Classics LIte - Tommy Morgan

Malaguena--Lecuona
Clair de Lune--Debussy
Bolero--Ravel
Cradle Song--Brahms
Cordoba--Lecuona
Ave Maria--Schubert
Ritual Fire Dance--de Falla
Gymnopedie #1--Satie
Misirlou--Roubanis
The Maiden with the Flaxen Hair--Debussy
Prelude #2--Gershwin
The Harmonica Player--Guion
Yesterday--Lennon/McCartney
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue--Rodgers
The Song of the Beach--Narita
The Roumanian Rhapsody #1--Enesco

TOMMY MORGAN recently celebrated 50 years as a recording musician in Hollywood. Long time first call in the studio recording industry, he has recorded for motion pictures, television, records and commercials. With over 500 feature film soundtracks to his credit, and reruns throughout the world of the long running television series Green Acres, Sanford and Son, The Waltons, The Rockford Files, The Dukes of Hazard, The Newhart Show and China Beach, performances on hit records Good Vibrations (The Beach Boys), Rainy Days and Mondays (The Carpenters), He Ain't Heavy , He's My Brother (The Hollys) and others, as well as a solo appearance on The Academy Awards 2000 television broadcast (estimated audience one billion), he is the most "heard" harmonica player in the world today.

DAVID LOEB is former music director/conductor for Ben Vereen. He has been lead keyboard /assistant conductor of the musical Beauty and the Beast at the Schubert Theater in Los Angeles. He is principal pianist with the the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and is currently in demand in the recording studios in Hollywood. His feature film and television soundtracks include Birdcage, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, The Natalie Cole Story, Bette (The Bette Midler Show), and the Disney animated features Pocohontis, Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Lady and the Tramp.

TOMMY MORGAN and DAVID LOEB share many things in common. Both are studio musicians with wide interests and experience in a variety of styles of music. Both hold Masters Degrees in Music; Tommy from the University of California at Los Angeles in Composition, and David from The Eastman School of Music in Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media. Both are licensed pilots who share a love of flying gliders. Both are at the top of their form as musicians and performers. This album represents a perfect joining of their talents and backgounds in producing an album of light classics. From the usual "classics" The Roumanian Rhapsody #1, Ritual Fire Dance, Clair de Lune and others, to the "classic" compositions Yesterday (John Lennon and Paul McCartney), The Harmonica Player (David Guion) and The Song of the Beach (Narita) from Japan, all of these selections represent unusual and unique interpretations for harmonica and piano.

JOHN RICHARDS is a well known film score mixer with a number of awards. He mixed the Academy Award winning scores to Omen One, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and the Millagro Bean Field Wars. He also mixed a number of James Bond films composed by John Barry.

We generally know the type of music to which we refer when we use the term "classical" or "light classics." All of the following selections from this album fall easily into the "Classics Lite" theme: Malaguena, Clair de Lune, Bolero, Ave Maria, Ritual Fire Dance, Gymnopedie #1, The Maiden with the Flaxen Hair, Prelude #2, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and The Roumanian Rhapsody #1.

In my opinion, the remaining selections have achieved their own "classic" status. Cordoba is one of six pieces from Andalucia (Suite Espagnole) for Piano by Ernesto Lecuona. It is lesser known, but no less exciting in its own way, than the most popular piece from that suite, Malaguena. Misirlou has been with me since the beginning, and is one of my earliest arrangements. It went with me as one of the three numbers that I played when I appeared as guest soloist with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra when I was 21 years old. I have performed this piece more than 50 times with symphony orchestras. Cradle Song is elegant simplicity from Johannes Brahms. The Harmonica Player is the creation of David Guion, who, as a musicologist/composer, catalogued the music of the South Western United States. He then wrote a number of pieces using elements of these "western" themes. Originally written for piano, this delightful piece transcribes beautifully for the instrument named in it's title. Yesterday, a "classic" from the Beatles' John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The Song of the Beach (Hamabe no uta) was discovered when I researched Japanese music to include in the program for a private recital for the Empress and Royal Family of Japan (including Crown Prince, and now Emperor, Akihito) at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. I played this as an encore that sunny afternoon in October of 1957.

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