Transparent Sky Archives - Lisa Hilton Music

an image of lisa looking up from the piano with the words"I like the idea of just enjoying this moment just how it is, and seeing what our new year brings without any expectations"

Happy Holidays!

December 20, 2021 by Lisa Hilton

In my heart… I’d love to invite everyone to a holiday party this year! Imagine a big sunny event with amazing music along the lines of the Newport Jazz festival! “The more the merrier” sounds wonderful to me! Things will, in fact, be pretty low key around here though – maybe at your home too? This year will still be an improvement over last year’s barely-there holiday though.

We’ve all experienced a reality shifting two years, and 2022 is coming. I like the idea of just enjoying this moment just how it is, and seeing what our new year brings without any expectations – as Lennon & McCartney would say – to just Let It Be. Taking relaxed time with family and friends will be a treat this year even at a modest scale. Of course I’ll play the piano too – I’ve had some requests already – so I’ll pull out some seasonal favorites and practice them a bit. (btw, what’s your favorite holiday tune?)

As 2021 winds down, I’m thankful for the positive experiences: two top jazz albums this year, (Transparent Sky 2021 Top Jazz Album at All About Jazz), a new piano, and every day support from family, friends and music lovers around the world. I’m happy to be here, and yes, I’m looking forward to new experiences in 2022.

Wishing you, your family and loved ones a joyful holiday season, and a happy and healthy new year.

Lisa

Transparent Sky promo image with press quotes "it's beautiful" and "impressive"

‘Tis the Season

October 29, 2021 by Lisa Hilton

Grammys, Luques Curtis, Rudy Royston, Transparent Sky

You might think it’s fall, but for many musicians this time is referred to as “Grammy Season”. For a few months every year, thoughts are a bit diverted from our usual activities, and a wafting anxiety starts to infiltrate everyday instances as we try and connect with our friends and co-workers hoping to receive enough votes for a nomination. When artists say they are honored to be nominated, that is really true – it is much harder to get nominated than to win – every nominee has a 20% chance to win, but the chance to get a nomination is much smaller and depends on the number of entrants.

Although I would love to receive a Grammy – or like some of the people I work with, a bunch of them – I do have mixed feelings about these awards because in the past there was a lot of “irregularities” with the award process.This year we have a new Grammy CEO, producer Harvey Mason Jr., and I know an effort has been made to improve the voting practices. The Grammy organization made some rule changes too, so we could see some surprises this year – that sounds good, right?

For me, any kind of recognition is a sign that our album is touching and connecting with people around the world, which is the main reason we create music. Whether it’s an award or nomination like a Grammy, or #1 at Amazon, or being near the top of the JazzWeek chart – it’s a “vote” of appreciation for our efforts, and that we are reaching our audience even in this challenging time. I also feel a responsibility to represent women in a field that has often overlooked women as bandleaders, composers and instrumental musicians, (women are acknowledged most often as singers). So I’d love to see our album nominated to help even out the male dominated field ever so slightly on a road towards parity: it would feel good to make it a bit easier for your daughter or my niece or girls everywhere in the future.

In the meantime? No surprise, I’m back at the piano preparing for our next album – my 25th! It is a passion and a joy to continue creating music and working with some of the most talented people in the business – Rudy Royston on drums, Luques Curtis on bass and engineers Chandler Harrod, Jay Newland, Larry Mah and Gavin Lurssen. (I feel lucky to work with everyone – including Leigh Shane, Elizabeth McAlevy, Ryan Nava and Aaron Regan who also contributed their creative talents). Making music is a daily “reward” for me, but… please still wish us luck for a possible Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album!

Enjoy your fall and Happy Halloween too 🎃!
Lisa

lisa hilton transparent sky cover with quote

new… New… NEW!

