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Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo: Melody Magic
ByThe music is mostly classical, with a true Hot Club reading of Beethoven's "5th Symphony" opening the disc. The pair plays the allegro con brio straight until the interior, whereSpanish and Gypsy influences bleed in, as well as late-romantic sonorities insinuating their way into the performance, making it easy to imagine this music being played in a small café of Paris' Left Bank in the present day. Bizet's "Carmen Habanera" is dispatched with all its hot-blooded passion, again with a parlor feel about it.
Pianist Uri Caine's Wagner e Venezia (Winter & Winter, 1997) and The Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley (Winter & Winter, 2000) possess this same quality of employing the instruments on hand to perform classical music in a parlor-like environment. The method provides the performer(s) an acute challenge to produce compelling music with instruments not necessarily associated with that music. Like Caine, Vignola rises to this challenge, transforming The Police's "Walking on The Moon" into a neo-reggae acoustic duet.
Melody Magic is "hinge music"music that incorporates elements not normally associated with it. Recordings like this can go horribly wrong, as evidenced by cut-out bins full of such fare. Vignola and Raniolo, however, dispatch their ranging material with intelligence and care, producing a very satisfying set.
Track Listing
TSymphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67: I. Allegro con brio (arr. F. Vignola); Carmen (arr. F. Vignola): Carmen, Act I: Habanera: L'amour est un oiseau rebelle (arr. F. Vignola); Scheherazade, Op. 35 (arr. F. Vignola); Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46: I. Morning Mood (arr. F. Vignola); If I Fell - Here, There and Everywhere (arr. T. Emmanuel); Dust in the Wind (arr. F. Vignola); Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004: I. Allemande (arr. F. Vignola); Violin Concerto in E minor: I. Allegro molto appassionato (arr. F. Vignola); Swan Lake Suite, Op. 20a: I. Scene (arr. F. Vignola); Eye of the Tiger (arr. F. Vignola); Walking on the Moon (arr. F. Vignola).
Personnel
Frank Vignola: guitar; Vinny Raniolo: guitar; Mark Egan: bass (1, 2, 4, 8, 9); Julien Labro: accordion (3, 6, 10, 11); Zack Brock: violin (3, 6, 10, 11); Cassie Holden: double bass (3, 10, 11); Mat Wigdon: double bass (6).
Album information
Title: Melody Magic | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Azica Records