With the Atlanta Pops Orchestra, Pandolfi puts his signature stylistic touch on the title track, and includes eight other Gershwin favorites like you've never heard them on solo piano.

9 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Swing/Big Band, POP: Piano

Show all album songs: Rhapsody In Blue Songs


Details:
A poet of popular music, November 1, 2005
Emile Pandolfi plays show tunes, movie music, and the Great American Song Book, like no one else. He even includes the occasional classical selection, which is inevitable, as he is a classically trained artist in the traditional sense. Pandolfi's dexterity at the keyboard is highly polished; yet one hardly notices. One does notice his gorgeous tone, which seemingly knows no depth; his pianissimo playing, which I can tell you, reaches all the way to the back of the hall; his massive fortissimos, which always leave the impression that he has more to give; his melting legato touch, which makes the piano sound like anything but a percussive instrument; and his seemingly limitless imagination.

Once you've heard Pandolfi's presentation of a song, it will be difficult for you to imagine it any other way. Partly, this results from his own imagination: he is able to listen to music and lyrics with such freshness, even to the punctuation of lyrics, that he understands what many of us pass over. Then, he brings the resources of his technique, his sound-all his musical training and experience-to bear on the story in his mind. But not just the story: the character of the story, the atmosphere of the story. The result is nothing short of a recreation of each song Emile Pandolfi plays, and that result is often very powerful.
John Pendley

About the Artist
Critics call Emile Pandolfi's music "luxurious arrangements with an ethereal quality;" that he plays in a "free-flowing, emotional manner that seems to go to the music's very soul." (Stereophile Magazine) While keeping the melody uppermost, this solo pianist applies his classical technique to Broadway and Popular Music alike, all in addition to his classical performance. This unique mixture of passion and elegance has resulted in making him one of the top selling artists in the alternative market.

Classically trained since the age of five, Pandolfi took a road-less-traveled by most serious artists and created his own inspiring arrangements of Popular Music. He began recording them in 1991, and has accumulated a catalog of 25 different albums and compilations.

Without a doubt, when you hear the music of Emile Pandolfi, you will experience the heart and soul of one of todays finest pianists.

About the Artist
Emile Pandolfi is one of today's most accomplished popular pianists. Classically trained from age 5, Emile applies his outstanding technique to familiar songs from pop and Broadway.

A Steinway Artist, it has been said that "he plays in a manner that seems to go to the music's very soul" (Stereophile Magazine)

No one on the solo piano scene is causing more of a stir than Emile Pandolfi. Deft, graceful, sensitive, precise, intense, and emotional all describe his sophisticated style.

He performs what he loves - arranging meaningful melodies with all the emotion and technique at his disposal. The result is so fully satisfying that fans have asked "how many hands does he HAVE?" (Only two, really!)

Both in the recording studio and in live performance, this is piano at its best.