Earlier this month Ric’key Pageot released his first video of a series of classical piano recordings.
Says Pageot, ‘I truly feel privileged to be able to contribute to the narrative of highlighting black and other marginalized composers in the classical genre.’
For his first video, he released the second movement of William Grant Still’s ‘A Deserted Plantation’. The piece was released on the 43rd anniversary of his passing, December 3rd.
“There’s a special place in my heart for this movement. While all the turmoil that followed George Floyd’s death last year, I was working on it and it became a vessel to emotionally escape and bring me closer to my ancestors. I urge everyone to please take a moment and learn more about William Grant Still, as his legacy is fascinating”,
Special thanks to everyone who worked on this video: Hans Fjellestad director; Nilaya Sabnis: Dancer + Photographer photgraphy; Crewest executive production! Recorded and filmed at Allegro Recordings in Burbank, CA
https://youtu.be/ZvyXPrbGSCY
About William Grant Still
William Grant Still was born on 11 May in 1895. His mother, Carrie Lena Fambro, and his father, William Grant Still Sr, were both teachers.
His father died when Still was young, and music came from his stepfather, who encouraged him from a young age. Still took violin lessons from 15, and also taught himself to play the clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bass, cello and viola.
At his mother’s encouragement, Still studied medicine at university, but never completed the course. While at university, he stayed heavily involved with music, playing in university orchestras and bands, and he eventually got to Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio to further his musical studies.
His composer credentials come from a teacher lineage that includes French revolutionary Edgard Varèse among others, and Still combined this classical clout with his passion for folk- and jazz-inspired styles.
Depicting the African American experience through orchestral music
Grant Still incorporated the blues, spirituals, jazz, and other ethnic American music into his orchestral and operatic compositions.
His orchestral piece, Wood Notes, depicts Still’s love of nature. And works like his ‘Afro-American’ Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 2, the symphonic tone poem Africa, and his ballet Sahdji all “depict the African American experience” and “present the vision of an integrated American society.”
William Grant Still conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in a piece titled Old California that he wrote for the city of Los Angeles’ Birthday Concert on Sept. 8, 1965. All photos courtesy of Judith Anne Still.
William Grant Still, his wife, Verna Arvey, their two children, Judith Anne (left) and Duncan, and their beloved dog Shep, gather around the radio at their home near USC to listen to a broadcast of the composer’s music on Sept. 14, 1944.
READ “Still standing after all these years”recount from Judith Anne Still. “Packed neatly in brown paper and carefully tied with string, hundreds of bundles of music sat forgotten on the shelves of a linen closet in the Los Angeles home of Judith Anne Still’s mother.”
On one spring day in 1980, Still ’64, a graduate of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, discovered them.
“I felt a wave of grief wash over me,” she said. “My father had died two years earlier and now it was as if his music — his entire reason for living — had died with him.
William Grant Still is very much considered part of the ‘Harlem Renaissance’ movement, which highlighted and celebrated African American intellectual, social, and artistic contributions to American cultural life, fanning out from Harlem in New York.
His works were performed internationally by the best orchestras in the world, including the Berlin Phil, the London Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic.
Other contributions to musical life
As well as being a prolific composer of symphony, opera and ballet works – many of which highlighted struggles of Black lives in America, including The Troubled Island and Highway No. 1 USA – William Grant Still also worked for ‘Father of the Blues’ W.C. Handy in Memphis.
“Musicians William Grant Still, L. Wolfe Gilbert, W. C. Handy, Frank Drye and Andy Razaf in Los Angeles, Calif., circa 1954.” From UCLA Library, Islandora Repository,
Still was a prolific arranger of pop music, and played in pit bands and for recordings, including for pianistFletcher Henderson, singer Sophie Tucker and jazz clarinet Artie Shaw, and many others.
He also arranged movie music, including for Pennies from Heaven (1936) and Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon.
William Grant Still received an honour for Outstanding Service to American Music from the National Association for American Composers and Conductors, and had a raft of honorary doctorates, reflecting the extraordinary contribution he made to classical music history in America – and the world.
The last public appearance of William Grant Still (far right) at USC on May 24, 1975. The event was a tribute to Still. Dr. Howard Hanson (left) delivered the keynote address. Dean of the USC Thornton School of Music, Howard Rarig, is just left of Still.
Learn more: http://www.williamgrantstillmusic.com/
About Ric’key Pageot
Montreal-born pianist, accordionist, producer, composer and music director, Ric’key Pageot comes from a musical family of Haitian descent. As a child he studied in the sought-after professional arts music program, Pierre-Laporte School in Montreal, studying classical piano, and taking advanced courses in music theory, history and ear training. During his time there, he performed as a recitalist and chamber musician, and as a chorister, performing in concert with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, led by Charles Dutoit, at the renowned Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at La Place Des Arts.
In 2002, Ric’key was hired to be part of the original cast of “Motown Generation,” the most successful Motown Music Review ever produced in Canada. In the following years he toured France with recording artist, Corneille, whose album ‘Parce qu’on Vient de Loin’ was certified double platinum in France and platinum in Canada. In 2005, Ric’key began to work with Cirque Du Soleil as a musical director, keyboardist and accordionist for the show “Delirium;” he was the youngest MD ever hired by the Quebec company. After the Delirium premier in Montreal, Pageot gave close to 200 performances in the U.S. alone. Billboard Magazine certified ‘Delirium’ as the 6th biggest grossing tour in North America in 2006.
After more than two years of touring the US and Europe with Delirium, Ric’key left the show and moved to Los Angeles with his wife and singer/songwriter Dessy Di Lauro. It was shortly after that move that Pageot got a call to go on tour with Madonna for her “Hard Candy” promo tour and “Sticky & Sweet” world tour. For these tours he was called on to play keyboards, piano and accordion. Since, Pageot has toured with Madonna on four world tours: Sticky & Sweet (2008-09); MDNA (2012); Rebel Heart (2015) and Madame X (2019-20). Pageot was recently sent by Madonna to the Steinway & Sons factory in Astoria, NY to pick a Steinway Model B grand piano for the Madame X tour.
Since 2003, he has been collaborating with his wife, sensational Montreal–based singer/songwriter Dessy DI Lauro
When he is not touring with Madonna, Pageot is leading his band Parlor Social with Dessy Di Lauro. Together they have designed a new and unique genre of original music they call Speakeasy-soul/Prohibition Funk, which seamlessly blends the styles of 1920-30’s Harlem renaissance jazz with today’s contemporary urban sounds. In 2013, they released their debut album ‘This Is Neo-Ragtime’ to critics’ acclaim. Their single, Jump N’ Jivin was featured throughout the 2015 ESPN TV broadcast of the NCAA women’s Final Four.
Parlor Social has performed notably at the Montreal International Jazz Festival; Blue Note Jazz Festival, Charlotte Jazz festival, the inaugural Dymally Jazz festival in Carson, CA and in 2018, Parlor Social performed their biggest show thus far at the fabulous Hollywood Bowl for the 40th annual Playboy Jazz Festival. In 2019 they went on their first headlining tour ‘Not Giving Up On You’ with cross-continental stops in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, and London.
Pageot has written and recorded with Earth Wind & Fire, Jill Scott, and up and coming R&B sensation Justin Parks. He has also toured with major music icons such as Diana Ross, Cher, and the late Dr. John.
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