Skip to content

PRESS RELEASES

Lisa Hilton | Thursday, January 11 at Carnegie Hall

Pianist Lisa Hilton to perform with

JD Allen, Luques Curtis & Rudy Royston

In Celebration Of The Release Of 

Her 20th Album, Escapism

Thursday, January 11 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall

 

Thursday, January 11

Set Time: 8:00pm

Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall

57th Street & 7th Avenue 

New York, NY 10019

Phone: (212)-247-7800

Web: CarnegieHall.org 

 

Personnel:

JD Allen, tenor sax

Luques Curtis, bass

Rudy Royston, drums

 

Pianist Lisa Hilton to set to perform with JD Allen, Luques Curtis & Rudy Royston in celebration of the release of her 20th album, Escapism. The performance will be Thursday, January 11 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.

 Lisa Hilton often settles in at her piano and riffs on everyone from Miles Davis and Horace Silver to The Black Keys and Green Day, until she can find peace within the notes, letting them fill the room and fall where they languish in this glow of calm with a touch of brooding blues. Then this past year, the world changed a bit and finding that calm seemed a little more elusive.

For her 20th album–Hilton has recorded an album a year since 1997–she wanted to provide uplift and relief, where listeners can be energized and feel rejuvenated. This became the theme for her latest release, the aptly titled Escapism. The album includes the Alan Lerner and Burton Lane standard, “On A Clear Day” and nine Hilton originals ranging from the high-voltage opener, “Hot Summer Samba” to the introspective and ethereal “Mojave Moon.” Each composition seems to generate, by albums end, a mental release or escape all its own.

After working solo on last year’s Day & Night release, Hilton brought back saxophonist JD Allen, trumpet and flugelhornist Terell Stafford, bassist Gregg August and drummer Rudy Royston into Avatar Studios for one of the last sessions at that revered and storied studio before it became property of Berklee College of Music on September 1st. “It was definitely nostalgic being at Avatar the last few days before it changed ownership since no one really knows what will happen to it–we hope good things. I have recorded ten albums there and I love the rooms, they have a special sound and ambience. I think the entire band knew this recording was a time to savor the sense of the place–there were excellentsolos going on, and we had a great sound captured by our engineer, a true sound icon, James Farber. What tremendous musicians and all leaders in their own right–I feel so fortunate to continue to work again and again with them.”

Escapism is an audiophile’s delight from the team of top engineers that Hilton has worked with for years; besides recording engineer Farber, it was mixed by 23-time Grammy® Award-winning engineer Al Schmitt at the legendary Capitol Studios in Hollywood and mastered by multi-Grammy® Award-winners Gavin Lurssen and Reuben Cohen. 

With all that continues to change in our world, Escapism seeks a journey that is focused on the feelings and positive energy it creates. Hilton allows this journey to be constructed and articulated through her written compositions evoking a sentiment of peace, tranquility and upbeat energy. 

 

Upcoming Lisa Hilton Performances:

February 8 / SFJazz Center / San Francisco, CA

March 1 / Junior Blind of America / Los Angeles, CA

March 23 / Raitt Hall at Pepperdine University / Malibu, CA

April 10 / Buddy Guy’s Legends / Chicago, IL

April 12 / McEvoy Auditorium – Smithsonian American Art Museum / Washington, DC