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Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble CD “A Not so Silent Night” Earns Four Stars from Downbeat Magazine

Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble’s “A Not So Silent Night” album (2016) has earned four stars in the December 2017 issue of Downbeat Magazine. It’s featured in Frank-John Hadley’s “Stellar Stocking Stuffers” article, p. 87.

 

The review is as follows:

 

Downbeat cover & review of Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble's "A Not So Silent Night" December 2017 issue

 

"A Not So Silent Night" Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble

 

“A Not So Silent Night” is the eighth album from The Heritage Ensemble featuring multi-Grammy nominated drummer Bobby Sanabria, saxophonist Michael Hashim, bassist Frank Wagner,  percussionist Matthew Gonzalez, and Leader/pianist Eugene Marlow.

 

“A Not So Silent Night” along with other Heritage Ensemble albums can be found at can be found at www.cdbaby.com/artist/eugenemarlow

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AN INTERVIEW WITH AWARD-WINNING CLASSICAL PIANIST NADA: On the Eve of the Release of Her Second Album of Solo Works by Brahms

The Marlowsphere Blog (#138)

Nada in Hamburg with Johannes BrahmsOnVienna: Brahms & Nada will be released May 7, 2017 May 7, 2017 award-winning classical pianist Nada will release “Vienna: Brahms & Nada” the second in a series of solo piano works by the prolific Romantic-era composer Johannes Brahms on the MEII Enterprises label.

May 7 is Brahms’ 184th birthday.

Nada recently talked about her affinity with Brahms and how her relationship to his solo piano works evolved.


A Young Nada Q: What was your first encounter with Brahms’ music and when did you start playing it?

Nada: “I was still growing up in Beirut, and probably not even yet taking piano lessons when I first heard his music. The two first pieces I heard were his piano concerto No. 1 and the Double Concerto. About the piano concerto, this memory is linked closely to my godfather—who also introduced me through his collection of records to a great number of classical repertoire—who would talk forever while listening to the piece about the long genesis of this work. The Double Concerto Op. 102 was a recording belonging to my dad’s collection of LPs.  There was something very deep about Brahms, I could feel, but it seemed unreachable at the time. This music got stuck in my head. I could tell when I returned to it only a few years ago. It seemed like it had never left me.

“My first attempt to play his music was much later. I had already graduated with a First Prize from the Paris Conservatory, with music by French composer Henri Dutilleux, some Liszt, Bach and Haydn. I had been labeled as a new Clara Haskil and played Mozart, Schubert. Haydn so well it earned me First Prize.

“I formed a piano trio shortly after.  The first two works we planned to perform were: the trio by French composer Ernest Chausson and, of course, the first piano trio by Johannes Brahms, an extremely popular piece for this formation.  I felt pianistically and emotionally at ease in Brahms’ music Nada's Trio at the Paris Conservatorythough my understanding was very limited, I know. This happened to be, incidentally, a very grueling experience for me. I performed this program only two weeks after the tragic death of my mom in a bomb explosion in our home in Beirut.

“Again, sporadically and with great intervals in between, I touched up on two solo pieces. I was already living in the U.S. by then and married. My husband himself was a trained musician and pianist. He instigated an old interest I had in Brahms’ second piano concerto. This piece, for which I had already acquired the music, always seemed to be the whole world, despite the fact that I did not know it well at all. But what I gathered was that everything was in those notes, everything you can ever imagine and say in music. This was my impression. So I set to learn it in a few weeks. I still don’t know how I did it, but I was able to play through it for a very small audience with my husband then at the second piano playing the orchestral reduction. Then it disappeared from my repertoire as quickly as I had learned it.

The same fate befell the Fantasies Op. 116 which I learned only for the purpose for a recording as a good complementary piece to the seldom recorded Paul Dukas piano sonata. Absolutely unintentional was the fact that this CD, my first, was to be released on Brahms centennial death anniversary in 1997. This album is now reissued on the MEII Enterprises label.

Q: You seem to point to the fact that you do not know the composer well, yet you released a CD in May 2016 (“Nada in Hamburg with Johannes Brahms”) of his lesser known pieces described by most reviewers as “with a special affinity with the composer’s music.” You’re about to release a second album of Brahms works for solo piano (“Vienna: Brahms and Nada” MEII Enterprises May 7, 2017) and more may be on the way. What has prompted you to go on with this journey now?

Nada: “You see things have radically changed. It seems like I know him intimately and my understanding of his music and his personality goes without question.”

Q: How did this happen? Why this sudden knowledge? It sounds like you walked side-by-side with Brahms for a long time, yet he was not really part of your life. Am I correct?

