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| Pianist Jon Gold to release of "Guanabara Eyes," An Endearing, Genre-Melding Emotional Journey.. Pianist and composer Jon Gold, who fits no mold, announces his new album Guanabara Eyes, to be released May 15, 2024, on Azurea Records. This album showcases Gold's wide-ranging and genre-bending compositional talents in formats ranging from solo piano to full bands with complete string orchestras. With a discography well-received by the critics and public alike, Gold has made a remarkable series of compositions that will appeal to be the "serious" jazz listener as well as to the casual audience as he demonstrates a maturity in his compositions that allow for a high degree of sophistication and cleverness woven in a tapestry of charming melodies and compelling arrangements. While many of the pieces draw from Gold's life-changing experiences carved from his years working and living in Brazil, many of the pieces are also drawn from his love of the music he has inculcated into his repetoire from around the globe. Guanabara Eyes also grew from a desire to honor many of the people that have been important to him musically and personally, two tunes are dedicated to his co-producers Luiz Ribeiro ((Ivan Lins, Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil) and Mauricio Zottarelli (Eliane Elias, Ivan Lins, Paquito D'Rivera) while another is a tribute to Ivan Lins. As such the compositions are truly heartfelt and reflect Gold's love for the interesting diasporas of the musical traditions he draws upon. The recording features many of the "heavy hitters" from the Brazilian music scene with players from the bands of Ivan Lins, Joyce, Rosa Passos and Eliane Elias. Marina Marchi (one of the greatest of the new generation of Brazilian vocalists) is present to add a dizzying variety of vocal flavors to several pieces. Grammy award winner Zach Brock is also a featured player. Gold is pleased to have been able to inclde a group of highly talented string players from war-torn Ukraine. This is an album for listening truly as an album which tells a story. But there are individual tracks that will appeal to differing audiences ranging from the wistful and sentimental to some happy and inescapable foot-tapping. Gold once again has shown his ability to make music that appeals to the mind, the heart, and the soul. About Jon Gold Jon's story begins in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jon's Brother (Jay Gold) was deeply involved in music and was General Manager of Mushroom Records who was host label to the pop group Heart. Jay instilled a love of blues and jazz onto his brother and Jon went on to take up piano. His first performances were with the Palo Alto School District Jazz band where he was selected to perform with Dizzy Gillespie for a special on KQED-TV in San Francisco. Jon began studies and performing locally with tenor sax giant Joe Henderson and was dubbed "Little McCoy" by noted critic Herb Wong of the SF Chronicle. While in college he developed an interest in winemaking. While busy as a musician, he decided to attend college at UC Santa Cruz in chemistry with the hoped of becoming a winemaker. While at Santa Cruz, Jon developed a love for Latin music working with a number of salsa, Latin and Brazilian groups. However, he developed a special love for the jazz-influenced music of Brazil. As a side note, Jon, while a graduate student at Cornell Univ. became the first person to melt a diamond. This was a serendipitous accident that garnered attention both in the scientific world and mainstream press. Upon finishing his PhD, Jon felt like he needed to follow his heart and live and work in Rio de Janeiro. He was offered a visiting professor fellowship by the Brazilian Federal Government and taught at PUC-Rio. This afforded Jon the opportunity to meet with some of the greatest names in Brazil: A.C. Jobim and Hermeto Pascoal among others. He did shows at the invitation of the US Embassy and performed on Brazilian national TV shows. He did considerable work with the multi-instrumentalist Carlos Malta having performed in the major venues in Rio. After marrying, Jon decided to move back to the US settling about an hour from NYC. He has since released several albums featuring multi-award winning players such as Dave Lieberman, Zach Broch, Jon Irabagon, Howard Levy, Tom "Bones" Malone and Harvie S amongst others. His last album "Bossa of Possibility" (BluJazz Records) received 4.5 stars from Downbeat magazine. Jon is also currently working on film and TV scoring and has just recorded a piece with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra co-produced with Grammy award winning Pablo Aslan. write your comments about the article :: © 2024 Jazz News :: home page |