TIMOTTEO & HARRY WATERS

ND/ ATENEO THEATRE

MARCH 11^TH, 2012

Featuring Argentine Musicians

&

Guitarist Dave Kilminster

Article by Adriana Rubio

Photographs:

Courtesy of 300 Producciones & DBN Records

 

Timotteo is a tango quartet from Buenos Aires. In 2009 they started what they call “our own milonga”. They used to play their own musical compositions every Thursday evening in the heart of San Telmo, a very significant area of Buenos Aires devoted to promote all kinds of cultural events.  

Around the same year Timotteo released the first album titled "Timotteo" which also includes musical compositions from Plaza and Rovira. Additionally, the album features the “San Martin Symphonic Orchestra” performing a musical work from Astor Piazzolla: “Concierto de Nácar”.

Timotteo toured locally and also in Uruguay performing at “Montevideo Tango Festival”. However, in 2010 they embarked on their first European Tour for a big number of successful live performances in Spain, England, The Netherlands, Germany, Turkey, Sweden and Denmark. And while touring in England, Timotteo played together with piano jazz musician Harry Waters. These great musicians are:

Ignacio “Nacho” Oroná   (Bandoneon)
Ruben Polizzi   (Violin)
Alejandro Lafogiannis   (Chelo)
Federico Pérez   (Piano)
Javier Arteaga   (DoubleBass)

Nacho Oroná is a self-confessed Pink Floyd fan and during the time Timotteo performed in England he realized that Harry Waters had a number of live performances. They arranged some gigs together. There was an incredible connection right from the start which led to record a couple of tracks for Harry Waters Band’s first solo album: “Libertango” and “Violentango” which are musical versions from Tango Master Astor Piazzolla. Timotteo and Harry Waters kept in fluent contact since then and due to The Wall visit to Argentina for nine concerts at River Plate Stadium, they organized a live gig for Harry in a more intimate environment to present his first solo album at ND ATENEO Theatre on March 11th, 2012 a sold out and memorable one! And for this special concert Nacho Oroná carefully selected the Argentine musicians to perform with Harry: Jerónimo Llamazares on sax, Federico Martin Palmolella on doublebass, Julián Nicolás Graciano on guitar and Santiago Hernández on drums. 

The event was presented and promoted by D.B.N and 300 Producciones. D.B.N is an Argentine Records Distributor Company which is in charge of distributing Harry Waters’ 13 tracks new album in Argentina. Eleven of those tracks are fully composed by Harry Waters with the inclusion of two Bonus Tracks “Libertango” and “Violentango” featuring tango quartet “Timotteo”. 

Harry Waters performed brilliantly for more than two hours. The set also included a sax quartet and a clarinet which was very much applauded. But one of the most exciting moments for the audience was when Harry invited Roger Waters’ touring lead guitarist Dave Kilminster to jam with him on stage.

When the show was over, a table full of Harry Waters’ CDs awaited at the Theatre main entrance for fans to buy from, a table which was prepared by D.B.N Press Agency 300 Producciones. There was also another table for guitarist Dave Kilminster’s CDs, his re-released solo album “Scarlet”, now titled “Scarlet-The Director’s Cut”. 

This blog thanks D.B.N and 300 Producciones for granting Press Access to document Timotteo & Harry Waters’ performance at ND/Ateneo Theatre.

For more information on Timotteo, Harry Waters and Dave Kilminster please visit their official sites at:

http://www.timotteo.com.ar

http://www.harrywaters.co.uk/

http://www.davekilminster.com/

DAVE KILMINSTER PART II

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

MARCH 2012

HARD ROCK CAFÉ, BUENOS AIRES

By Adriana Rubio

Interview-Photographs: By Adriana Rubio

Gigs Photographs: By Fernando Serani

 

Guitar Virtuoso Dave Kilminster is currently touring with Roger Waters’ “The Wall” in South America. The first two gigs from the S.A leg took place in Santiago, Chile at The National Stadium on March 2^nd and 3^rd. And after these two successful performances, the entire crew travelled to Buenos Aires, Argentina for nine gigs.

