...music-making of the highest order, which plumbs the depths of all of the emotions from wonderful joys to abject lamentations.
One has come to expect the unexpected from multi-talented artist Dan Dean. In the midst of a successful forty year career as a bassist, composer, producer and recording engineer, Dean has in recent years delved into classical vocal works. What began as a project for electric bass and orchestra, 2017's Songs Without Words evolved into a multi-layered, highly ambitious choral work, with Dean himself supplying vocals on arrangements of pieces by Bach, Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky. Shortly after its release, he began arranging more classics that inspired him and returned to the studio for this second volume. The result is Fanfare For the Common Man, featuring much loved works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Elgar, and Debussy. From Bach's Baroque masterpiece, "Brandenburg Concerto #3 in G Major," to Holst's broadly cinematic "Mars: The Bringer of War," Dean masterfully arranges and sings all the parts of timeless classical orchestrations expressed through the resonance of his own voice. Both admirably and remarkably, he achieves the tonal character of the strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion, in terms of amplitude, spectral sound and emotive objective.
"...what fine musicianship and ear-opening performances. Prepare to be astonished." - Melinda Bargreen, Music Critic
Track Listing:
1. The Enigma Variations: IX. "Nimrod" 4:08 Elgar
2. Brandenburg Concerto #3 in G major, "Allegro" BWV 1048 3:10 J.S. Bach
3. Fanfare for the Common Man 3:34 Copland
4. Prelude 8, La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin (The Girl with Flaxen Hair) 2:33 Debussy
5. The Planets - Mars, The Bringer of War 6:49 Holst
6. Cantata "Wachet Auf Ruft Uns Die Stimme", BWV 140 5:07 J.S. Bach
7. French Suite #1 in D minor, "Sarabande", BWV 812 2:50 J.S. Bach
8. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525 8:04 W.A. Mozart
9. Cantata, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", BWV 147 2:41 J.S. Bach
10. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Scherzo, Opus 21 4:35 Mendelssohn
11. Gayane's Adagio 4:53 Khachaturian
Performers:
Dan Dean - Vocals, Whistle
Production Info:
Produced by Dan Dean
Recorded & mixed by Dan Dean at DDP Studios, Mercer Island, WA
September 11, 2017 - September 17, 2018
Mastered by Friedemann Tischmeyer, Hamburg, Germany
Cover photo by Donatas
Photograph of Dan Dean by Steve Korn
Cover Design & Layout: John Bishop
Reviews of Fanfare for the Common Man
All About Jazz (Dan McClenaghan)
5-STARS Songs Without Words (Origin Classical, 2017) opened the door to Dan Dean's giant step into "going vocal"— an innovative approach to his choir-like voice-layering presentations of classical music. Rain Painting (Origin Records, 2021), teaming Dean with guitarist John Stowell, proved a perfect digression into Stowell's distinctive composit ...
Textura (Ron Schepper)
Having distinguished himself in a career spanning decades as a bassist, composer, producer, and recording engineer, Dan Dean turned his attention four years ago to the creation of classical pieces using purely vocal means. The artistic success of Songs Without Words encouraged him to fashion a successor, which brings us to the glorious Fanfare for ...
All About Jazz (Dan McClenaghan)
BEST OF 2021 Dan Dean is well known for his bass playing and producing for Origin Records. He is also an accomplished—a recent development— vocalist. With Fanfare For the Common Man he has convened a choir of heavenly voices—all his own, via a painstaking overdub process— and made one of the most beautiful sets of music this year. It is a ...
WICN, Worcester (Marty Friedman)
So after a forty year career as bassist, composer, producer and recording engineer, what do you do next? Why, you sing the parts to famous orchestral pieces, overdubbing to create alternative chorale-based works - of course!
We have two new CDs from Dan Dean, with a track from each during this show.
In the first hour you'll hear a track from ...
