Download to view/download the complete press release

Aleba & Co.
134 Henry Street • New York, NY 10002
212 206 1450 • [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Contact: Info: www.soundbrush.com/album/romance Aleba Gartner, 212/206-­‐1450
For physical or digital review copies, email [email protected] Downloadable photos: www.fernandootero.com/press.html “Mr. Otero’s writing vibrantly summoned tango ancestors while also acknowledging Bartok and Prokofiev. His brilliant playing bore traces of jazz pianists like Bill Evans and Don Pullen. The resulting synthesis proposed bold new directions for a venerable tradition.” — Steve Smith, The New York Times 2/7/12 Soundbrush Records announces a new CD by the winner of the 2010 Latin Grammy for Best Classical Album: Fernando Otero’s ROMANCE SR 1025 IN STORES NOW DIGITAL RELEASE DATE: Thursday, February 7, 2013 LIVE CD RELEASE CONCERT: Saturday, March 2, 2013, 9pm at 92YTribeca Famous for his dazzling pianism and thoughtful composition, Otero releases his most personal work to date Romance is a concept album of cinematic range, where motifs and gestures appear, disappear and return as if in a dream, evoking the Argentina of Otero’s memories THE ENSEMBLE: NICOLAS DANIELSON: violin LEV ‘LJOVA’ ZHURBIN: viola ADAM FISHER: cello PABLO ASLAN: bass IVAN BARENBOIM: clarinet, bass clarinet JOSEFINA SCAGLIONE: vocals KRISTIN NORDERVAL: vocals DANA HANCHARD: vocals FERNANDO OTERO: piano, melodica LOOK & LISTEN: The Romance trailer Music video of the final track “Until the Dawn” with Josefina Scaglione (who played Maria in the Broadway revival of West Side Story) Fernando Otero in concert “Tango radical” — The New York Times Drawing from the European tradition, tango and jazz, the work of Argentine composer and pianist and Latin GRAMMY® winner FERNANDO OTERO has often blurred the lines between popular and classical music. For ROMANCE, his debut recording for Soundbrush, he chose a different tack. “I wanted to make a chamber music record that really felt like classical music,” says Otero. “I liked the challenge of putting aside some of the recurring strategies I had used in previous records, such as improvisation, and I wanted a recording founded more on melody than in rhythm or timbre.” Romance offers a collection of short original compositions that draw from traditional elements of Argentine folk music and tango, but are decidedly cosmopolitan. While meticulously constructed, they also at times suggest the freedom of jazz improvisation. This recording brings back Otero’s mixed chamber ensemble, while adding an important new element: voices. This is not only an artistic choice, but a glance back to his personal history, growing up the son of the internationally known lyric singer Elsa Marval (see bio below). “My mother passed away two years ago,” he says. “I had been talking with her about writing a chamber work emphasizing melody and somehow, some of the pieces were written thinking of her. It’s all related: using voices, female voices, with that color, so familiar to me, and this style of chamber music, which was her style. It all started out unconsciously and then it became a conscious decision. What the voices do is basically what my mother would have sung if she had sung on the record.” By design, the tracks within Romance are modular. “There are themes or fragments in one composition that reappear as quotes on another one, perhaps re-­‐orchestrated, or in a different key,” Otero explains. By connecting these recurrent themes and atmospheres, two or more pieces can be heard as a suite within the larger structure of the album. This concept is a nod to Argentine writer, jazz fan and amateur clarinetist Julio Cortázar in his novel Hopscotch. In the book, he invites the reader to construct his or her own novel by choosing the order in which they would read certain chapters. For all its structural considerations, what Otero wants in Romance is to connect at an emotional, visceral level. “I wanted to make a record that would be attractive for its melodic beauty rather than some technical ideas or the ability of the musicians or the group. I wanted a recording that was more about emotion than technique or pyrotechnics.” * “Mr. Otero hails from Argentina, where romance has often been cast as a kinetic pursuit. The expressive drama of tango generally animates his compositions, which also involve aspects of classical chamber music and jazz improvisation.” — Nate Chinen, The New York Times “Otero is a seriously talented pianist, and his orchestrations are equal parts Bernard Herrmann and Charlie Parker. That is, they alternate between jagged suspenseful crescendos and long sinuous melodies. This music bounds out of the speakers and leaps into every corner of the room at once, exhilarating but also bewildering.” — JAZZIZ 2
