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New England Morning, the album, contains seven original Tookes songs and five standards freshly painted by the synchronous Darryl Tookes/Joseph Joubert musical imagination. It was recorded on Direct Stream Digital at Ambient Recording’s converted Connecticut barn, whose studio’s surfaces are diffused with soft pine wood, hand painted with 15 layers of violin varnish. The warm and natural sound of Sony’s SACD further draws listeners into the music like a timeless LP played on a fine turntable. A hint to understanding the beauty of the music which Tookes and Joubert create is to know they are both committed listeners. Arranged with the color and palette of a full orchestra in mind, these songs are expressive and conversational, vulnerable and honest, personal and intimate. Darryl Tookes’ voice and Joseph Joubert’s piano pour out together, an elixir of liquid gold. Not only is Darryl Tookes a consummate storyteller, the musicianship of this album will make you stop, make you listen, and make you feel.
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New England Morning - Click for audio clip of song
(Tookes) 4:28 (Track 2 piano & voice; Track 13 orchestra & voice)
New England Morning, the song, tells of a man stepping into a dream and how, slipping back out, his view of the “real world” may be changed forever. On a cold and gray New England morning, Darryl Tookes woke up at his house in Connecticut and the lyrics of the song poured out, a poetic rendering of a dream he had just had, and the melody followed--instantly. Championing the idea of performance with orchestra and having recently arranged The Facts of Life, Darryl Tookes and Joseph Joubert were in the groove to create the lush, evocative New England Morning orchestration.
Perfect One - Click for audio clip of song
(Tookes) 4:07
People hear songs the way they do. Joseph Joubert hears Perfect One as a hauntingly beautiful love song and his piano arrangement mimics violins, flute and oboe. Some Tookes fans liken Perfect One to a paraphrase of the 23rd Psalm. Darryl looks forward to the day when the song is so well known that when he walks into a pub in Dublin, he hears a bunch of guys lustily singing, “When I hold you in my arms, I know you are my perfect one.”
Tomorrow's Never Promised - Click for audio clip of song
(Tookes) 4:06
Darryl Tookes says, “I heard Joseph play an arrangement that he wrote right after September 11th of A Mighty Fortress and he was just driven. You could feel all the pathos and the madness and the concern and the hope in his soul when you hear the way he plays that thing. He said to me ‘You have to do something.'
Something to me was just saying, it wasn't such a deliberate thought, it would just call me, ‘Darryl, Darryl, you have to write about living in the moment, you have to write about that, and don't even reveal in this song the fear and pain and the tentativeness about life that is makingyou write this because if you reveal an ounce of it, you have completely failed to deliver this song the way it's got to be delivered.' ''
Fields of Gold - Click for audio clip of song
(Sting) 4:00
In this pastoral song of remembrance, played in D major, Joseph Joubert's piano becomes the rolling fields of gold. Notice Darryl Tookes' humming, like reflective strokes upon a cello.
Too Darn Hot - Click for audio clip of song
(Porter) 3:12Expecting a straight melody line from this Kiss Me, Kate classic? Switch gears! Here's playful, extreme, improvisational jazz--a performance tune caught in one guise at the recording studio.
You and the Night and the Music - Click for audio clip of song
(Dietz/Schwartz) 2:54
Joseph Joubert says, “I had to give myself a challenge for piano and voice to be an orchestra.” Listen to their astonishing skill as Darryl Tookes and Joseph Joubert and the Music become one! Word has it Joseph rehearsed this chart by playing Beethoven sonatas late into the wee hours.
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square - Click for audio clip of song
(Sherwin/Maschwitz) 3:22
Dedicated by Tookes/Joubert to TBM Records' Tanya Bickley, this lilting saloon song starts off with a wandering, spoken introduction, a la Fred Astaire, and goes into the rubato section. Just when you think it may be balladish, it takes off. Pure magic!