Nada in Hamberg at Brahms' piano at the Brahms Museum, Hamburg, GermanyNada: “Absolutely!!! It is like my entire life I respected a musical figure, unquestionably one of our greatest composers, not daring or even being capable of entering his world. And, on one memorable night, while listening to his ‘Ein Deutsches Requiem,’ this very unique prayer to eternal life and life after death, as no other piece or requiem has ever come close; did I even know it then? But that night, the light came through.

“I lived the experience as magic. The sounds of ‘Ein Deutsches Requiem’ suddenly, and yes, suddenly became the most magnificent music, the most beautiful and moving music I had ever heard until now.
I was riveted to the sounds and tears fell down my cheeks. I felt absolutely blessed and lucky to be able to see him and feel the deep joy and beauty of it all.

“And since then, my world evolved into including Johannes Brahms into my everyday life. I learned and listened to virtually all of his music in the space of two to three years. I devoured everything I could learn, his chamber music, and his lieders. I set to exploring the German language so I could understand and appreciate the beautiful poetry and words of his lieders. And it is an ongoing quest for more. I have the orchestral scores of his symphonies which I can’t wait to study in detail, while I am still short of having learned, but a few pieces left of his solo piano repertoire.”

Q: Do you now feel differently about your understanding of his music/personality?

Nada: “Completely. Now, it is like he is walking next to me in my life, he is sitting by me while learning the music. His music seems limpidly clear in its musical thoughts. The conception, structures, usage of themes, musical ideas, harmonies are all so incredible throughout, it’s like treasure after treasure being discovered, all of this in one of the most beautifully expressive and emotionally direct music ever composed. I could sit down and go through the pieces I know best know, and show you all those little miracles at every corner of each work, all the genius creativity, and of course, the result is this immensely deep and beautiful music, a universe of infinity. Now, my journey will have no end and can go forever!”


About Nada

Nada in PerformancePianist Nada, a U.S. citizen of Lebanese/Hungarian descent, with an award-winning Paris Conservatory education, enjoys a career as a soloist, radio broadcaster, and educator. She was a first prize winner at the Paris Conservatory who then came to North America for advanced studies at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada and at Indiana University in the U.S. with the late pianist Gyorgy Sebok.

Her last recital tour took her to Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan. In Paris and New York City, she has premiered works by great Lebanese composers Bechara El Khoury and Elias Rahbani and recorded pieces by classical/jazz composer Eugene Marlow. Nada has notably performed piano concertos of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Grieg, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel with orchestras in the U.S. and served as Artist-in-Residence in colleges and universities.

Nada organizes, hosts, and performs in her own concert series “The Classical Hour” in Louisville, KY, where she has nurtured a large following of listeners over many years. “The Classical Hour” is a once-a-month live broadcast and a weekly pre-recorded program every Sunday at 4 p.m. local time which can be heard worldwide over the Internet. It is available as a free download at

Nada has recorded four solo piano albums all of which are now on the MEII Enterprises label. They can be found at www.cdbaby.com/artist/nada4.

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“Obrigado Brasil!” Latest Heritage Ensemble CD Released 9-21-16

"Obrigado Brasil!" Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble

Swinging Brazilian-based works are on the original order of the day here. Solid work that highlights the musical trail from New York to the tropics, the gang really tears it up here on a smoking set that gets any party started in fine style. With a real feel for the mode at hand, Marlow and the gang are in touch with their inner tropicalistas and make you believe. Well done.

Chris Spector
Midwest Record
10/04/2016 

 

September 7, 2016: Indie label MEII Enterprises announces the forthcoming 7th album from Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble: “Obrigado Brasil!”

“Obrigado Brasil!”—a nine track album of original sambas and bossa novas by award-winning Heritage Ensemble leader/pianist/composer Eugene Marlow—celebrates and pays homage to Brazilian musical culture that gave birth to the driving rhythms of the samba and the romantic feel of the bossa nova.

The album’s release follows the conclusion of the Summer 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and the anniversary of Brazil’s independence from Portugal on September 7, 1822.

Some highlights:

This album introduces young virtuoso pianist ArcoIris Sandoval who performs on “Arco’s Arc (which she co-wrote with composer Eugene Marlow). She also performs on “Novo Bossa” (on the Rhodes keyboard), “Flight II” and “Longing.”

Mixing things up is a hybrid piece: “Enigma” which begins and ends in a classical vein with Virginia Chang Chien performing two coincident oboe lines. The bulk of the track is an improvisation on the chords by saxophonist Michael Hashim in a bossa nova style.

The album’s final track—“Carnaval a Sanabria”—is a multi-layer drum and percussion celebration of the samba improvised by multi-Grammy nominee Heritage Ensemble drummer Bobby Sanabria.

