arlan - press release for live music performance dated 8.24.7            
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For Immediate Release:
 
Grand Performances Presents
 
Friday August 24, 2007
12:00pm (noon) – 1:00pm
 
Arlan – Solo Piano Concert
 
California Plaza Watercourt
300 - 350 Grand Ave
Los Angeles, California  90071
 
Marina Pavilion Stage
 
Free Admission / All Ages –
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Arlan – Solo Piano
 
Underground Los Angeles Keyboard Hipster Arlan performs a  Solo Piano Concert this Friday August 24 at noon on California Plaza’s Watercourt Stage. 
 
Music Styles:  Ambient, New Age, Avant-Garde, Jazz, Minimalist, American Pop, Free Improvised Composition.
 
“…if stranded on a desert island I would take a piano…unfortunately it would probably drift out of tune, the wood would split, the strings would rust, and the keyboard action would swell up, making the piano much less enjoyable than the thought of having a piano to play with…maybe I’ll take a vibraphone instead.”
 
At California Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles on Friday August 24th at 12 noon the piano will be expertly tuned, meticulously amplified, and joyfully played in celebration of a special solo piano concert performance by Los Angeles music native ARLAN.
 
As a performer Arlan draws stylistic inspiration from collaborations with hundreds upon hundreds of musicians, spanning a performance career of over three decades in numerous locations around the globe. Whether at all night jam sessions in Montreux, Switzerland during Jazz Fest, in concert with the Pointer Sisters in Hong Kong, Mandrill in Paris, performing at outdoor festivals, making records in recording studios, or playing NYC night clubs and regular gigs at Beverly Hills culinary hotspot Crustacean leading small acid jazz groups of LA studio musicians, Arlan is at home playing a multitude of musical styles with a variety of ensemble configurations. Studying other instruments in addition to piano and organ has also given him a deeper understanding of the modern music construct.
                         
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“The piano provides a seemingly endless opportunity of musical expression…hearing the conversation between my instrument and the surrounding environment is the ultimate in modern musical linguistics.  It often feels that I can hear people listen, their energy directly effects the music…this is why I love to play.”
 
Arlan’s influences as a composer come from everywhere, “everything I hear is music, the music of machines, insects, people and the noises they make, animals, electricity, the music of the earth, and music itself.” Ambient, Classical, Avant-Garde, Gospel, Country, Blues, Rock, Electronica, Hip Hop, Funk, Folk, Soul, Reggae, World Beat, and Jazz, all play a part in Arlan’s musical education, but the most powerful influence, the world around us. “A percussionist once told me while on tour in Germany, ‘listen to the sounds of the birds here, they sing a different song, different melodies and rhythms from the birds back home’. I think about that all the time, the patterns of the dogs barking, the rhythm of the crickets blending together, the flight paths of the birds, the music of nature, everywhere, even in the city.”
 
A veteran to California Plaza. Arlan performed earlier this summer with Mandrill, and during the last two seasons with Moog Mania and Mojo Triage.  “I’ve been fortunate to play there many times, It’s one of my favorite venues in the world, the people, the buildings, the water, the stage, the setting…it’s amazing, and I am honored to return and share in the musical love.”
 
This outdoor piano concert will focus an incredible amount of music history into less than an hour, with one person and one instrument: mano y piano.
 
Arlan – Solo Piano