MARGIE BAKER
When singer Margie Baker was a young girl growing up in San Francisco’s now-historic Fillmore Jazz Preservation District during the 1940s and early-1950s, she listened and danced to black musicians playing a wide variety of styles including R&B, jazz and blues. So who better than Baker to deliver an album, Live at Rasselas, specifically to serve as a tribute to both the exciting music of that era and to the Fillmore District, one of America’s musical hot-spots at that time.
“During that era, this African-American music was sometimes called ‘race music’ and the string of nightclubs across the country that featured black entertainers was referred to as the ‘chitlin circuit’,” explains Baker. “The best black songs not only went to the top of the national R&B chart, but crossed over and did well on the pop charts because the white audience also was buying the records. The clubs and auditoriums in the Fillmore District that featured this music also drew a racially-mixed audience. Black musicians in San Francisco at that time were not allowed to play east of Van Ness Avenue, so if you wanted to hear them, you had to go over to Fillmore.”
Margie Baker’s music can be purchased at CDbaby.com and various online digital download locations such as iTunes, Rhapsody and eMusic. For more information on Baker, go to www.myspace.com/margiebaker.
“I chose songs from some of the best black musicians who we heard in those days on the one black radio station, on records and at the clubs when the artists came to town,” states Margie. “Some of my favorite acts from that era are Louis Jordan, Earl Fatha Hines with Billy Eckstine singing, Buddy and Ella Johnson, Roy Milton, Percy Mayfield, the King Cole Trio, Joe Liggins and His Honeydrippers, Dinah Washington, Nellie Lutcher and so many more including those who were more jazz than R&B -- Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday.”
Margie has performed on-stage over the years with many top jazz and blues musicians including Dizzy Gillespie, Mark Naflin, Red Holloway, John Handy, Ritchie Cole, Buddy DeFranco, Bobby Shew, John Heard, Bill Barry, George Bohanon, Tee Carson, Keeter Betts, Jackie King, Bruce Forman, Rodney Jones, Harley White, Alan Steger, Michael O'Neill and Scott Steed. Baker has two previous CDs -- Live at Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society and A Bit of Jazz and More... (a duet project with pianist Shota Osabe).
Baker's top-notch band on Live at Rasselas is comprised of guitarist Duncan James (Eartha Kitt, Chet Baker, Les Brown), B3 organist John Mackay (Cab Calloway, Peter Appleyard, Don Thompson), saxophonist and flutist Don Ramsey (Buddy Rich, James Moody, The Temptations), trumpet player Fred Berry (Count Basie, Ray Charles, Lena Horne) and drummer Omar Clay (Elvin Jones, Jimmy Witherspoon, Sarah Vaughan).
The city of San Francisco began a program of redevelopment in the mid-Nineties that including designating the Fillmore Jazz Preservation District which began a rebirth of music clubs such as Rasselas (now located across the street from the historic Fillmore Auditorium).
For the Live at Rasselas CD, Baker chose to cover 20 tunes that meant a lot to her when she was growing up. From 1942 to 1951 Louis Jordan was one of the biggest black stars scoring 57 R&B chart hits in that decade alone. “I enjoyed meeting him when I was about 20, remembers Margie.” There are four Jordan hits presented here -- “Let the Good Times Roll,” “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying,” “Early in the Morning” (“The first blues I ever heard with a Latin beat.”), and “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?” There also are three tunes popularized by Buddy Johnson & His Orchestra -- one originally sung by Arthur Prysock (“I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone”) and two by Buddy’s sister Ella Johnson (“Since I Fell For You” and “Fine Brown Frame,” although Baker most fondly remembers Dinah Washington’s version of the former and Nellie Lutcher’s interpretation of the latter). Baker picked a pair by the King Cole Trio (before Nat went solo) -- “Straighten Up and Fly Right” (inspired by Cole’s father telling African folk tales) and Bobby Troupe’s “Route 66.” Two Duke Ellington compositions are included -- “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good” (“Duke is a tradition in the black community, and I have heard this music my entire life.”). Margie says, “I selected two hits by Earl Fatha Hines, both sung by the great Billy Eckstine -- the slightly risqué ‘Jelly, Jelly’, and ‘I’m Falling For You,’ which was the other side of the original 78 record.”
“I Got a Right to Cry” was a million-seller originally by Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers, sometimes known as the “shuffle boogie king” (“It was one of those songs that I heard and I had to go right down to the record store and buy it.”). The jump-blues style is represented by Roy Milton’s appropriately-titled “R.M. Blues.” Baker says, “Faye Adams’ first recording was ‘Shake a Hand’ and it was huge hit in the early Fifties; I remember hearing it at all the college parties. I also have included Percy Mayfield’s biggest hit, “Please Send Me Someone To Love,” which is not only a love song but a musical prayer for peace and understanding. I met Percy near the end of his career. The reason I chose Billie Holiday’s ‘God Bless The Child’ is because you heard it everywhere in The Fillmore area during the Forties. But besides blues and R&B, the community also listened to a lot of jazz so I wanted to make sure be-bop was included. What better representation of that sound than Bird so I picked ‘Parker’s Mood’ because it is one of his most-praised melodies and because King Pleasure added lyrics to it a few years after the original recording.”
Margie Baker brings her own inimitable style to all of these tunes. In her live shows, she has long been known for being sassy-but-classy, soulful, jazzy, spiritual, swingin', bluesy and hugely entertaining.
Margie was born dirt-poor in a country shack in East Texas. Both of her grandfathers were Methodist ministers so she first heard music in church. She moved to California as a child and went on to get her Doctorate Degree in education. For three decades she held down two jobs – San Francisco school district administrator and professional singer – while raising a family. Now a retired educator, but still very active as a singer, Dr. Baker finally started recording a few years ago. She was mentored by jazz trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie, who often had Margie join him onstage whether it was in San Francisco (at the Great American Music Hall), Oakland (at Yoshi's), New York City (at the Village Gate) or Tokyo. Baker has performed at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival as well as summer jazz festivals in Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Japan and France. She also is well-known in the Bay Area for performing regularly for many decades at the top luxury hotels in the region.
“My mother owned a cleaning shop right near the Fillmore Street entertainment area. I used to skate down the street to the soda fountains where they played race music on the juke-boxes. I would pass the nightclubs and see who was appearing that week at Jimbo’s, the California Hotel, the famous after-hours club Bop City, the below-street-level Blackshire, The Eddy Hotel, The Primelone Ballroom which was a skating rink during the day, and the Fillmore Auditorium. My friend’s mother had a record store and in those days you could listen to records in a booth before buying them so we spent many hours checking out the latest discs. I entered college when I was 15 which introduced me to even more music. There were certain music clubs that were set up specifically for college students, so I started seeing lots of live music. Around 1950 the musician’s union was integrated and black and white musicians could play together, and black musicians were allowed to perform outside of the Fillmore area. The Blackhawk club started up and I often went there to hear modern progressive jazz by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.”
San Francisco’s Fillmore District, touted as “the heart and soul of the city,” has long been known for embracing cultural diversity and celebrating music (it now annually sponsors the largest free jazz festival on the West Coast). Margie Baker’s musical heritage tribute, Live at Rasselas, performs an important service in educating today’s listeners about the black music that was heard live, on records and on the radio from the early Forties to the early Fifties in this historical and revitalized area.
PUBLICITY: THE CREATIVE SERVICE COMPANY www.myspace.com/creativeservicecompany
Randall Davis (CreatServ9@aol.com) & Ruthe Forbriger (rutheCSC@aol.com) 719-548-9872
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Thursday, February 19, 2009
MICHAEL DEMARIA CREATES NEW AGE AND WORLD-FUSION MUSIC ON SECOND CD
MICHAEL BRANT DEMARIA
Siyotanka is an ancient American Indian legend that explains the origin of the Native American courting flute. It is a coming-of-age story, a boy’s vision quest to find his personal “soul song” and become a man, and an allegorical message of the importance of music and artistic expression to society. Now it also is a musical recording by multi-instrumentalist, psychologist and soul guide Michael Brant DeMaria.
DeMaria – who plays indigenous flutes, keyboards and percussion – has created instrumental music (with a little native chanting) that tells the tale of Siyotanka (the Lakota Indian word for “flute,” or more literally “great song”). Over the course of a dozen tunes, DeMaria presents an ancient native world where the boy, Takoda, leaves his village on a journey that brings life-altering encounters with Nuka the woodpecker, the sage owl Hinhan, and the great elk Hexaka. When Nuka pecks holes in the limb of a cedar tree to get to the termites, the wind blows through the holes and Takoda hears the first flute sound. He makes the tree-limb into a flute, learns to play it and takes it back to his tribe.
Michael Brant DeMaria’s Siyotanka CD and his other music can be purchased at his website (www.ontosmusic.com) as well as at online stores such as amazon.com or cdbaby.com, and at numerous digital download locations including iTunes.com and Rhapsody.com. Native American charities receive 10 percent of the profits from the sale of DeMaria’s CDs.
DeMaria has played onstage accompanying performers well-known in the Native American and new age musical genres including R. Carlos Nakai, Mary Youngblood, Jeff Ball, Bill Miller, Peter Phippen, Coyote Oldman, Ash Dargan, Raymond Redfeather, and David Darling. DeMaria’s debut album, The River, received international airplay and acclaim as a top album for music therapy, massage, meditation, relaxation, acupuncture treatments, stress management and “soul guiding.” The CD also was the first release in DeMaria’s Ontos Healing Sound Project Series. A second CD in the series, Ocean, has been readied for release later in 2009.
The music of Siyotanka (pronounced see-yoh-tahn-kah) was created as the soundtrack to an original play written by DeMaria and another psychologist, Stephen C. Lott, who also created the artwork for the CD cover. The play premiered at the historic Pensacola Theatre in Florida with eight sold-out performances. DeMaria performed the music onstage as part of the cast. The production (including DeMaria’s musical score) won seven Crystal Awards.
A wide-variety of Native American wooden flutes were used in creating the music on Siyotanka with the higher-toned instruments representing the woodpecker and other birds, the mid-range encapsulating the adventures of the young Indian, and low bass notes evoking the owl and elk. Also heard are drums, wood-rattles and other percussion. The tunes “Grandfather” and “Branched Horn” feature both intricate rhythmic drumming and tribal chanting. “The Quest” contains acoustic-piano gently woven together with flute, while “Beyond The Known” is faster-paced utilizing the sound of acoustic guitar. Intermingled within the music are the sounds of thunder and rain (“The Dream”), crickets, bird trills and eagle cries.