"Obrigado Brasil!" Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble Back Cover“Obrigado Brasil” is an album with a long pedigree. According to Marlow, “My journey with Latin-jazz begins in England (where I was born) with my listening to the Edmundo Ros Sextet perform—probably on early British television. As a member of the Hunter College Choir (tenor) I was influenced by choir director Ralph Hunter, former Harry Belafonte music director. When we performed Hunter’s Belafonte calypso arrangements I played the bongos. While in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam era off-duty I formed a trio with Chicano-born drummer Rudy Merino who played bossa novas with brushes as if the rhythms were in his DNA, and virtuoso bass player Sonny Jay who had performed and recorded with Louis Jordan of “Caldonia” famous. This was also the era of the bossa nova made popular by guitarist/composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and “The Girl from Ipanema.” There were many bossa novas in our repertoire.

“Obrigado Brasil!” will be available on at cdbaby.com/artist/eugenemarlow starting September 21, 2016.

Album Performers: Eugene Marlow, leader/piano; Bobby Sanabria, 7X Grammy-nominee drums/percussion/vocals; Michael Hashim, saxophones; Frank Wagner, bass; ArcoIris Sandoval, guest pianist; Virginia Chang Chien guest oboist.

“Obrigado Brasil!” is Eugene Marlow’s 18th album since 2005. Check them out here cdbaby.com/artist/eugenemarlow.

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“Nada in Hamburg with Johannes Brahms” to be Released on May 7, 2016, Brahms’ 183rd Birthday

Nada in Hamburg with Johannes BrahmsNew York, NY:  MEII Enterprises is proud to announce the forthcoming release of “Nada in Hamburg with Johannes Brahms” featuring Nada Loutfi, piano soloist, radio broadcaster, and educator. The 10-track album consists of prolific German composer Johannes Brahms’ (1833-1897) earliest works.

May 7, 2016 is Brahms’ 183rd Birthday celebration.

Of the five works on the album, three
are chorales for piano.  These pieces, transcribed by Nada for this album, represent the first recording of these chorales for piano.

Other works on the album include:

  • Variations on a Hungarian Theme (Op. 21 No. 2)
  • Chaconne for the violin arranged for the left hand alone after J.S. Bach (Étude No. 5)
  • Sonata Op. 1 No. 1 in C Major
  • Étude for piano for the left hand after Franz Schubert (Éude No. 6)

“Nada in Hamburg” is the pianist’s third album, the second with this artist for the MEII Enterprises label. Her first CD, the self-titled “Nada Loutfi Pianist” (1997), features the rarely performed sonata by Paul Dukas and the Fantasy pieces Op. 116 by Johannes Brahms.

Her last CD—“Les Sentiments d’Amour” (MEII Enterprises 2006)—consists of 20 short character pieces for solo piano in the French chanson tradition composed by Eugene Marlow. Of this album, Paul Moravec, 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, said: “Pianist Nada Loutfi is the work’s ideal advocate in her wonderfully sensitive and finely balanced interpretations.”

Executive producer for “Nada in Hamburg” is Joelle Shefts, Producer is Eugene Marlow. The 64-minute album was recorded on a 9’ Yamaha at TNT Studios (Louisville, KY), edited at Valhalla Studio (New York City), and mastered at Onomatopoeia (New York City).

Nada Bio

Pianist Nada Loutfi, a U.S. citizen of Lebanese/Hungarian descent, with a Paris Conservatory education, enjoys a career as a soloist, radio broadcaster and educator. She was a first prize winner at the Paris Conservatory who then came to North America for advanced studies at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada and Indiana University in the U.S. with the late pianist Gyorgy Sebok.

Her last recital tour took her to Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan. In New York City, she has performed Lebanese composer Elias Rahbani’s works and recorded pieces by classical/jazz composer Eugene Marlow. Nada has notably performed piano concertos of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Grieg, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel.

Nada organizes, hosts, and performs in her own concert series “The Classical Hour” in Louisville, KY, where she has nurtured a large following of listeners over many years. “The Classical Hour” is a once-a-mouth live broadcast and a weekly pre-recorded program every Sunday at 4 p.m. local time which can be heard worldwide over the Internet. It is available as a free download at http://www.crescenthillradio.com/the-classical-hour-nada.html.

MEII Enterprises
MEII Enterprises is a music and media company specializing in jazz, Latin jazz,
Brazilian, and classical music. Its catalogue of 18 albums can be found at www.cdbaby.com/artist/eugenemarlow.

