Update 02/15/2016 — 58th GRAMMY Awards
- Best Classical Compendium — GRAMMY Nominee
- Best Engineered Album, Classical — GRAMMY WINNER
- Producer of the Year, Classical — GRAMMY WINNER
We are thrilled and honored to have been a part of this latest recording that was just released on July 3, 2015 on the Avie Records label.
It has been described as:
“Epic poetry set to powerful music, brought to life by a cast of legendary performers: ASK YOUR MAMA is an original musical setting by four-time Emmy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman of the 1961 masterpiece by Langston Hughes, delivered with majesty and magnetism by sopranos Janai Brugger and Angela Brown, hip-hop innovators The Roots and Medusa, jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon and others, conducted by Grammy-nominated George Manahan.”
“Ask Your Mama” was recorded at George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California.
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Tracklist (http://amzn.to/1JNhohA)
Music by Laura Karpman, Poetry by Langston Hughes
CD 1
DEDICATION (4:20)
CULTURAL EXCHANGE (12:53)
RIDE, RED, RIDE (4:16)
SHADES OF PIGMEAT (7:42)
ODE TO DINAH (10:37)
BLUES IN STEREO (5:12)
HORN OF PLENTY (7:39)
GOSPEL CHA-CHA (11:00)
Total time CD 1: 62:15
CD 2
IS IT TRUE? (2:52)
ASK YOUR MAMA (6:51)
BIRD IN ORBIT (12:12)
JAZZTET MUTED – SHOW FARE, PLEASE (17:04)
Total time CD 2: 38:19
Vocal Soloists
Janai Brugger, Blackthought (The Roots), Nnenna Freelon, Angela Brown, Medusa, Taura Stinson, Monet Owens, Tesia Kwarteng, Erin McGlover, Langston Hughes
Featuring
Ella Fitzgerald, Bo Didley, Shirley Temple, Bill Bojangles, Jessye Norman, Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Pete Seeger, Pigmeat Markham
Instrumental Soloists
Questlove (The Roots drums), Ben Wendel (tenor saxophone), David Loeb (piano), M.B. Gordy (world percussion), Bart Samolis (bass), Firas Hassan (Arabic percussion)
Featuring
Jelly Roll Morton, Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, Mahalia Jackson, Blind Lemon Jefferson
The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra conducted by George Manahan
Executive producer: Laura Karpman, Produced by Judith Sherman, Co-produced by Leslie Ann Jones and Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, Mixing by Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, John Kilgore and Justin Merrill, Mastered by Patricia Sullivan and Bernie Grundman, Mastering Licensing by Deborah Evans and Della Music Clearance
ASK YOUR MAMA was commissioned by Carnegie Hall.
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Hughes at his typewriter (Photo: 1932)
Langston Hughes: An American Poet, Novelist, and Playwright
A prolific contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Langston Hughes’ work “Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz” (Hill & Wang), was written in 1961.
See complete biography: http://bit.ly/1onssbl
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More About the Composer: Laura Karpman
Composer: Laura Karpman (Image: http://www.laurakarpman.com/about/)
Four-time Emmy Award-winner, Laura Karpman, is an American composer whose work has included scoring for film, television, video games, theater, and concert. She was trained at The Juilliard School where she played jazz. Her score for “Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz” premiered at Carnegie Hall on March 16, 2009 with performances by Jessye Norman, Cassandra Wilson, The Roots, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by George Manahan.
(Click on the image to visit her website.)
In the Recording Studio at Skywalker Sound, Marin County
In the recording studio at Skywalker Sound (Image: http://www.askyourmama.com)
Ben Wendel (saxophone), Rufus Olivier (bassoon) at Skywalker Sound (Image: http://www.askyourmama.com)
For more information about the recording, visit:
The official website – http://www.askyourmama.com/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AskYourMamaAlbum
Now Available:
On Amazon: http://amzn.to/1JNhohA
On iTunes: http://apple.co/1GWdNcT