(Progressive Rock) David Ari Leon - Piano Tribute to Pink Floyd - 2005, MP3, 320 kbps

David Ari Leon is an Emmy-nominated, multiple award-winning composer and music supervisor who has solidified himself as a significant figure in today's music scene.
With an array of cutting-edge sonic palettes ranging from soothing instrumental soundscapes to electrifying hard rock anthems, he has brought his signature blend of acute classical expertise and emotive pop ethos to countless films, video games, albums and TV shows. He's also raising mobile game music to new heights with his immensely popular scores. Recently, he scored Woody Woodpecker (Universal), named "iPhone Game of the Week," and Contre Jour (Entertainment Arts), the No. 1 selling game app in iTunes, and named "iPad Game of the Year" in more than 10 countries by Apple. Leon also scored the Superman (Warner Bros) game, another top selling iPhone app.
As a songwriter and music supervisor, Leon has created numerous theme songs for both Fox and Marvel Entertainment including The Avengers' "Fight as One," which has since become a viral hit.
In 1996 and 2001, Leon supervised music for the film adaptation of Fox Family Channel's "Les Miserables" starring John Malkovich, and for the ABC Family TV series "State of Grace" featuring Frances McDormand, respectively. Other screen credits include Fox's "Spiderman Unlimited" and UPN's "Incredible Hulk."
Independently, he has covered songs from The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., and Neil Young through Los Angeles-based Vitamin Records. Leon's version of The Stones' "Ruby Tuesday" for the Rockabye Baby! album series landed him atop the Billboard charts, ranking #3 among Kids Albums and #111 on the Top 200. In addition, Leon was a five-time featured performer on NPR's "Morning Edition" for his piano arrangements of popular works.
A Los Angeles-based composer, Leon received a bachelor's degree in music composition from UCLA. While attending the university, he interned with Academy Award-nominated composers Mark Isham and Danny Elfman. Leon's first film credit was for Clive Barker's "Nightbreed" in 1990. Shortly thereafter, Leon earned an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Music Director" for his work on NBC's "Days of Our Lives."
Prior to founding SoundMind Music, a music company that oversees a projects entire music package, Leon was vice president of Music at Fox.

The Muzik of Pink Floyd
There's been all kinds of tribute albums to legendary rock group Pink Floyd, from electronic to symphonic and bluegrass to reggae. And now there's a piano one.
Producer David Ari Leon has produced The Piano Tribute To Pink Floyd, which interprets most of the band's biggest hits with a lone piano. Classics like "Comfortably Numb", "Money", and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" are all here. Also included is the original composition, "Sail On The Steel Breeze" (a lyrical reference to "Shine On"), which subtly mixes shades of "Comfortably Numb" and "Wish You Were Here".
Leon has selected Floyd tunes that translate well to piano, even though all the band's songs are taken from their biggest albums in the 70s (Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall). These are the songs that casual listeners will be most familiar with and enjoy, but it would have been nice for Leon to venture into the latter-day Floyd with renditions of "High Hopes" or "A Great Day For Freedom" from 1994's The Division Bell.
Respectfully though, Leon may have wanted to avoid rerecording songs that were already piano-centric and gave him little room for deviation, especially other cuts like "The Great Gig In The Sky" (from Dark Side) or "Nobody Home" (from The Wall). However, playing a piano version of the solemn guitar line from "Is There Anybody Out There?" would have been a welcome highlight.
There are no surprises on this tribute - just pleasant piano playing. Since most of Floyd's songs run over typical radio length, Leon appeals to the casual listener by skillfully arranging most of the tracks as streamlined abridgements ("Shine On", for example, loses about 9 minutes). Also, Leon generally captures the original tone of the songs, although the piano's timbre naturally provides more levity in traditionally darker moments.
Piano Tribute is a quiet, easy listen that won't offend anyone, but something that really only diehard Floyd fans will bother buying or appreciating. It's debatable whether the album actually takes listeners on a "celestial journey" (as the back cover promises), but one sure truth is stated: "When all of the studio trickery and texture is removed, the emotional resonance of these now classic songs endures."
Indeed, the song remains the same.
-Ken Devine
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Details:
Pink Floyd are one of the most successful bands in music history and one of the genuine giants of the 70s classic rock period. From their 1967 debut, ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’, one of the most innovative British psychedelic albums, to the massive mainstream success of their definitive 1973 album, ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, which went to number one and astonishingly spent a record breaking 741 weeks on the Billboard album chart, their music has relentlessly pushed rock to the outer limits of space & time. It is powerful, introspective, spiritual and essential and their music still finds new listeners, drawn to hear their ‘softly spoken magic spell’.
The Piano Tribute to Pink Floyd takes listeners on a celestial journey, engaging them with the simplicity of a solo piano interpretation of classics like “Us & Them” and “Comfortably Numb”. When all of the studio trickery and texture is removed, the emotional resonance of these now classic songs endures.