The Siyotanka story, told here through music, has deep spiritual, philosophical and sociological meanings. “Ultimately, the story works as a metaphor for our life journey as we grow, explore and deal with our fears,” explains DeMaria. “It is especially touching because Takoda is a different kind of warrior. It is his sensitivity, spirituality and artistic nature that wins the day, not brute strength. Instead of creating a weapon out of wood, he crafts a flute to bring beauty and love into the world. This is a message we need today.”
DeMaria was uniquely suited to create the music of Siyotanka because of his training as a psychologist and “soul guide,” his years of participating in and leading wilderness vision quests, and his lifelong study of music as a therapeutic tool for healing and growing. On his way to his first personal vision quest in Glacier National Park in Canada, guided by a Blackfoot elder, Michael purchased an album by R. Carlos Nakai and fell in love with the heartfelt and natural sounds of the Native American flute. Although already proficient as a pianist and percussionist, DeMaria soon began incorporating flute into his music and playing it at weekly spirituality meetings. This led to performances at large flute gatherings (Musical Echoes in Florida, Zion Canyon Art and Flute Festival in Utah, and the International Native American Flute Association conventions in Taos and San Francisco). He additionally started using flute music in both private therapy sessions and group workshops. DeMaria also is the author of three books – an academic text (Horns and Halos: Towards the Blessings of Darkness), a personal growth book for general readership (Ever Flowing On: Being and Becoming One’s Self) and a book of poetry (Moments).
When he was seven-years-old, Michael began using music for his own healing of surgery trauma. At first he simply played self-soothing notes on the piano, but he was soon taking classical lessons (Bach, Scarlotti). However, from the beginning Michael found true joy in improvising and creating his own music. Seeing a jazz concert at age nine propelled Michael into drumming and percussion which he pursued in his school’s jazz band. His early musical influences ranged from jazz (Buddy Rich, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock) to pop music (Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel). DeMaria was heavily inspired in his late-teens when he first heard the solo piano improvisations of Keith Jarrett followed by the new age Windham Hill and Fresh Aire recordings.
Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, and raised in nearby Wilton, Michael moved to Gulf Breeze, Florida (near Pensacola) when he was 15. He graduated from high school early and at age 17 went to the progressive New College (The Honors College of Florida) where he primarily studied chemistry and math, although he spent most of his free time creating music with his best-friend, guitarist Bill Schulz. DeMaria became fascinated not only with ethnic instruments (from taking an ethno-musicology course) but also with synthesizers (Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons Project, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre). DeMaria bought an early Moog synthesizer and began taking more music courses.
Eventually DeMaria decided to move to the University of West Florida, concentrate on psychology and philosophy, and use music as his artistic outlet and ongoing personal therapy. He graduated at age 20 with two Bachelor Degrees. At Duquesne University in Pittsburgh he received his Masters at age 21 and his PhD when he was 24. While his academic focus was on psychology, he continued taking music courses and began recording original music (five albums that he only shared with family and friends). His musical tastes broadened to include George Winston, Miles Davis, Tibetan monk chants, Romanian gypsy music, African poly-rhythms, Japanese shakuhachi flute sounds and ambient recordings.
Dr. DeMaria became a practicing clinical psychologist. At first he devoted himself to working with abused children and their families (more than 2,000 cases), but after a decade he began guiding adults on their life journeys, helping them in moving towards wholeness, living in balance and becoming more conscious, compassionate and creative. His healing practices incorporate nature, creativity and spirituality particularly utilizing journaling, meditation and artistic expression, along with play therapy and music therapy. He founded ONTOS (the Greek word for “being”), a consulting company and center for research, teaching and training in the healing practices he has developed. DeMaria also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of West Florida, the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology and the Institute for Integrative Health.
“I first heard the story of Siyotanka on my first vision quest,” remembers DeMaria. “I came to realize it is a mythic, archetypal legend about bringing art to civilization, but also a story about a boy becoming a man by opening his heart and finding his soul song, the individual song we all carry within us. For the American Indians, the flute became part of the courting ritual. But before men and women join in marriage, they need to find themselves, listen to their soul and discover what they have to offer to the world. I hope this music will help lead people on that journey of self-discovery.”
Siyotanka is an ancient American Indian legend that explains the origin of the Native American courting flute. It is a coming-of-age story, a boy’s vision quest to find his personal “soul song” and become a man, and an allegorical message of the importance of music and artistic expression to society. Now it also is a musical recording by multi-instrumentalist, psychologist and soul guide Michael Brant DeMaria.
DeMaria – who plays indigenous flutes, keyboards and percussion – has created instrumental music (with a little native chanting) that tells the tale of Siyotanka (the Lakota Indian word for “flute,” or more literally “great song”). Over the course of a dozen tunes, DeMaria presents an ancient native world where the boy, Takoda, leaves his village on a journey that brings life-altering encounters with Nuka the woodpecker, the sage owl Hinhan, and the great elk Hexaka. When Nuka pecks holes in the limb of a cedar tree to get to the termites, the wind blows through the holes and Takoda hears the first flute sound. He makes the tree-limb into a flute, learns to play it and takes it back to his tribe.
Michael Brant DeMaria’s Siyotanka CD and his other music can be purchased at his website (www.ontosmusic.com) as well as at online stores such as amazon.com or cdbaby.com, and at numerous digital download locations including iTunes.com and Rhapsody.com. Native American charities receive 10 percent of the profits from the sale of DeMaria’s CDs.
DeMaria has played onstage accompanying performers well-known in the Native American and new age musical genres including R. Carlos Nakai, Mary Youngblood, Jeff Ball, Bill Miller, Peter Phippen, Coyote Oldman, Ash Dargan, Raymond Redfeather, and David Darling. DeMaria’s debut album, The River, received international airplay and acclaim as a top album for music therapy, massage, meditation, relaxation, acupuncture treatments, stress management and “soul guiding.” The CD also was the first release in DeMaria’s Ontos Healing Sound Project Series. A second CD in the series, Ocean, has been readied for release later in 2009.
The music of Siyotanka (pronounced see-yoh-tahn-kah) was created as the soundtrack to an original play written by DeMaria and another psychologist, Stephen C. Lott, who also created the artwork for the CD cover. The play premiered at the historic Pensacola Theatre in Florida with eight sold-out performances. DeMaria performed the music onstage as part of the cast. The production (including DeMaria’s musical score) won seven Crystal Awards.
A wide-variety of Native American wooden flutes were used in creating the music on Siyotanka with the higher-toned instruments representing the woodpecker and other birds, the mid-range encapsulating the adventures of the young Indian, and low bass notes evoking the owl and elk. Also heard are drums, wood-rattles and other percussion. The tunes “Grandfather” and “Branched Horn” feature both intricate rhythmic drumming and tribal chanting. “The Quest” contains acoustic-piano gently woven together with flute, while “Beyond The Known” is faster-paced utilizing the sound of acoustic guitar. Intermingled within the music are the sounds of thunder and rain (“The Dream”), crickets, bird trills and eagle cries.
The Siyotanka story, told here through music, has deep spiritual, philosophical and sociological meanings. “Ultimately, the story works as a metaphor for our life journey as we grow, explore and deal with our fears,” explains DeMaria. “It is especially touching because Takoda is a different kind of warrior. It is his sensitivity, spirituality and artistic nature that wins the day, not brute strength. Instead of creating a weapon out of wood, he crafts a flute to bring beauty and love into the world. This is a message we need today.”
DeMaria was uniquely suited to create the music of Siyotanka because of his training as a psychologist and “soul guide,” his years of participating in and leading wilderness vision quests, and his lifelong study of music as a therapeutic tool for healing and growing. On his way to his first personal vision quest in Glacier National Park in Canada, guided by a Blackfoot elder, Michael purchased an album by R. Carlos Nakai and fell in love with the heartfelt and natural sounds of the Native American flute. Although already proficient as a pianist and percussionist, DeMaria soon began incorporating flute into his music and playing it at weekly spirituality meetings. This led to performances at large flute gatherings (Musical Echoes in Florida, Zion Canyon Art and Flute Festival in Utah, and the International Native American Flute Association conventions in Taos and San Francisco). He additionally started using flute music in both private therapy sessions and group workshops. DeMaria also is the author of three books – an academic text (Horns and Halos: Towards the Blessings of Darkness), a personal growth book for general readership (Ever Flowing On: Being and Becoming One’s Self) and a book of poetry (Moments).
When he was seven-years-old, Michael began using music for his own healing of surgery trauma. At first he simply played self-soothing notes on the piano, but he was soon taking classical lessons (Bach, Scarlotti). However, from the beginning Michael found true joy in improvising and creating his own music. Seeing a jazz concert at age nine propelled Michael into drumming and percussion which he pursued in his school’s jazz band. His early musical influences ranged from jazz (Buddy Rich, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock) to pop music (Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel). DeMaria was heavily inspired in his late-teens when he first heard the solo piano improvisations of Keith Jarrett followed by the new age Windham Hill and Fresh Aire recordings.
Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, and raised in nearby Wilton, Michael moved to Gulf Breeze, Florida (near Pensacola) when he was 15. He graduated from high school early and at age 17 went to the progressive New College (The Honors College of Florida) where he primarily studied chemistry and math, although he spent most of his free time creating music with his best-friend, guitarist Bill Schulz. DeMaria became fascinated not only with ethnic instruments (from taking an ethno-musicology course) but also with synthesizers (Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons Project, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre). DeMaria bought an early Moog synthesizer and began taking more music courses.
Eventually DeMaria decided to move to the University of West Florida, concentrate on psychology and philosophy, and use music as his artistic outlet and ongoing personal therapy. He graduated at age 20 with two Bachelor Degrees. At Duquesne University in Pittsburgh he received his Masters at age 21 and his PhD when he was 24. While his academic focus was on psychology, he continued taking music courses and began recording original music (five albums that he only shared with family and friends). His musical tastes broadened to include George Winston, Miles Davis, Tibetan monk chants, Romanian gypsy music, African poly-rhythms, Japanese shakuhachi flute sounds and ambient recordings.
