BOOK OF RHAPSODIES

Book of Rhapsodies is the second album from the Ghost Train Orchestra. The album features Carpenter's surreal, modernistic arrangements for choir and orchestra of chamber jazz from the late 1930s. It was recorded by Andy Taub and Danny Blume in 2012 at Brooklyn Recording Studios in Brooklyn, NY and mixed by Danny Blume and Brian Carpenter at Hidden Quarry Studios in Woodstock NY. Release date October 8, 2013.

PRESS & AWARDS

BURNING AMBULANCE TOP 3 OF 2013 

"Book of Rhapsodies is out this month, and it's nuts in the best possible way. Carpenter is on a mission to make 21st Century listeners aware of just how much awesome music was being made in the early decades of the 20th by rooting out obscurities and tweaking the arrangements until they pop like fireworks...a hell of a lot of fun." -- Phil Freeman, BURNING AMBULANCE

ARTS FUSE TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2013
"An impish excursion into the nooks and crannies popular music in the 1930s...a delightful trip through a retro aural funhouse." -- Bill Marx, ARTS FUSE

"This is an amazing ensemble, playing music like no others these days. There hasn’t been big band music as exciting as this since forever...GTO is creating its own electrifying musical gold." -- Andrew Velez, NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

"Carpenter and his collaborators find plenty of new life in these old charts and 78s...down a rabbit hole to a bizarre, charming world of nearly forgotten music from the 1930s."  -- Davis Inman, DOWNBEAT

TRACK LISTING

1. Charlie's Prelude
2. Beethoven Riffs On
3. Volcanic Eruption for Orchestra
4. Dance Man Buys a Farm
5. At an Arabian House Party
6. It's SIlk, Feel It!
7. Dawn on the Desert
8. The Happy Farmer
9. Revolt of the Yes Men
10. The Children Met the Train
11. Her Old Man Was (at Times) Suspicious
12. Celebration on the Planet Mars

PERSONNEL

Brian Carpenter - trumpet, slide trumpet, voice
Andy Laster - alto saxophone, flute
Dennis Lichtman - clarinet
Petr Cancura - tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, clarinet
Mazz Swift - violin
Tanya Kalmanovitch - viola
Curtis Hasselbring - trombone
Brandon Seabrook - banjo
Ron Caswell - tuba
Avi Bortnick - guitar
Michael Bates - double bass
Rob Garcia - drums
Matt Samolis - flute

Noah Woods - artwork
Lure Design - design and layout
            
CHOIR:
Yolanda Scott - soprano
Katie Seiler - mezzo-soprano
Mazz Swift - alto
Tomas Cruz - tenor
Brian Carpenter - baritone
Joe Chappell - bass

AUDIO

VIDEO

Shot live at Jalopy Theater by John Tomma in Brooklyn NY, 2012.