September 1, 2021 by Lisa Hilton

Favorite Tracks, summer, Transparent Sky

Late summer has its own vibe, don’t you think? Early summer, (especially this year), had a palpable enthusiasm and euphoria for long sunny days, travel plans and get – togethers with family and friends along with new stuff to wear or do after the inactivity of 2020. By August it’s hotter, and good luck finding a vacay rental, window seat on a flight, or new sandals you like, right? But it’s human nature to desire and share something that’s new so in August I like to think of “new” in simpler terms:

– concocting a new recipe (I need a good recipe for anything with blackberries!)
– experimenting with grilled vegetables (BBQ avocados anyone?)
– hiking or biking a less traveled path (I like beach biking)
– reading different kinds of books
– playing music, I don’t normally play (this year Brubeck and Bach)
– tuning in to new music – like Transparent Sky!

Normally we release an album in early December, but this year, (and last year), are different of course, so here we are with new music to share to perk up everyone’s end of summer. It’s out September 3rd and I absolutely think it’s great for road trips, dinner parties, work at home, airport time, carpools, household tasks, happy hours or beach days! If you are at all interested in jazz, please download/buy right away so you can enjoy it over the last few days of summer and beyond. I’m not always sure how Amazon charts work, but it is currently #1 Amazon NEW RELEASE/ cool jazz before it’s on sale date – so thank you everyone who is already buying there! It will also be available on all streaming services after that date and is currently brightening jazz radio playlists around the world. I think we all desire something new and uplifting right now in our lives, and we hope you will enjoy Transparent Sky.

As a composer, there is a fun, and an eternal quest to try and create a new jazz classic that everyone loves. So, what are my favorite new tracks? I’ve spent a lot of time with each new song – composing, notating, playing, and overseeing the recording, editing, mixing, and mastering, and I absolutely adore Santa Monica Samba as a mood booster, and the love song, Nightingales & Fairy Tales. I also like the groovy vibes of Random Journey and Living in Limbo. A couple people on my creative team said that Transparent Sky (which I performed as solo piano), really touched them and I’ve heard that people like Fall Upon a Miracle and Infinite Tango, (this one is doing well at jazz radio). I think my bandmates liked Extraordinary Everyday Things, and my best friend mentioned the cover of God Bless The Child was always one of her favorites after hearing the band Blood, Sweat, & Tears record it. So that just leaves my tune Chromatic Chronicles, but that is a favorite to play with its interlocking blues lines! The truth is there are a lot of favorite tunes on Transparent Sky, and we hope that you enthusiastically enjoy the new music as well as the last few sun bleached days of summer.

– Lisa

Q & A For Transparent Sky

August 17, 2021 by Lisa Hilton

Billie Holiday, Q&A, Studio, Transparent Sky

Q & A with composer/pianist/band leader, Lisa Hilton on her new release TRANSPARENT SKY out Sept 3, 2021 with bandmates Rudy Royston/drums and Luques Curtis/bass

Q. You, Rudy & Luques recently came out with the acclaimed 2020 release, More Than Another Day. How soon after that were you back in the studio for Transparent Sky?

A. We recorded More Than Another Day in August 2020 and Transparent Sky in May 2021- so about nine months apart. We all had a bit of extra time on our hands since there has not been any touring, so it was wonderfully normal to be playing again! I felt incredibly happy to be together and we had a much better experience than we did last August when we were anxious and awkward wearing masks and staying apart. This year, post vaccines, we could be ourselves and enjoy things. I have been very thankful that More Than Another Day has been so successful – one of the top recordings at Jazz Week so far for 2021 – but it was a bit stressful to create. Transparent Sky is very uplifting and has a lot of energy, so we hope listeners will like this one too.

Q. Is there a concept behind the title?

A. I think the title refers to how many of us are feeling right now: If a sunny sky connotes a good future, and a dark sky represents where humanity was in 2020, Transparent Sky has a sense of taking the moment for what it is – and to cherish what we can here and now. We don’t have any promises for tomorrow, do we? Today looks pretty good though.

