Canyon Shadows by Joanne Lazzaro and Dreamcatcher

Originally composed in 1997, and first performed in 1999 at the Grand Canyon Music Festival, this beautiful 5- movement suite was never commercially recorded. I worked with the composer, using a hand-written manuscript, and released the album only months before the composer passed away.

LINER NOTES-

Canyon Shadows by Katherine Hoover
World Premiere recording performed by: Joanne Lazzaro and Dreamcatcher - Terry Wolff and Dean Hinkley
Cover Art: Mergence (watercolor & ink painting) by Erica Fareio

“Katherine Hoover is an extraordinary composer. She has a wide and fascinating vocabulary which she uses with enormous skill. Her music is fresh and individual. It is dazzlingly crafted…” John Corigliano

Of all Katherine Hoover’s pieces for flute, Canyon Shadows remained (until now) the only unpublished and unrecorded of her many award-winning compositions. A few years ago, I contacted Katherine and she graciously sent me a score. Our trio started performing it and audiences really enjoyed the music, so into the recording studio we went….

Canyon Shadows for native flute in G minor, concert C flute, and percussion, was commissioned by the Grand Canyon Music Festival and premiered in September, 1999, by R. Carlos Nakai (Native American flute), Clare Hoffman (flute), and Gordon Gottlieb (percussion). The music, inspired by the haunting and breathtakingly beautiful canyons of the American Southwest, combines several overlapping spheres: those of the native flute & silver flute; native music & classical music; and sounds of nature & notated music. The three bonus tracks expand on the nature sounds portrayed in the music and capture the soundscape of the southwestern desert - eagles, coyotes, wind, thunder and lastly, the welcome rain.

“In my mind’s eye I saw a band of native ancestors searching for a home, finding a canyon and moving in. In the third movement their calls echo across the canyon. There is a celebration, and the piece ends with dusk settling in, with chirps and murmurs, bats, and memories.” Katherine Hoover

Canyon Shadows – for native flute, C-flute and percussion

The first five tracks present the five-movement suite in classical performance form – everything you hear was performed in real-time in the studio, as if on the concert stage. The nature mix “bonus tracks” have sounds added that augment (or in some cases, mimic) the sound effects performed by the instruments – birds, rain, wind, thunder, and even coyotes!

Joanne Lazzaro plays Native American flutes in G minor (made by Tim Blueflint/Shades of Rez and Odell Borg/High Spirits) on tracks 1,2,4,5, 6, 8; Native American flute in bass D minor (made by High Spirits) on tracks 3 & 7, and eagle whistle (made by Durian Songbird) on tracks 1, 5, 6, & 8.
Terry Wolff plays concert C-flute on tracks 1,2,4,5,6,8, and alto flute on tracks 3 & 7.
Dean Hinkley plays an impressive collection of world percussion instruments (cajon, clay doumbek, tambourine, maracas, bamboo claves, seed pod rattle, cricket, rattan seed shaker, wind chimes, antique cymbals) on all 8 tracks.

1. Searching (3:09)
2. Moving In (2:55)
3. Echo (2:21)
4. Celebration (3:53)
5. Dusk (2:46)

Nature mix bonus tracks
6. Searching – Desert dawn mix (3:14)
7. Echo – Canyon mix (2:30)
8. Dusk – Desert nightfall mix (3:02)

Katherine Hoover was born in West Virginia and resides in New York where she maintains an active career as composer, conductor, and flutist. Canyon Shadows is one of a series of compositions (including her most famous work - Kokopelli, for solo flute, and Canyon Echoes, for flute and guitar) that were inspired by the extraordinary natural beauty of the American southwest, and the culture of the Hopi people. She is the recipient of a National Endowment Composer’s Fellowship and many other awards, including an Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Composition. Ten of her pieces have won the National Flute Association’s Newly Published Music Competition. She received the National Flute Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. www.katherinehoover.com

The Dreamcatcher trio includes Los Angeles-based musicians Joanne Lazzaro, world flutes, Native American flutes & whistles; Terry Wolff, jazz flute & alto flute; and Dean Hinkley, world percussion. The group formed in 2012 to perform pieces written for various combinations of world flutes and percussion, as well as fully-improvised music “played from the heart”. Joanne, whose own music is a fusion of world, New Age and Native American styles, arranged the 3rd movement Echo for alto flute in G and Native American flute in D minor. She also designed the nature mixes for Searching, Echo and Dusk. Dreamcatcher is the first ensemble to record Canyon Shadows.

Cover art: Mergence
“This painting depicts the confluence of the Little Colorado and Mother Colorado rivers in Grand Canyon. The source of the beautiful turquoise waters comes from a spring named the Sipapuni by the Hopis. According to their creation story, this spring is the place of their emergence into this world. In the foreground of the painting we see the waves building, forming and cresting. A wave looking deeply into herself will see that she is made up of all the other waves, and will no longer feel she is cut off from everything around her. All of the elements here - the water, the rocks, and sky - are reaching upwards, pushing up, inviting us to join them, encouraging us to reach our highest good and potential.” Erica Fareio www.ericafareio.com

Dedications -
My most heartfelt thank you to everyone who worked on or had a part in the creation of this album, and especially - Katherine for your guidance, Terry and Dean for all your hard work & musicianship, Nik for listening to many hours of rehearsals, everyone at Bell Sound for use of your excellent studio, Todd for your patience & wisdom, and Andrea for being a gracious & welcoming host. Grateful also to Odell Borg, Tim Blueflint Ramel, and Durian Songbird for creating beautiful flutes that capture the essence of this music.

Album credits -
Composer: Katherine Hoover www.katherinehoover.com
Dreamcatcher: Joanne Lazzaro – Native American flutes in G minor & D minor, eagle whistle; Terry Wolff – C flute, alto flute in G; Dean Hinkley – cajon, clay doumbek, tambourine, maracas, bamboo claves, seed pod rattle, cricket, rattan seed shaker, wind chimes, antique cymbals.
Producer: Joanne Lazzaro www.kokopelli.la
Arranger: Tracks 5, 6, 7 & 8 – Joanne Lazzaro
Recorded January 31, 2015 at Bell Sound, Hollywood, CA www.bellsound.com
Recording Engineer: Michael Coromina
Mixed by: Todd Boston at Magic Cottage Studios, Lagunitas, CA www.toddboston.com
Mastered by: Wayne Peet at Newzone Studio, Los Angeles www.newzonestudio.com
Cover art: Mergence by Erica Fareio www.ericafareio.com
Published by JoRazzal Music www.kokopelli.la
Manufactured and printed by Disc Makers, Pennsauken, NJ, USA

Copyright 2018 Joanne Lazzaro. All rights reserved.

Joanne Lazzaro is a versatile world-flutist based in Los Angeles, California. She’s released four award-winning albums: two solo Native American flute improvisations and two world-premiere recordings of classical-crossover flute chamber music. she's Principal Flute of the Beach Cities Symphony, Los Angeles Flute Orchestra, sought-after studio session player and flute workshop clinician.

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