New release (June 4, 2021) - world Premiere recording
Suite Esmerelda for Flute and piano
Composed by Eric V. Baum
JoRazzal Music is pleased to present another world-premiere recording!
post-production in progress, Los Angeles, CA and MasterDisk, NY
Release date: June 4-2021 (Vinyl & high resolution downloads)
For the GoFundMe Pre-order campaign, click here
To Preview the album, and get links to download or stream, click HERE
"Suite Esmerelda is a riveting and ravishing work that is beautifully composed and elegantly performed. Joanne Lazzaro's intrepid virtuosity is indeed remarkable. She inhabits each piece fully, pouring her heart and soul into each note. Brava!"
Kabir Sehgal, multi-Grammy® award winner and New York Times best-selling author.
Featuring
Joanne Lazzaro, flute
Bryan Pezzone, piano
Side A
1. Dance of the Snowbound Grasshopper 06:28
2. Shabbat 04:22
3. Stone Ridge Rag 04:28
Side B
4. Dance of the Snowbound Grasshopper - Jazz Remix 06:28
5. Shabbat - Jazz Remix 04:22
6. Stone Ridge Rage - Jazz Remix 04:28
with Miller Wrenn, bass and Ellington Peet, drums
Downloads are available at CDBaby, iTunes, and Amazon MP3. For quick links, click HERE
Streaming virtually all services: AppleMusic, Spotify, YouTube, Groove, Deezer, Tidal, Pandora, YouTube & others worldwide....
"Suite Esmerelda is a riveting and ravishing work that is beautifully composed and elegantly performed. Joanne Lazzaro's intrepid virtuosity is indeed remarkable. She inhabits each piece fully, pouring her heart and soul into each note. Brava!"
Kabir Sehgal, multi-Grammy® award winner and New York Times best-selling author.
Featuring
Joanne Lazzaro, flute
Bryan Pezzone, piano
Side A
1. Dance of the Snowbound Grasshopper 06:28
2. Shabbat 04:22
3. Stone Ridge Rag 04:28
Side B
4. Dance of the Snowbound Grasshopper - Jazz Remix 06:28
5. Shabbat - Jazz Remix 04:22
6. Stone Ridge Rage - Jazz Remix 04:28
with Miller Wrenn, bass and Ellington Peet, drums
Downloads are available at CDBaby, iTunes, and Amazon MP3. For quick links, click HERE
Streaming virtually all services: AppleMusic, Spotify, YouTube, Groove, Deezer, Tidal, Pandora, YouTube & others worldwide....
Album credits and liner notes -
Cover art: DC Langer (based on a photograph by Claudia Bailey)
Album Credits
Suite Esmerelda for Flute and Piano
Composer: Eric V. Baum
Composed in 1982 (copyright Eric V. Baum, BMI)
World Premiere Performance: 1983, Annville, PA
Produced by: Joanne Lazzaro – JoRazzal Music
Flute: Joanne Lazzaro
Piano: Bryan Pezzone
Bass: Miller Wrenn (tracks 4,5,6)
Drums: Ellington Peet (tracks 4,5,6)
Additional arrangements for bass and drums: Wayne Peet (2020)
Recording Engineer: Wayne Peet, NewZone Studio
Digital Mixing and Mastering: Wayne Peet, NewZone Studio
Vinyl Mastering & Cutting: Scott Hull at Masterdisk (Peekskill, NY)
Vinyl pressing: Microforum (Toronto, Canada)
Liner Notes - in progress, check back for updates!
Suite Esmerelda for Flute and Piano, by Eric V. Baum
Joanne Lazzaro, flutist and Bryan Pezzone, pianist
Eric V. Baum composed Suite Esmerelda for Flute & Piano in 1982 and presented it as a gift to flutist Joanne Lazzaro while they were music students at Lebanon Valley College. Knowing Joanne’s fondness for Claude Bolling’s immensely popular 1975 Suite for Flute & Jazz Piano, Eric composed this three-movement suite in a similar style, capturing conversations, places, and events from their shared experiences. Dance of the Snowbound Grasshopper - the virtuosic opening movement - recalls Joanne’s comment about a difficult flute technical study sounding “about as graceful as a grasshopper in the snow”. Shabbat is a somber elegy written shortly after the 1982 “Sabra and Shatila Massacre” in Beirut, Lebanon. Upbeat and tap-danceable, Stone Ridge Rag recounts Eric’s visit to this small historic town in the Hudson Valley, NY, where Joanne’s family lived while she was in college.