La Fiesta - Click for audio clip of song
(Tookes/Kriedman) 3:25
Writing this upbeat, little samba for his brother, an aviation executive, Darryl Tookes says, “Well, you know this is the one, it doesn't have a lot of words to it, and the sky metaphor is for my brother. So, ‘in the sky we are dancing on the wind, butterflies, la fiesta for my friends, buddies till the end of time, and time again you have seen me through. How could I last a single day without you?' Then it comes back and asks the question, ‘How can I find a simple new way to say I love you?' So, say it in another language. It is the same lyric translated into the Portuguese, which is certainly my favorite language to sing in. And I apologize for any diction that is not quite perfect, but it is, I have been told from a few native Portuguese speakers, Brazilians, that most of it sounds really likeindigenous Portuguese from the Bahia region.” Of the piano accompaniment, Mr. Joubert says, “Well, I am trying to be a guitar, which is a characteristic of this kind of samba.”
Soul Mate - Click for audio clip of song
(Tookes) 3:23 Soul Mate is an edgy, contemporary, jovial song about a man searching for his soul mate. Says Tookes, “I played Soul Mate for maybe a half dozen friends before werecorded it, just meclumsily playing it at the piano and singing it and trying to remember the words, and they were all singing along with me and saying, ‘I can't wait to get this record with this song on it!'” Tookes continues, “I have to mention Ramsey Lewis, a jazz piano player who's been around a long time. He's got the gospel feeling and he's a lot of people's favorite piano player. He had a couple big hits when I was a little boy. One is called Wade in the Water, which was a gospel song. The other was called The In Crowd and there was a playfulness about those songs that here many, many years later I still enjoy hearing them. They stand up on their own and they just have a life about them and to me that was the inspiration for Soul Mate. I resisted writing a song with that title for a long time because I didn't want to get into gimmicky concepts, but that phrase has been around a long time and I think it has stood the test of time.”
The King of Love - Click for audio clip of song
(Baker/Ancient Irish) 3:50
The King of Love is the only song on the New England Morning album that TBM went with on the first take. Joseph Joubert commented, “It is that haunting, folk-like melody that draws me. There are certain hymns that have that quality and this is certainly one. We felt it. It's a spiritual song, it's a moving melody. We just felt the moment.”
Forever Free - Click for audio clip of song(Tookes) 1:42
In just over 90 seconds, in 5-beat meter, backed by a simple Tookes melody reminiscent of Aaron Copland, Forever Free opens with the lyric, “There's a time to dance, a time to sing, there's a time to do most everything.” The song continues, a wise man summing up the heart and life's important moments, concluding with “we shall know thetime has come to be ever thankful and forever free.” It's a song that could warm the heart of a nation seeking the deeper, simpler, truer meanings of life. About Forever Free, Darryl Tookes says, “That's one of the songs that couldn't get written if Joseph and I weren't best friends as well as musical partners because you can have a musical partnership, or any kind of business partnership, and it could be great and you guys don't have to get along where you don't completely trust each other. They're a whole lot of examples. But, more than a deeper marriage, more than a soul mate, to have a relationship with Joseph allows me to do that song. It does more than allow me, it stretches me.”
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Press
Releases
November 17, 2003
New England Morning Nominated for Seven Grammy Awards
For further information, contact Tanya Bickley, 203-966-5216, 800-965-3347
New England Morning, a romantic Pop album featuring Darryl Tookes and
Joseph Joubert was in the first cut for seven Grammy nominations. Released
by New Canaan based, TBM Records in April 2003, the album has received
recognition in the following categories: Record of the Year, Album of
the Year, Song of the Year (“New England Morning”), Best Pop
Duo or Group with Vocal (“Tomorrow’s Never Promised”),
Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Instrumental Composition (“New England
Morning” as performed by a live 65-piece orchestra), and Best Producer.
Says TBM president/producer Tanya Bickley, “After all the back breaking
work, choices and decisions, it was thrilling and humbling to read the
Grammy ballot and see Darryl’s, Joseph’s and my work among
so many talented musicians, composers, arrangers and producers. TBM has
the highest hopes for the album and Darryl and Joseph’s success.
Their beautiful music penetrates straight to the heart, so personal, so
intimate.”
To quote Ambient Recording Company’s Mark Conese, “They are
about as good as any two humans get.” When Tookes’ luminous
voice and Joubert’s virtuoso piano unite in song, their melody transports
listeners to “places I want to be.” Do they perform smooth
jazz, romantic pop, sophisticated cabaret, love songs for orchestra, music
for a mellow evening at home, music to calm the savage beast at work?
