Carl and Alan Maguire, Stax Music Academy graduates release CD with jazz icons Kirk Whalum and Donald Brown
Memphis - December 1, 2014
When Japanese-American identical teen twins Carl and Alan Maguire moved from Hong Kong to Memphis, Tennessee, in 2011, they already had music in their blood. Having studied and performed music along with their older brother from an early age, the Tokyo-born Maguires, who moved to Hong Kong at the age of three, were already performing live there at schools and other venues.
Once in Memphis, the Maguires found their love in jazz at the world-renowned Stax Music Academy where Grammy-winning jazz artist, Kirk Whalum was the artist in residence .
Now, the Maguire twins (Carl on drums and Alan on upright bass) have released their first CD, The Sound of Music, featuring not only Whalum on sax, but also jazz icon Donald Brown on piano. Brown, who teaches at University of Tennessee-Knoxville, discovered the Maguires during a recruiting visit in 2013.
“I am so glad I made that visit to the Stax Music Academy and met these young lions,” Brown writes in the liner notes of the CD, which he also produced. “Music had rewarded us again with this coming out party for Carl and Alan. The CD represents the music of the highest creativity and dedication. More importantly, it brought out the fun and emotions we all enjoy and share regardless of what part of the world we are from.”
The Maguires toured Japan and Hong Kong in winter 2013-2014 and recorded The Sound of Music at Memphis’ famed Ardent Studios in mid 2014 with a group of seasoned musicians Brown assembled. The nine-song CD includes standards such as “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise” and “Inner Urge” to the CD’s signature song, a jazz version of “Hamabe no Uta” (Song of Seashore), a popular Japanese tune composed by Tamezo Narita from Kitaakita City, the hometown of the twins’ mother, and arranged by Donald Brown. It garnered rave reviews from the Japanese press during the Maguires’ summer 2014 tour of Japan.
Carl and Alan Maguire are currently studying under Brown at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
They will have a CD release event at Lane Music in Germantown, TN on December 27th 2014, Sat. 2-4pm. Donald Brown will be present, and there will be a live performance by Carl Maguire (drums), Alan Maguire (bass) Keith Brown (piano) and Reginald White (sax). Free Admission, refreshments
