of the music she interpreted, but, above all, on the "form".

"It is the defence of art which givesbirth to the odd vision by which something we have learned to call ‘content', and to the well-intentioned move which makes content essential and form accessory."*

An attention that still seems to be in the strings of the classical guitar of this excellent interpreter, who has returned to the attention of the Neuguitars blog in this sad 2020, with this excellent cd "A Healing Fire".

READ THE FULL Neuguitars REVIEW

Crossover Media Projects with Smaro Gregoriadou

  • Smaro Gregoriadou

    A Healing Fire

    As the innovative, world-renowned guitarist Smaro Gregoriadou says in her notes for this stunning new recording, her fourth for Delos, its music offers "encouragement and hope," and illuminates with "a different kind of light, a different sort of fire."

    The program begins with her beautiful transcription of Bach's beloved Solo Violin Sonata #2 and offers Britten's fascinating Nocturnal, along with works by Gubaidulina and Hétu. As Raymond Tuttle put it, in a Fanfare review of one of Smaro's earlier Delos releases, "Gregoriadou evokes musicians such as Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, and Wanda Landowska in her willingness to find a new way to express herself and to reanimate the music."