Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"Dynamic world music."
- ESQUIRE Magazine
"Dynamic world music."
- ESQUIRE Magazine
"The music is passionate, romantic, refreshing and soothing all at once. Young & Rollins do seem to have an excitement for performing that comes through in many of the well-executed arrangements that build the tension to more than a few hot conclusions."
- All Music Guide
"The music is passionate, romantic, refreshing and soothing all at once. Young & Rollins do seem to have an excitement for performing that comes through in many of the well-executed arrangements that build the tension to more than a few hot conclusions."
- All Music Guide
"They have done their homework, mastering an eclectic variety of styles that are combined in their compositions and improvisations – Latin jazz, blues, Flamenco, classical, even reggae."
- JAZZIZ Magazine
"They have done their homework, mastering an eclectic variety of styles that are combined in their compositions and improvisations – Latin jazz, blues, Flamenco, classical, even reggae."
- JAZZIZ Magazine
"These two virtuoso players and their extremely tight band wowed us with their intricate arrangements and the sheer speed and emotion of their playing."
- LIVE Magazine
"These two virtuoso players and their extremely tight band wowed us with their intricate arrangements and the sheer speed and emotion of their playing."
- LIVE Magazine
"...Young and Rollins display a shocking breadth of skills. Live, they are absolutely riveting."
- The Washington Post newspaper
"...Young and Rollins display a shocking breadth of skills. Live, they are absolutely riveting."
- The Washington Post newspaper
"Dan Young & Lawson Rollins sound dizzying and rhythmically potent." - Amazon.com Editorial Review
"Dan Young & Lawson Rollins sound dizzying and rhythmically potent." - Amazon.com Editorial Review
"Young & Rollins are guitarists extraordinaire. The pair display a driving virtuosity." - Washington City Paper
"Young & Rollins are guitarists extraordinaire. The pair display a driving virtuosity." - Washington City Paper
"Guitarists Young & Rollins rank alongside some of the world's most popular exponents of the new flamenco genre."
- Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
"Guitarists Young & Rollins rank alongside some of the world's most popular exponents of the new flamenco genre."
- Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
* After writing this recommendation in 2003, Jo Shore booked Young & Rollins to return to her festival in 2004, making Young & Rollins the only foreign band to perform at the Perth International Arts Festival two consecutive years in a row in the festival's 50 year history. The 2004 appearances included several sold out shows and the return visit was a huge success for the band and the festival.*
"The Perth International Arts Festival had great pleasure in presenting several shows by Young & Rollins in February 2003.
Each performance was extremely well received and audiences were left spellbound by the band.
We sold around 800 tickets to the Perth show at our contemporary music venue the Watershed and it was hailed as one of the best nights in the month long
world class line-up of acts. The band sold out of CDs in Perth and I still get enquiries regularly about where people can get hold of the album.
We also presented the band at one of our regional Festivals in Broome - where they sold out and left the community begging for more.
I wish them the very best success."
Jo Metcalf Shore
Contemporary Music Manager
Perth International Arts Festival
UWA FESTIVAL CENTRE
3 Crawley Ave
Crawley WA 6009
Australia
jo@salisburyfestival.co.uk -
*Mrs. Shore is now Director of the Salisbury Festival in the UK,
where Young & Rollins will perform in 2005.
- Jo Shore, 2005 Salisbury Festival Director
* After writing this recommendation in 2003, Jo Shore booked Young & Rollins to return to her festival in 2004, making Young & Rollins the only foreign band to perform at the Perth International Arts Festival two consecutive years in a row in the festival's 50 year history. The 2004 appearances included several sold out shows and the return visit was a huge success for the band and the festival.*
"The Perth International Arts Festival had great pleasure in presenting several shows by Young & Rollins in February 2003.
Each performance was extremely well received and audiences were left spellbound by the band.
We sold around 800 tickets to the Perth show at our contemporary music venue the Watershed and it was hailed as one of the best nights in the month long
world class line-up of acts. The band sold out of CDs in Perth and I still get enquiries regularly about where people can get hold of the album.
We also presented the band at one of our regional Festivals in Broome - where they sold out and left the community begging for more.
I wish them the very best success."
Jo Metcalf Shore
Contemporary Music Manager
Perth International Arts Festival
UWA FESTIVAL CENTRE
3 Crawley Ave
Crawley WA 6009
Australia
jo@salisburyfestival.co.uk -
*Mrs. Shore is now Director of the Salisbury Festival in the UK,
where Young & Rollins will perform in 2005.
- Jo Shore, 2005 Salisbury Festival Director
"This is a casual, but heartfelt thank you for the wonderful performance given by Young & Rollins at the 2004 Utah Arts Festival. Your professionalism and enthusiasm amidst nature's pyrotechnics was very much appreciated. I don't know who was more excited during your
performance, the audience or the stage and Festival staff!
In my somewhat jaded sixteen years in the festival and events industry, I have rarely come across a group that has left such a strong impression as Young & Rollins. Outstanding musicianship, intricacy and nuance in composition, and an uncanny knack to connect across the stage to your audience made for one of the most memorable performances (out of 100+, including five other headline acts) at the 2004 Festival.
I certainly hope that we have the opportunity to have you in Utah again in the near future. Best of luck down under and across the pond!"
