Arias / Lee - Trompeta Camaleonica (CD)

Randolph Lee's latest recording project is an international collaborative effort featuring new music for trumpet from living South American composers. Teaming up with Colombian composer/pianist Mauricio Arias, the University of Florida Symphonic Band under the direction of Jay Watkins, a brass ensemble, a full studio orchestra, and influential Brazilian guitarist Ulisses Rocha, the album includes a wide variety of sounds and genres. Having the privilege of giving the world premieres of four of the six tracks on the album, Randolph Lee decided after a recital in Bogota, Colombia that it was time to get these pieces recorded. It also represents his belief that the trumpet, with it's well-established high and loud characteristics and virtuosic displays, also possesses an intimate voice-like quality which, in the right hands, is capable of telling a convincing story. The term Camaleónica (chameleonic) refers to the changes of "color" (timbre), tempo, and motives within the piece, Rapsodia Camaleónica. The term is borrowed and applied in a broader sense to describe what the trumpet does over the entire album, La Trompeta Camaleónica.