Artists

Alban Bailly is a multifaceted instrumentalist who studied composition, jazz, and improvisation in France. After spending his youth playing mainly rock music, Alban moved onto studying jazz, which opened him to free improvisation, and in 2001 he studied Arabic music and oud in Marrakesh, Morocco. He then moved to Nancy, France, and became an active performer, performing solo and in various music, dance, and other ensembles in Europe, before moving to the United States in 2005. Currently a Philadelphia resident, he continues to perform extensively in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He is the founder, guitarist, and a composer of the avant-garde/rock trio Inzinzac and a regular collaborator with and electroacoustic composer for the dance company Da•Da•Dance.

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As a film composer, Charlie Barnett’s scores have appeared in more than four hundred television and theatrical films. His work in documentary film has won awards including the Cine Golden Eagle for his work on National Geographic’s “Tibet’s Hidden Kingdom,” a Peer Award for The Discovery Channel’s “Raising the Mammoth,” and Emmy nominations for A&E’s “Holocaust: the Untold Story and Cosmic Journey”. The Paper Clips score won the 2004 Rome International Film Festival’s Jerry Goldsmith Award. Paper Clips has also won the Christopher Award for 2006 and was nominated for an Emmy He has also written music for “Saturday Night Live,” “The Cosby Show,” “Third Rock from the Sun” and “Weeds.” Recently his score for the PBS series “The Appalachians” was released by Sony records. His score for Dreamer, a documentary about C.S. Lewis produced by Walt Disney Productions, was recently released as part of the The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe boxed set. His 2008 feature films include Kickin’ It, War Child, Bedford: The Town They Left Behind, Keeping the Lights On and My Father’s Will. His television efforts this year include the score for the PBS series “Closer to Truth.”

Barnett’s concert music career includes worldwide performances of his orchestral and chamber works. His Serenade for Double Bass was recently performed in London and has been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra. His violin concerto The Brooklyn Affair and the symphony piece The Blue Chevrolet were recently released on Big Kahuna Records. His viola concerto From Istanbul was recently recorded by Osman Kivrac.

Barnett was commissioned to write a spoken word piece in collaboration with Dr. Maya Angelou for the Pageant of Peace in Washington, D.C. in 2007. In November 2008, Barnett was artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where his symphonic pirate movie was premiered along with an animated film produced by the amazing students there. Barnett can also be heard as an occasional commentator on NPR.

He has arranged and produced pop and jazz records for countless artists, including Thrice for Island/Def Jam and Jason Falkner for Elektra. He continues to proudly play with the eclectic lounge band Chaise Lounge.

www.chaiseloungenation.com
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Jazz pianist and composer Bunny Beck comes from a long line of musicians. Her father, Larry Sideman, had a band that played hotels, her aunt played vaudeville violin, and her grandmother sang opera.

Originally trained as a classical pianist starting at age 6, Bunny studied with a range of teachers. She’s grateful to have had the honor of being the only child student of renowned concert pianist Selma Kramer. She attended New York’s High School of Music and Art (now La Guardia). By the time she was 16 she was giving piano lessons to both adults and children. She has also directed musical variety productions and has worked as an accompanist for singers.

Ultimately Bunny realized that jazz was her passion, so she sought out jazz mentors. She studied with the superb performer, composer, and arranger Lee Evans and with the brilliant performer Fernando Hernandez. In 2002 she had the unique opportunity to study and play in Cuba with Reinaldo Gomez Ruiz and his band, Gens. She has also studied with renowned recording artist and band leader Sonny Bravo, pianist for the late Tito Puente and his band, and with jazz piano legend Harold Mabern.

Bunny can be heard solo or with her trio playing restaurants, cocktail lounges, private parties, corporate events, weddings, grand openings, promotional events, conventions, hotels, banquets, fund raisers and holiday parties.

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June Bender graduated with a B.M. in Violin Performance from Temple University in 2009, where she studied with Philadelphia Orchestra member Yumi Scott. Although classically trained, she loves the challenge of playing in diverse musical contexts; she has played everything form freely improvised music at SIM in Brooklyn to Irish fiddle tunes at local pubs. She freelances regularly in and outside of Philadelphia, along with teaching private lessons at Settlement Music School and at the Philadelphia Community Conservatory at West Catholic High School.

