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.

Popular Songs

Since hit singles became the goal of recording companies in the 1950's, frequent radio play was the route to popularity. In Aug. 4, 1958, Billboard magazine began to list the most popular 100 tunes in the US based on sales and plays on jukeboxes and the radio. The first No. 1 it was Ricky Nelson’s "Poor Little Fool."  As recorded popular music emerged, song writers and arrangers became the new composers who dominated radio play.

Geoff Mayfield recalled: “If you found only one easy listening song in a college student's music library during the early '60s, it would have been Percy Faith's rendition of "Theme from 'A Summer Place.'" With a melody carried by Faith's orchestra string section, the instrumental entered the Hot 100 at No. 96 in the Jan. 16, 1960, issue and rose to No. 1. "Summer Place" enjoyed the hit longest popularity at the time, a record broken in 1968 when the Beatles' "Hey Jude" topped the chart for nine weeks, becoming the band's longest-running chart topper. No other instrumental to date has led the Hot 100 as long as Summer Place. Some of the hit makers became rich and famous but less lucky song writers and musicians remained poor. Recording companies grew richer, bigger and more autocratic.

For those of us who value the tradition of good melodies, meaningful lyrics and skilled singers who could really sing, the search for good 21st century tunes continues. I recall going to an open house in a new apartment complex in Vancouver a few years ago. The showcase apartment was the ultimate in urban sophistication with muted grey tones, stainless steel appliances; great view of the city and on the living room wall was a flat LCD panel with Diana Krall singing and playing cabaret style. Her soothing voice and gentle jazz accompaniment came from hidden speakers in pure DVD hi-fidelity. If you had any doubts that the apartment represented ultimate sophistication, Diana's music removed them. This is cabaret music, century 21.

Holden recalled the “the golden age of live entertainment that faded with the incursions of rock ’n’ roll and television. From the late 1940s through the mid-’60s there were several tiers of live entertainment in New York: glamorous hotel supper clubs like the Persian Room at the Plaza Hotel, and the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria, high-end nightclubs like the Blue Angel, smaller hole-in-the-wall Midtown jazz clubs, and smaller piano bars scattered through Manhattan where one could drop in for the price of a drink. As the nightclub world has shrunk, that kind of informality is largely a thing of the past is there is a young generation to carry on the tradition? The few younger singers, such as Harry Connick, Diana Krall, and Michael Bublé, passed through cabaret and jazz clubs on their way to the national spotlight. The concept of cabaret is only one of many in a genre that also shades into Broadway, traditional jazz, rock and even world music. Because a cabaret is the best place for a theatrically trained Broadway performer to step out of a role, it is a natural adjunct to the musical theater… instrumental jazz has established almost no footing in cabaret, where a charismatic personality matters as much as musical talent. The peak cabaret experience is a three-way relationship among singer, song (often a standard) and audience in which performers pour their life experiences in thematic shows using the American songbook as a platform; songs are stations in an autobiographical journey shared with the listener."

There are no distinct boundaries between pop songs and rock and roll or between pop songs and other genres such as country and western, folk, or world. The only real standard is the number of records sold.

Persona Digital Recordings: Arrangements and Recordings by Stephen Gislason & P2500 Band
See discussions and examples:

David Gates & Bread
Jennifer Rush
Jonnie Mitchell
Linda Ronstadt
Stevie Nix
Beatles
Eagles
Erasure

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.