After the world premiere performance in May, 1983 at Lebanon Valley College (Annville, Pennsylvania) the hand-written manuscript travelled in a briefcase to New York and then ultimately Los Angeles, where it waited patiently for 35 years (on a bookshelf) until Joanne started her own record label - JoRazzal Music. This limited-edition 180 gram vinyl album is the way the music would have been released, back in 1983, and was recorded with the same warm, intimate closeness typical of the era.
Side A presents the flute & piano “classical” version as originally written, while Side B features newly-added bass & drum parts, arranged in the style of Bolling’s original “jazz” suites. Fans of vinyl will be rewarded - the vinyl album will have a secret bonus track not available in any other format, and not released to any streaming service.
Side A
1. Dance of the Snowbound Grasshopper
2. Shabbat
3. Stone Ridge Rag
Side B
4. Dance of the Snowbound Grasshopper (jazz mix)
5. Shabbat (jazz mix)
6. Stone Ridge Rage (jazz mix)
Performed by:
Joanne Lazzaro, flute and Bryan Pezzone, piano
with Miller Wrenn, bass and Ellington Peet, drums (tracks 4, 5 & 6).
Produced by: Joanne Lazzaro
Audio production notes: Joanne Lazzaro is playing an Altus 1307 platinum–clad Britannia silver flute with a J.R. LaFin 18K gold headjoint, and a Philipp Hammig 650/3 piccolo with a cocuswood headjoint (track 6). Bryan Pezzone is playing a studio Kawai KG-3C piano (maintained by Eder Piano Service). The flute was recorded with a Neumann U87 microphone (with Jim Williams upgrade); the piano was recorded with a pair of Crown PZM 30D microphones mounted in the closed lid; using True Systems Precision 8 microphone preamps, MOTU HD 192 converters, into Digital Performer.
Dedication: This album could not have been created without the help and support of friends and colleagues. Suite Esmerelda is dedicated with much love and gratitude to - Rob for your help & encouragement, D.C. for your artistic vision, Claudia for your support & patience, and Avory for the finishing touches; Wayne, Miller & Ellington - for your outstanding work in the studio, bringing it all together; Bryan – I have no words for the depth of appreciation I feel hearing you magically play Suite Esmerelda back to life; and Eric – my love for this amazing gift has only increased over the years – this album is my thank you!
The Backstory.....( a dialog in progress)
"My senior year of college was a difficult one. I was taking a full double course load (double BS/BA degree in Music Education and Spanish) with a few electives thrown in, plus a weekend performing schedule with a band called "H.I.S." I calculated that I would need to give up one night of sleep every week, both semesters, in order to complete all my coursework. Every Thursday was an all-nighter - I stayed awake by mixing hot cocoa and instant coffee in a large mug, using hot tapwater from the bathroom (no campus coffee shop in those days!). To find enough time to practice flute, I also skipped Algebra class every Friday morning (except for test days) resulting in an intentional "D" grade in that class (but good enough to graduate). I once fell sound asleep in Music History class during Beethoven's 9th symphony, with my head propped up on my hand, looking like I was deep in thought. I woke up to classmates asking me "Was that a piccolo? Hey Joanne, was that a piccolo" and laughing. I barely remember my senior year, but out of it came this wonderful piece of music - Suite Esmerelda for flute and piano".
To be continued...
Copyright 2019-2021 Joanne Lazzaro / JoRazzal Musiic All rights reserved.
Back To Main Music Page
Cover art: DC Langer (based on a photograph by Claudia Bailey)
Album Credits
Suite Esmerelda for Flute and Piano
Composer: Eric V. Baum
Composed in 1982 (copyright Eric V. Baum, BMI)
World Premiere Performance: 1983, Annville, PA
Produced by: Joanne Lazzaro – JoRazzal Music
Flute: Joanne Lazzaro
Piano: Bryan Pezzone
Bass: Miller Wrenn (tracks 4,5,6)
Drums: Ellington Peet (tracks 4,5,6)
Additional arrangements for bass and drums: Wayne Peet (2020)
Recording Engineer: Wayne Peet, NewZone Studio
Digital Mixing and Mastering: Wayne Peet, NewZone Studio
Vinyl Mastering & Cutting: Scott Hull at Masterdisk (Peekskill, NY)
Vinyl pressing: Microforum (Toronto, Canada)
Liner Notes - in progress, check back for updates!