RECORD RELEASE CONCERT ON MARCH 2, 2013 AT 92YTRIBECA, NYC On Saturday, March 2, 2013 at 9:00pm, Fernando Otero celebrates the release of his recording Romance with a special live show at 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street. Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 day of show. For more info and to buy tickets, visit http://www.92y.org/Tribeca/Event/Fernando-­‐Otero-­‐Romance-­‐Record-­‐Release.aspx. 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Fernando talks about ROMANCE, track by track: Ojos Que Se Abren Brillantes (Eyes That Open Sparkling) This is a bit like the Overture of the album. It’s connected by certain melodic passages to the closing piece “Until the Dawn.” It’s also related to “Luz del Primer Dia,” but in that case more by atmosphere than thematically. Arbolitos (Little Trees) Watch it live on YouTube here. This piece appeared on my first album, XTango. It’s one of the first pieces I ever wrote. It’s a lullaby that I actually wrote for my mom. As a kid, my mom, like many parents, used to sing me to sleep, and I told her one day I would write a song for her. I was 7. This was it. It was one of her favorite pieces. [Otero’s late mother, Elsa Marval, was an international lyric singer. She passed two years ago after a long illness.] Manifestación (Manifestation) This is a piece I wrote to play as a duo with violinist Nick Danielson. I was looking for a waltz of certain depth but not sentimental, and also a piece that would give us room to play. In Spanish, Manifestación can be understood as Demonstration. In this case it’s about how desires, wishes or emotions are manifested. Piringundín de Almagro (“Piringundín” is Buenos Aires slang for low-­‐rent club, dance hall or bar. Low rent club in Almagro) Watch it live on YouTube here. This piece is part of Musica de Buenos Aires, a four-­movement dance suite. It opened with “Piringundín,” which appeared in Paginas de Buenos Aires, then “Piringundín de Almagro,” a slow movement “La Vista Gorda,” and closed with “Cancha de Bochas” which is also included here. This was a suite danced by the male dancers in the company, just like early tango was danced by men. En Contacto Permanente (In Permanent Contact) This is a slow milonga, and to my mind it has the feel of a mass—because of its density, the open spaces, the women’s voices. It also has the influence of [Heitor] Villa Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras No 5,” a piece that moves me. Preludio 4 (Prelude No. 4) This piano solo showcases a certain form of playing with crossing hands technique—something I use quite a bit. And I do perhaps for two reasons: I studied drumming (drum kit), and crossing hands is very common in that instrument. And also because in the guitar, especially playing milonga, the right hand plays the bass lines on the lower strings. and at some point I wanted to translate that to the piano. 3
7.
Luz Del Primer Día (Light of the First Day) This was a piece originally written for orchestra, using large sound blocks with strings and brass. I just wanted to try a chamber version. The challenge here was to make the would-­be section lines interesting for the single players. For me it’s important that the players playing my music are engaged and having a good time. 8.
En La Tierra Sagrada (In the Sacred Land) In this case the writing did have a visual source: This piece was originally written for a film, but it was never used. 9.
Criaturas de la Noche (Creatures of the night) It’s a waltz but a porteño waltz. (Porteño or people of the port, is the nickname for people of Buenos Aires—a port city). It´s night music and has to do with those compositions, those music creatures, that appear in the middle of the night and demand your attention—even if it’s 2 a.m. I´m not fighting them anymore. 10.
Cancha de Bochas (Bocce field) See “Piringundin de Almagro.” 11.
