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<< Home > << Interviews with Musical Performers by Ray Naylor
Interviews with Musical Performers by Ray Naylor
The interviews on this show originally were recorded for Fiddles & Frets, my internet radio program. The program went off the internet in March of 2008. The interviews that I do from this point on will be podcasts, and not from Fiddles & Frets. But, I hope you will continue to enjoy them.
Current Episodes:
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Pub Date: Apr 26, 2008 |
| Interview with Venissa Santí |
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This interview is with Venissa Santí, Cuban American artist. She inherited her musical passion from her grandfather Jacobo Ros Capablanca, a composer in Cuba who left all of his compositions to her when he passed. At 17 she moved from Ithaca, NY to Philadelphia to study jazz, and it was a groundbreaking moment at the end of her senior year when she took out the aging portfolio of her grandfather’s compositions and knew she had to sing his music one day. She became a trained vocalist with classical and jazz based technique and sought to find her own voice. Venissa began an intense listening regimen of early Celia Cruz, Cuban singer (among others) and realized Cuba had a wealth of standard repertoire. She traveled to Cuba and found a master to train her and at the same time Venissa began a voice teaching career at AMLA, a community music school in the barrio of North Philadelphia and became very active in the Latin community and in the Latin music scene of Philadelphia as a soloist in many World and Jazz group's concerts and recordings. Venissa Santí became a wife and a mother in 2004 which gave her the isolation she needed to process all she had learned and began writing her first solo record in my Cuban Vocal Jazz Style.
Venissa Santí recently released album,"Bienvenida", was recorded and produced at Radioactive Productions in Philadelphia by Daoud Shaw. The album has already received a number of highly acclaimed reviews including the following from Stan Dunn Radio Kjaz (San Francisco/Slacker.com): ““Bienvenida” es muy sabroso! Such a pleasure to listen to as a complete start-to-finish performance. Filled with many surprises. Venissa’s voice is mixed beautifully with a coy yet sultry nuance. As an old radio announcer I am impressed with her microphone technique. It is very intimate but perfectly controlled . The arrangements and musical selections are excellent and the band is perfect.”
The interview with Venissa Santí includes several of the cuts from the album.
You can learn more about Venissa Santí by going to her MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/venissasanti |
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Pub Date: Mar 11, 2008 |
| Interview with Russ Edwards |
Listen: This site uses Flash Player 7 Direct Download |
This interview is with Russ Edwards. In the 1960's, Russ Edwards recorded for Scenic Records, Cameo/Parkway, Decca, and Musicor. Russ began his music career as a teenager covering and sounding like country artists of that day. He then began writing and recording his own songs. Giant Gene Arnold, DJ Hall of Famer said of Russ Edwards, "One of the earliest innovators of the country/folk/pop synergy …” Chet Adkins said "That cat is good..." Russ sings and writes county music when it was country. His influences include Jimmy Rogers, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Hank Thompson, & Little Jimmy Dickens, Faron Young & Bill Haley & Johnny Cash. Russ has worked with several of these artists, and even sat on the floor in a hotel sharing songs with Elvis Presley. Russ Edwards continues to perform his music, mostly in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area, continuing to entertain audiences by both his songs as well as stories of his most intersting life. You can learn more about Russ Edwards by going to his MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/russedwardsmusic
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