Tift Merritt And Simone Dinnerstein Team Up For “Night”

In an unusual but interesting pairing, pianist Simone Dinnerstein and singer-songwriter Tift Merritt join forces for NIGHT, a unique collaboration uniting folk, rock and classical worlds, exploring common terrain and uncovering new musical landscapes. Though Simone Dinnerstein (a Juilliard-trained classical pianist from Brooklyn) and Tift Merritt (a singer-songwriter from North Carolina whose father taught her to play by ear) could not come from more different musical backgrounds, when the two met they immediately realized that their passion for music and performance was kindred, if not the same. NIGHT features new songs written especially for the duo by Brad Mehldau (I Shall Weep at Night) and Patty Griffin (Night), as well as Tift Merritt’s own songs (Only in Songs, Still Not Home, Colors, Feel of the World), and classical selections (an arrangement of Schubert’s Night and Dreams, Bach’s Prelude in B minor). The album also includes the world premiere recording of The Cohen Variations by Daniel Felsenfeld, a solo piano piece commissioned by Dinnerstein based on one of her favorite songs, Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne. NIGHT was conceived as a song cycle developed for a concert commissioned and presented by Duke Performances in January 2011. Of the process of creating this work together, Merritt says,

“We were coming from completely different directions and taking the risk of extending ourselves into foreign territory to find each other. It was disorienting at times, especially at first. We both felt very exposed and vulnerable but in very opposite ways and places. But we really challenged each other and pulled new places out of each other. And that risk, ultimately, was really exciting.”

Dinnerstein adds,

“This album has been about pushing our creative boundaries. I’ve learned from Tift some of the rules of her world – to be a good band member, not to use too many notes, to let the words come through, to keep an edge and rawness to the improvisation. In the classical world, it can be safer to play familiar music in a familiar way, but I find that a suffocating aesthetic. Music by Bach or Schubert or any composer needs to be approached in a way that’s constantly fresh. I love the idea that a song by Billie Holiday can speak to a song by Purcell, and that each one can influence the way we hear the other.”

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Tracklisting:

1. Only in Songs (Tift Merritt)
2. Night and Dreams (Franz Schubert)
3. Don’t Explain (Billie Holiday from an arr. by Nina Simone)
4. Dido’s Lament (Henry Purcell)
5. I Shall Weep at Night (Brad Mehldau)
6. Wayfaring Stranger (traditional)
7. Prelude in B minor (arr. by A. Siloti from J.S. Bach’s Clavier-Büchlein vor W.F. Bach)
8. Still Not Home (Tift Merritt)
9. I will give my love an apple (traditional)
10. Colors (Tift Merritt)
11. The Cohen Variations (Daniel Felsenfeld)
12. Night (Patty Griffin arr. by Jenny Scheinman)
13. Feel of the World (Tift Merritt)
14. I Can See Clearly Now (Johnny Nash)

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How to enter the contest – read this! You can win a copy. Enter now – just tell us – why do you want THIS cd? This next part is important: Put your answer in the “Message” field of the online entry form! If you don’t do that, you won’t win. Click on this sentence to enter the contest! Contest ends on April 9, 2013.

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