Dr. DeMaria became a practicing clinical psychologist. At first he devoted himself to working with abused children and their families (more than 2,000 cases), but after a decade he began guiding adults on their life journeys, helping them in moving towards wholeness, living in balance and becoming more conscious, compassionate and creative. His healing practices incorporate nature, creativity and spirituality particularly utilizing journaling, meditation and artistic expression, along with play therapy and music therapy. He founded ONTOS (the Greek word for “being”), a consulting company and center for research, teaching and training in the healing practices he has developed. DeMaria also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of West Florida, the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology and the Institute for Integrative Health.
“I first heard the story of Siyotanka on my first vision quest,” remembers DeMaria. “I came to realize it is a mythic, archetypal legend about bringing art to civilization, but also a story about a boy becoming a man by opening his heart and finding his soul song, the individual song we all carry within us. For the American Indians, the flute became part of the courting ritual. But before men and women join in marriage, they need to find themselves, listen to their soul and discover what they have to offer to the world. I hope this music will help lead people on that journey of self-discovery.”
Friday, January 2, 2009
Recording Artist Brian Kelly Influenced by Smooth Jazz and New Age
BRIAN KELLY
AFTERPLAY
Something I have noticed in the world of music in the last couple of years is that many musicians do not stay within easy categories. Some artists do pop and rock, some folk and pop, some trad jazz and contemporary jazz, some country and Americana, some new age and world, not to mention acoustic and electric, real instruments and synthesized ones. The list goes on and on. That same strategy applies to this album by keyboardist Brian Kelly, AFTERPLAY, his second CD. His sound is absolutely smooth jazz on many of the tunes with other musicians joining him in a jazz group setting including saxophone. But on many of the other pieces, he comes across much more as a new age performer (or what they sometimes pop-new age when there are strong melodies like he writes). This second batch of tunes is much softer and gentler. There is even a little world-fusion sound on a few compositions such as “Celtic Fire.” For the most part Kelly’s acoustic grand piano is in the forefront, but he also mixes in electronic keyboards (synth, samplers, whatever) in the background or for specific sounds or instruments (besides the real players he brought in). So the production is far-ranging. But let’s cut to the bottomline. It works. Mostly because Kelly writes good instrumental music melodies and he has a gift for arranging them with a variety of instrumentation that suits each piece. His piano playing is strong and his solos are captivating. If you are the kind of listener that wants a smooth jazz album to be upbeat and bouyant all the way through with lots of hot soloing, then this album is probably not going to do it for you. If you want very meditative, spacey or ambient new age music, go elsewhere as well. But if you like some smooth jazz and some new age that is catchy, well-played and nicely arranged, then check out this guy. There is never a boring moment and the whole thing goes down easy like a good bottle of aged wine on a Sunday afternoon. I personally can’t wait to hear where he goes next.
-- John Chandler
AFTERPLAY
Something I have noticed in the world of music in the last couple of years is that many musicians do not stay within easy categories. Some artists do pop and rock, some folk and pop, some trad jazz and contemporary jazz, some country and Americana, some new age and world, not to mention acoustic and electric, real instruments and synthesized ones. The list goes on and on. That same strategy applies to this album by keyboardist Brian Kelly, AFTERPLAY, his second CD. His sound is absolutely smooth jazz on many of the tunes with other musicians joining him in a jazz group setting including saxophone. But on many of the other pieces, he comes across much more as a new age performer (or what they sometimes pop-new age when there are strong melodies like he writes). This second batch of tunes is much softer and gentler. There is even a little world-fusion sound on a few compositions such as “Celtic Fire.” For the most part Kelly’s acoustic grand piano is in the forefront, but he also mixes in electronic keyboards (synth, samplers, whatever) in the background or for specific sounds or instruments (besides the real players he brought in). So the production is far-ranging. But let’s cut to the bottomline. It works. Mostly because Kelly writes good instrumental music melodies and he has a gift for arranging them with a variety of instrumentation that suits each piece. His piano playing is strong and his solos are captivating. If you are the kind of listener that wants a smooth jazz album to be upbeat and bouyant all the way through with lots of hot soloing, then this album is probably not going to do it for you. If you want very meditative, spacey or ambient new age music, go elsewhere as well. But if you like some smooth jazz and some new age that is catchy, well-played and nicely arranged, then check out this guy. There is never a boring moment and the whole thing goes down easy like a good bottle of aged wine on a Sunday afternoon. I personally can’t wait to hear where he goes next.
-- John Chandler
Friday, October 10, 2008
AFTER A DOZEN CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL HIT ALBUMS OF HIS OWN PLUS PRODUCING A HUNDRED OTHERS, SPENCER BREWER IS BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM
SPENCER BREWER
CINEMATIC
Spencer Brewer is not only a multi-million-selling composer, pianist and producer, but also a connoisseur of many of the greatest film scorers of all time. For his latest contemporary instrumental recording, Cinematic, Brewer has turned his talents to creating a collection of original material specifically meant to evoke visual imagery and also serve as his homage to movie music.
“I have been a fan of film music since I was a small boy,” explains Brewer, “and as a tribute to that often over-looked art-form, I decided to make an album filled with pieces I feel have the same ambience of classic movie and television scores.” In fact, some of the music has already been used in films and television. Brewer, who extensively collects recordings by his favorite film composers, has been most influenced by Bernard Hermann, John Barry and Ennio Morricone, but also has studied the works of Erich Korngold, Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Thomas Newman, Miklos Rozsa, Esquivel, John Williams, Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Mark Isham and Danny Elfman.
Cinematic is a two-CD set featuring a cover painting by Salvador Dali. The first CD is subtitled “Black & White” and features Brewer playing solo piano on a dozen pieces with the addition of guitar and flute on the final tune. The second CD, subtitled “Technicolor,” contains compositions played by various artists led by Brewer on piano, synthesizers, Hammond B-3 and a pump organ built in 1888. “Technicolor” has ensemble arrangements of ten of the same tunes that appear on “Black & White” plus four different pieces. The musicians on Cinematic are top new age, classical and jazz players including acoustic guitar virtuoso Alex de Grassi, reedman Paul McCandless (Paul Winter, Oregon), flutist Matt Eakle (David Grisman, Suzanne Ciani), harmonica player Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller, Kenny Loggins), drummer Mark Walker (Oregon, Paquito D’Rivera), and bassists Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny, Chuck Mangione), Todd Phillips (David Grisman, Psychograss) and Cliff Hugo (Rick Braun, Richard Elliott), plus other percussion, wind and string players including the renowned Quartet San Francisco led by Jeremy Cohen.
The music on Cinematic ranges from new versions of a couple of Brewer’s most-beloved compositions (“Quintessence,” “Dreamgift”) to new material (“Into The Mirror,” “Satie’s Forgotten Dream,” “Say What!?”). Some of the music has already been used in the cinema: “Heartwood” was commissioned for the movie of the same name starring Jason Robards and Hillary Swank, and Brewer also wrote the title theme for Lee Mun Wah’s acclaimed documentary film on racism, “Last Chance for Eden.” “Trip to Glory” has been used in several Olympics’ broadcasts, became the Big Brothers-Big Sisters theme, was used as Hank Aaron’s theme song and helped sell Arby’s Roast Beef in television commercials. “Blueberry Street” has a Porgy & Bess-feel to it and displays Brewer’s early blues roots, while the rip-roaring “Lupin Swing” displays elements of vaudeville, Broadway and ragtime. “Caravanserai” would have worked in Valentino’s “The Sheik” or Sean Connery’s “The Wind and The Lion.” “Fellini’s Carousel” pays tribute to the Italian film master. “Walls That Move” was written in George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound huge soundstage where the walls actually are capable of moving. “Cinematic” is a soaring tour-de-force of classic film sounds creating several moods, building tension and then letting the listener down easy at the end as the lights come up and the credits roll.
“I first got into movie music when I was watching the classic monster films from the 1930s – “Frankenstein,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Mummy” – and then “Creature From the Black Lagoon” in the Fifties and “Jason and the Argonauts” in the early Sixties,” remembers Brewer. “The music was so powerful, it knocked me out. I realized how important music is to the mood, storyline and character development in films. So then I started paying attention to the film composers and found music they did in other genres.”
Spencer, who was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, began playing piano at age seven, and although he took lessons for several years, he learned the most from his grandmother, who taught him Southern blues and boogie-woogie. He played in rock’n’roll bands throughout high school and then moved to Austin for its thriving music scene. Brewer became the accompanist for modern dance troupes (Deborah Hay, Martha Graham, Daniel Llanes and Suzanne Grace), which “pushed my envelope as to the possibilities of spontaneous and interpretive music.” Brewer also wrote the music for “Once Upon A Time” and “Willowmancifoot the Dragon,” two musicals written in New York City. His first recording, Stellar Notion, was done in 1980 and was vocal music from those musicals.
After moving to Northern California at the beginning of the Eighties, Brewer began recording original instrumental music, became a leader in the forefront of the burgeoning new age music movement and sold more than a million albums under his own name. He also was involved in producing, arranging, engineering and contributing tunes to albums that sold an additional several million units. It began with his albums Where Angels Dance, Shadow Dancer, Emerald, Portraits (a Gold Album with sales over half a million), Dorian’s Legacy (Top 10 on Billboard’s New Age sales chart and #1 on the R&R’s NAC airplay chart with sales of more than a quarter-million), Piper’s Rhythm (#1 on both of those same charts), Romantic Interludes and a half-dozen more. He created the music for several dozen NorthSound concept albums in which he often went uncredited, but stretched beyond new age music by exploring pop, jazz, bluegrass, big band and world music. Spencer also recorded several projects with other musicians who shared credits on the album covers – one with Tingstad & Rumbel, another with electronic music pioneer Craig Anderton and a jazz CD with Paul McCandless.
Brewer opened his own studio, Laughing Coyote, near Ukiah, California, nestled in the redwoods, and from the mid-Nineties to the mid-00s, he spent most of his time recording many other artists (plus some time out recuperating from a head-on car collision). He produced, engineered or performed on recordings by artists such as Alex de Grassi, Holly Near, Gene Parsons, Darol Anger, Steve Erquiaga, Kostia, Joe Craven, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Fred Simon, Georgia Kelly, Kirtana and many others; and oversaw productions that featured acts from John Bucchino to the Duke Ellington Band.