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The last name is Swiss in origin; from the German region of Switzerland to be accurate. He was born and raised in Durham NC. But, he always hears the question, "Are you from Europe?" Or, the statement, "You look like that guy on Friends." Someone actually asked for his autograph and asked if they could take a picture with him. Whoa. Strange icebreakers for sure.

Aaron's services as a bassist are being utilized in the music worlds of Jazz, Folk, World and Theatre; and in the flm world as a production audio recordist and post-production editor. Now, on with the tale...

It all began 25 years ago when he heard his uncle play bass in his bluegrass band. He freaked out and picked up his dad's classical acoustic guitar. That's all he had access to at that point. His parents wouldn't buy a bass guitar for him. So he had to earn it. So much for cliché that “only children are spoiled.” Not so in that household. He began performing a few years later; both in church playing gospel tunes on guitar, in theatres playing in various pit orchestras and rock bands as a bassist. Studies with the mighty Robbie Link on upright bass got him into shape. Touring began after graduating from college with a band playing original compositions that conjured the essences of Elton John, Monk, Jeff Buckley, and Soul Coughing. There is no better way to learn to play live than on tour. Check. Done. And the hook was set for life. Just the right amount of the horizon opened up to reveal the various possibilities of living in the creative world.

Running one's band on the road begged entrepreneurial skills usually not required of a twenty-something. And the chutes and ladders of the touring world honed the confidence and patience of a young musician beyond one's years. In between tours, Aaron began giving private music lessons. What a cool way to give back to the community; by teaching a kid how to play an instrument. It was now time for him to gain more knowledge. He always loved going to master classes at Penn State. Well, it was off to one of the best master classes of all; in New York with Medeski, Martin and Wood, Steven Bernstein and David Tronzo. They focused all he had learned up to that point.

But, what to accomplish next? The need to understand the crafts of sound design, music production and film audio post-production. That's what. An audio production degree was earned. Contacts were made. Meetings were booked. Plans were hatched. A reinvention of a musician into a production/post-production audio recordist was revealed. Feature films, short films and commercials have been worked on and presented to the world. But, again, the world of music ebbs and flows endlessly. He got a call from a friend, Ed T. Butler, to audition for a band. Sessions were held, friendships were formed, and a band was reinvented and poised to embark into the strangely familiar unknown only musicians can fathom. The band ,Ecco La Musica, set out to record the album, MORNING MOON in only two days; two years after reinventing itself.

Thus the tale brings us to the present...

Check out his web site, www.aaronbittikofer.com and associated social media. He'll probably see you at the next World Beer Festival or music concert. Or at the beach...Now that sounds nice.

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Benjamin Blazer, a native of Lancaster PA, joined the Oscuro Quintet in the summer of 2007. Blazer attended Temple University, where he attained a B.M. in music theory and double bass performance, as well as an M.M. in music composition. He studied double bass with John Hood of the Philadelphia Orchestra and composition with Matthew Greenbaum, Maurice Wright and Richard Brodhead. Blazer currently thrives in the field of music education as a faculty member of the music department at Central High School in Philadelphia, as well as a faculty member for the Temple Music Preparatory Division. He continues to compose and have his music performed regularly.

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Marco Buongiorno Nardelli’s (b. Rome, Italy, Nov. 21, 1964) broad musical interests span from the baroque repertoire to jazz, contemporary, and electronic music. Educated as both a musician and a physicist (Ph.D., Condensed Matter Theory, 1993), he holds a B.M. in Music Theory and Composition from the Conservatorio "Luigi Cherubini" in Florence, Italy, studied flute with Oro and Gian-Luca Petrucci in Rome and Brooks deWetter-Smith at UNC-Chapel Hill and sung in the choir of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana with M. Pablo Colino, who introduced him to music at a very early age. He has studied composition with Riccardo Giagni (Rome), Lyda di Cuffa (Florence), Alan Shockley (RI College) and Allen Anderson (UNC-Chapel Hill).

As a performer he has recorded for the Italian National Radio and Television (RAI) and has re-leased various CD's with the world music group Kolaj, the Arabic-jazz-fusion ensemble Jaafar, and he is one of the founders of Ecco La Musica ensemble. He has played in the Raleigh Civic Symphony and Chamber Orchestra and is a member of ASCAP, the Center for the Promotion of Contemporary Composers, the American Music Center and Chicago’s Accessible Contemporary Music.