Until The Dawn Josefina [Scaglione], who sings this song, had been singing in my ensemble for a while. She knew I had written songs so she asked me to write a song with lyrics. It’s about love; not boy-­girl, relationship love, but universal love. The model I used is not pop but more from lieder and lyric songs. After all, that has to do with the environment of classical music and lyric singing I grew up with at home. I also thought it was the right way to end the album because it gave me the feeling of writing an epilogue, of closing an era. FERNANDO’S MOTHER, ELSA MARVAL Argentine actress, pianist and singer Elsa Marval was born in 1930, the daughter of a Spanish opera singer. She debuted as a pianist on Argentinean Radio Splendid as a child prodigy at age eleven and later recorded her first album, Elsa Marval: The Nightingale of the Americas. As a teenager she studied singing with Robert Sussini, who guided her towards opera; she made her debut at the Teatro Argentino de La Plata, starring in Madama Butterfly, and, later, other Puccini operas including Tosca and La Boheme. Her credits as an actress and singer include Argentine films such as Los Celos de Candida (“Candida’s Jealousy,” 1940) alongside Nini Marshall, Pueblo Chico, Infierno Grande (“Small Town, Bill Hell,” 1940) and La Loca (“The Crazy,” 1977) as well as work in radio and television. She also dubbed the actress Mirtha Legrand’s songs in La Casta Susana (“Susana the Chaste,” 1944). In 1945 she joined the cast of the popular weekly radio show “Cantan Nuestras Muñecas” (Our Dolls Sing), in which five girls sang and acted with the announcer Fito Salinas, and then with host "El Nene" Augusto Bonardo. Elsa Marval began her international career in 1948 with her debut in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 4
the first-­‐ever transmission of Brazilian television. She expanded her repertoire with bolero and other forms of romantic song of the 1950s, and enjoyed a rise in popularity after her recording of Concierto de Otoño ("Fall Concert") for Columbia with the Orchestra of Felix Guerrero. A subsequent period of great success included collaborations with Nat King Cole, Cuban singer Bola de Nieve, and concerts throughout America, as well as annual releases of albums, women's clothing lines, and perfumes with her name. Over two decades living in New York and Mexico City, she recorded 28 albums and participated in concerts, films and television programs in the United States, Latin America and Europe. She was married in Mexico to Argentine actor Fernando Otero Montrey. She died in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2010. BIOS FERNANDO OTERO, piano, composer The Argentine composer and pianist Fernando Otero found his voice as writer, musician and bandleader when, at the urging of one of his music teachers, he began to incorporate the indigenous sounds of his native Buenos Aires into his work. A unique and provocative style developed, which combined the improvisatory thrill of jazz with a contemporary classical structure in compositions that were often fast–paced and intense, full of dramatic stops and starts. Otero made a powerful impression in 2008 with his acclaimed debut album on Nonesuch: Pagina de Buenos Aires. In November 2010, he won the Latin Grammy for Best Classical album for Vital (World Village). Embraced by the New York jazz scene, the now Brooklyn-­‐based musician has performed with legendary bassist Eddie Gomez, flautist Dave Valentin, the Arturo O’Farrill Afro-­‐
Cuban Jazz Orchestra, and was featured on the 2008 Grammy Award-­‐winning album Funk Tango by reed maestro Paquito D’Rivera, with whom he has also performed at Birdland, Blue Note, and the Caramoor Festival. He has received a commission by the Kronos Quartet, The Cherry Tree, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2008, and has also composed for Imani winds, pianist Krisztina Wajsza, cellist Inbal Segev, the Ahn Trio, and a double concerto for two pianos performed by himself and Yana Reznik. www.fernandootero.com PABLO ASLAN, bass (and Soundbrush label producer) Argentine-­‐born and Brooklyn-­‐based Pablo Aslan is in demand for his skills as a producer, bassist, and educator, and for his knowledge of traditional and contemporary tango. He created Avantango in 1994 and has since become a pioneering figure in the jazz-­‐tango movement. His album Tango Grill was been nominated for a 2010 Grammy award for Best Latin Jazz Album, as well as a Latin Grammy Award for Best Tango Album. His most recent CD, Piazzolla in Brooklyn (Soundbrush Records 2011)—a tribute to the late Nuevo Tango master—recreates Piazzolla’s 1959 Jazz Tango experiment Take Me Dancing. 5