After almost two months of being in fluent contact through e-mails with Dave, we finally met in person for the interview! 

Dave Kilminster has a vast trajectory both as a skillful guitar teacher and as an exceptional performer in the techniques of tapping, pull-off, sweep-picking and hammer-on. He has also played for Keith Emerson Band, Carl Palmer and John Wetton -former King Crimson- among a long list of fabulous artists and bands such as “Qango” and “Guthrie Govan”.

His musical talent and determination led to an astonishing career as a professional and respected guitarist. Although he says he’s been lucky, there’s also a belief that nothing happens just by chance or miracle. You have to put on the effort.

“I wanted to play piano…”

“My story is a bit odd as I never actually wanted to play guitar. I wanted to play piano… ha, ha. I never had any desires of playing guitar. I really wanted to play piano, and the bad thing was that we never had one at home. I used to play piano at school, and it was really a pain to get back home with loads of things and ideas sounding nice in my head without a piano to perform them, and you have to face that frustration”.

“I was introduced to play guitar or should I say with the thought of maybe playing guitar by a school mate who was sat next to me. He was looking at a guitar catalogue and I just thought about the possibility of getting one of those until things were better to get the instrument I wanted to play… ha, ha…”

His first guitar was a no-name classical guitar that he bought from school. Dave Kilminster is a self-taught guitarist and started playing left-handed, but he broke his wrist in an accident. He now plays right-handed.

“I was a Van Halen fan when I bought my first guitar… it was a classical guitar. I painted it white with black stripes, took the frets out to make it into a fretless classical one. And, YES! I'm totally self-taught. It takes a lot longer to learn that way, but it really helps you if you are serious about it.  You have to just sit there and figure it all out for yourself. And when I thought it was all done, I had to learn play guitar right-handed…”

Dave Kilminster was always a Van Halen fan and amongst his musical likes from when he was a teen -surprisingly Pink Floyd is not included - Queen is at the top of the list. He never bought a Pink Floyd record. He watched The Wall movie for the first time a couple of years ago. So how this skillful guitarist got in touch with Roger Waters and became his touring guitarist?

“Well, my manager Martin Darvill received a phone call from Snowy White. They were basically putting out calls to colleagues looking for a guitarist. Around that time, I was supposed to go on tour with Keith Emerson, so I didn’t feel the enthusiasm of trying. But a few days later Keith's manager e-mailed me saying that the tour was cancelled! And I thought that was a sign… I believe in signs sometimes”.

“I put myself to work and recorded a demo CD of me playing and singing some Pink Floyd tunes. I then met Roger for the first time at the audition. I was horrible! (Laughs)”

“Nothing happens on stage by chance; it's all down to Roger’s incredible imagination and boundless energy. Roger sees the whole picture in his head, you know what I mean? The music, lights, images… everything!”

“I'm basically Gilmour “stunt” playing note for note the stuff he wrote. And at the end of the night, I realize that I’m being paid for playing someone else’s notes. (Laughs) But, I’m very happy and really enjoying the tour. It feels good to make Floyd fans happy, but if you make a mistake… ha, ha, you know… they know the songs so well. If you play the songs exactly the same as Dave Gilmour, fans say "It's not as good as Gilmour." If you put your own slant on it, they say "It doesn't sound like Gilmour." It’s not that I’m worried about it, but it’s certainly something that you have to deal with”.  

  

“Roger likes to hear the parts played as close as possible to the original recordings and the same happens with Floyd fans… they want to hear the songs exactly as they are. But there’s something maybe fans don’t understand… and this is when you read comments on YouTube like “Three guitarists to play what Gilmour did alone”… And the reason for that is that WE are covering all the multiple overdubs to sound as close as possible to the original recordings. Floyd’s never been a band known as a live performing act, even though they toured and made The Wall live in the 1980-81, there’s loads of studio work. For example for the Dark Side Of The Moon Tour, the song Money has THREE rhythm guitar parts all played at the same time… which is actually something one guitarist can play in a studio, but then you have to reproduce the same stuff on stage! You know what I mean? (Laughs) And for example Mother… I play Roger’s bass while he plays the acoustic guitar and sings!”

