Neil Stalnaker Releases New CD/Concert Tour In Japan
Tokyo --
Aug 8, 2005 --
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Neil Stalnaker Releases New CD/Concert Tour In Japan American Playing and Teaching Trumpet In Tokyo TOKYO, Aug. 8, 2005 Elkins, West Virginia native, Neil Stalnaker has released a new cd in Tokyo, Japan. The new cd, ....And Now The "Bad News" is a set of compositions by Neil and recorded by his Tokyo-based band, Neil Stalnaker Quartet. Piano great Yuichi Inoue is on piano, Tsutomu Kuroda (bass) and long-time Tokyo resident Mike Reznikoff is on drums. Mike originally came from New York over 25 years ago. Neil moved to Tokyo in April 1998 after spending time in New York City.
The new CD is being distributed in Japan by Disk Union. Neil's Quartet can be heard around the Tokyo/Yokohama area's leading jazz clubs. This band was formed about 2 years ago and plays mostly original compositions written by Neil and Inoue.
Most of the compositions on the CD were written about 10-12 years ago, while Neil was recovering from throat cancer, in his hometown of Elkins, West Virginia. Most of the songs relate directly to that experience. On his website, http://www.neilstalnaker.com, he explains the story behind each song. In addition to the Quartet, Neil has several other projects going in the Tokyo area. During the past two years, has been performing weekly at the prestigious New York Bar located on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt Tokyo. The New York bar was the recent location of the film, Lost In Translation. Neil has done 3-month gigs with Los Angeles singer, Diane Witherspoon and New York singer, Angela Stribling. In addition, Neil has been doing a weekly trumpet/piano duo Sunday Night Jazz Session with pianist Tom Pierson. Pierson is also a former New York pianist/big band leader/film scorer who decided to make the move to the Tokyo music scene over 10 years ago.
Neil's new band, East/West Unit is performing around Tokyo and will be doing their first tour this fall. The band will be performing in Odawara, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kagawa and at the Yokohama Jazz Promenade (Japan's largest jazz festival).
In addition to the tour, Stalnaker will be a judge for the Yokohama Festival's Jazz Competition. The East/West Unit is comprised of Hakuei Kim on piano. Kim has just returned from 12 years in Sidney, Australia and has his own new CD out in Japan. At this time the CD is sold-out in Japan. On bass, Neil is using Lewisburg, West Virginia native Jeff Curry. Curry moved to Tokyo about 1 year ago from Dallas, Texas. Jeff has quickly become a very busy bassist/composer/arranger in Tokyo. And on drums, Neil has Masashi Tomikawa. Tomikawa has recently moved back to Tokyo after living in New York City for over 10 years.
In April, Neil started teaching trumpet and jazz improvisation at the highly regarded Senzoku Music University in Yokohama, Japan. Senzoku uses the leading jazz and classical musicians on the Tokyo music scene as instructors for students that come from all over Japan. Neil will also be going to schools around Japan doing music workshops.
In addition to his trumpet teaching duties at Senzoku, Neil has an active trumpet studio in the Ikebukuro section of Tokyo. A lot of Neil's students are professional trumpet players themselves who are interested in fine tuning their skills.
Three years ago, Neil launched his own website in English and Japanese. At his website, Neil provides information about his current performing schedule, samples of recent CD recordings, photo galleries, blog, podcasts, resume, bio, trumpet instruction infomation and many, many links to other musicians and areas of interest related to the music scene in Tokyo. You can view Stalnaker's website at http://www.neilstalnaker.com/ and his blog/podcast site http://neilstalnaker.blogspot.com.
In July, Stalnaker started his own podcast called, Tokyo Nights. Podcasting is a relatively new phenomenom on the internet. Every week, dozens of new podcasts are being created on the internet. People record podcasts in their own homes, studios and at live location sites. After recording, they upload an mp3 file of the show to an internet site. From this site, the general public can listen via their own personal computer and/or download the podcast to an mp3 player. The most widely used mp3 at this time is the iPod. Thus the name podcast. At this time, Neil is doing a weekly podcast which includes music and news updates about his website www.neilstalnaker.com, his musical activities in and around Tokyo as well as music and interviews of other musicians.
You can purchase Neil's CD's directly from his website. You can contact him directly at neilstalnaker007@hotmail.com.
Contact: Neil Stalnaker Email: neilstalnaker007@hotmail.com Tel: 011-8190-9858-5948 (calling Japan from the USA) Tel: 304-756-8187 (SKYPE) Instant message: neilstalnaker007 (MSN) (AIM) (SKYPE)
