New CD: Billet-Deux - Alita

MichaelHorowitz

Alita" >



Billet-Deux

Alita

Phil

Just rec'd a copy of this new CD featuring our resident Whidbey Island friend(!), Troy Chapman on lead guitar, Ted Gottsegen on rhythm, James Hinkley on cello and Kevin Stevens on bass...with Rod Backman bass on track 3. Great CD, really nice job and a great recording. Only just rec'd it, but after a couple of listens I'm already starting to whistle "My Gypsy Hat" which is a snappy original gypsy tune composed by Troy ~ which would grace any gypsy-jazz CD. Great tune!

As well as the clear tones and creative improv of Troy's gypsy guitar, the CD features the incredible cello playing of James Hinkley, which gives a haunting resonance to the 13 tracks: which includes a few original compositions, a few Django tunes and a mix of other tunes including a few of my favourite songs: "My One and Only Love" and the lovely ballad "You Must Believe in Spring" and "Django" the Modern Jazz Quartet's classic composed by pianist John Lewis. There's a very haunting rendition of the Beattles classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and the disc concludes with a stunning rendition of "Caravan" which starts with a teasing flutter of tremolo chords leading into a full on charge into a furious gypsy samba by Mr. Rhythm Guitar: Ted Gottsegen! There's solid bass playing throughout and some tasty exchanges between cello and bass on a number of the songs...they even double up on a melody which creates an interesting contrast between bass and cello. Troy...this is a great achievement...can't wait for disc #2! Cheers, Phil

Charlie Ayers

Nice review Phil. I too can recommend this CD. Creative, unique, beautifully done......

Charlie

Jack

Michael,

Be sure to pack one of these for me when you head East! Also, the links to the mp3s on the shop page aren't working...

Best,
Jack.
(And congrats, you guys!)

MichaelHorowitz

Troy changed the site so the links got messed up. All fixed now....








1. Alita

2. Django

3. My Gypsy Hat

4. Andorinha

5. Tricrotism

6. My One and Only Love

7. Seattle Blue

8. Artillerie Lourde

9. You Must Believe in Spring

10. Swing 48

11. While My Guitar Gently Weeps

12. This is New

13. Caravan

pallopenna

I still only get about a 1 sec. clip from each track...

-Paul

MichaelHorowitz

Hi Paul...you must be missing a codec or something. The examples are pretty long...

'm

Jack

They are-when I couldn't get them to work here I opened them at the band site. My Gypsy Hat is about four and half minutes. I was on an old dialup machine, and when it was done I'd forgot I'd started it! Good stuff, though!

Best,
Jack.

langleydjango

Sorry for any troubles guys!

Trying to keep the website up-to-date is one of many jobs I'm trying to keep on top of.
I just linked to full length MP3s of the tunes. Maybe not a sound business decision but I sort of hate hearing 1 minute of a tune.

Thanks to all of you for your support!

Troy

pallopenna

Michael's post made me go back and look at what was going on. It turned out that I had a QuickTime Plugin as my default mp3 player in Firefox. I usually like QuickTime, but for whatever reason the plugin won't play the whole file, or even a reasonable portion of it. I tried to switch my default player to Windows Media Player, but my system won't let me do it (although it says it has...this is why I love Windows).

So I downloaded the files and they're really good! I'll figure out the plugin problem some other time.

-Paul