Album Notes

Composer Igor Stravinsky said, “Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.” Stephen Edwards (Cool Dog, Feast) combines the two with Piano Cues From Movies. The recording will be available digitally and on CD on April 26, 2011.

Many of the tracks featured on the recording were originally performed by a larger ensemble, in some cases a full orchestra. Taking these pieces and stripping them down to a solo piano may seem an odd choice. “What I love about this collection,” said Edwards, “is that in many of the instances these are very similar to the original piano recordings that were in the movies - just my pianistic interpretation of them.”

Though he’s a composer with over 60 feature film credits to his name, Stephen Edwards decided to pay homage to the film music that moved him. He described, “Shawshank Redemption is one of my all-time favorite movies and I'm so moved by Thomas Newman's muted and slightly dissonant beauty in this score; Field of Dreams moved me so profoundly because of the relationship with my own father and the piano music grabbed me immediately in the theatre when I saw it in the 1990s; A.I is a beautiful tone poem that very few would guess is actually written by John Williams.

He continued, "’Playing Love’ from The Legend of 1900 is a bravura jazz piece turned into a beautiful thematic statement - and in the film actor Tim Roth's character plays the piece in the movie just as it is heard on this CD. Once Upon a Time in America is probably my all-time favorite Morricone theme - I can still remember the very late night in the 1980s when I saw that movie on late night TV and was bowled over by the beauty of the single voice and orchestra playing that iconic tune - and this is my pianistic remembrance of that recording.”

As to one of the lesser-known themes on this recording, “Betty Blue sounds like Gabriel Yared's modern take on the Chopin Ballades,” said Edwards.

Michigan native Stephen Edwards’ music education began at an early age, with training by his mother, Rosalie Edwards, followed by studies at Interlochen and the University of Michigan music school. Edwards received a bachelor of music in piano performance from Lawrence University. As a graduate of the Dick Grove School of Music, he was the recipient of the “Outstanding Classical Soloist” award sponsored by Downbeat magazine, and winner of the All-American College Orchestra National Talent Search sponsored by Disney World.

“Since I started out as a piano player, I was always interested in playing music I heard in movies that I loved when I was a kid.” said Edwards. “It just made sense to me to record a CD of my favorites.”