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| Paul Winter’s 36th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration  An invitation from Paul Winter:We are pleased to offer you our free Winter Solstice Collection. This has become a solstice tradition with us. Our intent is both to give a sampling of the artists who will be performing in this year's Solstice Celebration, and to share recordings we love. Included Tracks: 1. Anabela - Renato Braz with Paul Winter Consort 2. Icarus - Paul Winter Consort 3. O Mar Serenou - Fabiana Cozza 4. Aqua Marcia - Renato Braz with Ivan Lins and Paul Winter Consort 5. Tomorrow is My Dancing Day - Paul Winter Consort 6. Saudacao Para lemanja - Fabiana Cozza 7. Feitico da Vila - Renato Braz 8. The Rain is Over and Gone - Theresa Thomason 9. Doces Recordacoes - Fabiana Cozza 10. Desenredo - Renato Braz with Paul Winter Consort 11. Sun Singer - Paul Winter Consort 12. Meu Sapato Ja Furou - Fabiana Cozza 13. Angola - Renato Braz with Paul Winter Consort 14. Minuit/Auld Lang Syne - Paul Winter Consort NEW VOICES FROM BRAZIL Singer/guitarist Renato Braz has roots in all three of Brazil's cultures: Indian, African, and European. His parents are Guarani Indians from Mato Grosso; his mother remarried a "Baiano" from the Northeast of Brazil; and he has lived for many years in Sao Paulo. He and Paul Winter met in 2004 and they have worked since then on the production of Renato's first album for the US. This new album, Saudade, available in early December, includes 14 of the most beautiful songs that have been born in Brazil. Renato will be premiering songs from the Saudadealbum in the Winter Solstice Celebration. Sao Paulo journalist Luis Nassif regards Renato as "the João Gilberto of the 21st Century." Renowned singer/songwriter Dori Caymmi says: "Renato Braz is Brazil's greatest singer." Fabiana Cozza is considered by critics and audiences to be one of the most important interpreters of contemporary Brazilian music She was nominated for "Best Samba Singer" award by Brazilian Music Awards. She will be making her New York debut in the upcoming Winter Solstice Celebration. SAMBA AND SAUDADE IN THE CATHEDRAL New York's St. John the Divine is an utterly unique performance venue. It seems appropriate that this largest cathedral in the world also be the most welcoming and open-minded. This is an Episcopalian cathedral, not Catholic. It's a home for the human spirit, meant to uplift, inspire, awe, unite, and give refuge. It's the perfect location for the Paul Winter Consort's ongoing exploration of the turning of the seasons and the tuning of the soul. Paul Winter's Winter Solstice Celebration is not at all a religious or "church" event. It is a completely secular. The Cathedral has embraced this event, throughout these past 35 years, as simply a celebration of the life-spirit. Since Paul Winter presented his first Winter Solstice Celebration in 1980, the event has become a forum for world music, featuring guest performers from many cultures, including Russia, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Spain, Armenia, Mali, Tibet, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. (The Consort has also presented in February a "Carnival for the Rainforest".) The Winter Solstice Celebration inhabits the entirety of this titanic space – two blocks long inside and tall enough to house the Statue of Liberty – taking advantage of its mystery and beauty to create a forest, or a deep night sky, where a giant earth globe spins from the vault like a tiny planet in the cosmic vastness, or the world's largest tam-tam rises, spotlit, 12 stories high. At the symbolic moment of the solstice, a huge, "sun-gong" (the world's largest), rises, with its player, one hundred feet in the east end of the Cathedral. "This isn't just some church, " explains Winter. "The space is transformative. The power and its beauty of its geometry have a monumental impact. Of all the places I've played in America, only two could host this event: the Cathedral and the Grand Canyon, " Winter says. Winter is one of many artists and thinkers who have found a sanctuary under the stone arches of St John the Divine's breathtaking interior. The largest cathedral in the world, known as "the Green Cathedral, " it is also an ark and incubator for art. In the 1980s and 1990s, it became the center of a vital community of thinkers and seekers working on issues of ecology and environment and world peace. It represented a global forum, where you could listen to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Buckminster Fuller, the Mayor of Jerusalem, the Dalai Lama, Cesar Chavez, Carl Sagan, Rene Dubos, Jesse Jackson, Vaclav Havel, Secretaries General of the United Nations, Nelson Mandela, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Consort includes: Paul Winter on soprano saxophone, cellist Eugene Friesen, double-reed player Paul McCandless, keyboardist Paul Sullivan, guitarist Paul Meyers, bassist Eliot Wadopian, drummer Jamey Haddad, Brazilian percussionist Cafe, organist Tim Brumfield, and Sun-gong maestro Scott Sloan. Paul Winter's 36th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration When: Dec. 17-19, 2015 (four performances) Where: Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, NY [ directions ] write your comments about the article :: © 2015 Jazz News :: home page |