Changes the Game for Musicians
Interactive sheet music comes to the Apple Books platform
Music Sight Reader is the first of its kind. In a marketplace saturated with music education apps, hardcover sheet music, and sheet music for download, Music Sight Reader rises to the top as a new way for students, educators, and musicians to practice, teach, and enjoy sight reading. The platform is neither an app nor an e-book, but rather an app/e-book combo. Music Sight Reader is interactive sheet music for your virtual bookshelf.
Essentially launching both a library and a hybrid app all in one, the first release, âClassical Collection Vol 1â, is part of the Interactive Sight Reading Series. This runs on the platform, Music Sight Reader, available on Apple Books (formerly iBooks from 2010 to 2018) an e-book reading and store application by Apple Inc. for its iOS and macOS operating systems. Music Sight Reader runs natively within Apple Books on Apple devices such as iPads, iPhones and Mac computers.
The flagship âClassical Collection Vol.1â, includes classical duets, trios, and quartets (featuring Bach, Brahms, Mozart, and more), arranged for a given clef and instrument. The bass volume has been arranged for bass clef, while the guitar volume has been arranged for treble clef. This means that guitar players, for example, can now read both voices of a Mozart Sonata originally composed for piano, or a bass student can now read all parts of a Bach Chorale, originally composed for voice. Choose which part to play and Music Sight Reader will play the other parts, while the notes automatically scroll across the screen.
This cutting-edge format gives musicians around the globe fresh new access to some of the greatest music ever written, all without the trappings of standard sight reading apps (subscription plans and in-the-style-of arrangements). The pieces in âClassical Collection Vol 1â can also be purchased Ă la carte as individual works. Ă la carte pieces and collections arranged for piano are currently under development and will be released soon.
Bruce Gertz and Raleigh Green are onto something special with Music Sight Reader. Gertz, a Berklee alum/educator, and acclaimed jazz bass player and Green, a professional designer, developer, musician, and educator, built this music sight-reading program with the aim of carving out a completely unique and impactful educational space. Says Gertz, âWe are really excited about the vast potential of what this product can provide to students and professionals all over the world.â
âThis is a really wonderful idea for an interactive Apple Books/app. Of course, not only do you practice your reading but you play through classic melodies. And you can use Music Sight Reader for analyzing some of those great compositions. Congratulations!â  â Mike SternÂ
Oâs Notes: Saxophonist Dino Govoni leads a quintet with Alex Sipiagin (t), Henry Hey (p), Michael Pope (b) and Jeff âTainâ Watts (d). The music was mostly original, composed by Paul Nigel (4) with Hey (2), Pope (1), and Govoni (1) along with a swinging cover of Hal Crookâs âThinkers Anonymousâ. The band maintains that energy, especially on âStories Passedâ. Dinoâs best illustrations are on âAsk Againâ And âApels to Applesâ, overflowing with passion.
“Hiding in Plain Sight” is a jazz album featuring Dino Govoni on tenor saxophone, Alex Sipiagin on trumpet and flugelhorn, Henry Hey on piano, Michael Pope on acoustic and electric bass, and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts on drums. The smooth, versatile, evocative music takes the listener on an auditory pleasure cruise. Hiding in Plain Sight is a treasure for jazz connoisseurs, highly recommended. The tracks are Stories Passed, Cobalt, Falling Ahead, Thinkers Anonymous, Ask Again, Sublimate, Point Turn, Appels to Apples, and Edge Walker.
Tenor saxophonist Dino Govoni is best known as a longtime professor at the famous Berklee College in Boston and an excellent session musician. So on our site until now, his name has appeared as a participant in the recordings of other performers. But he also has his own leadership records. He does not often release his own albums, mainly on Whaling City Sound. And his last album, the third on this label, appeared here after a long break.
Hiding in Plain Sight was recorded in Brooklyn in January 2020 as a quintet. For this project, Dino put together an excellent team. The second brass voice in the quintet was the trumpet player Alex Sipiagin, one of the most successful representatives of the Russian jazz diaspora in the States, the place at the piano was taken by Dinoâs main assistant on the project, Henry Hey, Michael Pope played the bass, and one of the most popular modern ones sat at the drums. jazz drummers Jeff âTainâ Watts.
Together they performed a program of nine songs. Dinoâs greatest interest was aroused by the music of the jazz veteran Paul Nagel, who worked with Robben Ford, Bobby McFerrin, Boz Skaggs: the album included as many as four of his compositions. Hey brought two plays to the project, one each by Pope and Govoni himself. Stylistically, the music of Hiding in Plain Sight is a typical neo-pop mainstream with a stable structure of pieces, developed solo performers and a relatively regular rhythm. For those who love this direction, Hiding in Plain Sight is just perfect, given the high class of performers. For me personally, the favorite of the album was Nagelâs play Falling Ahead with its somewhat mysterious atmosphere and catchy melody. But this is already a matter of tastes.
As for Dino Govoni himself, Hiding in Plain Sight gave me an interesting observation. Today in American jazz there is a whole cohort of the most talented tenor saxophonists of Italian-American origin. And next to the giant Joe Lovano, next to Jerry Bergonzi and George Garzone (by the way, Dinoâs teachers), Dino Govoni also occupies a worthy place in it.
