RECORDINGS
Concert Recordings
UNIVERSAL SACRED MUSIC FOR CHORUS
“This recording represents the core spirituality of my life. Since the early 1980’s, I have been writing choral music about spiritual unity – the unity that comes from knowing three basic things: 1) that there is one God for us all, 2) that the love of God is eternal and unconditional, and 3) that we are all Brothers and Sisters, eternal children of God and always loved unconditionally regardless of our actions in a given lifetime on Earth. Communicating this message, and related messages, became my main mission, and I proceeded to seek out or write texts that I thought would best communicate this message to my audiences, and set these texts to music. This recording contains several of my best compositions in this vein, including three of the six “universal masses” to date (the other three masses appear on Missa Universalis, Soundbrush 1002).” ROGER DAVIDSON
All compositions by Roger Davidson – Musica Universalis Publishing (BMI)
HILSEN TIL DANMARK
A 2-disc set of a cappella choral works
| Disc 1 | |
| 1. Hilsen til Danmark | |
| 2. Livets Moder | |
| 3. Heden | |
| 4. Memento | |
| 5. Caracalla | |
| 6. Høsten | |
| 7. Min Ungdom | |
| 8. Ballade | |
| Disc 2 | |
| 1. Amor | |
| 2. Kristen og Lise | |
| 3. Andegaarden | |
| 4. Til Danmarks Kvinder | |
| 5. Aarets Tider | |
| 6. Fader Vor | |
| 7. Epilog |
TEMPLE OF THE SOUL: RHAPSODIES AND MEDITATIONS FOR SOLO PIANO
The solo piano pieces on this CD show what happens when Roger, in a reflective mood, simply lays his hands on the keys. The influences of a lifetime flow through him. You may hear nods to Gershwin, Jobim, and Ravel, and to the wealth of styles he has absorbed in his travels. The album, he says, is “not just a journey of the spirit; it’s an intuitive journey around the world. When you have the right color and the right kind of brush to express a feeling or a quality of life, it instinctively comes up and becomes part of the fabric of each piece.”
MANDALA
Rhapsody for Trumpet, Strings, and Percussion Jeffrey Silverschlag, trumpet London Symphony Orchestra, Kirk Trevor, conductor from Mandala, MMC 2131
ENGLISH SUITE ON PERSPECTIVES
The eclectic PERSPECTIVES double disc set, spanning over two hours of music, is sure to enchant listeners and place them in the purview of some of today’s most evocative modern American composers- featuring 11 in all on this release from MMC.
“English Suite” by Roger Davidson finds the accomplished MMC composer/ pianist paying respect to his lifelong kinship with English country dance music through 5 sweeping movements written for String Orchestra.
NEW AMERICAN WORKS FOR CLARINET
The new face of contemporary choral music. Featuring works by Davidson and McKinley performed by the Slovak Radio Symphony Choir (Kirk Trevor, conductor)
NEW AMERICAN WORKS FOR CLARINET features compositions by Jonathan Sacks, Roger Davidson, and William Thomas McKinley as recorded by Richard Stoltzman, the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, and conductor Carl St. Clair.
MISSA UNIVERSALIS
The new face of contemporary choral music. Featuring works by Roger Davidson performed by the Slovak Radio Symphony Choir (Luigi Azzolini, conductor)
Missa Universalis means “Universal Mass” in the Latin language. The three masses on this recording, for mixed chorus a capella, were written between 1984 and 1992. They are masses because they derive from Catholic liturgy, and are universal because of the message that there is but one God–”Credo in unum Deum.” All references to strictly Christian dogma have been removed, resulting in a mass for all human beings regardless of religious background.
Jazz Recordings
LIVE AT CAFFE VIVALDI VOLUME 1
In 2012, we started a regular Wednesday night performance series at the venerable Caffe Vivaldi in New York City’s Greenwich Village. This intimate venue was a place where our recording artists could present new material, revisit old material and interact with each other in different musical combinations. The timeless cafe has now become our informal home and what has transpired has been extraordinary. In 2013 we started to record these performances. Here are Soundbrush Records’ artists, anchored by pianist, composer, and Soundbrush founder Roger Davidson, captured in the immediacy of live music making.
