The jazz duo of Catherine Goldwyn and
Phil Lewis have released their latest LP record, “Shadow and
Light.” The album contains 11 tracks for an approximate total
listening time of one hour. It has been proudly published on the
Continuum independent music label without direction from the
corporate music industry. Sharp, classy, and showcasing the sonic
imagination of two of the most veteran players in contemporary jazz,
“Shadow and Light” stands as one of the best examples of piano
and guitar pairings in recent memory.
Catherine Goldwyn and Phil Lewis have
been playing together since 2002 when they met at a Los Angeles jam
session. They cite as main artistic influences legends like Louis
Armstrong, and the genres of world music and classical music. The
Armstrong shows in their use of phrasing, the classical in their use
of melodic narration.
“Our goal is to create jazz that
tells a story,” they write. “We want to take the listener on a
journey.”
Goldwyn and Lewis both have decades of
experience in jazz, but “Shadow and Light” is their debut LP
together. After 11 years of music together, they married in 2013.
They want their first album to be more than business-as-usual jazz
for jazz aficionados.
“We really wanted this music to
resonate with a wide range of listeners, not just a jazz audience,”
they write, “so we chose to put our focus on strong melodies.
What's really important in music is emotion. That's the currency of
music. And we both felt that jazz has, in many cases, come to be
defined too much by technical theories and virtuosic spectacle. We
wanted to bring the direct, emotive element back to the music.”
This reactive, pliable feeling is
palpable on “Shadow and Light.” Audiophiles who can't get into
by-the-numbers jazz and don't think highly of anything but improv and
hotseat sessions will find plenty to enjoy on Goldwyn and Lewis'
debut LP. Their current official bio remarks that, “Although the
duo spent a year composing and refining new material, it was
important that the recording not lose the spontaneity of the jazz
idiom.”
Goldwyn writes, “Plan to improvise –
that's my credo in music and in life. So we leave lots of room for
improvisation. In fact we can't ever seem to play a tune the same way
twice.”
In addition to the considerable talents
of Goldwyn and Lewis on “Shadow and Light” are drummer Jake Reed,
bassist John Belzaguy, and percussionist Pete Korpela.
Session vibraphonist Gary Burton writes
of the album, “[T]he guitar and piano weave together, evenly
matched, always complementary. I’m reminded of how longtime friends
complete each other's sentences.”
“This record is our 'love child,'”
writes Lewis. “The opportunity to record with Catherine was like a
dream come true for me. She is not only
one of the best composers I know but she is the love of my life, my
muse, my inspiration.”
“Shadow and Light” by Catherine
Goldwyn and Phil Lewis is available at over 700 online music outlets
worldwide now.
-S. McCauley
Lead Press Release Writer
www.MondoTunes.com
“Shadow and Light” by
Catherine Goldwyn and Phil Lewis –
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