His music has been premiered, among others, by the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, London's C.O.M.A. group, the Accessible Contemporary Music ensemble of Chicago, the Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra, ACM and the Volta Trio. Of his flute and electronics works Canto notturno and Ossi di Seppia, North Carolina critic Karen Moorman said, "...Incorporating a range of com-positional tools and performance techniques, his sensual pieces were enchanting...A 'Renaissance man' in his own right, composer and theoretical physicist, Nardelli demonstrates a rich distinctive style". His electronic composition Bamboo's Ghost has been called by La Salle University composer Susan McDonald "...evocative...quite mysterious and touching..." Of the premiere of Finzione di Interludio for chamber orchestra, critic John W. Lambert wrote, “This was much more than a reading - the music was clearly well-served, and it made a very favorable im-pression on the audience." Of the same piece, conductor Randolph Foy said, “It is a relatively small work, infused with surrealistic humor and intentional banality. ‘Finzione’ is skillfully con-structed, employing a fluid mix of traditional and progressive techniques that make a strange sense in context.” Among his awards, the composition Tzolk'in for three marimbas has received a honorable mention at the Second Annual Louisiana State University Percussion Society's Per-cussion Ensemble Composition Contest in 2009 and it is the winner of the 2010 Volta Trio Com-position Competition.

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"1953. Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated the 34th President of the United States, Queen Elizabeth II is crowned monarch of the United Kingdom, and the U.S.S.R detonates the hydrogen bomb. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay are the first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest and the St. Louis Browns move to Baltimore and become the Orioles. Shane, Stalag 17 and The War of the Worlds are released that year and Fahrenheit 451, The Long Goodbye, Casino Royale and The Foundation Trilogy are published. The number one song was “Vaya con Dios.” On Monday, August 24th of that year, I was born, Edward Theolandos Butler to John and Grace Butler; their first born. (I never did care for my middle name, but it’s grown on me since.)

"There was always music at the Butler house. Besides the local “soul” radio stations, Daddy had a great collection of jazz; players like Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Illinois Jacquet, big bands, and the B3 with Jimmy Smith, and Shirley Scott. Momma loved the vocalist. Dinah Washington, Brooke Benton, Sarah Vaughn, Nancy Wilson and Ella. There was also gospel from Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharp to Aretha Franklin and James Cleveland.

"I knew from day one that I wanted to play the drums. But my parents nixed that idea. They told me I’d play drums when I got my own house. So I tried a number of instruments: the harmonica, the trumpet, and the violin. I played that for ‘bout 4-5 years until I became a teenager and then it wasn’t cool. (And believe me, living in the ‘hood was hard enough, but walking around with big ‘ol glasses and a violin…not cool!) A year later, my grandparents saved me and got me a guitar for my 15th birthday. Now that was cool! I took lessons at the local music store, Bill’s Music, and tried to learn the hits of the day. But I was still just a frustrated drummer.

"When my grandparents passed away years later, their home in South Baltimore was left to me. So of course the first thing I got was a used set of Ludwigs. I played those things day in and day out! I didn’t think I would ever play music professionally, but I wanted to be involved with music in some way. I decided to try my hand at studio work. So a few years later I left Baltimore and headed to NYC to attend The Institute of Audio Research at NYU. Less than a year later, I ran out of money, and a friend convinced me to relocate to Chapel Hill NC.

"It was a wise choice. There was (and still is) a vibrant music scene there and in the surrounding area. I eventually got a job at The Music Loft, a musical instrument store and stayed there for 24 years, all the while playing music.

"Since then, I’ve played with a variety of bands and musicians all across the U.S. and Canada, throughout Europe and Northern Africa. I’ve played for prisoners and convicts, kings and queens. In small cafes and large outdoor festivals. I’ve recorded in small home studios to multi-million dollar facilities. I’ve performed on nationally syndicated T.V. shows and radio programs. Life is good.

"One day, Jim Crew called and asked if I would consider being part of something special. It would be a collection of like-minded souls interested in playing original music with a flair for the exotic. Ecco La Musica was born. And after much working and re-working, here we are today."

If you want more detail, check out Ed's website at www.etbutler.com.

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