Q. There’s a lot of different kinds of swing and movement on this album – was that intentional?

A. I always let the music emerge as I compose: I don’t know what I will create and I don’t try and force a direction or try to control it. What developed was a LOT of movement and richer chords and harmonies this year – which makes sense when you consider how static last year was and how we had less activities – as musicians we need to challenge and entertain ourselves too, so I think that’s why I subconsciously wrote in so many rhythm changes and multiple harmonic directions. Then of course, it was great fun to have Luques and Rudy add all their ideas and textures too. Our engineer, Chandler Harrod, did a great job recording and I love hearing all the cool bass and drum additions to the compositions. This music really gets me moving and I love that!

Q. Was this recording a new direction for you and your trio?

A. I began working in the direction of splicing different rhythms, genres and eras compositionally with our 2014 album Kaleidoscope. I feel that music of today should have genre mobility – that we prefer multiple ideas and references musically from any era or style, and like the colored pieces inside a kaleidoscope, that life/humanity/music is more interesting because of variety. Transparent Sky, my band, and our music are examples of this approach: that beauty in our world is created through inclusion – if there were only red squares in a kaleidoscope, it would have no appeal.

Q. That’s true! I’m curious, do you bring sheet music scores to the studio or do you just wing it? Do you rehearse?

A. When I first began recording, I didn’t use any written scores at all – I just played the tune a couple times and then we recorded – a la the Miles Davis Kind of Blue approach. But I think it’s kinder to have the sheet music, so now I do all the scores ahead of time in Sibelius: being self -taught it took me a while to master notation software, but now it’s fun for me to create the scores – of course there is always room for improvisation too – the scores are more like skeletons for the band to work from. We still don’t rehearse though – jazz has never been about perfection – it’s supposed to be a bit loose and capture the energy of the moment, whether it’s partially written or improvised. In classical music you shoot for perfection, but jazz has the energy that anything can happen at any moment, and for jazz lovers we find that much more engaging and dynamic.

Q. You included the cover God Bless The Child that was popularized and sung by Billie Holiday. Tell us about that selection please.

A. For a long time I’ve been trying to record cover songs by women who were composers, because there is very little attention paid to them in jazz – they are normally identified as singers or instrumentalists. I’ve recorded tunes by Joni Mitchell, Ann Ronnell and Janis Joplin, and I was surprised that I hadn’t even realized that Billie Holiday had written/co-written several songs. She is one of the most well – known and enduring jazz recording artists, yet we seem to know a lot more about her love affairs and drug habits than we do about her talents, right?

Q. That’s true! Did she write God Bless The Child?

A. Yes, she was the co-writer with Arthur Herzog Jr. I’ve read two books and seen a movie about Billie Holiday, and they never highlighted the fact she was a composer! I think it’s important to give women recognition for all for their talents, and by promoting these talents maybe we will see less discrimination in jazz/classical/opera music. Thankfully we see more women as bandleaders, producers, instrumentalists and recording engineers, but performing arts centers, opera houses and jazz clubs around the world are still almost entirely focused on presenting music of male composers. Billie Holiday should be recognized for her skills as a songwriter – it’s a great tune!

Q. Ok, last question that’s on everyone’s mind – do you and your trio plan to perform at all in 2021?

A. We had planned something for this fall, but we realized there are a lot of restrictions that some venues feel they need to require for performers, staff and audience too this year. Everyone wants to get back to “normal” but we are not quite there yet, so we are going to be patient for now. So I’m sorry everyone – we want you to have fun and we don’t want anyone excluded, so we are going to wait a while longer for a live show.

Transparent Sky is available for pre-order August 3^rd, 2021 and out Sept 3^rd, 2021 at Amazon, Apple Music and LisaHiltonMusic.com

lisa hilton at the beach in a white dress and tan hat, in the studio with her band mates, and playing using sheet music at the piano

Photos by Aaron Regan. Band photos by Leigh Shane.

album cover for lisa hilton's transparent sky album. Lisa stands on some stone wearing a white dress and a hat

Lisa Hilton and her Trio with Rudy Royston and Luques Curtis Masterfully Blend Traditions in an Inspiring New Recording