Robyn Nelson
Executive Director
Utah Arts Festival
801-322-2428
Robyn@utahartsfestival.org - Robyn Nelson, Executive Director, Utah Arts Festival
"This is a casual, but heartfelt thank you for the wonderful performance given by Young & Rollins at the 2004 Utah Arts Festival. Your professionalism and enthusiasm amidst nature's pyrotechnics was very much appreciated. I don't know who was more excited during your
performance, the audience or the stage and Festival staff!
In my somewhat jaded sixteen years in the festival and events industry, I have rarely come across a group that has left such a strong impression as Young & Rollins. Outstanding musicianship, intricacy and nuance in composition, and an uncanny knack to connect across the stage to your audience made for one of the most memorable performances (out of 100+, including five other headline acts) at the 2004 Festival.
I certainly hope that we have the opportunity to have you in Utah again in the near future. Best of luck down under and across the pond!"
Robyn Nelson
Executive Director
Utah Arts Festival
801-322-2428
Robyn@utahartsfestival.org - Robyn Nelson, Executive Director, Utah Arts Festival
Discography
Esperanza (Bolero Records, 2005)
Sevilla (Baja/TSR Records, 2001)
Salsa Flamenca (Baja/TSR Records, 2000)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Through their internationally popular recordings, televised concerts, and renowned live performances with their Quintet, Young & Rollins have established themselves as one of today's most innovative Latin guitar groups.
Some Recent Highlights:
· Their new album, Esperanza, was released worldwide in March, 2005 on Bolero Records, home to a roster of top Latin guitar acts.
· The Young & Rollins Quintet performed in June, 2005, at the prestigious Salisbury Festival in the UK.
· 2 tracks by Young & Rollins are on the Billboard top 10 compilation CD, "Bolero Gypsies", and 1 track is on the upcoming release, "Caravan", available exclusively in Sharper Image stores worldwide.
· A half-hour Young & Rollins televised concert on PBS stations is broadcasting to 75 million households across the U.S. and will continue in rotation through 2005.
· Featured on a 50 minute program on Voice of America that will broadcast repeatedly around the world.
· Young & Rollins performed several sold out concerts at the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia, the New Zealand International Arts Festival, and the Sydney Opera House in February and March of 2004. A return tour is being planned.
What the experts are saying:
Jo Metcalf Shore, current Director of the Salisbury Festival in the UK, and former Music Manager of the Perth International Arts Festival, booked Young & Rollins an unprecedented 2 years in a row at Australia's prestigious Perth International Arts Festival. She writes, "Audiences were left spellbound by the band."
Utah Arts Festival Director, Robyn Nelson, a veteran festival executive in the U.S., offered the following comment on Young & Rollins’s performance at the 2004 Utah Arts Festival: "I have rarely come across a group that has left such a strong impression as Young & Rollins."
* Read the full reference letters from these Festival officials in the "Press" section *
About Young & Rollins:
Dan Young and Lawson Rollins began collaborating after a chance meeting in a Washington, D.C., flamenco guitar shop in 1998. They came from different musical backgrounds - Lawson started out as a classically trained guitarist before moving into Latin American guitar styles, while Dan holds a degree in jazz from the New School University in New York City - but they immediately realized that they shared a similar musical vision. Both had a profound love of Latin music, particularly the Brazilian, salsa, and flamenco traditions, as well as an appreciation of the contemporary developments in those genres. But in their own work, they sought to move beyond the often confining boundaries of musical genres.
"Basically, we're striving to break down these artificial barriers that have evolved in music. We've tried to open ourselves up to a diversity of influences and to explore new paths for creative expression," Dan explains. Lawson agrees: "Working together has really forced us to combine elements of our very different musical backgrounds and has resulted in a natural fusion process. Young & Rollins is really a hybrid of different styles that joins our enthusiasm for experimentation with a respect for different musical traditions."
Soon after meeting, Lawson and Dan began playing together, and their unique sound attracted a loyal following. Focusing on originality and experimentation, they perform only their own compositions, which draw upon an eclectic mixture of salsa, Latin jazz, blues, samba, bossa nova, flamenco, and classical styles. Their work is noted for its complex arrangements, unexpected melodic development, bold virtuosity, and improvisational flair. Through collaborations with several acclaimed musicians, they expanded to a quintet format, in which percussive rhythms and bass lines highlight the fast-paced interplay between the two guitarists.
In the spring of 2000, Young & Rollins signed an international recording contract with the Los Angeles-based label, Baja/TSR Records, home to such internationally known musicians as Armik, Luis Villegas, and the band Novamenco. Their debut recording, Salsa Flamenca, was released later that summer to critical acclaim. The Latin American Folk Institute declared Salsa Flamenca "one of this year's best, an album to be treasured" and wrote, "Rarely do we find a debut album in which every song is as musically vibrant and masterfully performed." After receiving such praise - as well as significant radio play both nationally and internationally - Salsa Flamenca went on to enter the Billboard top 25 charts in October, 2000. A half hour concert of music from the album recorded in 2001 continues to be broadcast on U.S. television stations across the nation, attesting to the appeal of Young & Rollins as an exciting live band.
Following the success of Salsa Flamenca, Young & Rollins released their second album of new original music, Sevilla, in November, 2001. The album was heralded in Esquire magazine as "dynamic world music", while JAZZIZ mag
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