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"Blame Those Gershwins" CD Release Party

Third Life Studio
Somerville, MA

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"Blame Those Gershwins" CD Release Party

New York-based pianist Steve Sweeting and Boston-based singer Will McMillan bring this new collection of Sweeting's songs to life at an intimate venue with a great Steinway grand piano.

The performance will feature three songs the pair wrote together: Stuff, Questions and Let's Go to the River. The title track, Blame Those Gershwins, with words and lyrics by Sweeting, was written as a tour-de-force meditation on the wonderfully inescapable influence of America's premier fraternal songwriters of the 1930s. Other songs include Let It All Go, which has a James Taylor pop feel to it; Bounce to the Wave a funky ode to the thrill of dancing with lyrics by Betina Hershey; and I Carry Your Heart, which was originally commissioned as a 4-part a cappella choral piece for a Chinese national choral competition in 2008 while Sweeting lived in Shanghai, China. It is part art-song, part cabaret song, and 100% influenced by the jazz and gospel influences that permeate much of Sweeting's writing.

Sweeting is a New York-based jazz pianist, composer and songwriter who has recently published an eight-part series of songbooks.

Steve opened the Jazz Club Dizzy Gillespie in Dakar, Senegal, where he also studied djembe. He has toured with a jazz band in Salvador, Brazil, played a USIS tour in Asia, and studied tabla in Bangladesh for six months. Stateside, Steve was a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop in New York as a composer where he worked as a music director for many cabarets and musicals. The New York Times praised his work as music director on Jean-Claude Van Italie's "War, Sex and Dreams."

In 2006, Sweeting moved to Shanghai, where he lived for eight years. While in China, he founded a collaborative monthly series with Chinese jazz vocalists at an art gallery in Shanghai, exploring the intersection of Chinese musical traditions and jazz. He was a regular on the jazz scene in Shanghai and performed all over China including solo concerts in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Hangzhou. Steve has recorded numerous CD's including Solitary Bird with Coco Zhao, The Color of Love with Jasmine Chen and Something Jobim with Yuki Inoue. To purchase sheet music and songbooks, please visit stevesweeting.com

Will McMillan is a Boston-based singer and songwriter who has soloed with pops orchestras, rock bands, and a cappella groups. For many years he hosted Will & Company a series highlighting local singers and songwriters at the Blacksmith House in Harvard Square, earning an IRNE award from the Independent Reviewers of New England for Best Cabaret Show in a small venue.

A member of SAG, AFTRA and Equity, Will did commercials, voice-overs, and made-for-TV movies as a child and teenager and was even a standby for the role of Theo in the original production of Pippin on Broadway. He currently writes songs, teaches music, and performs all over New England. You are welcome to visit his blog, AMusicalifeOnPlanetEarth.WordPress.com or his web site, WillSings.com. You can also watch him perform on YouTube by searching "Will McMillan."