All or one, it’s hard to choose. With talent and style that defy
the confinement of niche, it’s more accurate to say, they are, quite
simply, Tookes & Joubert.
New England Morning culminates their ten-year partnership as singer/composer
and arranger/ accompanist. Arranged with the color and palette of a full
orchestra in mind, the seven Tookes originals and five cover songs are
expressive and conversational, vulnerable and honest, personal and intimate,
each freshly painted by the Tookes/Joubert musical imagination. Darryl
Tookes’ voice and Joseph Joubert’s piano pour out together,
an elixir of liquid gold. The last bonus track features Tookes singing
the title song, accompanied by Joubert and a 65-piece orchestra performing
his lush and lyrical arrangement.
The album was recorded on Direct Stream Digital at Ambient Recording’s
converted North Stamford, CT barn, whose studio’s surfaces are diffused
with soft pine wood, hand painted with 15 layers of violin varnish. Mark
Conese recorded Darryl Tookes with a Brauner microphone, custom designed
and modified by Klaus Heyne, while Joseph Joubert performed on a Steinway
D Concert Grand and was recorded using two Shure microphones. Ambient
Audio Labs 1070A microphone pre-amplifiers were used exclusively throughout
the recording.
For more information, go to www.newenglandmorning.com. New England Morning
is available for purchase at the Gramophone Shop and Walter Stewart’s
in New Canaan, The Harrel Shop in Darien, Sally’s Place in Westport,
and at www.cdbaby.com and www.amazon.com.
April 3, 2003
TBM Records
New Canaan, Connecticut
TBM Records will release on April 3rd NEW ENGLAND MORNING, a hybrid SACD
album. The recording has been in the works since November 2000 when TBM
‘s Tanya Bickley and performing artist and composer Darryl Tookes
began exploring the possibility of creating an album of romantic and inspirational
love songs. NEW ENGLAND MORNING will be sold on www.newenglandmorning.com,
the album’s website, and initially at the Gramophone Shop and Walter
Stewart’s in New Canaan, CT, The Harrel Shop and Johnny’s
in Darien, CT, and Sally’s Place in Westport, CT. TBM plans to expand
retail distribution regionally and nationally.
Passionately committed to NEW ENGLAND MORNING, Ms. Bickley says, “Darryl
Tookes and Joseph Joubert fill a spectrum of recorded music that is rarely
heard. Romantic Pop, Romantic Chamber, or Neo-Classical Jazz could define
them. But, we believe, they defy market niche or definition and are, quite
simply, Darryl Tookes and Joseph Joubert, performing at their prime.”
Ms. Bickley con-tinued, “Every stop sign or delay we have experienced
in the last two-and-a-half years has ended positively. Pre-release responses
to the album lead us to believe NEW ENGLAND MORNING will captivate audiences.
Listeners say they welcome the beautiful melodies and wise, literate lyrics.
They remark that Darryl Tookes’ singing has a deeply spiritual quality
that makes them feel at peace. Not unnoticed is the virtuoso quality of
their work. When Ambient Recording’s Mark Conese came to Darryl
with news of Direct Stream Digital and Hybrid SACD’s, we thought,
‘What a bonanza to record in a format that weds the warmth of analog
to digital wizardry– and to be able to make it available to music
lovers either on standard CD players or SACD (Super Audio CD) players.’
We have been surrounded by family, friends, fans, and colleagues who have
given their very best to help us bring this beautiful, beautiful music
to the marketplace to be enjoyed by listeners everywhere.”
TBM Records was founded in 1992 by Tanya Bickley in order to produce,
manufacture and distribute the spoken-word, audio series “Frederick
Douglass’s Greatest Speeches,” featuring Fred Morsell. The
independent record company is a wholly owned division of Tanya Bickley
Enterprises, Inc., an entertainment and speakers bureau which is located
in New Canaan, Connecticut. Between 1992 and 1995, TBM released THE MEANING
OF THE FOURTH OF JULY FOR THE NEGRO (also known as “Frederick Douglass’s
Fifth of July Speech”), THE LESSON OF THE HOUR, and WHY I BECAME
A WOMAN’S RIGHTS MAN. Ten years later, there continues to be a call
for the albums, mainly from students, teachers , and others who admire
Frederick Douglass.
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