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Eric Mintel Quartet to Release New CD "Ground-Breaker"

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If you were traveling on Swamp Road near Buckingham Bucks County, PA the other day and noticed four guys being photographed on the pristine grounds of Superior Turf and Landscape it wasn't a team of UFO Researchers that have come to our area, it was an Eric Mintel Quartet sighting during a photo shoot for their brand new CD Ground-Breaker scheduled for release on September 1. Ground-Breaker consists of all original songs written by the pianist and composer and Bucks County resident Eric Mintel. There is also a rousing version of a great standard called “When You're Smilin'." The EMQ recorded the latest CD at Bennett's Studio in Englewood, NJ.

Bennett's is owned and operated by Tony Bennett's son Dae Bennett who recently won a Emmy Award for outstanding sound mixing for a variety or music special or series for Tony Bennett An American Classic TV Special which was seen on NBC. Originally the quartet was supposed to record from 2 to 8pm on July 28 but a few days before the session Bennett's called and said they would have to push the session back to 5pm because there was a group that needed to be in there until 5pm and would that be okay? As Eric is not one to argue said “sure no problem". As they were driving up to the session that day Eric said to the guys, “wouldn't it be funny if Tony Bennett was the one who bumped us back?", sure enough...it was. The new CD was recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered by Jim McGee from Spectra Sound Solutions in Nazareth, PA and Eric Mintel used a Yamaha C7 Grand Piano. Eric Mintel and Nelson Hill are both Yamaha Performing Artists for the Yamaha Corporation of America. Dave Antonow plays the Ken Smith 5 electric string bass and Dave Mohn recently received an endorsement from Sabian Cymbals.

“I think listeners will enjoy the musical surprises on this new CD. The quartet has reached a level of reading each others mind. It seems like we each know what the other is going to play before we get there and when we hit that down beat together it's an amazing thing to hear and see the reaction. There's always that element of surprise. I'm really excited to share this new CD with our fans and jazzers", said Mintel from his home in Feasterville, PA.

Jazz legend Dave Brubeck agrees and says “As long as the music attracts dedicated young musicians like Eric Mintel, jazz will continue to thrive and progress as a voice of freedom." Another jazz legend, Marian McPartland, recently sent Mintel a whole stack of her music to record. “That's an honor to be asked by a legend like that if I will record her music. It's usually the other way around. When Marian and I were in Manhattan Beach Studios in New York taping my segment of Piano Jazz on NPR, I played a solo piano version of Over the Rainbow which Marian liked very much and said I should be heard. Later this year I will most likely be doing a solo piano CD which will be my second in quite some time", said Mintel.

Ground-Breaker is scheduled for release on September 1 and the EMQ will premiere the new music at the Ferndale Inn on September 5 610-847-2662, the COTA Festival of the Arts in the Delaware Water Gap on September 6, the Kimmel Center on September 19 where they perform in Commonwealth Plaza and then head to the Savannah Jazz Festival and a three day excursion in Georgia. They will also perform many concerts in and around Bucks County and New Jersey through to the end of the year. Plans are underway for a tour of the Midwest and into California.

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