“Comfortably Numb is people’s favourite tune, and I do my best to make it sound as much like the original recording as possible. Sometimes it feels like I’m in a no-win situation… (Laughs) Everyone knows what the solo’s supposed to sound like!” (Laughs).

There’s more from Dave Kilminster to upload here. It will be posted soon!

“I’m a rock guitarist and have my own style too”

To be continued… Stay tuned..!

THANK YOU KILLER!

THE WALL SINGERS

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

BUENOS AIRES, MARCH 2012

By Adriana Rubio
Photographs By Fernando Serani

JON JOYCE – ROBBIE WYCKOFF

AND THE LENNONS

MARK - KIPP - PAT

The extraordinary new presentation of The Wall is by far the purest masterpiece ever created. The feelings of loss, suffering and abandonment that were at the center of Roger Waters’ original “The Wall” storyline are still present. But the significance of it as a whole has now been extended to a more deep assertion on the consequences caused by religions, war, politics and business-trade. It also shows how all this together impacted on people’s lives for centuries. Corporate logos and religious symbols reveal most of the human kind conflicts. It doesn’t matter if you’re not familiar with the 1979 Pink Floyd double album or the Alan Parker-directed movie. The message is clear enough and is the kind of spectacle that you can’t miss. The Wall is more like a fine-arts-theatrical production than an average rock concert.

Apart from the stunning show created by Roger Waters, we must highlight the marvelous work Waters’ musicians and singers are doing on this new The Wall. They are contributing to it in a very professional and artistic way. This blog thanks The Wall Tour Singers for their time and words for the enjoyment of you all!

Jon Joyce entered into the Pink Floyd world in 1979 to record backing vocals for the song “Goodbye Blue Sky” at the Producers Workshop in Hollywood. Joyce along with Jim Haas, Stan Farber and Joe Chemay were the chosen singers for the 1980-81 original The Wall live performances. Thirty two years later Jon Joyce is still part of Roger Waters’ The Wall phenomenal creation. Joyce has contributed greatly to this new musical chapter from the very beginning. He’s been in charge of selecting the male chorus for the tour: The Lennons from the band “Venice” -Mark, Kipp and Pat- and the lead vocalist to sing David Gilmour’s parts: Robbie Wyckoff.

  

ABOUT THE AUDITIONS:

“Roger called me looking for singers for The Wall. He always has singers for his own albums and tours, but he didn’t have singers for this particular project which is Roger’s biggest message to the world. And the first band I thought of was “Venice”! I had a Beach Boys concept in mind for this, and I knew these guys would sound brilliantly. But we needed to find the lead vocalist. I called Robbie and we worked over the telephone first and through e-mails with mp3 demo files. And it’s so strange because there’re no instruments, just him a capella singing “Hey You”! And they then laid it over the original track. I sent it to Roger and he said “I like this guy!”  (Jon Joyce).

“Roger came to LA to meet with us. Jon picked him up at the airport and we all met at Mark’s brother house, Michael. It was so weird, you know… (Laughs) we were playing guitar in a room with Roger, talking and sharing thoughts. He also brought a DVD that only belongs to him of the 1980 show”. (Kipp Lennon)

“I don’t think any of us can ever imagine how all this was going to change our lives, that it was going to be great in so many levels. Even though we knew Pink Floyd music and The Wall concept, you know… it’s just that we had no idea how close we would get with everybody in the band. We are very happy” (Mark Lennon)

ABOUT CONTRIBUTING TO ROGERS’ SONGS:

“Once Roger makes up his mind, he quickly moves on to something else. In rehearsals, we had to help him get a new ending for “Goodbye Blue Sky” to make it longer. So there’s something we had to contribute to The Wall. Then Roger wrote a new song and we had to come up with ideas for the background vocals. It’s still his song, but we feel that we really are part of it”. (Kipp Lennon)

“It was great that he actually came up to us saying…”What do you guys think we should do with these harmonies?”… And we immediately got the message. It was something like “I need your help guys, I wanna get this right”. And when we sing it every night… Oh! It’s a beautiful time for us”. (Pat Lennon).