The company also produces and distributes documentary DVDs, including “Shakerism: The First Two Hundred Years” (re-released in 2010) and “Zikkaron/Kristallnacht: A Family Story” (2015). Currently, the company is editing “From Decadent Dance Hall Music to Individual Freedom of Expression: Jazz in China” for release in 2017.

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“Zikkaron/Kristallnacht” Remembrance of Kristallnacht November 9-10, 1938

Zikkaron/Kristallnacht Remembrance of Kristallnacht DVD by Eugene MarlowThe Marlowsphere Blog (#131)

Seventy-seven years ago Ernst Eduard vom Rath (3 June 1909 – 9 November 1938), a German diplomat, was assassinated in Paris in early November 1938 by a Jewish teenager, Herschel Grynszpan. This became the pretext for “Kristallnacht,” the “Night of Broken Glass” on November 9-10, 1938 by the Nazis. The name “Kristallnacht” comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues had their windows smashed.

The true number of Jews massacred in the attacks will probably never be known, but it was certainly many times greater than the “published 91+ dead,” when the maltreatment of the Jewish men after they were arrested is taken into consideration, along with at least 300 suicides caused by the despair it engendered. Jewish deaths undoubtedly ran into the hundreds.

Additionally, 30,000 were arrested and incarcerated in Nazi concentration camps. Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked, as the attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers.

Over 1,000 synagogues were burned (95 in Vienna alone) and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged.

“Kristallnacht “was followed by additional economic and political persecution of Jews, and is viewed by historians as part of Nazi Germany’s broader racial policy, and the beginning of the Final Solution and The Holocaust.

This is the context of a 9:20 minute DVD conceived and produced by Dr. Eugene Marlow now available from MEII Enterprises.

"Book of Ruth" by Ruth Rack (nee Landesberg)“Zikkaron/Kristallnacht (Remembrance of Kristallnacht),” however, did not start out as a video.  Its genesis was a chapter entitled “Kristallnacht” that appears in The Book of Ruth (Southern Highlands Publishers) published in 2000. It is a memoir  written by Dr. Marlow’s Aunt Ruth Rack (née Landesberg) who, along with his mother Estelle and two other siblings—his Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Bob—were fortunate to escape from Germany in spring 1939 shortly before Germany closed its borders. They all escaped to England. Ruth now lives in Sydney, Australia. All four siblings, together with their parents, mother Anna and father Bernhard, experienced Kristallnacht directly in Leipzig, Germany.

This chapter inspired Dr. Marlow to write a piece of music to pay homage to  Kristallnacht survivors and non-survivors alike. Recorded by his group The Heritage Ensemble in 2014 “Zikkaron/Kristallnacht” was released on an album entitledMosaica: Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble Reimagines Popular Hebraic Melodies “Mosaica: Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble Reimagines Popular Hebraic Melodies.”

Shortly after the “Mosaica” CD was released it occurred to Dr. Marlow that the track would have even more impact if it were visualized; hence, the current DVD. He uses this video as an introduction for live presentations about his family’s story, during and especially after the November 1938 event. The thread of the story is that despite the Nazi’s intentions, his maternal family that escaped to England grew and prospered. The larger Jewish family has too in the last 75 years. In fact, Israel has one of the strongest economies in the Middle East and the world Jewish population is now the same as it was before The Holocaust—a triumph over The Final Solution.

“Zikkaron/Kristallnacht” is available directly from MEII Enterprises for US$10, plus US$3 domestic shipping and handling. Payment can be made through MEII Enterprises PayPal account (MEIIEnterprises@aol.com) or by contacting MEII Enterprises directly at the address phone number listed below.

Dr. Marlow is available to talk about his DVD and the aftermath of Kristallnacht as it affected his maternal family. He can also be reached at the address and phone number below.

Support for this project was provided by a PSC-CUNY Award, jointly funded by The Professional Staff Congress and The City University of New York.

Eugene Marlow, Ph.D.
November 9, 2015

© Eugene Marlow 2015

To order the “Zikkaron/Kristallnacht” DVD
or to arrange for a presentation:

“Zikkaron/Kristallnacht” DVD is available
directly from MEII Enterprises for
US$10 + US$3 domestic shipping & handling
Total of US$13

Payment can be made through
MEII Enterprises PayPal account or
by contacting MEII Enterprises directly
at the address phone number listed below

PayPal
If you have a PayPal account, after
logging in to PayPal,
click “Pay or Send Money”
click “Pay for Goods or Services”
Then put in the e-mail address: meiienterprises@aol.com

Write or Call
Eugene Marlow
MEII Enterprises
235 Adams Street, Ste. 7A
Brooklyn, NY 11201

e-mail: meiienterprises@aol.com

Phone: 718-858-3384

 

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