By CHRISTY HENDRICKS
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville’s Dr. Alan Storeygard was recently awarded with a bronze Global Music Award for his album “Jazz meets the Classics.”
The album, his fifth, won Best Album and Best Contemporary Instrumental Recording. It is also up for a Grammy. It is a “classical and jazz fusion project,” according to Storeygard. It features solo tracks as well as pieces featuring the Alan Storeygard Trio, a quartet and a full orchestra. All pieces are arrangements by Storeygard of works by the great classical composers including Bach, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Chopin, Offenbach and Puccini.
“People from all over the world enter,” Storeygard said of the Global Music Awards. “You enter it and see what happens.”
The album was recorded at Infrared Studio in North Little Rock. Recording engineer Eric Chesher did the orchestration and synthesizing. The album also features Dave Rogers on drums, Brian Wolverton on bass and Danny Fletcher on guitar. All will receive an award.
Storeygard began playing piano in third grade, picking up jazz in high school and college. It wasn’t until 1996 that he played publicly in Jacksonville when he started playing at Jacksonville United Methodist Church. Not long after that he began writing his first album, “Church Jazz,” and formed The Alan Storeygard Trio.
Storeygard earned an IBLA Grand Prize International Music Competition award with “Church Jazz,” released in 2002. He was invited to perform his rendition of “Amazing Grace,” the lead piece of “Church Jazz” at Carnegie Hall in 2003.
Storeygard has released three other albums, “Just Havin’ Fun,” “Third Time’s a Charm” and “New Directions.” All feature The Alan Storey-gard Trio. Local artist Roberta McGrath designed the covers for “Third Time’s a Charm,” “New Directions” and “Jazz meets the Classics.”
“Jazz meets the Classics” is available online at iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, Barnes and Noble in North Little Rock and from Storeygard.
