Dear World
New Album Emilie Conway Sings Alec Wilder
The repertoire for this album developed out of a recent touring project in partnership with Allen Smith, Jazz on the Terrace and The Arts Council to explore and present the music of Alec Wilder. My pianist and musical director, Johnny Taylor and I researched, selected and arranged our favourites from Wilder's rarely heard and rarely recorded work. People tend to know "i'll Be Around,' which became a jazz standard, and is on my debut album, but most of his tunes have remained in relative obscurity. We are very excited about what we've come up with. We hope you like it too!
"I am concerned with the miracle of life in all its incredible forms. I'll stop for a spider, a bird, a tree, a flower, a child, a book, a storm, a sound, a scent, a smile. I'll blow bubbles, watch bobble birds, read a dictionary, listen to a sad tale, make up a puzzle, row a boat."
- Alec Wilder
The light, the darkness,
Heartful and heartless,
To fear the mystery, to find the beauty,
To Love.
- Emilie Conway
Album Title: Dear World: Emilie Conway Sings Alec WilderInternet & Store Release Date:June 30
Launch Concert :May 5, JJ Smyth’s Emilie Conway
Emilie Conway - voice, Johnny Taylor - piano, Damian Evans - double bass, Brendan Doyle - saxophones/clarinet, Dominic Mullan - drums.
Recorded at Ventry Recording by Dave McCune, Produced by Emilie Conway & Dave McCune, Mastered by Bob Katz at Digital Domain, Florida
Photography: Monika Chmielarz. Album Artwork: Dee Gavin
Special thanks to Rob Geller and Friends of Alec Wilder Newsletter, 3237A 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
Special thanks also to Judy Bell at TROEssex Music Group for all her important help sourcing Wilder’s scores.
Jazz critic Barry Ulanov described Alec Wilder's melodies as "leaping and lovely, sinuous and sequested, elusive and wistful." In "Dear World,” award winning Dublin jazz singer Emilie Conway and her quintet bring the music of the enigmatic, rarely heard and rarely recorded Alec Wilder to life.
With arrangements by gifted pianist and musical director, Johnny Taylor, Wilder's songs emerge in all their sparkling originality, beauty, humour and warmth; vibrant with fascination with life. The album brings the listener on an evocative, reflective, at times relaxed, then piquant journey through some rarely recorded songs like “Is It Always Like This?” and “Crazy in the Heart,” and “Blackberry Winter.” This recording marks the debut recording of the title track, “Dear World.”
Emilie is joined by her regular band members: Johnny Taylor (piano), Damian Evans (double bass) and Dominic Mullan (drums). The fifth member is Brendan Doyle (saxophones / clarinet ). Special guest Julien Colarossi, (guitar) joins Emilie and Johnny on “Dear World."
Since the release of debut album, The Secret of a Rose, 2012, Emilie has received invitations to perform and collaborate with musicians in Europe, Northern Ireland - and the Caribbean! A 2015 highlight was the discovery that Emilie’s music had an audience in the Dominican Republic where it was being featured on local radio. Subsequently, Emilie, together with her pianist, Johnny Taylor and bassist, Damian Evans were invited to perform in Belles Artes Concert Hall in Santo Domingo to mark UNESCO International Jazz Day. The Trio's concert was received with a standing ovation from an audience of over 600. Especially loved was their arrangement of a piece called ‘Romantico’ by local legendary composer Rafael Bollumba Landestoy, with lyrics written by Emilie. On their return journey to Ireland the Trio stopped off in Paris to perform a second concert for UNESCO International Jazz Day.
At home, the Emilie Conway quartet has given sell out concerts in the John Field Room, National Concert Hall. In 2014, in association with Jazz on the Terrace, the Emilie Conway Quintet received an Arts Council Award to research and present the music of Alec Wilder in a nationwide tour. The songs chosen for this second album have been selected and developed from the repertoire for the 2014 tour.
Reviews:
Dublin singer Emilie Conway’s second album is a thoughtful collection of songs by the great eccentric of American songwriting, Alec Wilder. Wilder’s compositions – Crazy of the Heart, The Wrong Blues, Who Can I Turn To? – may not be the best known of the songbook canon but amongst the cognoscenti he is treasured as one of the true originals of the 1940s and 1950s, with admirers as diverse as Frank Sinatra and Dave Liebman recording tributes to his name.
Conway’s precise, unmannered delivery – which would not have been out of place in Wilder’s day – pays due respect to the material, and a top-notch group, including pianist Johnny Taylorand saxophonist Brendan Doyle, provides the required sensitive support. - The Irish Times, Cormac Larkin, June 3, 2016
“A terrific document to Alec.” Friends of Alec Wilder Newsletter