Hot Club of Los Angeles’ upcoming album, Nova, is a collection of 15 diverse numbers that encompass styles ranging from classic and contemporary gypsy jazz, bossa nova, French chanson and traditional Roma fare; to film soundtrack, jazz standards and several original numbers composed by group members. The album is being produced by group co-founders, Carl Byron and Jim Doyle. 

Full band tracking and initial overdubbing were engineered by Kevin Smith at Jackson Browne’s Groove Masters studio in Santa Monica, CA beginning in December 2022. Further recording and mixing by Kevin Jarvis was done at his Sonic Boom Room studio in Venice, CA during 2023. The album is slated for release in early 2024.
Josh Workman (guitar)
Jake Bluenote (guitar/mandolin/banjo/vocal)
Carl Byron (accordion/piano/organ/pan-pipes/ocarina/vocal)
Paul Eckman (upright bass)
Jim Doyle (drums/percussion/backing vocal)

02 - Čaje Šukarije (trad. arr. HCLA)

World Premiere and Commissioned by American Composers Orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 9, 2015, Conductor George Manahan

Sanctum, for orchestra and recorded sound, explores the sound of improvisation in Holiness-preaching traditions. I draw inspiration from recorded sermons, The Praying Slave Lady by Pastor Shirley Caesar, The Eagle Stirs His Nest by Reverend C. L. Franklin, and Reverend Charles Albert Tindley’s hymn, Stand By Me. Included are the voices of Marlene Pinnock and of activists in Ferguson, Missouri from 2014. Sanctum is my artistic response to recent events of police brutality. By employing techniques of layered repetition, rhythmic intensity, sounds of moaning and whooping, and voices of the past and present, Sanctum invokes solace found in the midst of persecution and tribulation.


Sanctum was commissioned and premiered by American Composers Orchestra with the generous support of The Jerome Foundation and The Peter Heller Fund.

http://acosoundadvice.blogspot.com/2015/03/courtney-bryan-native-of-new-orleans-is.html 

Sanctum for orchestra and recorded sound

recorded 2007 - my daughter (age 6) covering the Lucinda Williams classic

Am I Too Blue

Ranchero Sunrise
By Kaitie Sly

Gus Verstraten - Drums
Sandesh Nagaraj - Guitars
Kaitie Sly - Bass
Carl Byron - Hammond B3
Adam Hall - Dobro
Bobby Grigas - Conga and Shaker

Mixed by Joe Primeau.

Ranchero Sunrise

Vocals: Tony Pops, Dedrick Bonner
Guitars and Bass: Scott Andrew Mlodzinski
Piano: Carl Byron
Percussion: Indigo Smith

Recorded, produced, and mixed at Sycamore Studios by Scott Andrew Mlodzinski

Alberta (Leadbelly)

A World Premiere by the 
Colorado Springs Philharmonic
November 12-13, 2016
Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts, Colorado Springs, CO
Josep Caballé-Domenech, Music Director
Marcelo Lehninger, Conductor

White Gleam of Our Bright Star was commissioned by Colorado Springs Philharmonic 

COMPOSER’S NOTE
As an American composer, my inspiration often comes from the landscapes where I have lived. Growing up in New Orleans, La, I am accustomed to living in a city that feels like it is simultaneously in the past, present, and future. I am inspired by the living history in this fascinating city. During my years living in the Midwest and East Coast, and visits to the West Coast, I have been inspired by the landscapes to hear different sounds and explore new possibilities. 
 
When Katharine Lee Bates composed the poem “America the Beautiful,” originally entitled “Pikes Peak” (1895), she drew inspiration from the beauty of the Pikes Peak region of Colorado Springs, illustrating an idealistic vision of the United States of America. Describing “spacious skies,” “amber waves of grain,” “purple mountain majesties,” and the “fruited plain,” she wrote a request for God to “shed his grace” on the country and to “crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.” The beauty of the natural landscape could represent the potential beauty within the country among its citizens, brothers and sisters. 

The potential of what America can be at its best has been inspiration for American artists over the decades. Writer James Baldwin wrote, “I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” In 1938, poet Langston Hughes’ “Let America be America Again” appealed to the ideals of America while addressing the challenges America must overcome to reach its potential. The opening lines seem to be in conversation with Bates’ view of America: 

“Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)”

In defining “me,” Langston Hughes writes:

“I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.”

He remains hopeful of the great heights Americans can reach together in this line:

“O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!”

