“Withhold no sacrifice, grudge no toil, fear no foe,
seek no sordid gain, all will be well. “ ~Winston Churchill
Greetings!
It’s very late Fall in the Shenandoah Valley. There have been some warm days lately, paired with increasingly colder nights. Walking around Staunton, there’s a nice vibe in the air. Maybe it’s just the impending transition from what remains of this year (which isn’t much at all) into 2012, hinting at another chance to wipe the slate clean and start anew. That sounds good, doesn’t it? Another chance.
Recent Projects
Cinemasters (San Francisco) was on a roll recently, sending me five songs to mix. Thank you, Joel Evans! As expected, there was quite a range of styles. On one end there was a holiday number called Isn’t Christmastime a Wonderful Thing. On the other end was a beautiful latin jazz song titled Here Comes That Fantasy. In between was The Night We Left the Ground, Saffron Chiffon, and A Girl Like You. I never know what I’ll be asked to mix but it’s always great fun because the writing and performances are terrific. www.cinemasters.com
In the classical music world, MSR Classics has just released a CD of work from composer James Cohn titled A GRECIAN FESTIVAL and other Chamber Music.
Everything on this disc is a world premiere recording including Sonata for Viola and Piano. This was performed by Amadi Azikiwe and Lori Piitz in the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts Recital Hall. This is also the first commercially available recording coming out of the Forbes Center. I recorded, edited, and mixed their contribution to this CD. www.msrcd.com
Now that I have the files, I want to include the CD covers with these descriptions from the previous update.
“Hold On” is the second and latest release from Maria Vilaboy. I mastered her first CD many years ago after which there was a long break in her professional life as she and her husband raised their son. She’s returned with this new collection of songs, each one soulfully performed and beautifully crafted. Maria’s new release was produced by Ted Savarese and Robert Preston. Robert engineered.
180 degrees in the opposite direction is a 2-CD set by my dear friend Willy Claflin. He’s a 1960’s Harvard University graduate turned alternative school teacher who evolved into one of this country’s master storytellers and award-winning book author.
The new double disc set, which is our 12th CD project together since 1984, features Willy’s most popular storytelling persona Maynard Moose, the last known teller of ancient Mother Moose Tales. “Maynard Moose Live at the National Storytelling Festival” is a collection of performances recorded over the last 10 years. These stories are comedy that hits on several levels at once, a fanciful mix of top-notch word play, sly cultural references and intelligent humor written and performed by Willy to packed audiences in Jonesborough, TN. I still laugh out loud when I’m editing and mastering these stories, though I’ve heard some of them many times.
Thanks for checking in and best wishes to you all.
Tom Carr
