Charles Ives meets Kate Bush: innovative, whimsical piano-based music that crashes together 20th/21st century atonality, pop and jazz. "Well-trained, self-inspired talent for the odd, up and down and all around, and out there." - The Village Voice

13 MP3 Songs
POP: Piano, POP: Quirky



Details:
Dubbed a âMusical Devil in a Red Dressâ by legendary Producer Arif Mardin, Songstress Amy Kohn's Experimental Pop is whimsical, cathartic, sweet and smart. She leads her 7-piece band to melting ice-sculptures, epoxied roses, and seas of calligraphy, marking wild musical & lyrical territory, yet grounded by her âeloquent and personal pianism and voice.â*

New York: April 6 at Joeâs Pub Amy released her remarkable new CD "Iâm in Crinoline." Amy pulled out all the stops this fantastic night, inflating the room with the new recordâs unusual sounds: her 7-piece band featuring her fierce piano/accordion playing & visceral voice, & her inspired arrangements for harmony, flute, clarinets, saxophones, trumpet, guitar, banjo, upright bass & drums, a wind septet & an accordion quartet.

Co-Produced with Joe Mardin, with stunning photos of Amy by renowned music photographer Merri Cyr, design by Dâsteam, engineering by Kenji Shimoda, Rod Hui, Tom Durack, Jon Rosenberg & Tom Gavin, & with an incredible lineup of New York musicians, "Iâm in Crinoline" is 13 complex & extraordinary songs ânot like much else you've ever heard.â (- Three Weeks, Scotland).

Strapped to her motorcycle-tough accordion, Amy toured the UK last August, garnering great reviews of her performances at the famed Speigeltent & Acoustic Music Centre at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (âKohn is the kind of individual talent that the fringe is in danger of suffocating...â - The Scottish Herald). She also caused a stir at Londonâs 12 Bar & Rayâs Jazz Shop. Her band plays regularly at top New York venues (Joeâs Pub, Makor, Barbes...) and Amyâs music & music-theater are often aired on top radio. Last February was the World Premiere of her Radio-Opera 1 Plum Sq. as part of WNYC's American Music Festival (David Garland's program âSpinning on Air") & last month excerpts from the 2-hour Broadcast were featured on âSpinning on Air Best of 2005.â She returned to WNYC April 9 to promote the new CD with a segment on her music which included a live interview with David Garland. Amy is a proud, pigtailed member of the Main Squeeze Accordion Orchestra, where sheâs infamous for her twisted arrangements of pop favorites. âWell-trained, self-inspired talent for the odd, up and down and all-around, and out thereâ - Voice Choices, The Village Voice
* Composer/Pianist Michael Jefry Stevens

THE GLASS LAUGHS BACK LINER NOTES:
Listening to the music of Amy Kohn is like entering a very private
universe of sound - something very intimate, special and beautiful. A
world characterized by Amy's inventive and unique approach to the creation of music. Finally: an original voice. Such a gift is increasingly rare in
today's corporate mentality of instantly famous superstars feeding us the
same diatonic harmony and limpid melodies of trite phrases devoid of meaning and feeling.

Amy's is the gift of a true artist. Her music makes uncommon demands
on the listener moving between several parallel musical worlds (20th Century
Classical - the Broadway Musical - modern jazz and of course the perennial
singer/songwriter performing her own music). One can hear the influences of
Charles Ives, Erik Satie, Carla Bley, George Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim,
Laura Nyro and especially Kate Bush. These are quite eccentric influences
yet somehow Amy is able to create from such a disparate palate her own
exquisitely molded individual voice (as a pianist, singer and
lyricist/songwriter). This is no small feat.

Each song on this CD tells a distinct story, each very different from
the next. Images are formed and intertwined with Amy's eloquent and personal pianism and voice. She is opening up a new universe for us.

I for one can't wait to enter (again)!

I hope you enjoy this music as much as I do. This is real music and
like anything real it makes serious demands on us. There is work here for
the listener to do. But as you do the work you will find there are great
rewards............!!!

Thanks Amy.

Michael Jefry Stevens
Brooklyn, NY
July 1999