Spencer also contributed music to the films “Home Alone 2,” “The Gifts of Grief” (starring Isabel Allende and Rev. Cecil Williams) and “Color of Fear” (another ground-breaking movie on racism from Lee Mun Wah). Brewer wrote the national theme songs for the YMCA and the Japanese Postal Service. His music has been used on more than 2,000 television shows all over the world including “Sex and the City,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “L.A. Law,” “Sixty Minutes,” “Thirty Something” and broadcasts of the last five Olympics.
In addition to creating music, Brewer has run a record company owns a music store, rebuilds pianos, collects vintage microphones and gramophones, had his own radio show and produced hundreds of concerts in Mendocino County. He contributes to his community in many ways including helping found the Redwood Valley Outdoor Educational Facility for children and the Ukiah Educational Foundation which helps fund students and schools. He also has founded and created patents with the high-tech company HighWired Inc. which allows voicemail or email users to add music, sounds and visual content to their messages.
“Part of what makes movies magical and deeply moving is the music soundtrack married to the mood of what we are watching,” explains Brewer. “In our own lives, we generally pick music to listen to because of how we are feeling or want to feel that day. I hope the music on Cinematic can serve as a soundtrack for people’s lives.”
Many of Brewer’s recordings are available at his website (spencerbrewer.com). Cinematic also can be purchased online at Cdbaby.com and Amazon.com, as well as numerous digital download locations such as iTunes and Rhapsody. Check him out on YouTube as well.
CINEMATIC
Spencer Brewer is not only a multi-million-selling composer, pianist and producer, but also a connoisseur of many of the greatest film scorers of all time. For his latest contemporary instrumental recording, Cinematic, Brewer has turned his talents to creating a collection of original material specifically meant to evoke visual imagery and also serve as his homage to movie music.
“I have been a fan of film music since I was a small boy,” explains Brewer, “and as a tribute to that often over-looked art-form, I decided to make an album filled with pieces I feel have the same ambience of classic movie and television scores.” In fact, some of the music has already been used in films and television. Brewer, who extensively collects recordings by his favorite film composers, has been most influenced by Bernard Hermann, John Barry and Ennio Morricone, but also has studied the works of Erich Korngold, Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Thomas Newman, Miklos Rozsa, Esquivel, John Williams, Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Mark Isham and Danny Elfman.
Cinematic is a two-CD set featuring a cover painting by Salvador Dali. The first CD is subtitled “Black & White” and features Brewer playing solo piano on a dozen pieces with the addition of guitar and flute on the final tune. The second CD, subtitled “Technicolor,” contains compositions played by various artists led by Brewer on piano, synthesizers, Hammond B-3 and a pump organ built in 1888. “Technicolor” has ensemble arrangements of ten of the same tunes that appear on “Black & White” plus four different pieces. The musicians on Cinematic are top new age, classical and jazz players including acoustic guitar virtuoso Alex de Grassi, reedman Paul McCandless (Paul Winter, Oregon), flutist Matt Eakle (David Grisman, Suzanne Ciani), harmonica player Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller, Kenny Loggins), drummer Mark Walker (Oregon, Paquito D’Rivera), and bassists Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny, Chuck Mangione), Todd Phillips (David Grisman, Psychograss) and Cliff Hugo (Rick Braun, Richard Elliott), plus other percussion, wind and string players including the renowned Quartet San Francisco led by Jeremy Cohen.
The music on Cinematic ranges from new versions of a couple of Brewer’s most-beloved compositions (“Quintessence,” “Dreamgift”) to new material (“Into The Mirror,” “Satie’s Forgotten Dream,” “Say What!?”). Some of the music has already been used in the cinema: “Heartwood” was commissioned for the movie of the same name starring Jason Robards and Hillary Swank, and Brewer also wrote the title theme for Lee Mun Wah’s acclaimed documentary film on racism, “Last Chance for Eden.” “Trip to Glory” has been used in several Olympics’ broadcasts, became the Big Brothers-Big Sisters theme, was used as Hank Aaron’s theme song and helped sell Arby’s Roast Beef in television commercials. “Blueberry Street” has a Porgy & Bess-feel to it and displays Brewer’s early blues roots, while the rip-roaring “Lupin Swing” displays elements of vaudeville, Broadway and ragtime. “Caravanserai” would have worked in Valentino’s “The Sheik” or Sean Connery’s “The Wind and The Lion.” “Fellini’s Carousel” pays tribute to the Italian film master. “Walls That Move” was written in George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound huge soundstage where the walls actually are capable of moving. “Cinematic” is a soaring tour-de-force of classic film sounds creating several moods, building tension and then letting the listener down easy at the end as the lights come up and the credits roll.
“I first got into movie music when I was watching the classic monster films from the 1930s – “Frankenstein,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Mummy” – and then “Creature From the Black Lagoon” in the Fifties and “Jason and the Argonauts” in the early Sixties,” remembers Brewer. “The music was so powerful, it knocked me out. I realized how important music is to the mood, storyline and character development in films. So then I started paying attention to the film composers and found music they did in other genres.”
Spencer, who was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, began playing piano at age seven, and although he took lessons for several years, he learned the most from his grandmother, who taught him Southern blues and boogie-woogie. He played in rock’n’roll bands throughout high school and then moved to Austin for its thriving music scene. Brewer became the accompanist for modern dance troupes (Deborah Hay, Martha Graham, Daniel Llanes and Suzanne Grace), which “pushed my envelope as to the possibilities of spontaneous and interpretive music.” Brewer also wrote the music for “Once Upon A Time” and “Willowmancifoot the Dragon,” two musicals written in New York City. His first recording, Stellar Notion, was done in 1980 and was vocal music from those musicals.
After moving to Northern California at the beginning of the Eighties, Brewer began recording original instrumental music, became a leader in the forefront of the burgeoning new age music movement and sold more than a million albums under his own name. He also was involved in producing, arranging, engineering and contributing tunes to albums that sold an additional several million units. It began with his albums Where Angels Dance, Shadow Dancer, Emerald, Portraits (a Gold Album with sales over half a million), Dorian’s Legacy (Top 10 on Billboard’s New Age sales chart and #1 on the R&R’s NAC airplay chart with sales of more than a quarter-million), Piper’s Rhythm (#1 on both of those same charts), Romantic Interludes and a half-dozen more. He created the music for several dozen NorthSound concept albums in which he often went uncredited, but stretched beyond new age music by exploring pop, jazz, bluegrass, big band and world music. Spencer also recorded several projects with other musicians who shared credits on the album covers – one with Tingstad & Rumbel, another with electronic music pioneer Craig Anderton and a jazz CD with Paul McCandless.
Brewer opened his own studio, Laughing Coyote, near Ukiah, California, nestled in the redwoods, and from the mid-Nineties to the mid-00s, he spent most of his time recording many other artists (plus some time out recuperating from a head-on car collision). He produced, engineered or performed on recordings by artists such as Alex de Grassi, Holly Near, Gene Parsons, Darol Anger, Steve Erquiaga, Kostia, Joe Craven, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Fred Simon, Georgia Kelly, Kirtana and many others; and oversaw productions that featured acts from John Bucchino to the Duke Ellington Band.
Spencer also contributed music to the films “Home Alone 2,” “The Gifts of Grief” (starring Isabel Allende and Rev. Cecil Williams) and “Color of Fear” (another ground-breaking movie on racism from Lee Mun Wah). Brewer wrote the national theme songs for the YMCA and the Japanese Postal Service. His music has been used on more than 2,000 television shows all over the world including “Sex and the City,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “L.A. Law,” “Sixty Minutes,” “Thirty Something” and broadcasts of the last five Olympics.
In addition to creating music, Brewer has run a record company owns a music store, rebuilds pianos, collects vintage microphones and gramophones, had his own radio show and produced hundreds of concerts in Mendocino County. He contributes to his community in many ways including helping found the Redwood Valley Outdoor Educational Facility for children and the Ukiah Educational Foundation which helps fund students and schools. He also has founded and created patents with the high-tech company HighWired Inc. which allows voicemail or email users to add music, sounds and visual content to their messages.
“Part of what makes movies magical and deeply moving is the music soundtrack married to the mood of what we are watching,” explains Brewer. “In our own lives, we generally pick music to listen to because of how we are feeling or want to feel that day. I hope the music on Cinematic can serve as a soundtrack for people’s lives.”
Many of Brewer’s recordings are available at his website (spencerbrewer.com). Cinematic also can be purchased online at Cdbaby.com and Amazon.com, as well as numerous digital download locations such as iTunes and Rhapsody. Check him out on YouTube as well.
AFTER A DOZEN CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL HIT ALBUMS OF HIS OWN PLUS PRODUCING A HUNDRED OTHERS, SPENCER BREWER IS BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM
SPENCER BREWER
CINEMATIC
Spencer Brewer is not only a multi-million-selling composer, pianist and producer, but also a connoisseur of many of the greatest film scorers of all time. For his latest contemporary instrumental recording, Cinematic, Brewer has turned his talents to creating a collection of original material specifically meant to evoke visual imagery and also serve as his homage to movie music.
“I have been a fan of film music since I was a small boy,” explains Brewer, “and as a tribute to that often over-looked art-form, I decided to make an album filled with pieces I feel have the same ambience of classic movie and television scores.” In fact, some of the music has already been used in films and television. Brewer, who extensively collects recordings by his favorite film composers, has been most influenced by Bernard Hermann, John Barry and Ennio Morricone, but also has studied the works of Erich Korngold, Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Thomas Newman, Miklos Rozsa, Esquivel, John Williams, Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Mark Isham and Danny Elfman.
Cinematic is a two-CD set featuring a cover painting by Salvador Dali. The first CD is subtitled “Black & White” and features Brewer playing solo piano on a dozen pieces with the addition of guitar and flute on the final tune. The second CD, subtitled “Technicolor,” contains compositions played by various artists led by Brewer on piano, synthesizers, Hammond B-3 and a pump organ built in 1888. “Technicolor” has ensemble arrangements of ten of the same tunes that appear on “Black & White” plus four different pieces. The musicians on Cinematic are top new age, classical and jazz players including acoustic guitar virtuoso Alex de Grassi, reedman Paul McCandless (Paul Winter, Oregon), flutist Matt Eakle (David Grisman, Suzanne Ciani), harmonica player Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller, Kenny Loggins), drummer Mark Walker (Oregon, Paquito D’Rivera), and bassists Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny, Chuck Mangione), Todd Phillips (David Grisman, Psychograss) and Cliff Hugo (Rick Braun, Richard Elliott), plus other percussion, wind and string players including the renowned Quartet San Francisco led by Jeremy Cohen.
