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Chicago Examiner article on Deanna's Chopin project!
With only 45 hours to go here at RocketHub, I'm grateful for this great media plug from Chicago-based critic, Neil Tesser. The full article is available at http://exm.nr/xZAeXZ -- here's an excerpt:
The clock is ticking on three projects that speak to jazz and blues listeners. The one in the most danger comes from the splendid pianist, vocalist, and composer Deanna Witkowski. So far she has raised only $2,145 toward the $7,000 she targeted toward the production of her next album, and the deadline expires in less than three days.
The discs previously released by this former Chicagoan have all shared superlative musicianship, as well as Witkowski’s desire to immerse herself in a new area for exploration. Her RocketHub project is no exception: she has taken on the music of Frédéric Chopin, reinterpreting it in ways that reflect her extensive studies of Brazilian music as well as jazz.
Others have done this, sometimes brilliantly: check out the Chopin recordings by the departed pianist Victor Feldman. But most of the time, it’s done badly; hence Witkowski’s decision to give her effort the title “This is NOT ‘jazzy Chopin’.” By so doing, she aims to distance herself from such clichés as, say, appending a light swing beat to an otherwise unreconstructed version of famous Chopin’s “Funeral March” theme.
Witkowski has come up with a twofold solution to the challenge. First, she uses the 19th-century classicist’s nocturnes, preludes, and etudes to frame several bossa nova compositions – some of them famously inspired by Chopin, others that simply sidle up comfortably to his works. In addition, she treats the Chopin works respectfully but not reverently, adding improvised passages – entirely in the spirit and ethos of his work – where none existed before. (You can hear clips from the album at Witkowski’s website.)
Thanks to all of you who have funded the project so far! I'll be in touch with all of you on Thursday morning. And to those of you yet to join the crowd: there's no more time to wait! :)