DYAD

Ever since George Gershwin composed “Rhapsody in Blue” in 1924, artists from Duke Ellington to Gunther Schuller have used elements from classical music to create new and exciting jazz sounds. Alto saxophonist Lou Caimano and pianist Eric Olsen are among the most innovative musical talents to fuse these two great art forms. They transform well-known operatic arias into imaginative and unconventional jazz compositions. The duo has been performing together for 16 years under the name of DYAD, a rubric that Webster’s defines as “two persons in a continuing relationship involving interaction.” Their musical interaction continues on this project with elegant and highly original jazz arrangements of operatic melodies mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. They are joined on their latest CD DYAD PLAYS JAZZ ARIAS by two jazz masters, Randy Brecker on trumpet and Ted Nash on tenor saxophone. According to Olsen, “We were looking for an even deeper jazz feel read more...