Night
Artist: Simone Dinnerstein & Tift Merritt
Release Date: March 19, 2013
Label: Sony Classical
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and singer-songwriter Tift Merritt join forces for the first time in Night, a unique collaboration uniting the classical, folk, and rock worlds, exploring common terrain and uncovering new musical landscapes.
Though Simone Dinnerstein (a Juilliard-trained classical pianist from Brooklyn) and Tift Merritt (a singer-songwriter from North Carolina whose father taught her to play by ear) could not come from more different musical backgrounds, when the two met they immediately realized that their passion for music and performance was kindred, if not the same. Night features new songs written especially for the duo by Brad Mehldau (I Shall Weep at Night) and Patty Griffin (Night), as well as Tift Merritt's own songs (Only in Songs, Still Not Home, Colors, Feel of the World), and classical selections (an arrangement of Schubert’s Night and Dreams, Bach’s Prelude in B Minor). The album also includes the world premiere recording of The Cohen Variations by Daniel Felsenfeld, a solo piano piece commissioned by Dinnerstein based on one of her favorite songs, Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne.