CD Release Shows Planned
Throughout the Spring & Summer
In the Boston Area & Several Connecticut Cities;
New York & Washington Dates to Be Announced
Throughout the Spring & Summer
In the Boston Area & Several Connecticut Cities;
New York & Washington Dates to Be Announced
April 26, 2013
But The Rosenthals' lifelong musical ties have recently asserted themselves, and on their first recording collaboration, Fly Away, father and son find plenty of common ground.Fly Away's richly evocative original songs and traditional tunes were arranged and produced by Daniel, who infuses the music with an unmistakable jazz sensibility, and the album showcases Phil's wondrously warm voice, a burnished Johnny Cash baritone that resonates with emotional authority. The new CD will be released on June 4 by Phil's American Melody Records.
"On paper it doesn't seem like it would work," Daniel says. "But when I play with Phil I tone down the volume a lot. I'm playing long tones really softly behind his vocals, trying to emulate what a fiddle player would do, filling up the spaces when he's not singing. It's definitely a challenge to make the trumpet fit in with a folk or bluegrass instrumentation."
On most of the original tunes Daniel added music to lyrics written and largely abandoned by Phil some three decades ago (around the time his son was born). Daniel revels in creating offbeat settings for his father's world-weary voice, and sang tenor harmonies himself. (His mother Beth Sommers and sister Naomi Sommers contribute harmony vocals as well.)
For Phil, who has always produced his own albums and has never really collaborated on songwriting, turning the responsibilities over to his son opened up new musical possibilities. "He had definite ideas, and I was happy to have him in that role. He has a lot of influences that he brought into the project, making it a real blending of folk, bluegrass, and jazz."
Born in Silver Spring, MD, and raised in Guilford, CT,Daniel Rosenthal early on gravitated to the trumpet, rather than the stringed instruments all around him, and figured out ways to fit the horn into the family ensemble. Louis Armstrong was a major inspiration. By 13 Daniel was gigging with a trio (trumpet, organ, drums) at local restaurants and coffeehouses, and in high school he worked on absorbing the jazz trumpet lineage. At New England Conservatory, he studied with soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonist/arranger Bob Brookmeyer, and Charles Schlueter, principal trumpeter for the Boston Symphony. Daniel joined the Either/Orchestra in 2006, and in 2011 American Melody released his debut as a leader, Lines, four tracks of which featured a banjo ("There's something about trumpet and banjo, that metal on metal blend, that's always intrigued me").
The Rosenthals will be performing at the following venues in support of Fly Away: 6/6 Black Eyed Sally's, Hartford, CT (8pm); 6/8 Cafe Nine Bluegrass Hoedown, New Haven, CT (9pm); 6/11 Cantab Lounge, Cambridge, MA (9pm);7/7 Lilypad, Cambridge, MA (6-9pm); 7/11 Leif Nilsson Spring Street Studio, Chester, CT (7pm);7/12 Hartford (CT) State House, lunchtime concert series (12noon); 7/14 Whitney Center, Hamden, CT (2pm); 7/25 Guilford (CT) Library, "Music Under the Stars" (7pm); 7/31 Daniel Rosenthal Quintet at the Lilypad, Cambridge, MA (8pm); 8/6 Middletown (CT) Green (6-9pm). New York and Washington dates are in the works.
Photography: David Leifer
www.therosenthals.org
www.americanmelody.com
www.danielrosenthalmusic.com
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Listen: http://therosenthals.org/
Media Contact:Terri Hinte
510-234-8781
hudba@sbcglobal.net
www.terrihinte.com
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