The music recorded for Tasting the Wine Country is as varied as wines from the North America wine regions. Sharon O'Connor asked her friend Mike Marshall, a brilliant musician, food and wine lover and amateur wine maker, to create an album of music that would celebrate the current excitement about North American wines and wine country cooking. From a selection of his compositions and other tunes he had performed in the past, Sharon chose music that reflected influences from the world's great wine-making regions, and Mike made new arrangements for quintet, quartet, trio, and duet. The recording sessions with Mike Marshall on guitar and madolin, violinist Darol Anger, pianist Philip Aaberg, Paul McCandless on oboe, sax, and English horn, and bassist Todd Phillips were an experience Sharon will remember always. Mike Marshall and friends have given us all an album of amazing music for times when food, wine, poetry, music, and friendship come together.
You are listening to breathtaking invention by musicians who have played together in various ensembles for the past two decades. Their music is full of lightning-fast runs and astonishing technique; pure kinetic delight; shifts in tempo; soaring, ringing melodies; articulate counterpoint; and minature tone poems of delicate, elegant tenderness. In sum, it is an exhilarating sonic reflection of the wine country and the joy that the art of wine making gives humanity.
Here is music to enjoy while you are exploring the wine country, while you are in the kitchen cooking, and while are you are at the table enjoying delicious food.
Tasting the Wine Country was created by Sharon O'Connor who travels the world collaborating with great chefs and musicians, bringing together food, art, music, and travel to create Menus and Music® and MusicCooks®, her two best-selling series.
The Mike Marshall Quintet:
Mike Marshall, guitars, mandolin; Darol Anger, violin; Paul McCandless, oboe, sax, English horn; Philip Aaberg, piano; Todd Phillips, bass
Liner notes include two recipes:
Salad of Arugala, Roasted Pears, Beets, and Herbed Goat Cheese from Inn on the Twenty, Jordan, Ontario
Beef Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine with Orange Zest and Cinnamon from Applewood Inn & Restaurant, Guerneville, California
2% of proceeds are donated to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
“Sharon O’Connor puts it all together in the wonderful idea of Menus and
Music, with recipes from some of the finest restaurants in the world, matched
up with some of the finest music the world has ever known.”
Gene Burns, Host “Dining Around” KGO Radio San Francisco
“You will love this!”
Michele Anna Jordan, “Mouthful” KRCB Sonoma, California
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