“WEATHERWATCH – FREE JAZZ” is a new CD which features Dr. Mark Birnbaum on piano and Dr. William Schimmel on accordion.
Among the selections is “WEATHERWATCH” which is a continuous collaborative improvisation with a relentless Hip Hop beat. Snippets of Liszt’s Hungarian Fantasy can be heard. “Scriabin at a Picnic with This Mistress and Biographer” is inspired by the photograph bearing the same title. It’s an acid pastoral in suspended time with occasional references to Scriabin’s “Poem of Ecstasy”. Both pieces were created spontaneously in real time and in one take. There was no editing whatsoever.
The CD was produced by Sydknee of IPS/Studio Muse Records. “WEATHERWATCH-FREE JAZZ” is the second in a series of Three CDS exploring long form improvisation and highly referential materials. The first is “Duality Wrecks”. The third, “Heaven’s War”, (Anonymous Bach and Lucifer Bach), is in preparation.
Dr. William Schimmel is a virtuoso accordionist, author, philosopher, composer, and Board Member and Artist in Residence of the American Accordionists’ Association. He is one of the principle architects in the tango revival in America, the resurgence of the accordion and the philosophy of Musical Reality (composition with pre-existing music).
Dr. Schimmel received his diploma from the Neupauer Conservatory of Music and his BM, MS and DMA degrees from the Juilliard School. He has taught at the Juilliard School , Brooklyn College CUNY, Upsala College, New School University, Neupauer Conservatory (dean) and has lectured on accordion related subjects at Princeton , Columbia , Brandeis, University of Missouri , Duke University, Manhattan School of Music, the Graduate Center CUNY etc.
He now heads the Neupauer Conservatory Order of the Shield program, a private studies program for gifted students on a graduate and post graduate level. He conducts a successful three day master class and concert series sponsored by the American Accordionists’ Association (where he is distinguished lecturer in residence) moving into its thirteenth season. The Confederations International of Accordionists has awarded Dr. Schimmel the distinguished Merit Award for the AAA Master Class and Concert Series as well as his contribution to the international accordion scene.
He received the American Accordionists’ Association Distinguished Service Award for Fifty Years of Accordion activity and his work as Lecturer in Residence. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Great Minds of the 21st Century.
Raised in Brooklyn, educated in New York City with a Doctorate in Music Composition from Columbia University, Mark Birnbaum composed and directed the successful off- Broadway show, “A Day Together,” which was funded by the Helena Rubenstein Foundation and performed in New York City.
Dr. Birnbaum was featured as the staff pianist of television’s nationally syndicated “Joe Franklin Show” (WWOR-TV, Channel 9 NY), where he performed in over 500 appearances.
At Manhattan’s 13th Street Theater, Dr. Birnbaum starred in several one man shows that he wrote, “Ragtime ’94” and “Ragtime ’96,” that salute the music of Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton and the glory of ragtime and jazz piano. Dr. Birnbaum has been touring regionally in the New York City Metropolitan area, where he performs regularly throughout the five boroughs, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut.
“WEATHERWATCH” is available now. For further info: www.billschimmel.com