The music on Cinematic ranges from new versions of a couple of Brewer’s most-beloved compositions (“Quintessence,” “Dreamgift”) to new material (“Into The Mirror,” “Satie’s Forgotten Dream,” “Say What!?”). Some of the music has already been used in the cinema: “Heartwood” was commissioned for the movie of the same name starring Jason Robards and Hillary Swank, and Brewer also wrote the title theme for Lee Mun Wah’s acclaimed documentary film on racism, “Last Chance for Eden.” “Trip to Glory” has been used in several Olympics’ broadcasts, became the Big Brothers-Big Sisters theme, was used as Hank Aaron’s theme song and helped sell Arby’s Roast Beef in television commercials. “Blueberry Street” has a Porgy & Bess-feel to it and displays Brewer’s early blues roots, while the rip-roaring “Lupin Swing” displays elements of vaudeville, Broadway and ragtime. “Caravanserai” would have worked in Valentino’s “The Sheik” or Sean Connery’s “The Wind and The Lion.” “Fellini’s Carousel” pays tribute to the Italian film master. “Walls That Move” was written in George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound huge soundstage where the walls actually are capable of moving. “Cinematic” is a soaring tour-de-force of classic film sounds creating several moods, building tension and then letting the listener down easy at the end as the lights come up and the credits roll.
“I first got into movie music when I was watching the classic monster films from the 1930s – “Frankenstein,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Mummy” – and then “Creature From the Black Lagoon” in the Fifties and “Jason and the Argonauts” in the early Sixties,” remembers Brewer. “The music was so powerful, it knocked me out. I realized how important music is to the mood, storyline and character development in films. So then I started paying attention to the film composers and found music they did in other genres.”
Spencer, who was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, began playing piano at age seven, and although he took lessons for several years, he learned the most from his grandmother, who taught him Southern blues and boogie-woogie. He played in rock’n’roll bands throughout high school and then moved to Austin for its thriving music scene. Brewer became the accompanist for modern dance troupes (Deborah Hay, Martha Graham, Daniel Llanes and Suzanne Grace), which “pushed my envelope as to the possibilities of spontaneous and interpretive music.” Brewer also wrote the music for “Once Upon A Time” and “Willowmancifoot the Dragon,” two musicals written in New York City. His first recording, Stellar Notion, was done in 1980 and was vocal music from those musicals.
After moving to Northern California at the beginning of the Eighties, Brewer began recording original instrumental music, became a leader in the forefront of the burgeoning new age music movement and sold more than a million albums under his own name. He also was involved in producing, arranging, engineering and contributing tunes to albums that sold an additional several million units. It began with his albums Where Angels Dance, Shadow Dancer, Emerald, Portraits (a Gold Album with sales over half a million), Dorian’s Legacy (Top 10 on Billboard’s New Age sales chart and #1 on the R&R’s NAC airplay chart with sales of more than a quarter-million), Piper’s Rhythm (#1 on both of those same charts), Romantic Interludes and a half-dozen more. He created the music for several dozen NorthSound concept albums in which he often went uncredited, but stretched beyond new age music by exploring pop, jazz, bluegrass, big band and world music. Spencer also recorded several projects with other musicians who shared credits on the album covers – one with Tingstad & Rumbel, another with electronic music pioneer Craig Anderton and a jazz CD with Paul McCandless.
Brewer opened his own studio, Laughing Coyote, near Ukiah, California, nestled in the redwoods, and from the mid-Nineties to the mid-00s, he spent most of his time recording many other artists (plus some time out recuperating from a head-on car collision). He produced, engineered or performed on recordings by artists such as Alex de Grassi, Holly Near, Gene Parsons, Darol Anger, Steve Erquiaga, Kostia, Joe Craven, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Fred Simon, Georgia Kelly, Kirtana and many others; and oversaw productions that featured acts from John Bucchino to the Duke Ellington Band.
Spencer also contributed music to the films “Home Alone 2,” “The Gifts of Grief” (starring Isabel Allende and Rev. Cecil Williams) and “Color of Fear” (another ground-breaking movie on racism from Lee Mun Wah). Brewer wrote the national theme songs for the YMCA and the Japanese Postal Service. His music has been used on more than 2,000 television shows all over the world including “Sex and the City,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “L.A. Law,” “Sixty Minutes,” “Thirty Something” and broadcasts of the last five Olympics.
In addition to creating music, Brewer has run a record company owns a music store, rebuilds pianos, collects vintage microphones and gramophones, had his own radio show and produced hundreds of concerts in Mendocino County. He contributes to his community in many ways including helping found the Redwood Valley Outdoor Educational Facility for children and the Ukiah Educational Foundation which helps fund students and schools. He also has founded and created patents with the high-tech company HighWired Inc. which allows voicemail or email users to add music, sounds and visual content to their messages.
“Part of what makes movies magical and deeply moving is the music soundtrack married to the mood of what we are watching,” explains Brewer. “In our own lives, we generally pick music to listen to because of how we are feeling or want to feel that day. I hope the music on Cinematic can serve as a soundtrack for people’s lives.”
Many of Brewer’s recordings are available at his website (spencerbrewer.com). Cinematic also can be purchased online at Cdbaby.com and Amazon.com, as well as numerous digital download locations such as iTunes and Rhapsody. Check him out on YouTube as well.
CINEMATIC
Spencer Brewer is not only a multi-million-selling composer, pianist and producer, but also a connoisseur of many of the greatest film scorers of all time. For his latest contemporary instrumental recording, Cinematic, Brewer has turned his talents to creating a collection of original material specifically meant to evoke visual imagery and also serve as his homage to movie music.
“I have been a fan of film music since I was a small boy,” explains Brewer, “and as a tribute to that often over-looked art-form, I decided to make an album filled with pieces I feel have the same ambience of classic movie and television scores.” In fact, some of the music has already been used in films and television. Brewer, who extensively collects recordings by his favorite film composers, has been most influenced by Bernard Hermann, John Barry and Ennio Morricone, but also has studied the works of Erich Korngold, Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Thomas Newman, Miklos Rozsa, Esquivel, John Williams, Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Mark Isham and Danny Elfman.
Cinematic is a two-CD set featuring a cover painting by Salvador Dali. The first CD is subtitled “Black & White” and features Brewer playing solo piano on a dozen pieces with the addition of guitar and flute on the final tune. The second CD, subtitled “Technicolor,” contains compositions played by various artists led by Brewer on piano, synthesizers, Hammond B-3 and a pump organ built in 1888. “Technicolor” has ensemble arrangements of ten of the same tunes that appear on “Black & White” plus four different pieces. The musicians on Cinematic are top new age, classical and jazz players including acoustic guitar virtuoso Alex de Grassi, reedman Paul McCandless (Paul Winter, Oregon), flutist Matt Eakle (David Grisman, Suzanne Ciani), harmonica player Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller, Kenny Loggins), drummer Mark Walker (Oregon, Paquito D’Rivera), and bassists Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny, Chuck Mangione), Todd Phillips (David Grisman, Psychograss) and Cliff Hugo (Rick Braun, Richard Elliott), plus other percussion, wind and string players including the renowned Quartet San Francisco led by Jeremy Cohen.
The music on Cinematic ranges from new versions of a couple of Brewer’s most-beloved compositions (“Quintessence,” “Dreamgift”) to new material (“Into The Mirror,” “Satie’s Forgotten Dream,” “Say What!?”). Some of the music has already been used in the cinema: “Heartwood” was commissioned for the movie of the same name starring Jason Robards and Hillary Swank, and Brewer also wrote the title theme for Lee Mun Wah’s acclaimed documentary film on racism, “Last Chance for Eden.” “Trip to Glory” has been used in several Olympics’ broadcasts, became the Big Brothers-Big Sisters theme, was used as Hank Aaron’s theme song and helped sell Arby’s Roast Beef in television commercials. “Blueberry Street” has a Porgy & Bess-feel to it and displays Brewer’s early blues roots, while the rip-roaring “Lupin Swing” displays elements of vaudeville, Broadway and ragtime. “Caravanserai” would have worked in Valentino’s “The Sheik” or Sean Connery’s “The Wind and The Lion.” “Fellini’s Carousel” pays tribute to the Italian film master. “Walls That Move” was written in George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound huge soundstage where the walls actually are capable of moving. “Cinematic” is a soaring tour-de-force of classic film sounds creating several moods, building tension and then letting the listener down easy at the end as the lights come up and the credits roll.
“I first got into movie music when I was watching the classic monster films from the 1930s – “Frankenstein,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Mummy” – and then “Creature From the Black Lagoon” in the Fifties and “Jason and the Argonauts” in the early Sixties,” remembers Brewer. “The music was so powerful, it knocked me out. I realized how important music is to the mood, storyline and character development in films. So then I started paying attention to the film composers and found music they did in other genres.”
Spencer, who was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, began playing piano at age seven, and although he took lessons for several years, he learned the most from his grandmother, who taught him Southern blues and boogie-woogie. He played in rock’n’roll bands throughout high school and then moved to Austin for its thriving music scene. Brewer became the accompanist for modern dance troupes (Deborah Hay, Martha Graham, Daniel Llanes and Suzanne Grace), which “pushed my envelope as to the possibilities of spontaneous and interpretive music.” Brewer also wrote the music for “Once Upon A Time” and “Willowmancifoot the Dragon,” two musicals written in New York City. His first recording, Stellar Notion, was done in 1980 and was vocal music from those musicals.
After moving to Northern California at the beginning of the Eighties, Brewer began recording original instrumental music, became a leader in the forefront of the burgeoning new age music movement and sold more than a million albums under his own name. He also was involved in producing, arranging, engineering and contributing tunes to albums that sold an additional several million units. It began with his albums Where Angels Dance, Shadow Dancer, Emerald, Portraits (a Gold Album with sales over half a million), Dorian’s Legacy (Top 10 on Billboard’s New Age sales chart and #1 on the R&R’s NAC airplay chart with sales of more than a quarter-million), Piper’s Rhythm (#1 on both of those same charts), Romantic Interludes and a half-dozen more. He created the music for several dozen NorthSound concept albums in which he often went uncredited, but stretched beyond new age music by exploring pop, jazz, bluegrass, big band and world music. Spencer also recorded several projects with other musicians who shared credits on the album covers – one with Tingstad & Rumbel, another with electronic music pioneer Craig Anderton and a jazz CD with Paul McCandless.
