A new work for accordion commissioned by the AAA, will be premiered on Friday, July 16th at 7 PM at the AAA Festival in Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey Hotel in Harrisburg, PA.

Composer Roger Davidson (no relation to editor Rita Davidson) has composed “Tango Blues”. Scored for accordion, flute, viola, and cello, it is a fusion of tango and jazz.

The musicians are Mary Tokarski (accordion), Christina Busso Lammers (flute), Yulia Zhukov (cello) and Alice Bish (viola). The concert will be on Friday, July 16th at 7 PM. You can purchase tickets at the door for $20.00.

A flexible and diverse pianist and composer, Roger Davidson has a long history of playing both European Classical music and straight-ahead Jazz as well as various styles of Latin music. A specialist in improvisation, he has a life-long love of the music of Argentina and Brazil.

Having completed his third tango album, “Pasion por la Vida” (Soundbrush Records) the first to rely solely on his own compositions, Davidson is quickly becoming a certifiable tanguero! “Pasion por la Vida” is a collaboration with the Latin Grammy Award-winning Raul Jaurena on bandoneon and produced by Argentine bassist Pablo Aslan. Both of these men played on Davidson’s “Mango Tango” (Rainbow Collection) in 1995 and have remained close collaborators ever since.

Davidson produced Jaurena’s “Te Amo Tango” which won a Latin Grammy for best Tango album in 2007. With Aslan, he teamed up as The Tango Project and produced “Amor por el Tango” (“Love for the Tango”) which has received rapturous critical praise.

Born in Paris in 1952 to a French mother and an American father, Davidson moved to New York City when he was a baby and has spent most of his life in the northeastern part of the United States. In the 1980’s he earned Master’s degree in Composition from Boston University and a Master’s in choral conducting from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, where he began writing choral music – which later bloomed into an extensive repertoire.

During his time in Boston, he founded and directed a chamber orchestra, which gave several concerts to critical acclaim. He later spent time in Germany, studying voice and teaching improvisation at the Lichtenberger Institute ,but returned to the northeastern U.S. and moving to New York. His interest in jazz was strong, however, and one of the people who encouraged that interest was the late producer, Helen Keane (who was best-known for managing and producing one of Davidson’s idols, Bill Evans). In the late ’80s, Keane produced an album-length jazz demo recording for Davidson, although she didn’t live long enough to see it become a published CD – which it was, years later, as “Ten to Twelve”, under the Soundbrush label.

In 2002 Davidson founded Soundbrush Records where he served as President until 2008. With Soundbrush he oversaw and produced almost two dozen first-rate recordings of Jazz, World and Latin music during this time, including work by David Finck, Carol Fredette, Marco Granados, Frank London, and Argentine guitarist, Pancho Navarro.

For further information about the AAA Festival or the premiere of “Tango Blues” contact: mary.tokarski@comcast.net