He has served as music director of Cuban maestro Paquito D'Rivera's Tango Jazz Septet, and worked with Nonesuch recording artist Fernando Otero, pianist and composer Emilio Solla, bandoneonist JP Jofre, Frank London's Tsuker Zis, and a number of other artists including Yo Yo Ma, Shakira, Lalo Schifrin, Joe Lovano, Gary Burton, Paquito D’Rivera, Denyce Graves, Osvaldo Golijov, Pablo Ziegler, the New World Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and David Krakauer’s Klezmer Madness, among many others. www.pabloaslan.com LEV ‘LJOVA’ ZHURBIN, viola Hailed by The New York Times as “dizzyingly versatile…an eclectic with an ear for texture…strikingly original and soulful,” Lev ‘Ljova’ Zhurbin was born in 1978 in Moscow, Russia, and moved in 1990 to New York with his parents, composer Alexander Zhurbin and writer Irena Ginzburg. He divides his time between performing as a violist in diverse groups ranging from his own, Ljova and the Kontraband, to string quartets, jazz combos and Gypsy bands; studying and arranging music for Yo-­‐Yo Ma, the Kronos Quartet, Jay-­‐Z, Gustavo Santaolalla, Osvaldo Golijov, Alondra de la Parra and others; and composing original music for film, TV, dance, and the concert stage. www.ljova.com NICK DANIELSON, violin Violinist Nick Danielson enjoys a versatile career as a classical and Tango musician. He is the assistant concertmaster of the New York City Ballet Orchestra and was a longtime member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He can be heard on many Orpheus recordings, including Stravinsky's "Concertino" on the Grammy winning CD Shadow Dances. He has toured and recorded extensively as a soloist and chamber musician, and with numerous Tango ensembles. Among his most recent collaborations, he has performed with sax master Paquito D'Rivera, Tango legend Pablo Ziegler, and pianist-­‐composer Fernando Otero, with whom his latest recording Vital won the 2010 Latin Grammy for best classical album. Mr. Danielson received his training at the Curtis Institute of Music with Ivan Galamian, after which he spent five years as first violinist of the Chester String Quartet. He has made New York his home since 1988. ADAM FISHER, cello A rare combination of cellist, composer, and vocalist, Adam Fisher writes music that moves freely between jazz, tango, and classical styles. Mr. Fisher appears regularly at New York venues such as Symphony Space, Joe’s Pub, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Jazz Standard. As a cello sideman, he has lent his unique flexibility to projects ranging from Octavio Brunetti's traditional Tango Orchestra to Fred Ho’s avant-­‐jazz big band to “None More Eleven, a Spinal Tap Tribute,” for which he composed rock string quartet arrangements of Spinal Tap classics. As a vocalist, he leads his own band, Adam and the Argentinians, performing his hilarious and poetic animal songs. IVAN BARENBOIM, clarinet Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentinean woodwind player Iván Barenboim has studied with Marcelo Moguilevsky, Marcelo Katz and Adriana de los Santos. Before moving to New York in 2006, he performed at Teatro Colon, Centro de Experimentacion del Teatro Colon, Teatro General San Martin, Teatro Coliseo, and Palais de Glace (Buenos Aires); Siemens Art Festival (Stuttgart, Germany), Fronteras Latin American Festival (London, England) and Belfast International Festival (Ulster, Ireland). His music was also 6
played at Teatro Nacional Cervantes (Buenos Aires, Arg.), Sala Beckett (Barcelona, Spain) and GREC Festival de Barcelona. In New York, Iván has performed with Roberto Rodriguez Cuban-­‐Jewish All Stars, Adam Rudolph Go: Organic Orchestra, Pablo Ziegler, Jen Shyu and Joan Baez, among others. Iván has been an artist-­‐in-­‐residence at Central Synagogue since 2007, and is a part-­‐time faculty member at the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music. JOSEFINA SCAGLIONE, vocals Singer, actress, and dancer Josefina Scaglione received a Tony nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, for her performance as Maria in