Suite Esmerelda for Flute and Piano, by Eric V. Baum
Joanne Lazzaro, flutist and Bryan Pezzone, pianist
Eric V. Baum composed Suite Esmerelda for Flute & Piano in 1982 and presented it as a gift to flutist Joanne Lazzaro while they were music students at Lebanon Valley College. Knowing Joanne’s fondness for Claude Bolling’s immensely popular 1975 Suite for Flute & Jazz Piano, Eric composed this three-movement suite in a similar style, capturing conversations, places, and events from their shared experiences. Dance of the Snowbound Grasshopper - the virtuosic opening movement - recalls Joanne’s comment about a difficult flute technical study sounding “about as graceful as a grasshopper in the snow”. Shabbat is a somber elegy written shortly after the 1982 “Sabra and Shatila Massacre” in Beirut, Lebanon. Upbeat and tap-danceable, Stone Ridge Rag recounts Eric’s visit to this small historic town in the Hudson Valley, NY, where Joanne’s family lived while she was in college.
After the world premiere performance in May, 1983 at Lebanon Valley College (Annville, Pennsylvania) the hand-written manuscript travelled in a briefcase to New York and then ultimately Los Angeles, where it waited patiently for 35 years (on a bookshelf) until Joanne started her own record label - JoRazzal Music. This limited-edition 180 gram vinyl album is the way the music would have been released, back in 1983, and was recorded with the same warm, intimate closeness typical of the era.
Side A presents the flute & piano “classical” version as originally written, while Side B features newly-added bass & drum parts, arranged in the style of Bolling’s original “jazz” suites. Fans of vinyl will be rewarded - the vinyl album will have a secret bonus track not available in any other format, and not released to any streaming service.
Side A
1. Dance of the Snowbound Grasshopper
2. Shabbat
3. Stone Ridge Rag
Side B
4. Dance of the Snowbound Grasshopper (jazz mix)
5. Shabbat (jazz mix)
6. Stone Ridge Rage (jazz mix)
Performed by:
Joanne Lazzaro, flute and Bryan Pezzone, piano
with Miller Wrenn, bass and Ellington Peet, drums (tracks 4, 5 & 6).
Produced by: Joanne Lazzaro
Audio production notes: Joanne Lazzaro is playing an Altus 1307 platinum–clad Britannia silver flute with a J.R. LaFin 18K gold headjoint, and a Philipp Hammig 650/3 piccolo with a cocuswood headjoint (track 6). Bryan Pezzone is playing a studio Kawai KG-3C piano (maintained by Eder Piano Service). The flute was recorded with a Neumann U87 microphone (with Jim Williams upgrade); the piano was recorded with a pair of Crown PZM 30D microphones mounted in the closed lid; using True Systems Precision 8 microphone preamps, MOTU HD 192 converters, into Digital Performer.
Dedication: This album could not have been created without the help and support of friends and colleagues. Suite Esmerelda is dedicated with much love and gratitude to - Rob for your help & encouragement, D.C. for your artistic vision, Claudia for your support & patience, and Avory for the finishing touches; Wayne, Miller & Ellington - for your outstanding work in the studio, bringing it all together; Bryan – I have no words for the depth of appreciation I feel hearing you magically play Suite Esmerelda back to life; and Eric – my love for this amazing gift has only increased over the years – this album is my thank you!
The Backstory.....( a dialog in progress)
"My senior year of college was a difficult one. I was taking a full double course load (double BS/BA degree in Music Education and Spanish) with a few electives thrown in, plus a weekend performing schedule with a band called "H.I.S." I calculated that I would need to give up one night of sleep every week, both semesters, in order to complete all my coursework. Every Thursday was an all-nighter - I stayed awake by mixing hot cocoa and instant coffee in a large mug, using hot tapwater from the bathroom (no campus coffee shop in those days!). To find enough time to practice flute, I also skipped Algebra class every Friday morning (except for test days) resulting in an intentional "D" grade in that class (but good enough to graduate). I once fell sound asleep in Music History class during Beethoven's 9th symphony, with my head propped up on my hand, looking like I was deep in thought. I woke up to classmates asking me "Was that a piccolo? Hey Joanne, was that a piccolo" and laughing. I barely remember my senior year, but out of it came this wonderful piece of music - Suite Esmerelda for flute and piano".
To be continued...
Copyright 2019-2021 Joanne Lazzaro / JoRazzal Musiic All rights reserved.
Back To Main Music Page