Musicians are always trying to reach the next level as instrumentalists, as composers or as band leaders. Tenorist Dino Govoni states that he has finally found his own voice in this album, which will be released on 10.15.2021 via the Whaling City Sound label. This time, he was very satisfied with the sound of the album, he performed without worrying about how he should approach each piece. On this album, he is accompanied by Alex Sipiagin on trumpet and flugelhorn, Henry Hey on piano, Michael Pope on acoustic and electric bass and Jeff âTainâ Watts on drums.
When you look at his background, two strong voices stand out at the basis of Govoniâs education. These are Jerry Bergonzi and George Garzone. These two important names will be a strong reference for music lovers who know jazz well to understand how solid the background of Govoni is.
In âHiding In Plain Sightâ, we will witness that Govoni is a versatile composer, a unique session player, as a long-time faculty member at Berklee College of Music. Pianist Henry Heyâs elegant touch, Sipiaginâs bright-toned trumpet and Jeff âTainâ Wattsâ cymbals make the listener jump, increasing the tempo of the music. Extremely thunderous performances, astonishing solo scores are connected with each other with smooth transitions. If you havenât heard the name Dino Govoni before, this album is a good showcase for him.
For more information please visit the record company.
Mario Hilario of NBC Studio 10 interviewed Bruce Gertz, a Berkleealum/educator, and Raleigh Green, a professional designer, developer, musician, and educator. Together they built this music sight-reading program with the aim of carving out a completely unique and impactful educational space. Says Gertz, âWe are really excited about the vast potential of what this product can provide to students and professionals all over the world.â
Essentially launching both a library and a hybrid app all in one, the first release, âClassical Collection Vol 1â, is part of the Interactive Sight
Reading Series. This runs on the platform, Music Sight Reader, available on Apple Books (formerly iBooks from 2010 to 2018) an e-book reading and store application by Apple Inc. for its iOS and macOS operating systems. Music Sight Reader runs natively within Apple Books on Apple devices such as iPads, iPhones and Mac computers.
The flagship âClassical Collection Vol.1â, includes classical duets, trios, and quartets (featuring Bach, Brahms, Mozart, and more), arranged for a given clef and instrument. The bass volume has been arranged for bass clef, while the guitar volume has been arranged for treble clef. This means that guitar players, for example, can now read both voices of a Mozart Sonata originally composed for piano, or a bass student can now read all parts of a Bach Chorale, originally composed for voice. Choose which part to play and Music Sight Reader will play the other parts, while the notes automatically scroll across the screen.This cutting-edge format gives musicians around the globe fresh new access to some of the greatest music ever written, all without the trappings of standard sight reading apps (subscription plans and in-the-style-of arrangements). The pieces in âClassical Collection Vol 1â can also be purchased Ă la carte as individual works. Ă la carte pieces and collections arranged for piano are currently under development and will be released soon.
Like many serious musicians, John Stein was trying to find a way to reach his audience following the Covid-19 breakout. He had just released Watershed, a career-defining recording to mark his planned retirement from Berklee College of Music, where he was an acclaimed educator. Of course, as with live music in general, the tour in support of Watershed was scrapped. Prior to the pandemic, Whaling City Soundâs Neal Weiss had asked Stein to bring a trio for an outdoor September show he had booked in New Bedford. But when hell broke loose, Neal moved the show inside, to the New Bedford Art Museum, and made plans to broadcast it virtually, as well as record the audio and video. âThanks to Nealâs ability to see other possibilities,â recalls Stein, âit would be the only public concert I played the entire year.â
Steinâs trio for the date, Ed Lucie on bass and Mike Connors on drums, played as they normally would in front of a packed house. The session was live. There were no second takes, no overdubs, no corrections. They simply played each tune and then moved on. It succeeded as a video, of course, because of the trioâs remarkable chemistry. The set was stellar. But that wasnât all. âWeeks after the show,â Stein recalls, âI had some tasks to do around the house and I let the video run in the background. For the first time, I experienced the soundtrack as pure music without the distraction of the visuals.â Stein heard subtle but extraordinary details that he hadnât noticed before. âI became aware of the superb musicianship. At that moment, I realized that the audio itself was worthy of release.â
Serendipity is that release. It is the document of that gig, played for an audience of one, John Farrell, who taped and edited the video. Farrell, as it turns out, is also a professional sound engineer. He captured the audio and skillfully did the mixing. Itâs obvious that the session, originally assembled as a way to let the music play, was an enormous creative success. From the opener, a take on Sonny Rollinsâ âAlfieâs Theme,â to the closing, upbeat âHappy Hour,â a Stein original, the recording is a pure celebration of bristling energy and subtle, intuitive performances.
While the pandemic may have stifled our collective musical voice, it also yielded beautiful and unexpected moments from musicians that simply wouldnât be denied. Count the aptly titled Serendipity as one of those moments. When hope for live music had temporarily faded, one trio decided they simply had to do what great musicians were compelled to do. Serendipity is the sound of happiness unleashed, as captured by musicians destined to play.
Music industry consultant and publicist Ginny Shea has garnered international exposure for her clients through radio and video promotion, print media, and her vast industry network.
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Music industry consultant and publicist Ginny Shea has garnered international exposure for her clients through radio and video promotion, print media, and her vast industry network.
