This newsletter will introduce you to more of this album and the unique way in which it was conceived, created, and recorded- focusing on both Alan's solo piano, and orchestrated arrangements of another huge orchestral movie soundtrack of John Barry- DANCES WITH WOLVES.

Alan imagined using this fully orchestrated work and some of its themes as STARTING POINTS, creating new COMPLEMENTARY THEMES, and then adding his own IMPROVISATIONAL JAZZ to create a 13 minute SOLO piano arrangement. He did this also with the other award-winning soundtracks of SOMEWHERE IN TIME & OUT OF AFRICA.

The SOLO piano arrangements made it possible to work with his friend Eric Chesher to orchestrate them also creating PERSONAL PIANO CONCERTOS- an unusual way to create an album. He has tried to make his album and arrangements beautiful, unique, fun, and exciting. Alan is primarily a jazz pianist and frequently plays with a trio, a quartet, and also solo. But like most jazz pianists, he has never played with a full orchestra surrounding him on stage, and likely never will. So he made his own orchestra. 

Last year in April, Alan saw the award-winning jazz pianist John Batiste, perform with a full orchestra surrounding him in Carnegie Hall. The next day, Alan performed solo in Carnegie Hall in the Earth DAY concert of the INDEPENDENT COLLABORATIVE-playing his own classical-jazz arrangement he called FROM BEETHOVEN TO BRUBECK.

In this album of his, he and Eric Chesher surrounded Alan’s solo piano arrangements with their own orchestra, creating piano concertos- exciting for him, and hopefully exciting and enjoyable for you.

In this newsletter, please listen to their orchestrated version of DANCES WITH WOLVES first, and then listen to Alan’s SOLO piano version of it, which made the orchestrated version possible.

This album, and Alan’s other 5 albums are available to be heard on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and SoundCloud, and are available to be downloaded on iTunes, Amazon and Apple Music.

The entire album can be heard also here.