LIVE AT CAFFE VIVALDI VOLUME 2
In 2012, we started a regular Wednesday night performance series at the venerable Caffe Vivaldi in New York City’s Greenwich Village. This intimate venue was a place where our recording artists could present new material, revisit old material and interact with each other in different musical combinations. The timeless cafe has now become our informal home and what has transpired has been extraordinary. In 2013 we started to record these performances. Here are Soundbrush Records’ artists, anchored by pianist, composer, and Soundbrush founder Roger Davidson, captured in the immediacy of live music making.
LIVE AT CAFFE VIVALDI VOLUME 3
LIVE AT CAFFE VIVALDI VOLUME 3
WE REMEMBER HELEN
In 2011, Davidson went into the studio to record his newest jazz CD. We Remember Helen is a salute to the legendary producer and manager Helen Keane, whose encouragement helped give Davidson the confidence to pursue jazz. In 1991, Keane — best known for her 17-year association with the great Bill Evans — produced Roger’s first jazz album, Ten to Twelve. On We Remember Helen, Davidson is joined by two A-list jazzmen: bassist David Finck (who played on Ten to Twelve) and drummer Lewis Nash. They perform several exquisitely chosen jazz standards that Keane loved (including “Yesterdays,” “Whisper Not,” “How Deep Is the Ocean,” and “What’s New?”), along with originals that Davidson wrote with her in mind.
We Remember Helen is a testament to his fresh, lyrical touch and abundant heart; it’s also a remembrance of a producer who changed the course of jazz, and of Davidson’s career.
UMBRELLAS AND SUNSHINE
French composer Michel Legrand has written some of the most memorable romantic music on film. Many of his songs have long since become jazz and pop standards. In Umbrellas and Sunshine, pianist and composer Roger Davidson and bassist David Finck offer a deeply original, intimate take of Legrand’s music – stories of love found and lost, elegantly whispered, swinging, among friends.
Since starting his career in the ‘70s, French-American pianist and composer Roger Davidson has been as voracious in his musical curiosity as Michel Legrand — and just as fearless in his reach. Davidson’s writing include symphonies and choral music, small-group jazz, Klezmer, tango and a bounty of Brazilian-flavored songs. In all his work, as in Legrand’s, melody reigns. It was bassist David Finck, who suggested to Davidson exploring an album’s-worth of Legrand’s songs. The pianist was all for it.
“I feel a tremendous kinship with Michel Legrand,” says Davidson. “Legrand is French, and so am I. He is a very romantic composer; he writes music with feeling. We both love to write melodies. Like everyone else, I heard his tunes played over and over by many wonderful musicians, and I started playing them myself.” The result is Umbrellas and Sunshine, a celebration of Michel Legrand, romance, and swing.
TEN TO TWELVE
Recorded in 1991 under the auspices of the legendary jazz producer, Helen Keane, these sessions are finally released to wide critical acclaim. Jazz Times raves, “His composer’s mind creates highly original interpretations of jazz standards and he writes some credible jazz statements himself.”
Combining standards and a few originals, Roger Davidson’s classic piano, bass, drum trio is a sublime recording.
Brazilian Recordings
ORAÇÃO PARA AMANHÃ
(Prayer for Tomorrow)
The album is the first by Davidson’s new trio, with stellar Brazilian musicians based in New York. The first-call rhythm section of Eduardo Belo (bass) and Adriano Santos (drums) is joined by another mainstay of the New York Brazilian jazz community of artists, harmonica and vibraphone extraordinaire Hendrik Meurkens, as featured soloist.
These recordings came about after the trio played several engagements in and around New York City. Recorded over several nights at NYCs famed Zinc Bar, a haven for Brazilian jazz, the musicians rejoice in each of Roger’s original compositions.
