Piltch & Davis
Their new CD... "FEAST" / "CALLING YOU"
"The debut audiophile recording of instrumental music by the other two original members of the Holly Cole Trio."

In late 1995 Tom Berry, Holly's manager and the president of Alert Records, approached Aaron & David about recording a duo album. The idea was to make an audiophile recording that would capture the intimate feeling of their instrumental performance.

In June, 1996 they went into McClear Pathe Studios in Toronto with engineer Jeff Wolpert and recorded and mixed 12 songs, in many cases live to two track 1/2" analog tape. The CD is entitled "FEAST" on Alert Music (EMI) #Z2-81031 in Canada, and was released in Oct. 1996. In Japan a version entitled "CALLING YOU" will be released on Toshiba EMI in January 1997.

Here are the songs on the CD:
  • Ring Them Bells -Bob Dylan
  • The Loon -Aaron Davis
  • Newsoundland-David Piltch
  • Ruwenzori-Aaron Davis
  • Black is the Colour of My True Love's Hair
    -trad. arr by Davis&Piltch
  • Horizontal Blue -David Piltch
  • Arpeggio-Aaron Davis
  • My Old Friend The Blues-Steve Earle
  • Dissfunktion-Aaron Davis
  • Dance From Down Under-Piltch& Davis
  • Last Day of Summer-Kirsty MacColl
  • Taj-Aaron Davis

The Musicians on the CD

A Review - Editor's Choice

Some samples from the CD
(stereo 22.5 khz AIF files):

Taj (39 seconds in 8-bit - 1.6 Mb)
Taj (39 seconds in16 bit - 3.3 Mb)
Ring Them Bells (36 seconds in 8-bit - 1.5 Mb)
Ring Them Bells (36 seconds in 16 bit - 3.1 Mb)

On the Japanese CD there are also two instrumental versions of: Calling You -Bob Telson
Alert Music presents "Feast" - an Audiophile Recording by David Piltch and Aaron Davis
If you can't find it at your local record store (and outside of Canada & Japan you probably won't) you can order it direct.
Send a money order for $17.00* made out to:
 Alert Music Inc.
41 Britain Street
Suite 305
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5A 1R7
*Taxes and shipping included. Please allow four to six weeks for delivery.

about Aaron Davis - ¤ - about David Piltch - ¤ - email us

Musicians

Aaron & David invited some special guests to join them on the CD :
Guitarist Rob Piltch is David's older brother, and has played with both David & Aaron a lot over the years. He has recorded with many artists, including Rita Coolidge, Ted Moses& Rob McConnell, Rob also has his own albums out:"BELLS", a duo album with Don Thompson, "ROB PILTCH", his album on Duke St. Records, and "FABLES of FAUBUS", with the Phil Dwyer & Dave Young Band.
Kevin Breit plays Guitar, Dobro and a host of other stringed instruments. He played with Aaron & David on the Holly Cole "TEMPTATION" and "IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT" CDs. He is part of "The Breits", a band with his brothers Gary and Garth, as well as a band called "The Sisters Euclid", which plays his instrumental compositions. He can also be heard on recent Cassandra Wilson discs, and the upcoming and k.d. lang CD.
Drummer Mark Kelso has toured with Holly for the last year and is active as a session player in Toronto. He can be heard on recent recordings by Carol Welsman& the Montuno Police .
Sax & Flute player Ron Allen played on the Aaron Davis albums "NEON BLUE" & "NOUVELLE AFRIQUE", and was part of "Strangeness Beauty", a trio with David and drummer Mike Sloski from the early 1980s. He has released a number of CDs of his own compositions.
Percussionist Art Avalos has been a member of Manteca since 1984, and recorded and toured with a number of artists such as David Blamires& Buffy Saint-Marie.
Trevor Tureski plays mallets and orchestral percussion and is known as one of the top new music and orchestral percussionists in Toronto.
The Inner Ear Report - Volume 9 #2 1996

Editor's Listening

The Editor's Choice of New Compact Disk Releases made for Audiophiles & Music Lovers

A few great new releases have come into our studio; and they are so good that I will not share these CDs with any TIER staff. I play these discs for pleasure of course, but I also use them to evaluate components.

Feast

Piltch & Davis, Alert Music

David Piltch and Aaron Davis are musicians who have attained international fame as two-thirds of the Holly Cole Trio. They have played and co-arranged Holly's music since 1988. Piltch plays acoustic and electric bass on many albums and with many musicians, including k.d. lang, Jane Siberry and Elton John. Davis is known as an eclectic composer/arranger/pianist whose work include music for Manteca and numerous film scores. On this album, Piltch plays acoustic bass and Davis performs on a nine-foot Steinway which has been tweaked to deliver the sound preferred by artists. Guest performers Rob Piltch and Kevin Breit on guitars, Mark Kelso on drums, Art Avalos on percussion, Trevor Tureski on vibes and Ron Allen on bamboo flute gives the overall performance a touch of completeness, rounding out the listening experience - and what an experience indeed!

The album offers thirteen selections of tunes primarily composed by the artists, but also features tunes by Kristy MacColl, Steve Earle and Bob Dylan. Most cuts have been recorded direct to two track with no overdubs. The recording is superb and reveals the utmost care taken by the folks who were involved on the technical side. Recorded and mixed in Toronto at McClear Pathe, credit must go to head engineer Jeff Wolpert and assistant engineers Denis Tougas and Greg Robertson for an album which is made for music-lovers and audiophiles. Executive producer W. Tom Berry (Holly Coležs manager and owner of Alert Music) deserves credit for insisting that Piltch and Davis make this album.

Last, but not least, Chris Bellman did the mastering for Bernie Grundman Mastering of Hollywood, California. It might be of interest to our readers that the piano was recorded with 2 AKG C-12 vacuum tube microphones as well as two Neumann Stephen Paul modified U-87 mics (also tube). The drums were recorded with 2 Neumann KM-86, one AKG 451, one Shure SM-57, one AKG D-112 and three Neumann U-87, Sanken CU44X etc.

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