The Whole Music Experience

Tom Lellis & The Metropole Orchestra Skylark Advenure Music Jazz crooner Tom Lellis teams up with the 52-piece Metropole Orchestra of the Netherlands on Skylark -an album with a classic jazz sheen. Lellis offers a top-flight performance as his passionate vocals interpret Hoagy Carmichael's Skylark , Chick Corea's Straight Up And Down , Herbie Hancock's Tell Me A Bedtime Story , Tonhinho Horta's Mountain Flight and Antonio C. Jobim's Falando De Amor/Tema De Amor sung in sensual Portuguese. Lellis penned his own lyrics to the instrumental classics and included original material on three tracks. The orchestra does more then lend its beautiful tones, timbres and colors. The arrangements soar, swirl and shoot stars around Lellis. Just listen to the use of woodwinds and brass on Carmichael's forlorn Skylark . Together the vocalist and orchestral musicians create a romantic and passionate atmosphere that could easily find itself as a soundtrack for Go

Louie Gonnie with Branson Emerson Rhythms Within a Turquoise Dream Peyote Songs of the Native American Church Canyon Records Rhythms Within a Turquoise Dream is the third CD by Louie Gonnie that I have heard and reviewed. I feel that Gonnie possesses some wonderful spiritual and musical gifts to share with the rest of us, and on his latest recording, he shares uplifting emotions from one of his dreams. He wrote in the liner notes, "The idea for this album came from a dream I had. I wanted to convey that dream through these songs. The dream made me feel good and that is why I made this recording." Gonnie, a Zuni-Dine tribal member and traditional musician grabs his inspiration from the natural world that surrounds him. On previous albums, mountains in four directions, and other natural elements inspired him. The peyote songs that appear here sport titles such as, Hopes and Dreams , Humming bird's Gift (I saw my first hummingbird of the year two days ago),