ABOUT THE LYRICS:

“On a personal level The Wall is very important to me. Roger’s songs like “Mother”… It touches me deeply, it’s so special. Maybe it’s because my mother died 3 years ago and I think of her a lot, it’s so meaningful. And it happens the same with Comfortably Numb… singing those lyrics that Roger wrote… you just think what a genius he is, what a great lyricist he is! His lyrics never get old and I’m never tired of singing them. I feel totally connected with the songs and the audience. I put my heart entirely on this”. (Robbie Wyckoff)

“When you look at the audience all over the world on this tour, you see all kinds of people… different ages singing along… identifying the songs… it’s so moving, and even though we didn’t write the lyrics, we feel them. We are just lucky to be part of Roger’s tour; we are giving it to people” (Kipp Lennon)

ABOUT BEING A SINGER:

 

“Speaking for the three of us, we are family. We’ve been actually singing together for years. We’ve been in a band working together for 31 years. Singing is absolutely a huge part of our lives. We just can’t imagine a life with no singing. (Pat Lennon)

“We don’t have to worry about carrying a guitar case” (Laughs!!!) (Mark Lennon-the funniest guy in the band!)

“The only thing that worries a singer is getting a bad cold while touring. For the backing vocals it wouldn’t be a big problem if one of us gets sick because there’s still a group together, but for Robbie is a totally different thing” (Kipp Lennon)

“I have to take good care of my voice. If a guitar string breaks, you just change it. But your voice… it’s something you can’t fix that easy”. (Robbie Wyckoff)

Robbie Wyckoff is a Los Angeles-based session singer and recording artist whose outstanding voice can be heard on a vast number of movie soundtracks, TV shows, hit records and national jingles. After the recording of “Hey You”, Robbie travelled to New York to audition for The Wall. 

ROBBIE’S PROJECTS: 

He re-released “Lose Control”, a ten tracks album now available at CD-Baby site: 

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/robbiewyckoff

Before embarking on the 2012 leg of “The Wall” Tour, Robbie was busy in the studio recording and mixing new tunes for his “Big Band” album entitled “Steppin Out”. For more information on Robbie, just feel free to visit his official website at:

http://www.robbiewyckoff.com/main/

THE LENNONS/VENICE BAND was formed in 1977 by cousins Michael and Kipp Lennon in Venice, CA. In 1978 Michael’s brother Mark joined the band, followed by Kipp’s brother Pat Lennon in 1980. VENICE’s been active in the music field for so many years to the present days recording studio albums, performing live gigs locally and touring. They’ve been featured on famous TV shows such as Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and E! Entertainment among many others. Venice band members have performed and/or recorded with a big number of artists, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Cher, Phil Collins and Ozzy Osbourne, to mention a few. For more information on VENICE, feel free to visit the official website at:

http://www.venicecentral.com/

MARK “MARKY” LENNON

Marky’s been singing professionally since the age of 14. He is one of the lead vocalists in the band "Venice" and has recorded albums both with "Venice", and as a solo artist. Marky is also a well known painter-designer artist. Also, Mark Lennon's solo abums "The Demo Sessions", "Christmas In The Groove" & "Dance or Cry" ara available at cdbaby site: 

 http://www.cdbaby.com/

For more information on Marky Lennon, feel free to visit his official website at: 

http://www.markylennon.com/

THANK YOU SINGERS!

AVERAGE SONGS

THE ALBUM BY TOYGRACE

Review by Adriana Rubio

“Average Songs” is an eight tracks album which was self-produced, recorded and mastered at Synchronia Recording Studios in Rome, Italy by “Toygrace” during 2010-2011. The album was released digitally in December 2011. 

The meeting of piano player and composer Emanuele “Ema” Parlati and vocalist Laura Ferri Ricchi gave birth to Toygrace in August 2009. Ema composed the music and wrote the lyrics for the album “Average Songs”. Ema plays piano, keyboards and guitars in most of the album’s songs. Although Toygrace was formed as a Duo, the album also features Piero E. Pierantozzi on drums, Simone Di Rienzo on bass guitar, vocalist Denis Tesselli, and Vince Grieco on guitar.

