Persona Music Jazz Links

Lois Armstrong
Wayne Shorter
Miles Davis
Chick Corea
Joe Zawinul
Louis Armstrong
Pat Metheny
Tom Jobim and João Gilberto
Dave Sanborn
Rippingtons
Herbie Hancock

Albums

Examples of  Persona Recordings playable online are offered as music history, music appreciation, education and demonstrations of Persona Studio's arranging, recording and mastering techniques. All the recordings are completed in house by Stephen Gislason. The music selections and their history are described in the book, Sound of Music.

Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter is an American jazz composer and saxophonist, commonly regarded as an American jazz master. He played with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the late 1950s, Miles Davis quintet in the 1960s and the jazz-rock fusion band Weather Report, which Shorter co-led in the 1970s. In 1964, Wayne joined the Miles Davis Quintet playing saxophone with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Shorter composed for  the Davis  group. Herbie Hancock described Wayne as "The master writer... Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles that didn't get changed.

Weather Report

Zawinul co-founded the jazz-rock band, Weather Report with Wayne Shorter. They recorded a successful debut album in 1971 and continued to record 14 studio albums until 1886.  Heavy Weather was their most popular album. In his January 2001 Down Beat retrospective on the band, Woodard wrote: "In 2000, Heavy Weather still sounds like a milestone in the cultural unconscious of jazz history… the album is the crowning achievement of the band's recorded output, a towering landmark of fusion.

Jaco Pastorius, the electric bass player, went on to great fame and a tragic death in 1987. In 2006, Pastorius was voted "The Greatest Bass Player Who Has Ever Lived" by reader submissions in Bass Guitar Magazine.   Zawinul  won the "Best Keyboardist" award 30 times from American jazz magazine.

Notes from arranger, Stephen Gislason:  when I began to arrange Speak no Evil  I started with a big band score that included 5 saxophone and 8 brass parts. My arranging strategy is to simplify and open the mix. I reduced 17 tracks to 7 and reassigned parts to different  instruments. My apologies to Wayne. The sax parts disappeared since they are the most difficult to reproduce with synthesizers. My flugelhorn replaced the sax solos. A bass, two pianos, a vibraphone, and a somewhat tamed drummer completed the band.  Shorter's music leaves nothing to be desired - it is melodic, complex, and challenging to the performers.

Shorter and Zawinul, A Tribute to Wayne Shorter and Zoe Zawinul

This album contains jazz classics by  Wayne Shorter, Zoe Zawinul, and Pastorius, featuring pieces that they wrote separately and  together as Weather Report.  Arrangements and performance by Stephen Gislason  Album  Download

Wayne Shorter's Palladium (Palladium Jazz Club in New York City)
Pinocchio was originally recorded by the Miles Davis Quintet (Nefertiti album 1967)
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, the Zawinul/Adderley hit of 1965
Birdland, a hit for Weather Report.
Children of the Night
Speak no Evil (1965)
Footprints
Black Market
Chicken (Pastorius)

Play Birdland, Mercy Mercy Mercy, Pinocchio and Speak No Evil  (Stephen Gislason & P2500 Band)

This Album is available for download (MP3 recordings in a zip folder)

More About Joe Zawinul,  Miles Davis,  Fusion Jazz

Persona Music Recordings  Our Music Catalogue includes recorded performances by the P2500 Band, Em4U, and the Persona Classical Consort. Music downloads are delivered from our companion website: Persona Digital Online. Music Downloads are albums, packaged as MP3 files in a zip folder. Download  the zip folder and save.  In Windows, click on the folder and choose the extract all option to unzip the files to your hard drive. A new folder containing the MP3 files will be created. The MP3 files will play on all computers, laptops, notebooks, smart phones, iPods,. iPads, CD and DVD players and all portable music players. Some albums contain liner notes or minibooks as PDF files that introduce the music. Some music recordings and Free Music Downloads are offered to illustrate music history, advance music  education and appreciation. The recordings presented online demonstrate Persona Studio's arranging, recording and mastering techniques. All the recordings are completed in house by Stephen Gislason. The music selections and their history are explained in the book, Sound of Music. More About Downloads.

Persona Digital Studio is located on the Sunshine Coast, Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada.
 www.personadigitalstudio.com  email  music@personadigitalstudio.com.
Our Music Catalogue includes recorded performances by the P2500 Band, Em4U, and the Persona Classical Consort. Music downloads and books are available from our companion website: Persona Digital Online.