Recordings at Persona Digital Studio

Trinity P2500 Band

The Band performs both original music written by Stephen Gislason and new arrangements of  popular tunes. We cover many different styles from different countries. Stephen says: "A good arranger wants to add a personal touch to a well established piece of music.  I have been interested in eclectic music and explore a variety of styles in my arrangements. My goal is not the faithful reproduction of the originals but the creation of new arrangements with new instruments and new compositional ideas that become interesting in their own right. When I switch to recording engineer, I have high standards. I strive to achieve the highest audiophile quality for the recordings. "

 Jazz -- The band has followed the path of modern jazz, starting with bebop as invented by Dizzie Gillespie and Charlie Parker. The path leads to Miles Davis and the extraordinarily talented musicians that played with him and then proceeded on their own innovative paths. Stephen is a trumpet player as well as a keyboardist and synthesizer expert so that many compositions favour trumpet, flugelhorn and electronic keyboards. There has  been a remarkable proliferation of musical styles, partly because of "crossovers" that merged blues, country music, rock, and jazz. Latin American, African and Caribbean  music merged, especially rhythmically with American and European music. The idea of popular music grew to include this variety of ethnic styles.

Popular Tunes-- One ongoing project is to recall, rearrange and perform some of the "classics of popular music." Several motivations combine in an interest to arrange and record popular songs of the past 60 years. Bands often emerge with a repertoire of cover tunes that most audiences know and enjoy. Popular songs are played by in countless venues daily by amateur and professional musicians.  Often, singers and bands get started by recording popular tunes with their own inflection and stylist changes. Some tunes become standards that are performed and recorded  thousands of times. New styles evolve from seed songs that acquire fan bases. Elements of every successful composition are copied into "original" compositions that follow, often multiple copies that create new stylistic groupings. 

Sometimes a new arrangement renews a songs appeal or changes its appeal so that its popularity moves toward a new group of listeners. Several of the songs we have recorded have been reproduced many times in recordings by many groups. John Denver's Annie's Song, for example has been recorded a 100 times by different groups. We have treated the songs as classics that exemplify an aspect of popular music that emerged in the 1950s. Many  bands and musicians that were popular in the 60s and 70s have been resurrected to play concerts for the "baby boomers' who feel strongly about popular songs they heard as teenagers and young adults. We all have grey hair and have more wrinkles, but musical enjoyment is ageless.

The Persona Classical Consort has a seperate ReverbNation Profile

Trinity P2500 Band at Persona Digital Studio

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