In the same decade Bates wrote her poem, writer James Weldon Johnson, in 1899, wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” set to music by his brother, composer J. Rosamond Johnson. The final stanza acknowledges the perils of the past while pressing on towards better days. This stanza is addressed to God, praying that God, “keep us forever in the path,” and that, 

“Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.”

While composing “White Gleam of our Bright Star,” a phrase borrowed from Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” I musically meditated on the themes of sister/brotherhood, freedom, and equality.

Courtney Bryan - White Gleam of Our Bright Star - Colorado Springs Philharmonic

Nathan was my Best Friend! 
He was a gift: musically talented, a technology wizard, extremely intelligent, beautiful inside and out. In fact, being in Nathan's presence was contagious! We made each other feel like a better man. We could talk about anything, as we always lifted each other up when one of us was down.
Nathan knew every Beatles' song, his favorite singer was Paul McCartney and Nathan could rip and shred his Les Paul like lightening that any Metallica fan would die for.
You will be sorely missed my dear Nathan. May the Angeles of Heaven lift you up, keep you safe and forever free from pain.
I will always love you Nathan!
Your Best Friend Forever, Mark
Love will never die...

Nathan's Song

Michael's Waltz

Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a "musical ace," keyboardist/ composer Carl Byron records and performs with a wide range of  artists and ensembles as an in-demand sideman, session musician, arranger and music director. He has toured internationally, collaborates with dance and theater groups, is a founder of the acclaimed gypsy jazz ensemble, the Hot Club of Los Angeles (https://www.facebook.com/HotClubOfLa/), and is also a proud member of the world (in)famous Sin City All Stars (https://www.facebook.com/sincityallstars/). 
His credits as sideman (piano/organ/accordion/other keyboards) include work with artists such as Rita Coolidge, Jackson Browne, Stray Cat Lee Rocker, Anne McCue, Michelle Shocked, Lori Lieberman, Shane Alexander, Deana Carter, Bo Diddley, Austin Hanks, Warren Zevon, Jim Lauderdale, Duane Jarvis, The Songbirds, Ben Vaughn, the Young Dubliners, Pi Jacobs, Michaela Paige, Spencer Davis Group, Fran Banish, Kara Grainger, Calico, Donna Loren, Steven Casper, Lynn Anderson, Mike Stoller & Gerry Goffin, Ron Dziubla, Sally Dworsky, Low And Sweet Orchestra, Sin City All Stars, Thelma Jones, Marvin Etzioni, Ryan Hedgecock, Charlie Louvin, Diego Sandrin, Travis Howard, Desborde, Steve Barton, Kyle Johnson, Darius Degher, and Michael Anderson among many others. 

Some of the renowned producers that Carl has recorded with include David Kahne, Dusty Wakeman, David Baerwald, Ed Tree, David Bianco, Anne McCue, Drew Sherrod, Eric Corne, Peter Case, Val Garay, Ira Ingber, Rich McCulley, Sheldon Gomberg, Kevin Jarvis, Steve Refling, Bill Smith, Shawn Nourse and Moris Tepper among many others. 

Born in Lebanon, and raised in Cambodia, Congo, Mozambique, Turkey and the US, Byron studied composition with esteemed Cuban-American composer Aurelio de la Vega at California State University, Northridge (CSUN.) 

Byron’s contemporary classical scores include String Quartet for the Elkhorn Music Festival; Trilogy for soprano Janet Williams; Birds of Sorrow, commissioned for the AIDS Quilt Songbook; Arabesques for the California Trio; Musica Festiva for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony; Sola for award-winning violist Karen Elaine; Colloquy for the California EAR Unit; Fragments for soprano Shana Blake Hill; and the electro-acoustic score for Residue--visual artist Steve DeGroodt's installation at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Byron performed his 2016 solo piano piece Ghazal at California State University, Northridge on a program celebrating the 90th birthday of his mentor, Aurelio de la Vega: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dywL2xxjrTM&t=145s

 Of Byron's compositions, the New York Amsterdam News wrote: "His is a first-rate talent. Here is a composer who combines intellect with a loving heart." The San Francisco Chronicle hailed Birds of Sorrow as "a dramatic metaphor;” and the Village View praised Byron's "deft, harmonically ambitious work, a special treat throughout."
 
As a performing arts writer, Byron has written features, profiles, reviews and program notes for Opera News, KUSC Listener’s Guide, Los Angeles Reader, Boulevards, Latin American Music Review, High Performance, Virgin Los Angeles City Guide and other publications. Byron also produced broadcast arts reports and program notes for KUSC (91.5 FM) and also wrote and hosted in flight music programs for Delta Airlines.

02 - Čaje Šukarije (trad. arr. HCLA)

carl-byron

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