All compositions by Roger Davidson (Musica Universalis Publishing – BMI)
MUSIC FROM THE HEART
JOURNEY TO RIO
Like many Americans, Roger Davidson discovered the bossa nova through the recordings of Stan Getz, and since then, the sounds of Brazil have been especially close to his heart. In four previous CDs – Brazilian Love Song, Bom Dia, Rodgers in Rio, and Bingo – he brought his unique spin to the music of a country that, remarkably, he had never visited. In October 2011, that changed.
Accompanied by his producer, the Argentine bassist and bandleader Pablo Aslan, Roger took his first trip to Brazil. Most of his eight days there, which he spent in Rio de Janeiro, were occupied by six recording sessions. Roger arrived with a hundred of his Brazilian compositions to choose from; the songs he recorded – in addition to several new ones he composed in Rio – comprise these two CDs.
Original compositions by Roger Davidson (Musica Universalis, BMI)
BRAZILIAN LOVE SONG
Pianist Roger Davidson’s repertory as a composer ranges from chamber music and symphonic and choral works to songs in Afro-Caribbean and Latin American styles, and from straight-ahead jazz to Klezmer music and children’s songs. Featuring eighteen original compositions, including bossa novas, sambas and chorinhos, Brazilian Love Song, is an exhilarating showcase for one of the most versatile composers in music today.
BOM DIA
On his widely praised 2005 album Rodgers in Rio, Roger Davidson set Richard Rodgers standards in bossa settings, led by his tuneful, jazz-inspired piano playing. Now, in BOM DIA (Portuguese for “good day”), he weds his own songs to a full range of samba rhythms, from the percussive Carnaval style to the delicate murmur of the bossa nova. Here is a must-have album of romantic jazz, a love poem to Brasil – a country that has produced some of the world’s most bewitching tunes.
Uniting the same trio which includes legendary drummer Paulo Braga and first-call jazz bassist, David Finck, BOM DIA is a world class recording.
RODGERS IN RIO
“Brazilian legendary drummer Paulo Braga joins David Finck and Roger Davidson in the trio’s ode to Richard Rodgers. “With a decidedly different twist on this program of favorite Richard Rodger tunes, pianist Roger Davidson turns them into gala Sambasand Bossa Novas. Celebrating the work of this popular songwriter, he explores each melody with a light, rythmic syncopation.
The original melodies remain at the forefront of his emphasis, as he interprets each song with gaily with a bright, positive glow….. The pianist has created a souvenir postcard to honor the life of a great popular composer – with candid reflections from Rio.”
BINGO
Songs for Children in English with Brazilian and Caribbean Rhythms. Arranger and pianist Roger Davidson formed BINGO, an ensemble of leading Jazz musicians, to breathe new life into cherished childhood tunes. In addition to Brazil’s legendary Paulo Braga and Marivaldo dos Sontos, Bingo features vocalist Christy Baron, whose pristine singing brings sophistication and groove to these time-worn classics.
Tango Recordings
Te Extrano Buenos Aires (TANGOS)
PASIÓN POR LA VIDA
Pasión por la Vida is an album of original tangos composed by pianist Roger Davidson, performed in a duo with Soundbrush’s Latin Grammy Award-winning Raúl Jaurena on bandoneon. This is Davidson’s third album of tangos and his first with a program entirely of his own compositions. For lovers and romantics, this collection of tangos, produced by Pablo Aslan, is an elegant example of the genre in its most basic instrumentation. This is music to enjoy intimately as well as on the dance floor. An irrefutable case for the enduring passion of the form.
Klezmer Recordings
ON THE ROAD OF LIFE
For the first recording of his original Klezmer music, Roger Davidson teamed up with trumpeter, bandleader, and “high-priest of New Wave Avant-Klez jazz” Frank London, and an exceptional ensemble, featuring virtuoso clarinetist Andy Statman and master accordionist and cimbalom player Joshua Horowitz. Davidson’s songs draw from his vast reservoir of sources — from Hungarian music and English country dances to tango and Israeli folk music. This is 21st century Klezmer at its best.