Brewer opened his own studio, Laughing Coyote, near Ukiah, California, nestled in the redwoods, and from the mid-Nineties to the mid-00s, he spent most of his time recording many other artists (plus some time out recuperating from a head-on car collision). He produced, engineered or performed on recordings by artists such as Alex de Grassi, Holly Near, Gene Parsons, Darol Anger, Steve Erquiaga, Kostia, Joe Craven, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Fred Simon, Georgia Kelly, Kirtana and many others; and oversaw productions that featured acts from John Bucchino to the Duke Ellington Band.
Spencer also contributed music to the films “Home Alone 2,” “The Gifts of Grief” (starring Isabel Allende and Rev. Cecil Williams) and “Color of Fear” (another ground-breaking movie on racism from Lee Mun Wah). Brewer wrote the national theme songs for the YMCA and the Japanese Postal Service. His music has been used on more than 2,000 television shows all over the world including “Sex and the City,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “L.A. Law,” “Sixty Minutes,” “Thirty Something” and broadcasts of the last five Olympics.
In addition to creating music, Brewer has run a record company owns a music store, rebuilds pianos, collects vintage microphones and gramophones, had his own radio show and produced hundreds of concerts in Mendocino County. He contributes to his community in many ways including helping found the Redwood Valley Outdoor Educational Facility for children and the Ukiah Educational Foundation which helps fund students and schools. He also has founded and created patents with the high-tech company HighWired Inc. which allows voicemail or email users to add music, sounds and visual content to their messages.
“Part of what makes movies magical and deeply moving is the music soundtrack married to the mood of what we are watching,” explains Brewer. “In our own lives, we generally pick music to listen to because of how we are feeling or want to feel that day. I hope the music on Cinematic can serve as a soundtrack for people’s lives.”
Many of Brewer’s recordings are available at his website (spencerbrewer.com). Cinematic also can be purchased online at Cdbaby.com and Amazon.com, as well as numerous digital download locations such as iTunes and Rhapsody. Check him out on YouTube as well.
AFTER A DOZEN CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL HIT ALBUMS OF HIS OWN PLUS PRODUCING A HUNDRED OTHERS, SPENCER BREWER IS BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM
SPENCER BREWER
CINEMATIC
Spencer Brewer is not only a multi-million-selling composer, pianist and producer, but also a connoisseur of many of the greatest film scorers of all time. For his latest contemporary instrumental recording, Cinematic, Brewer has turned his talents to creating a collection of original material specifically meant to evoke visual imagery and also serve as his homage to movie music.
“I have been a fan of film music since I was a small boy,” explains Brewer, “and as a tribute to that often over-looked art-form, I decided to make an album filled with pieces I feel have the same ambience of classic movie and television scores.” In fact, some of the music has already been used in films and television. Brewer, who extensively collects recordings by his favorite film composers, has been most influenced by Bernard Hermann, John Barry and Ennio Morricone, but also has studied the works of Erich Korngold, Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Thomas Newman, Miklos Rozsa, Esquivel, John Williams, Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Mark Isham and Danny Elfman.
Cinematic is a two-CD set featuring a cover painting by Salvador Dali. The first CD is subtitled “Black & White” and features Brewer playing solo piano on a dozen pieces with the addition of guitar and flute on the final tune. The second CD, subtitled “Technicolor,” contains compositions played by various artists led by Brewer on piano, synthesizers, Hammond B-3 and a pump organ built in 1888. “Technicolor” has ensemble arrangements of ten of the same tunes that appear on “Black & White” plus four different pieces. The musicians on Cinematic are top new age, classical and jazz players including acoustic guitar virtuoso Alex de Grassi, reedman Paul McCandless (Paul Winter, Oregon), flutist Matt Eakle (David Grisman, Suzanne Ciani), harmonica player Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller, Kenny Loggins), drummer Mark Walker (Oregon, Paquito D’Rivera), and bassists Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny, Chuck Mangione), Todd Phillips (David Grisman, Psychograss) and Cliff Hugo (Rick Braun, Richard Elliott), plus other percussion, wind and string players including the renowned Quartet San Francisco led by Jeremy Cohen.
The music on Cinematic ranges from new versions of a couple of Brewer’s most-beloved compositions (“Quintessence,” “Dreamgift”) to new material (“Into The Mirror,” “Satie’s Forgotten Dream,” “Say What!?”). Some of the music has already been used in the cinema: “Heartwood” was commissioned for the movie of the same name starring Jason Robards and Hillary Swank, and Brewer also wrote the title theme for Lee Mun Wah’s acclaimed documentary film on racism, “Last Chance for Eden.” “Trip to Glory” has been used in several Olympics’ broadcasts, became the Big Brothers-Big Sisters theme, was used as Hank Aaron’s theme song and helped sell Arby’s Roast Beef in television commercials. “Blueberry Street” has a Porgy & Bess-feel to it and displays Brewer’s early blues roots, while the rip-roaring “Lupin Swing” displays elements of vaudeville, Broadway and ragtime. “Caravanserai” would have worked in Valentino’s “The Sheik” or Sean Connery’s “The Wind and The Lion.” “Fellini’s Carousel” pays tribute to the Italian film master. “Walls That Move” was written in George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound huge soundstage where the walls actually are capable of moving. “Cinematic” is a soaring tour-de-force of classic film sounds creating several moods, building tension and then letting the listener down easy at the end as the lights come up and the credits roll.
“I first got into movie music when I was watching the classic monster films from the 1930s – “Frankenstein,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Mummy” – and then “Creature From the Black Lagoon” in the Fifties and “Jason and the Argonauts” in the early Sixties,” remembers Brewer. “The music was so powerful, it knocked me out. I realized how important music is to the mood, storyline and character development in films. So then I started paying attention to the film composers and found music they did in other genres.”
Spencer, who was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, began playing piano at age seven, and although he took lessons for several years, he learned the most from his grandmother, who taught him Southern blues and boogie-woogie. He played in rock’n’roll bands throughout high school and then moved to Austin for its thriving music scene. Brewer became the accompanist for modern dance troupes (Deborah Hay, Martha Graham, Daniel Llanes and Suzanne Grace), which “pushed my envelope as to the possibilities of spontaneous and interpretive music.” Brewer also wrote the music for “Once Upon A Time” and “Willowmancifoot the Dragon,” two musicals written in New York City. His first recording, Stellar Notion, was done in 1980 and was vocal music from those musicals.
After moving to Northern California at the beginning of the Eighties, Brewer began recording original instrumental music, became a leader in the forefront of the burgeoning new age music movement and sold more than a million albums under his own name. He also was involved in producing, arranging, engineering and contributing tunes to albums that sold an additional several million units. It began with his albums Where Angels Dance, Shadow Dancer, Emerald, Portraits (a Gold Album with sales over half a million), Dorian’s Legacy (Top 10 on Billboard’s New Age sales chart and #1 on the R&R’s NAC airplay chart with sales of more than a quarter-million), Piper’s Rhythm (#1 on both of those same charts), Romantic Interludes and a half-dozen more. He created the music for several dozen NorthSound concept albums in which he often went uncredited, but stretched beyond new age music by exploring pop, jazz, bluegrass, big band and world music. Spencer also recorded several projects with other musicians who shared credits on the album covers – one with Tingstad & Rumbel, another with electronic music pioneer Craig Anderton and a jazz CD with Paul McCandless.
Brewer opened his own studio, Laughing Coyote, near Ukiah, California, nestled in the redwoods, and from the mid-Nineties to the mid-00s, he spent most of his time recording many other artists (plus some time out recuperating from a head-on car collision). He produced, engineered or performed on recordings by artists such as Alex de Grassi, Holly Near, Gene Parsons, Darol Anger, Steve Erquiaga, Kostia, Joe Craven, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Fred Simon, Georgia Kelly, Kirtana and many others; and oversaw productions that featured acts from John Bucchino to the Duke Ellington Band.
Spencer also contributed music to the films “Home Alone 2,” “The Gifts of Grief” (starring Isabel Allende and Rev. Cecil Williams) and “Color of Fear” (another ground-breaking movie on racism from Lee Mun Wah). Brewer wrote the national theme songs for the YMCA and the Japanese Postal Service. His music has been used on more than 2,000 television shows all over the world including “Sex and the City,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “L.A. Law,” “Sixty Minutes,” “Thirty Something” and broadcasts of the last five Olympics.
In addition to creating music, Brewer has run a record company owns a music store, rebuilds pianos, collects vintage microphones and gramophones, had his own radio show and produced hundreds of concerts in Mendocino County. He contributes to his community in many ways including helping found the Redwood Valley Outdoor Educational Facility for children and the Ukiah Educational Foundation which helps fund students and schools. He also has founded and created patents with the high-tech company HighWired Inc. which allows voicemail or email users to add music, sounds and visual content to their messages.
“Part of what makes movies magical and deeply moving is the music soundtrack married to the mood of what we are watching,” explains Brewer. “In our own lives, we generally pick music to listen to because of how we are feeling or want to feel that day. I hope the music on Cinematic can serve as a soundtrack for people’s lives.”
Many of Brewer’s recordings are available at his website (spencerbrewer.com). Cinematic also can be purchased online at Cdbaby.com and Amazon.com, as well as numerous digital download locations such as iTunes and Rhapsody. Check him out on YouTube as well.
CINEMATIC
Spencer Brewer is not only a multi-million-selling composer, pianist and producer, but also a connoisseur of many of the greatest film scorers of all time. For his latest contemporary instrumental recording, Cinematic, Brewer has turned his talents to creating a collection of original material specifically meant to evoke visual imagery and also serve as his homage to movie music.
“I have been a fan of film music since I was a small boy,” explains Brewer, “and as a tribute to that often over-looked art-form, I decided to make an album filled with pieces I feel have the same ambience of classic movie and television scores.” In fact, some of the music has already been used in films and television. Brewer, who extensively collects recordings by his favorite film composers, has been most influenced by Bernard Hermann, John Barry and Ennio Morricone, but also has studied the works of Erich Korngold, Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Thomas Newman, Miklos Rozsa, Esquivel, John Williams, Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Mark Isham and Danny Elfman.
