|
contents | jazz | |||||||||||||
| On Keys Of Light, Dan Chadburn Mixes Solo Piano Pieces With Ensemble Tunes Pianist Dan Chadburn's new album, Keys of Light, honors various people whose lives have touched this musician with friendship, love, companionship, teaching, innocence lost, courage, peace and memories. "I truly believe every person has a unique gift to offer, " says Chadburn. "So I arranged each of the twelve pieces in a different musical key to symbolize the many and varied opportunities we have to bring light to this world." Chadburn goes on to say that "lives touch lives. That is what living is all about. Light connotes living and growing. Someone else's light can be a positive force or an inspiration for others. Even after death there are people who leave some of their light behind to mark a path for others to follow, or that individual's light could also illuminate some fond memories for the people whose lives were touched. Besides musical keys, the other meaning of the album title is that there are many main attributes of light in our lives." On previous recordings the classically-trained Chadburn has sometimes recorded solo piano and other times has mixed his piano with classical orchestral instrumentation. On Keys of Light he does both. The album begins and ends with the spotlight solely on Chadburn playing an acoustic grand piano (and one other tune in the middle also is solo). The rest of the material features additional instruments such as flute, English horn, French horn, violin, viola and cello as well as the occasional sounds of a synthesizer. This is Dan Chadburn's fifth album. Solo Piano, Reflections, Whispers the Falling Snow, Nocturnes and Keys of Light are available at his website (DanChadburn dot com) and as CDs and digital downloads at a variety of online sales sites including CDbaby, Amazon, iTunes, eMusic and many others. Whispers the Falling Snow and Nocturnes both received extensive worldwide airplay and went Top 10 on the international Zone Music Reporter Top 100 Chart, and Top 5 on the international One World Music Chart (with Whispers also named by both ZMR and OWM as one of the Top 5 Solo Piano Music Albums of the Year). The original compositions on Keys of Light include tributes to people Chadburn has known - "Tacoma Morning" for Dr. Calvin Knapp (his piano professor and mentor at college), "Paul's Prayer" for Paul Florentino (a friend, doctor and deputy commander of medical services at the National Naval Medical Center), "With You Always" for Chadburn's parents ("for their encouragement and support of my musical efforts"), and "My Irish Love" for Tom Nichols ("my husband, partner and co-producer"). However, Chadburn also extended tributes to young men whose deaths profoundly affected other people's lives - "Tyler's Tribute" for Tyler Clementi ("cyberbullying led to the tragic suicide of this talented violinist and student at Rutgers University"), and "Matthew" for Matthew Shepard ("a gentle soul who was abducted and murdered merely because he was gay"). Their legacies include the foundations set up in their names (tylerclementi dot org and matthewshepard dot org). Other music on the album had different inspirations - "Diamond in the Sky" for Chadburn's dog and longtime companion Kya, "Chesapeake Sail" for a special day of sailing with friends on Chesapeake Bay, "To the Heavens" ("a prayer, a wish, a hope for humankind"), and "Beyond the Rain" ("after the tempest dissipates, it invites introspection and acceptance"). The album ends with one of the few non-original pieces that Chadburn has recorded; in this case a solo piano version, partially-improvised, of the lovely Chicago tune "Colour My World" written by James Pankow. A native of Oregon, Dan began taking piano lessons when he was nine years old and continued through high school where he also served as the accompanist for the choral groups and stage plays. Several times in junior high and high school, he was selected as an Oregon Music Teacher's Association (O.M.T.A.) syllabus winner, which resulted in his performing in recitals on the state level. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance at Pacific Lutheran University, and began playing electronic synthesized keyboards. Chadburn moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in the Film Scoring Program at UCLA. Soon he was scoring for film and television and working as a session musician. Chadburn wanted to expand his musical vision so he moved to London and studied ElectroAcoustic Composition under two pioneers in the field, Denis Smalley and Simon Emmerson. "I was very grateful for the opportunity to learn from these two masters in the genre and grow as a composer. This was a non-traditional form of composition that some would say was on the outskirts of avant-garde. In this genre, traditional instruments and melody are frequently absent. My primary focus was to record odd sounds, transform them with audio processing, and insert them into symphonic works. For one piece, 'Dreams, ' I recorded and altered sounds made by various kitchen items such as jelly beans dropped into a bowl, spatulas hitting cake pans, water shaken in a jar, portable oven timers, etc., ultimately creating a surreal collage of sound to represent what one might hear and see after falling asleep." Chadburn earned his Masters of Music degree in ElectroAcoustic Composition from London's City University. Chadburn's performance venues have included Carnegie Hall in New York City, Symphony Hall in Boston and The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Additionally, his choral compositions have been recorded and performed in the Concert Hall of The Kennedy Center. Over the years Chadburn has been inspired by the music of George Winston, John Williams, Michael Buble, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Claude Debussy, Frederic Chopin, Sergei Prokofiev, Itzhak Perlman, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Barbra Streisand. After moving to the Washington, DC, area, Chadburn began writing and recording hundreds of improvisational piano themes which led to his first album, Solo Piano. The Washington Area Music Association nominated the album for "Best New Age Recording" in the WAMA Awards, and Chadburn was nominated for "Best New Age Instrumentalist." His second recording, Reflections, included other musicians on viola, French horn, flute and English horn, plus on one track the singing of Tom Nichols, Chadburn's longtime musical partner and producer. Chadburn's Nocturnes, again with additional instrumentation, earned a WAMA nomination for "Best Classical Recording" while Chadburn was nominated as "Best Classical Instrumentalist." Chadburn has been featured (alongside other pianists such as Suzanne Ciani, Spencer Brewer and Robin Spielberg) on several compilation recordings produced for charitable causes, including The Heart Aid Project which benefited the victims of the 9/11 tragedy and their families. Among Chadburn's other special projects was a single, "Promise of Hope, " he wrote and recorded for a philanthropic program run by Choice Hotels International and benefiting The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington and Metropolitan Baltimore. With Nocturnes Chadburn continued to donate to worthwhile causes. Proceeds from "Peter's Theme" on that album are donated to The Peter Fox Project which in turn benefits the Sitar Arts Center in Washington, an after-school youth organization for the arts. In addition, the tune "Anne's Lullaby" benefits The National Family Resiliency Center "to preserve a sense of family and foster healthy relationships." In 2014 and 2015, Chadburn and Nichols performed benefit concerts to raise funds for the Florence Area Humane Society (a "no kill" shelter) in Oregon. “I wrote the original music on Keys of Light to celebrate friendship and to honor the memories of those who have touched my life and the lives of others in profound ways, ” states Chadburn. “Friendship, love and music all bring light into this world. Even with heartache in the darkness, a light comes through. I wanted this music to serve as a reflection and celebration of the positive side of life despite whatever sadness and adversity we go through.” write your comments about the article :: © 2015 Jazz News :: home page |