“Average Songs” sounds like…“What’s going on here?”… You can’t put it into a specific genre. The songs are mood-styled and the compositions sound properly balanced with very few ups and downs. The instruments are very well performed and all musical arrangements fit perfectly. Laura is an outstanding vocalist capable of switching singing styles from Progressive-Metal to Pop, Latin and even pushing someone’s buttons with a Jazz melody.

Toygrace founder and band’s leader Ema Parlati played as an extreme metal keyboardist for a death metal band called “Defunctis”, but you’re not going to listen any of that playing style on the “Average Songs” album. Ema has also played live gigs for various tribute-covers bands throughout Italy in their most different musical styles. All this together helped Ema to refine his musical knowledge, piano playing and songwriting abilities to sit and compose the tracks for Toygrace’s first album “Average Songs”. This album clearly reflects the unique way this sophisticated piano composer feels music to express the everyday living sentiments. Toygrace music provides a mix of positive energy and calmness while listening. It is all mainly focused in trying to find the right balance in our lives.

AVERAGE SONGS

TRACKS LIST

IT’S NOT EASY TO BE ME

GREAT!

SATINE STONE

ME, YOU

MAGNET LOVE

MUSIC

OVER

FUNNY GAME

The “Average Songs” album also counts with a video-clip for the song “Great!” directed by Rosencrantz & Guilderstern from RG Factory in Rome. This song was first presented live in August 2010 by Toygrace vocalist Laura Ferri Ricchi at the Music Festival in Solariolo (IT) and reached the semifinals position. Toygrace is also a DEUCE act, a serious and established London-based Management for unsigned bands.

http://airplaydirect.com/music/toygrace/

www.toygrace.com

www.youtube.com/T0ygrace

info@toygrace.com

TOYGRACE

Duo From Italy

BIO

BY Adriana Rubio

Photographs: Courtesy of Toygrace

“Toygrace” formed in Rome, Italy, in August 2009. The meeting of piano player and composer Emanuele “Ema” Parlati and vocalist Laura Ferri Ricchi gave birth to Toygrace. Both are professional musicians who performed for various live tribute bands throughout Italy for a long time. Musically, Ema and Laura have a strong connection and share the same passion: “Toygrace”.

Emanuele “Ema” Parlati was born on February 4^th, 1976 in Bari, a small town located in the South-East area of Puglia in Italy. But his family moved out to Rome when he was a little kid, and this makes him feel as a Roman guy since he has no recollections of Bari.

The art of making music touched Ema’s life deeply and became his number one priority. He attended piano lessons and started really playing at the age of 14. He also is a self-taught guitarist, bassist and drummer.

Ema has experimented with all kinds of genres and piano playing styles over the years for different musical groups. But the most notorious band he was a part of playing as an extreme metal keyboardist in the 90’s was “Defunctis”, a death metal band.  He then walked off and went deeper into jazz music studies to improve his piano playing. And soon after Ema became a professional pianist-keyboardist for many pop and rock live acts in Italy.

In 2009 and with enough experience, Ema composed the music and wrote the lyrics for the album “Average Songs”, his first band project “Toygrace”. He produced, recorded and mixed all the tracks and was also in charge of all the musical arrangements. In “Average Songs” Ema plays piano, keyboards and guitars. 

Laura Ferri Ricchi was born on April 3^rd of 1979 in Rome, Italy. Laura discovered her singing abilities at the age of 16. She is an outstanding vocalist capable of switching singing styles from Progressive-Metal to Pop, Latin and even pushing someone’s buttons with a Jazz melody. Laura gained stage experience and presence by performing with a number of covers bands in Italy. She is an avid reader and literature lover as well as a great sports player.

Although Ema was looking for a more darker-oriented vocalist, Laura’s voice made him change his mind after jamming together and singing along some tracks. “Toygrace” is certainly giving Laura the right scenario to really shine-singing. The album “Average Songs” proves it.  

www.toygrace.com

www.youtube.com/T0ygrace

info@toygrace.com