Persona Music

Albums

Examples of  Persona Recordings playable online are offered as music history, music appreciation, education and demonstrations of Persona Studio's arranging, recording and mastering techniques. All the recordings are completed in house by Stephen Gislason. The music selections and their history are described in the book, Sound of Music.

P2500 Band

The Band performs both original music written by Stephen Gislason and new arrangements of all, popular tunes. We cover many different styles from different countries. Stephen says: "A good arranger wants to add a personal touch to a well established piece of music.  I have been interested in eclectic music and explore a variety of styles in my arrangements. My goal is not the faithful reproduction of the originals but the creation of new arrangements with new instruments and new compositional ideas that become interesting in their own right. When I switch to recording engineer, I have high standards. I strive to achieve the highest audiophile quality for the recordings. "

Free Music Downloads are offered as music history, music appreciation, education and demonstrations of Persona Studio's arranging, recording and mastering techniques. All the recordings are completed in house by Stephen Gislason. The music selections and their history are explained in the book, Sound of Music.

Jazz The band has followed the path of modern jazz, starting with bebop as invented by Dizzie Gillespie and Charlie Parker. The path leads to Miles Davis and the extraordinarily talented musicians that played with him and then proceeded on their own innovative paths. Stephen is a trumpet player as well as a keyboardist and synthesizer expert; his arrangements favor trumpet, flugelhorn and electronic keyboards. Jazz players take pride in improvisations on the base of old tunes, often leaving only melody fragments and some chord changes. There has  been a remarkable proliferation of musical styles, partly because of "crossovers" that merged blues, country music, rock, and jazz. Latin American, African and Caribbean  music merged, especially rhythmically with American and European music. The idea of popular music grew to include this variety of ethnic styles.

Pan American Music  Stephen is fascinated by the music of  Mexico, Central and South America. In Brazil, Tom Jobim, de Moraes, Mendonça, an others developed Samba and  Bossa Nova styles that spread to the US and Europe. Argentina contributed the Tango. Dances, rhythms and melodic styles emerged as energetic fusion elements in jazz and popular music in the rest of the world.  Bolero refers to dance music that originated in Santiago de Cuba in the 19th century.  The Cuban bolero traveled to Mexico, Puerto Rico composer, and other Caribbean islands. Different  bolero styles have been identified  such as the  son (rumba),  bolero-mambo and the  bolero-cha.  We explore some of these rich musical traditions.

Popular Tunes One ongoing project is to recall, rearrange and perform some of the "classics of popular music." Several motivations combine in an interest to arrange and record popular songs of the past 60 years. Bands often emerge with a repertoire of cover tunes that most audiences know and enjoy. Popular songs are played by in countless venues daily by amateur and professional musicians.  Often, singers and bands get started by recording popular tunes with their own inflection and stylist changes. Some tunes become standards that are performed and recorded  thousands of times.

New styles evolve from seed songs that acquire fan bases. Elements of every successful composition are copied into "original" compositions that follow, often multiple copies that create new stylistic groupings.  Sometimes a new arrangement renews a songs appeal or changes its appeal so that its popularity moves toward a new group of listeners. Several of the songs we have recorded have been reproduced many times in recordings by many groups. John Denver's Annie's Song, for example has been recorded a 100 times by different singers and groups. We have treated the songs as classics that exemplify an aspect of popular music that emerged in the 1950s. Many  bands and musicians that were popular in the 60s and 70s have been resurrected to play concerts for the "baby boomers' who feel strongly about popular songs they heard as teenagers and young adults. We all have grey hair and have more wrinkles, but musical enjoyment is ageless.

Persona Digital Dance Albums

P2500 Dance Party One -- Music composed and arranged by Stephen Gislason 2011

Music Player at Reverb Nation

Persona Music Recordings  Our Music Catalogue includes recorded performances by the P2500 Band, Em4U, and the Persona Classical Consort. Music downloads are delivered from our companion website: Persona Digital Online. Music Downloads are albums, packaged as MP3 files in a zip folder. Download  the zip folder and save.  In Windows, click on the folder and choose the extract all option to unzip the files to your hard drive. A new folder containing the MP3 files will be created. The MP3 files will play on all computers, laptops, notebooks, smart phones, iPods,. iPads, CD and DVD players and all portable music players. Some albums contain liner notes or minibooks as PDF files that introduce the music. Some music recordings and Free Music Downloads are offered to illustrate music history, advance music  education and appreciation. The recordings presented online demonstrate Persona Studio's arranging, recording and mastering techniques. All the recordings are completed in house by Stephen Gislason. The music selections and their history are explained in the book, Sound of Music. More About Downloads.

Persona Digital Studio is located on the Sunshine Coast, Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada.
 www.personadigitalstudio.com  email  music@personadigitalstudio.com.
Our Music Catalogue includes recorded performances by the P2500 Band, Em4U, and the Persona Classical Consort. Music downloads and books are available from our companion website: Persona Digital Online.