Skylark: Solo Piano and Beyond features pianist Mike del Ferro performing a number of his own compositions as well as standards including Skylark by Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael, In A Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington, Someday My Prince Will Come by Larry Morey & Frank Churchill, Blue In Green by Bill Evans, and Miles Davis, Somewhere by Leonard Bernstein, Olha Maria (Look, Mary) by Chico Buarque and Antonio Carlos Jobim and I Fall In Love Too Easily by Chet Baker.

Mike del Ferro tells us “In my mind’s ear, I hear my ideal piano sound. It’s a round, dark and full sound, with a singing quality. It’s almost like a symphony orchestra hidden inside the piano, able to produce as many musical colors as possible. The danger with the piano is that if you don’t take care of your touch, it can sound very harsh and mechanical while with the right touch, dynamics, and intention you can make a simple triad sound like an orchestra. I am still working on my sound daily.

When I played with Toots Thielemans I was surprised that he almost insisted I would use a keyboard in combination with the piano in order to create an Orchestral sound on stage which he loved so much.  I started investigating how to make the sound of an electronic keyboard blend with the acoustic sound of the piano and on that first tour with Toots I realized that combining the keyboard with the piano brought a new dimension to my playing. With one hand on each instrument, the ‘piano orchestral sound’ I was hearing in my head started to come alive.

This preoccupation with sound has to do with my dad being an opera singer and thus having a strong ‘Classical’ background. As a child, I was allowed to be playing quietly with my Lego pieces in the Music room while my dad was tutoring his vocal students. And in another part of the house, my mother was playing Frank Sinatra’s Capitol albums all day long. Sinatra’s phrasing, his use of space and time, Nelson Riddle’s superb arrangements, I must have heard those albums a million times and now 50 years later they continue to be a source of inspiration, especially when it comes to interpreting melodies.

“I had a wonderful time working with the Sound Liaison team creating the solo album ‘Skylark’. Frans de Rond’s superb craftsmanship and his vision of sound have been a revelation. He managed to realize the sound of my mind’s ear.”

Mike del Ferro, Piano