Al Conti : Scheherazade

SCHEHERAZADE: Four nominations and winner of NZR's 'Album of the Year' 2008 NZR Award. #1 on the NZR's 'Top 100' Chart for three consecutive months.Al Conti's third album is his most compelling and seductive album yet. In the timeless winds of the desert night begins one womanA??s brave journey to life. Through the wisdom of 1001 tales, Scheherazade will free herself from the tragic fate of the women who have preceded her. The destiny of all women now rests on her courage and strength. From the first note to the last, Al ContiA??s album brings together exotic instruments such as the hurdy gurdy, udu, sitar and tablas as well as violins and cellos, moving ambient vocals and soulful guitar solos. Ranked at the top of the New Age charts, AlA??s music has now become a favorite of many radio stations, reviewers and a growing number of fans.Al Conti is a composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist. Al Conti is a recipient of several Awards for his work. His album 'Scheherazade' topped the Zone Music Reporter Top 100 Chart at #1 for three consecutive months, in October, November and December, 2008. The album also garnered four ZMR Lifestyle Music Awards nominations, including Album of the Year, and won Best World Album of 2008. 'Scheherazade' also headed many radios 'Top 10' and 'Best of' lists,' as well as charting #5 on the ZMR's Top 100 Airplay Chart for 2008. His album 'Poeta' was used as part of NPR's fundraising efforts in 2007 and his recording 'Quest for Orpheus', from the same album, received a 'Best of 2007' Award from Mystic Soundscapes Radio. The album 'Poeta' headed the top 10 of 2007 lists at KCCK Radio and Origen Music, and was a featured selection at WMNR Radio throughout Connecticut in April, 2008.In 2008, Al Conti joined Kevin Bacon, Jessica Alba, Will & Grace's Shelley Morrison and other celebrities lending his name to the Until There's A Cure foundation to help raise funds for HIV/AIDS awareness and research.Al Conti has traveled widely and has lived in South America, Europe and the United States. As an actor, he has appeared on television shows including the CBS daytime drama 'As The World Turns,' in films, in numerous radio and television commercials, and on-stage in theatre productions in cities including New York City, Philadelphia, Tampa and Buenos Aires. Born and raised in Argentina, Conti comes from a family of artists with notoriety in many fields. Conti, who has composed music all his life, released his first album, Shadows, in 2006, Poeta, in 2007 and the critically acclaimed, award winner Scheherazade in 2008.Al resides in Vermont, USA.

Full title is: Scheherazade

For his third album, Al Conti takes as his theme the 'Arabian Nights' stories, as told by Scheherazade to the sultan, to keep him from executing her. The theme provides Conti with a reason to investigate Middle Eastern styles and instruments. Those instruments are not detailed in the CD package, but clearly include an Indian tabla and other percussion instruments from the Middle East and Asia Minor, as well as sitar. To these, Conti overdubs Western string instruments, various keyboards, and guitar. (AndrE Maquera plays guitar on one track, 'A Thousand Tales.') There are also wordless vocals here and there, and, on 'Palace Gardens,' nature sounds of water and birds. The effect the composer/performer gets is both rhythmic and soothing, appropriate for music to accompany those intriguing stories that kept a monarch up so many nights. Of course, the music can be enjoyed for purposes of relaxation, meditation, and background mood setting, whether one is cognizant of the inspiration behind it or not. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi