Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble Releases New CD 'Celebrations'

"Celebrations: The Heritage Ensemble Interprets Festive Melodies from the Hebraic Songbook" (© 2010 MEII Enterprises; RT 48 minutes) is the latest contemporary world music album from Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble.

The Heritage Ensemble is dedicated to the concert performance of liturgical and folksong Hebraic melodies in various jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian styles, with a touch of classicism for good measure.

Nine tracks: four from the Chanukah festival, two from Purim. An original composition, "Yotvata"--a mixture of classical and jazz--celebrates the creation of the leading dairy kibbutz in Israel. An eighth track, "Halleluyah," from the liturgy, is a solo piano arrangement.

A unique feature of "Celebrations" is a ninth track narrated by Dr. Marlow that describes The Heritage Ensemble's history, repertoire, and philosophy. Musical clips from the current album and a forthcoming CD (to be released in Spring 2011) underscore Marlow's comments.

Personnel: multi-Grammy nominee drummer Bobby Sanabria, who also serves as album co-producer, along with Dr. Eugene Marlow, the Ensemble's founder, arranger, leader, and keyboardist. Other performers include Nuyorican percussionist Cristian Rivera, NEA performance grantee saxophonist Michael Hashim, and acoustic/electric bassist Frank Wagner.

This is the second album from The Heritage Ensemble--the sixth from composer/arranger Eugene Marlow. All albums are available at http://www.cdbaby.com/.

Eugene Marlow, Ph.D. is a composer/arranger, producer, presenter, performer, author, journalist, and educator who has written over 200 classical and jazz compositions for solo instruments, jazz and classical chamber groups, and jazz big band. Under the MEII Enterprises label, he has produced six CDs of original compositions and arrangements.

Marlow is senior co-chair of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives Concert Series at Baruch College (The City University of New York), now in its 19th season. In early 2010, Marlow received a "Creative Connections" grant from Meet the Composer for his work with The Heritage Ensemble.

Dr. Marlow is a former member of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, and current member of the Jazz Journalists Association, the New York Composers Circle, and Chamber Music America. He is a voting member of The Recording Academy.