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David Gleason

David Gleason is a pianist, composer, music educator and ethnomusicologist living in New York's Capital Region. He received an M.A. in music from Tufts University where he studied ethnomusicology and composition. As an ethnomusicologist he researched Caribbean folk and popular music in Puerto Rico and Cuba. His fieldwork culminated in a thesis entitled "La Parranda Puertorriquena: The Music, Symbolism and Cultural Nationalism of Puerto Rico's Christmas Serenading Tradition."

As a jazz and Latin pianist he has performed with ensembles such as RumbaNaMa, The Boston Latin Band, The Either/Orchestra, Altiplano, Mojive, and the Kinewe African Drum Ensemble as well as renown musicians like Laurel Masse, Fred Wesley, Danilo Perez, and John Fedchock. He currently leads the acclaimed Latin jazz ensemble, Sensemaya

Mr. Gleason studied music education and jazz studies at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York. He also studied jazz piano with Capital Region guru Lee Shaw. He has taught Music Theory, I.B. Music, and Jazz Ensemble at the Sayles School of Fine Arts and World Music at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York.

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Album Review

Keith Pray: Universal Blues

Read "Universal Blues" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


The opening sounds of Keith Pray's Universal Blues present a sonic gateway that ultimately leads to an overall significant musical experience. Throughout his career, saxophonist Pray, a highly talented and well-respected upstate New York artist, has been an avid explorer of textures and tonalities. With Universal Blues he and his mates deliver an intelligent and intriguing album. Through an eclectic array of Pray's original compositions, the group displays vivid emotional and creative expression while examining that unique element- -the titular ...

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Primary Instrument

Keyboards

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Universal Blues

Praynation Records
2021

buy

Shake It!

Unknown label
2010

buy

Inyo

From: Universal Blues
By David Gleason

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