Cinematic is a two-CD set featuring a cover painting by Salvador Dali. The first CD is subtitled “Black & White” and features Brewer playing solo piano on a dozen pieces with the addition of guitar and flute on the final tune. The second CD, subtitled “Technicolor,” contains compositions played by various artists led by Brewer on piano, synthesizers, Hammond B-3 and a pump organ built in 1888. “Technicolor” has ensemble arrangements of ten of the same tunes that appear on “Black & White” plus four different pieces. The musicians on Cinematic are top new age, classical and jazz players including acoustic guitar virtuoso Alex de Grassi, reedman Paul McCandless (Paul Winter, Oregon), flutist Matt Eakle (David Grisman, Suzanne Ciani), harmonica player Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller, Kenny Loggins), drummer Mark Walker (Oregon, Paquito D’Rivera), and bassists Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny, Chuck Mangione), Todd Phillips (David Grisman, Psychograss) and Cliff Hugo (Rick Braun, Richard Elliott), plus other percussion, wind and string players including the renowned Quartet San Francisco led by Jeremy Cohen.
The music on Cinematic ranges from new versions of a couple of Brewer’s most-beloved compositions (“Quintessence,” “Dreamgift”) to new material (“Into The Mirror,” “Satie’s Forgotten Dream,” “Say What!?”). Some of the music has already been used in the cinema: “Heartwood” was commissioned for the movie of the same name starring Jason Robards and Hillary Swank, and Brewer also wrote the title theme for Lee Mun Wah’s acclaimed documentary film on racism, “Last Chance for Eden.” “Trip to Glory” has been used in several Olympics’ broadcasts, became the Big Brothers-Big Sisters theme, was used as Hank Aaron’s theme song and helped sell Arby’s Roast Beef in television commercials. “Blueberry Street” has a Porgy & Bess-feel to it and displays Brewer’s early blues roots, while the rip-roaring “Lupin Swing” displays elements of vaudeville, Broadway and ragtime. “Caravanserai” would have worked in Valentino’s “The Sheik” or Sean Connery’s “The Wind and The Lion.” “Fellini’s Carousel” pays tribute to the Italian film master. “Walls That Move” was written in George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound huge soundstage where the walls actually are capable of moving. “Cinematic” is a soaring tour-de-force of classic film sounds creating several moods, building tension and then letting the listener down easy at the end as the lights come up and the credits roll.
“I first got into movie music when I was watching the classic monster films from the 1930s – “Frankenstein,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Mummy” – and then “Creature From the Black Lagoon” in the Fifties and “Jason and the Argonauts” in the early Sixties,” remembers Brewer. “The music was so powerful, it knocked me out. I realized how important music is to the mood, storyline and character development in films. So then I started paying attention to the film composers and found music they did in other genres.”
Spencer, who was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, began playing piano at age seven, and although he took lessons for several years, he learned the most from his grandmother, who taught him Southern blues and boogie-woogie. He played in rock’n’roll bands throughout high school and then moved to Austin for its thriving music scene. Brewer became the accompanist for modern dance troupes (Deborah Hay, Martha Graham, Daniel Llanes and Suzanne Grace), which “pushed my envelope as to the possibilities of spontaneous and interpretive music.” Brewer also wrote the music for “Once Upon A Time” and “Willowmancifoot the Dragon,” two musicals written in New York City. His first recording, Stellar Notion, was done in 1980 and was vocal music from those musicals.
After moving to Northern California at the beginning of the Eighties, Brewer began recording original instrumental music, became a leader in the forefront of the burgeoning new age music movement and sold more than a million albums under his own name. He also was involved in producing, arranging, engineering and contributing tunes to albums that sold an additional several million units. It began with his albums Where Angels Dance, Shadow Dancer, Emerald, Portraits (a Gold Album with sales over half a million), Dorian’s Legacy (Top 10 on Billboard’s New Age sales chart and #1 on the R&R’s NAC airplay chart with sales of more than a quarter-million), Piper’s Rhythm (#1 on both of those same charts), Romantic Interludes and a half-dozen more. He created the music for several dozen NorthSound concept albums in which he often went uncredited, but stretched beyond new age music by exploring pop, jazz, bluegrass, big band and world music. Spencer also recorded several projects with other musicians who shared credits on the album covers – one with Tingstad & Rumbel, another with electronic music pioneer Craig Anderton and a jazz CD with Paul McCandless.
Brewer opened his own studio, Laughing Coyote, near Ukiah, California, nestled in the redwoods, and from the mid-Nineties to the mid-00s, he spent most of his time recording many other artists (plus some time out recuperating from a head-on car collision). He produced, engineered or performed on recordings by artists such as Alex de Grassi, Holly Near, Gene Parsons, Darol Anger, Steve Erquiaga, Kostia, Joe Craven, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Fred Simon, Georgia Kelly, Kirtana and many others; and oversaw productions that featured acts from John Bucchino to the Duke Ellington Band.
Spencer also contributed music to the films “Home Alone 2,” “The Gifts of Grief” (starring Isabel Allende and Rev. Cecil Williams) and “Color of Fear” (another ground-breaking movie on racism from Lee Mun Wah). Brewer wrote the national theme songs for the YMCA and the Japanese Postal Service. His music has been used on more than 2,000 television shows all over the world including “Sex and the City,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “L.A. Law,” “Sixty Minutes,” “Thirty Something” and broadcasts of the last five Olympics.
In addition to creating music, Brewer has run a record company owns a music store, rebuilds pianos, collects vintage microphones and gramophones, had his own radio show and produced hundreds of concerts in Mendocino County. He contributes to his community in many ways including helping found the Redwood Valley Outdoor Educational Facility for children and the Ukiah Educational Foundation which helps fund students and schools. He also has founded and created patents with the high-tech company HighWired Inc. which allows voicemail or email users to add music, sounds and visual content to their messages.
“Part of what makes movies magical and deeply moving is the music soundtrack married to the mood of what we are watching,” explains Brewer. “In our own lives, we generally pick music to listen to because of how we are feeling or want to feel that day. I hope the music on Cinematic can serve as a soundtrack for people’s lives.”
Many of Brewer’s recordings are available at his website (spencerbrewer.com). Cinematic also can be purchased online at Cdbaby.com and Amazon.com, as well as numerous digital download locations such as iTunes and Rhapsody. Check him out on YouTube as well.
AFTER A DOZEN CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL HIT ALBUMS OF HIS OWN PLUS PRODUCING A HUNDRED OTHERS, SPENCER BREWER IS BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM
SPENCER BREWER
CINEMATIC
Spencer Brewer is not only a multi-million-selling composer, pianist and producer, but also a connoisseur of many of the greatest film scorers of all time. For his latest contemporary instrumental recording, Cinematic, Brewer has turned his talents to creating a collection of original material specifically meant to evoke visual imagery and also serve as his homage to movie music.
“I have been a fan of film music since I was a small boy,” explains Brewer, “and as a tribute to that often over-looked art-form, I decided to make an album filled with pieces I feel have the same ambience of classic movie and television scores.” In fact, some of the music has already been used in films and television. Brewer, who extensively collects recordings by his favorite film composers, has been most influenced by Bernard Hermann, John Barry and Ennio Morricone, but also has studied the works of Erich Korngold, Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Thomas Newman, Miklos Rozsa, Esquivel, John Williams, Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Mark Isham and Danny Elfman.
Cinematic is a two-CD set featuring a cover painting by Salvador Dali. The first CD is subtitled “Black & White” and features Brewer playing solo piano on a dozen pieces with the addition of guitar and flute on the final tune. The second CD, subtitled “Technicolor,” contains compositions played by various artists led by Brewer on piano, synthesizers, Hammond B-3 and a pump organ built in 1888. “Technicolor” has ensemble arrangements of ten of the same tunes that appear on “Black & White” plus four different pieces. The musicians on Cinematic are top new age, classical and jazz players including acoustic guitar virtuoso Alex de Grassi, reedman Paul McCandless (Paul Winter, Oregon), flutist Matt Eakle (David Grisman, Suzanne Ciani), harmonica player Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller, Kenny Loggins), drummer Mark Walker (Oregon, Paquito D’Rivera), and bassists Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny, Chuck Mangione), Todd Phillips (David Grisman, Psychograss) and Cliff Hugo (Rick Braun, Richard Elliott), plus other percussion, wind and string players including the renowned Quartet San Francisco led by Jeremy Cohen.
The music on Cinematic ranges from new versions of a couple of Brewer’s most-beloved compositions (“Quintessence,” “Dreamgift”) to new material (“Into The Mirror,” “Satie’s Forgotten Dream,” “Say What!?”). Some of the music has already been used in the cinema: “Heartwood” was commissioned for the movie of the same name starring Jason Robards and Hillary Swank, and Brewer also wrote the title theme for Lee Mun Wah’s acclaimed documentary film on racism, “Last Chance for Eden.” “Trip to Glory” has been used in several Olympics’ broadcasts, became the Big Brothers-Big Sisters theme, was used as Hank Aaron’s theme song and helped sell Arby’s Roast Beef in television commercials. “Blueberry Street” has a Porgy & Bess-feel to it and displays Brewer’s early blues roots, while the rip-roaring “Lupin Swing” displays elements of vaudeville, Broadway and ragtime. “Caravanserai” would have worked in Valentino’s “The Sheik” or Sean Connery’s “The Wind and The Lion.” “Fellini’s Carousel” pays tribute to the Italian film master. “Walls That Move” was written in George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound huge soundstage where the walls actually are capable of moving. “Cinematic” is a soaring tour-de-force of classic film sounds creating several moods, building tension and then letting the listener down easy at the end as the lights come up and the credits roll.
“I first got into movie music when I was watching the classic monster films from the 1930s – “Frankenstein,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Mummy” – and then “Creature From the Black Lagoon” in the Fifties and “Jason and the Argonauts” in the early Sixties,” remembers Brewer. “The music was so powerful, it knocked me out. I realized how important music is to the mood, storyline and character development in films. So then I started paying attention to the film composers and found music they did in other genres.”
Spencer, who was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, began playing piano at age seven, and although he took lessons for several years, he learned the most from his grandmother, who taught him Southern blues and boogie-woogie. He played in rock’n’roll bands throughout high school and then moved to Austin for its thriving music scene. Brewer became the accompanist for modern dance troupes (Deborah Hay, Martha Graham, Daniel Llanes and Suzanne Grace), which “pushed my envelope as to the possibilities of spontaneous and interpretive music.” Brewer also wrote the music for “Once Upon A Time” and “Willowmancifoot the Dragon,” two musicals written in New York City. His first recording, Stellar Notion, was done in 1980 and was vocal music from those musicals.