July 28, 2021 by Lisa Hilton

Lisa Hilton, Luques Curtis, Rudy Royston, Transparent Sky

Lisa Hilton’s Transparent Sky is Available September 3/Pre-order Aug 3

As America and other countries re-emerge from the limitations of 2020, Lisa Hilton and her trio with Rudy Royston and Luques Curtis, enthusiastically embrace the moment with a vibrant new jazz offering titled Transparent Sky, that will inspire, uplift and motivate us all. Rich with glorious harmonies and unique compositions, Hilton’s swinging band radiates a sun bleached aura to listeners. Throughout the album Hilton, Royston and Curtis develop a surprisingly wide range of rhythmic ideas from a variety of genres, masterfully blending classic traditions with new approaches and upbeat style.

The recording jumps in with the Latin tinged “Santa Monica Samba,” quickly following with the equally energetic “Random Journey” on this collection of nine originals, plus one cover. “What developed this year was a LOT of movement and richer chords and harmonies – which makes sense when you consider how static last year was. As musicians we need to challenge and also entertain ourselves, so I think that’s why I subconsciously wrote in so many rhythm changes and multiple harmonic directions,” says Hilton. “Living In Limbo,” “Chromatic Chronicles,” “Fall Upon a Miracle” and “Infinite Tango,” highlight the multiple creative rhythms of Hilton’s compositions and showcase ample opportunities for Curtis’s agile bass, and the delightful details of Royston’s drums.

Hilton has a way with ballads, and “Nightingales & Fairy Tales” is no exception. With its slight nod to Bill Evans in the sixties, this has the making of a jazz classic for a twenty – first century audience. In the same vein, a cover of “God Bless The Child,” co-written by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr, is a charmer, and like all the tracks here, is skillfully and originally presented without being forced. “For a long time I’ve been trying to record cover songs by women who were composers, because there is very little attention paid to them in jazz. I think it’s important to give women recognition for their range of talents, and by promoting them, maybe we will see less discrimination in music”, Hilton muses.

Slowing towards the album’s end, “Extraordinary Everyday Things” is a calm and expressive soundscape, but with a surprise twist, Hilton finishes up with the title track, “Transparent Sky” as a sonorous piano solo. “The melody is beautiful and has a bit of swing, but the harmonic ideas are quite chromatic and dissonant with overlapping/lingering sonorities between bar lines.” She says. “This piece needs to be played sensitively or it will sound harsh, but that is like our lives today – we are living in sensitive times and need to be aware of how we connect and communicate. The solo piano clearly delivers those delicate harmonies along with the emotions. It’s about accepting our world as it is, whatever may be happening at that moment. Tomorrow will bring what it will, but there is still beauty to be found if we look for it, amid the dissonance of our times.” Hilton explains.

Lisa Hilton’s new album, Transparent Sky, is available everywhere September 3rd, 2021 – Pre-Order August 3, 2021

About Lisa Hilton

Lisa Kristine Hilton is a distinctive composer of jazz, an acclaimed pianist, a bandleader and producer. Growing up in a small town on California’s central coast, she originally taught herself to play piano with a colored keyboard guide, writing her first simple songs around six years, before beginning studies in classical and twentieth century music starting at the age of eight. In college she switched majors from music, and graduated instead with a degree in art. This art background informs her musical creations: she describes “painting” compositions using improvisation, and harmony or “sculpting” with multiple rhythmic ideas from different cultures. Hilton’s music draws on classical traditions, and twentieth century modernists as well as classic American jazz greats such as Cole Porter, Thelonious Monk, and Horace Silver, as well as blues heroes Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. Hilton’s music annually tops the jazz charts and appears on popular shows such as Apple Music’s Pure Jazz Playlist. In the book, “The New Face of Jazz: An Intimate Look at Today’s Living Legends and Artists of Tomorrow” by Cicily Janus, it states that Hilton has been “compared to some of the best pianists in history.” Noting that the overwhelming majority of music performed in jazz clubs and concert halls today are of compositions written by male musicians, Hilton is outspoken about the importance of presenting, and listening, to music composed by women in these fields as well.