Mandolin Mezzotints

This downloadable CD has six original acoustic instrumentals by Phil Lawrence. Radim Zenkl, the world-renowned Czech mandolinist, appears as a guest, adding his sublime artistry to the project. Joe Yamamoto from the legendary Japanese band The Nessi Expedition, plays both guitar and violin on this recording. Piper Heisig from Cats and Jammers plays the upright bass. Other guests include Tony Marcus, also from The Cats and Jammers on violin, Jean Jacques Vergnaud on guitar, and Bill Foss on bass. Truly an assembly of some of the best musicians in the San Francisco area, this recording offers a variety of musical genres and styles.

The CD opens with “From the Heart,” an ethereal ballad, followed by “Katie's Tune,” a jazz waltz. “The Watertower” suggest beauty, sorrow, and affection. In “Tulip Blossoms” Phil, Tony Marcus, Jean-Jacques Vergnaud, and Bill Foss take a simple melody and weave complex improvisations in G minor. “Elegy” adds a reminder of sorrow and defiance, with Radim Zenkl, Joe Yamamoto, and Phil Lawrence soloing over a slow minor waltz, and then a rapid rhythmical second part in four four time. “Hava's Tune” is a beautiful waltz in A major. The mandola adds a rich lower harmony to this melody. This CD was recorded in Oakland in 1990, shortly after the earthquake at an eight track analog studio, and in 1981 & 1983 at John Blakeley's Duncan Street Studio in San Francisco. It was mastered by Paul White in Sebastopol. The cover art reveals the true interior of the towers that hold up the Golden Gate Bridge, a secret that only avid mandolin players know, but which we now share with the rest of the grateful world.