After moving to Northern California at the beginning of the Eighties, Brewer began recording original instrumental music, became a leader in the forefront of the burgeoning new age music movement and sold more than a million albums under his own name. He also was involved in producing, arranging, engineering and contributing tunes to albums that sold an additional several million units. It began with his albums Where Angels Dance, Shadow Dancer, Emerald, Portraits (a Gold Album with sales over half a million), Dorian’s Legacy (Top 10 on Billboard’s New Age sales chart and #1 on the R&R’s NAC airplay chart with sales of more than a quarter-million), Piper’s Rhythm (#1 on both of those same charts), Romantic Interludes and a half-dozen more. He created the music for several dozen NorthSound concept albums in which he often went uncredited, but stretched beyond new age music by exploring pop, jazz, bluegrass, big band and world music. Spencer also recorded several projects with other musicians who shared credits on the album covers – one with Tingstad & Rumbel, another with electronic music pioneer Craig Anderton and a jazz CD with Paul McCandless.
Brewer opened his own studio, Laughing Coyote, near Ukiah, California, nestled in the redwoods, and from the mid-Nineties to the mid-00s, he spent most of his time recording many other artists (plus some time out recuperating from a head-on car collision). He produced, engineered or performed on recordings by artists such as Alex de Grassi, Holly Near, Gene Parsons, Darol Anger, Steve Erquiaga, Kostia, Joe Craven, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Fred Simon, Georgia Kelly, Kirtana and many others; and oversaw productions that featured acts from John Bucchino to the Duke Ellington Band.
Spencer also contributed music to the films “Home Alone 2,” “The Gifts of Grief” (starring Isabel Allende and Rev. Cecil Williams) and “Color of Fear” (another ground-breaking movie on racism from Lee Mun Wah). Brewer wrote the national theme songs for the YMCA and the Japanese Postal Service. His music has been used on more than 2,000 television shows all over the world including “Sex and the City,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “L.A. Law,” “Sixty Minutes,” “Thirty Something” and broadcasts of the last five Olympics.
In addition to creating music, Brewer has run a record company owns a music store, rebuilds pianos, collects vintage microphones and gramophones, had his own radio show and produced hundreds of concerts in Mendocino County. He contributes to his community in many ways including helping found the Redwood Valley Outdoor Educational Facility for children and the Ukiah Educational Foundation which helps fund students and schools. He also has founded and created patents with the high-tech company HighWired Inc. which allows voicemail or email users to add music, sounds and visual content to their messages.
“Part of what makes movies magical and deeply moving is the music soundtrack married to the mood of what we are watching,” explains Brewer. “In our own lives, we generally pick music to listen to because of how we are feeling or want to feel that day. I hope the music on Cinematic can serve as a soundtrack for people’s lives.”
Many of Brewer’s recordings are available at his website (spencerbrewer.com). Cinematic also can be purchased online at Cdbaby.com and Amazon.com, as well as numerous digital download locations such as iTunes and Rhapsody. Check him out on YouTube as well.
CINEMATIC
Spencer Brewer is not only a multi-million-selling composer, pianist and producer, but also a connoisseur of many of the greatest film scorers of all time. For his latest contemporary instrumental recording, Cinematic, Brewer has turned his talents to creating a collection of original material specifically meant to evoke visual imagery and also serve as his homage to movie music.
“I have been a fan of film music since I was a small boy,” explains Brewer, “and as a tribute to that often over-looked art-form, I decided to make an album filled with pieces I feel have the same ambience of classic movie and television scores.” In fact, some of the music has already been used in films and television. Brewer, who extensively collects recordings by his favorite film composers, has been most influenced by Bernard Hermann, John Barry and Ennio Morricone, but also has studied the works of Erich Korngold, Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Thomas Newman, Miklos Rozsa, Esquivel, John Williams, Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Mark Isham and Danny Elfman.
Cinematic is a two-CD set featuring a cover painting by Salvador Dali. The first CD is subtitled “Black & White” and features Brewer playing solo piano on a dozen pieces with the addition of guitar and flute on the final tune. The second CD, subtitled “Technicolor,” contains compositions played by various artists led by Brewer on piano, synthesizers, Hammond B-3 and a pump organ built in 1888. “Technicolor” has ensemble arrangements of ten of the same tunes that appear on “Black & White” plus four different pieces. The musicians on Cinematic are top new age, classical and jazz players including acoustic guitar virtuoso Alex de Grassi, reedman Paul McCandless (Paul Winter, Oregon), flutist Matt Eakle (David Grisman, Suzanne Ciani), harmonica player Norton Buffalo (Steve Miller, Kenny Loggins), drummer Mark Walker (Oregon, Paquito D’Rivera), and bassists Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny, Chuck Mangione), Todd Phillips (David Grisman, Psychograss) and Cliff Hugo (Rick Braun, Richard Elliott), plus other percussion, wind and string players including the renowned Quartet San Francisco led by Jeremy Cohen.
The music on Cinematic ranges from new versions of a couple of Brewer’s most-beloved compositions (“Quintessence,” “Dreamgift”) to new material (“Into The Mirror,” “Satie’s Forgotten Dream,” “Say What!?”). Some of the music has already been used in the cinema: “Heartwood” was commissioned for the movie of the same name starring Jason Robards and Hillary Swank, and Brewer also wrote the title theme for Lee Mun Wah’s acclaimed documentary film on racism, “Last Chance for Eden.” “Trip to Glory” has been used in several Olympics’ broadcasts, became the Big Brothers-Big Sisters theme, was used as Hank Aaron’s theme song and helped sell Arby’s Roast Beef in television commercials. “Blueberry Street” has a Porgy & Bess-feel to it and displays Brewer’s early blues roots, while the rip-roaring “Lupin Swing” displays elements of vaudeville, Broadway and ragtime. “Caravanserai” would have worked in Valentino’s “The Sheik” or Sean Connery’s “The Wind and The Lion.” “Fellini’s Carousel” pays tribute to the Italian film master. “Walls That Move” was written in George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound huge soundstage where the walls actually are capable of moving. “Cinematic” is a soaring tour-de-force of classic film sounds creating several moods, building tension and then letting the listener down easy at the end as the lights come up and the credits roll.
“I first got into movie music when I was watching the classic monster films from the 1930s – “Frankenstein,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Mummy” – and then “Creature From the Black Lagoon” in the Fifties and “Jason and the Argonauts” in the early Sixties,” remembers Brewer. “The music was so powerful, it knocked me out. I realized how important music is to the mood, storyline and character development in films. So then I started paying attention to the film composers and found music they did in other genres.”
Spencer, who was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, began playing piano at age seven, and although he took lessons for several years, he learned the most from his grandmother, who taught him Southern blues and boogie-woogie. He played in rock’n’roll bands throughout high school and then moved to Austin for its thriving music scene. Brewer became the accompanist for modern dance troupes (Deborah Hay, Martha Graham, Daniel Llanes and Suzanne Grace), which “pushed my envelope as to the possibilities of spontaneous and interpretive music.” Brewer also wrote the music for “Once Upon A Time” and “Willowmancifoot the Dragon,” two musicals written in New York City. His first recording, Stellar Notion, was done in 1980 and was vocal music from those musicals.
After moving to Northern California at the beginning of the Eighties, Brewer began recording original instrumental music, became a leader in the forefront of the burgeoning new age music movement and sold more than a million albums under his own name. He also was involved in producing, arranging, engineering and contributing tunes to albums that sold an additional several million units. It began with his albums Where Angels Dance, Shadow Dancer, Emerald, Portraits (a Gold Album with sales over half a million), Dorian’s Legacy (Top 10 on Billboard’s New Age sales chart and #1 on the R&R’s NAC airplay chart with sales of more than a quarter-million), Piper’s Rhythm (#1 on both of those same charts), Romantic Interludes and a half-dozen more. He created the music for several dozen NorthSound concept albums in which he often went uncredited, but stretched beyond new age music by exploring pop, jazz, bluegrass, big band and world music. Spencer also recorded several projects with other musicians who shared credits on the album covers – one with Tingstad & Rumbel, another with electronic music pioneer Craig Anderton and a jazz CD with Paul McCandless.
Brewer opened his own studio, Laughing Coyote, near Ukiah, California, nestled in the redwoods, and from the mid-Nineties to the mid-00s, he spent most of his time recording many other artists (plus some time out recuperating from a head-on car collision). He produced, engineered or performed on recordings by artists such as Alex de Grassi, Holly Near, Gene Parsons, Darol Anger, Steve Erquiaga, Kostia, Joe Craven, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Fred Simon, Georgia Kelly, Kirtana and many others; and oversaw productions that featured acts from John Bucchino to the Duke Ellington Band.
Spencer also contributed music to the films “Home Alone 2,” “The Gifts of Grief” (starring Isabel Allende and Rev. Cecil Williams) and “Color of Fear” (another ground-breaking movie on racism from Lee Mun Wah). Brewer wrote the national theme songs for the YMCA and the Japanese Postal Service. His music has been used on more than 2,000 television shows all over the world including “Sex and the City,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “L.A. Law,” “Sixty Minutes,” “Thirty Something” and broadcasts of the last five Olympics.
In addition to creating music, Brewer has run a record company owns a music store, rebuilds pianos, collects vintage microphones and gramophones, had his own radio show and produced hundreds of concerts in Mendocino County. He contributes to his community in many ways including helping found the Redwood Valley Outdoor Educational Facility for children and the Ukiah Educational Foundation which helps fund students and schools. He also has founded and created patents with the high-tech company HighWired Inc. which allows voicemail or email users to add music, sounds and visual content to their messages.
“Part of what makes movies magical and deeply moving is the music soundtrack married to the mood of what we are watching,” explains Brewer. “In our own lives, we generally pick music to listen to because of how we are feeling or want to feel that day. I hope the music on Cinematic can serve as a soundtrack for people’s lives.”
Many of Brewer’s recordings are available at his website (spencerbrewer.com). Cinematic also can be purchased online at Cdbaby.com and Amazon.com, as well as numerous digital download locations such as iTunes and Rhapsody. Check him out on YouTube as well.
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