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Event
Arte del Duo CD Release featuring Mili Bermejo, voice / Dan Greenspan, bass- CANCELLED
Vocalist Mili Bermejo and bassist Dan Greenspan celebrate the release of Arte del Dúo, their first duo album in two decades at The Dance Hall in Kittery.
Since first joining forces over a quarter-century ago, Bermejo and Greenspan have created a recorded library of timeless music with a number of cherished partners. For those fortunate enough to experience them in live performance, however, the lingering memory of this brilliantly skilled and totally compatible couple is likely to be the moments when they stand alone. We have always wanted to make pure music, Greenspan explains, and have always included duo tunes in our sets. The pair releases Arte del Dúo on October 7, 2016 via Ediciones Pentagrama.
Bermejo, born in Buenos Aires, raised in Mexico City and a professor at Berklee College of Music since 1984, and Greenspan, a New Haven native and classically trained cellist who became one of the Boston areas leading freelance bassists, have created a unique body of music that applies jazz improvisation to original songs and music from throughout the Americas. Themes of political liberation, environmental responsibility and interpersonal commitment have defined both their music and their career and led them to a major life decison. The business changed so much post-9/11 that we had to decide whether we should reinvent ourselves, Bermejo notes. This led to what Greenspan describes as an entire creative undertaking of another kind a move to New Hampshire, where the couple built their own house.
We decided to live the right way, Bermejo says of their relocation to a nature reserve. It has brought us closer and closer to `do it yourself, including growing as much of our own food and making as many of our own clothes as possible. It has purified us, and removed many of our frustrations. But, Greenspan adds, For a while, the move replaced music. Finding opportunities to rehearse in Boston when everyone we worked with had so many other gigs became hell. The bassist also turned his attention to baking and has built a growing reputation with his Dans Brick Oven Bread, while a construction accident also left him unable to play for several months. The future of their performing partnership became unclear.
But Mili insisted that we couldnt let the music go, Greenspan stresses, and the result is a new focus on the intimate artistry that had previously only been showcased on their 1997 album Duo which was released on Gunther Schullers GM Records. It got us back to the essence of art, he says, and provides the best opportunity to use all of the classical information that we have. Yet the new music, developed over a series of monthly gigs at the Lilypad in Cambridge, Massachusetts, takes the pair beyond their previous achievements. We didnt want to repeat ourselves, Bermejo adds. Now we reduce. I think of the music like my garden, as being all about beauty after years of work. And nobody told me how to do it.
The influence of life in New Hampshire is clear in the Bermejo originals La Casa del Arbol (The Tree House), about a secret refugeamong trees and stars and Cosecha (Harvest); but she also contributes two new titles in her string of beautiful love songs, Los que se Aman (Those Who Love) and No Dejo de Quererte (I Dont Stop Loving You). The duo also links Bermejos Décima Muerte I from their first duo disc and Décima Muerte II by the Mexican poet and playwright Xavier Villarrutiga in a medley linked by a powerful Greenspan solo.
Greenspans bass also launches Las Orillas del Mar (At the Edge of the Sea), a 13th Century feminist poem with music by Hafez Modirzadeh, the composer-saxophonist who featured Bermejo extensively on his acclaimed 2011 album In Convergence Liberation (Pi Recordings). Working with Hafez is the most challenging thing Ive done, she notes, and it has opened both of our minds. Now Im improvising more, though not `taking a chorus in the traditional sense. This new improvisational freedom is joyously displayed on Tres Veces Heroica (Three Times Heroic), written by Mexican composer Charlie Dríguez and previously heard on the 2006 live recording De Tierra (Of Earth) (Ediciones Pentagrama), and End of the Beginning, written for the duo by the Armenian-born pianist and composer Vardan Ovsepian. Windmills of Your Mind, by French composer Michel Legrand with Spanish lyrics by Manuel Gurria, was also arranged by Ovsepian. Vardans arrangement got Dan back in shape after his injury, Bermejo notes, adding with a laugh, it also made me get back in shape.
Two works from Argentina are included, Equipaje (Luggage) by Juan Quintero and Cambalache (Pawn Shop) by E. Santos Discépolo. The latter, a classic tango, gives Greenspan the opportunity to display his skill with the bow. Candombe para Gardel (Candombe for Gardel), a tribute to Argentinian tango master Carlos Gardel from the Afro-Uruguayan perspective of Rubén Rada, completes the program.
Arte del Dúo is Bermejos fifth release on Mexicos Ediciones Pentagrama label, which recently received the Independence Award from the Fundación Mediterránea Mar y Tierra in Tarragona, Spain. Weve stayed faithful to the vision of [;label founder]; Modesto López: Independence and 35 years of support to Latin American artists dedicated to progressive social change, she notes.
The album will be released at the Lilypad on Sunday afternoon, October 23, where a new audio system created especially for the duo by sound engineer Art Steele will enhance the performance. I asked Art for a minimal system, with just two small speakers, Greenspan explains. Now my hands are free, just like my mothers were when she sang, Bermejo adds.
Creativity, and the magic that ensues, remain at the heart of Mili Bermejos and Dan Greenspans music; and Arte del Dúo is their most creative and magical statement to date.
$12/advance $15/door
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LocationThe Dance Hall (View)
7 Walker St
Kittery, ME 03904
United States
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