the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story. Her performance in the production, directed by Arthur Laurents, marked her Broadway debut, while also garnering her an Outer Critics Circle Award for Oustanding Actress in a Musical, a Theatre World Award, and a shared Grammy for Best Cast Album. A native of Rosario, Santa Fe, she attended a summer arts program at Point Park University before moving to Buenos Aires, where her credits include Cinderella and Hairspray, in which she starred opposite renowned Argentinean actor and comedian Enrique Pinti. She has made a guest star appearance on the TV show “Fairly Legal” and recently finished shooting Hairbrained, a new film directed by Billy Kent, also starring Brendan Frasier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josefina_Scaglione KRISTIN NORDERVAL, vocals Kristin Norderval is a performer, composer and improviser whose career has been split between vocal performance and composition. Her credits as soprano soloist include performances with the Philip Glass Ensemble, Oslo Sinfonietta, Netherlands Dance Theater, and San Francisco Symphony. She has recorded works by numerous prominent American composers, among them Eve Beglarian, David Lang, Tania León, Anne LeBaron, Annea Lockwood, Mathew Rosenblum and Elias Tanenbaum. Five chamber operas have been composed specifically for Norderval, including Pope Joan, a dance-­‐
opera by Anne LeBaron, and She Lost Her Voice That’s How We Knew, a one-­‐woman electro-­‐acoustic opera by Frances White. As a composer, Norderval has focused on exploring the nuances of the human voice, and has placed special emphasis on cross-­‐disciplinary work utilizing interactive technology. A two-­‐time recipient of the Norwegian Artist’s Stipend, and a 2005 recipient of the Henry Cowell Award from the American Music Center, Norderval has also received support from the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, Harvestworks, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Commissions include works for Den Anden Opera in Copenhagen, the BucharEast.West International Dance Festival in Romania, jill sigman/thinkdance in New York City, the new music group Ensemble Pi and the viol consort Parthenia. Her compositions are featured on Deep Listening, Koch International, and Everglade Records. www.norderval.org DANA HANCHARD, vocals Singer/Composer Dana Hanchard has appeared at concert halls, nightclubs, opera houses and jazz festivals across the globe. She began her career in baroque and contemporary classical music as a soprano soloist, working with many conductors of the day including Nicholas McGegan, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Michael Tilson Thomas, Jane Glover, and Reinhard Goebel. 7
Since changing direction in 2003 to start a voice program in Japan, she has been performing her originals with her band the Dana Hanchard Group, at Jazz clubs and concert performances throughout Japan, the U.S., and the Middle East. In recent seasons, she can be heard on Japanese nationwide live television broadcasts for NHK and Skyperfect TV, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York Festival of Song, Ravinia Jazz Festival in Chicago with Rufus Reid quintet plus four, Kioi Hall in Tokyo with marimbist Momoko Kamiya, and as a soloist at the 2008 opening of the Article 9 conference to Abolish War held in Chiba, Japan. www.danahanchardmusic.com SOUNDBRUSH RECORDS Based in Brooklyn, Soundbrush Records was founded in 1998 by composer/pianist/producer Roger Davidson to bring together music of the world with an emphasis on Latin music and Jazz. It has since broadened its focus to include classical music. The unifying spirit of these recordings stems from the passion that each performer and composer brings to his or her music, emanating as positive energy and a true labor of love. Soundbrush Records also puts a lot of emphasis on audio quality and the graphic and literate presentation of each release. www.soundbrush.com ADDITIONAL LINKS Romance Album page www.soundbrush.com/album/romance/ Fernando's YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/fernandootero28 Label owner Roger Davidson www.rogerdavidsonmusic.net 92YTribeca http://www.92y.org/Tribeca/index For further information, CD review copies, press tickets, photos, and to arrange interviews, please contact Aleba & Co. at 212/206-­‐1450 or [email protected] or visit www.soundbrush.com # # #
8