(Co-Write With Joe Deninzon on Song with Muhammad Ali about Leadership and Respect)
In support of Black History Month (February 2020), D-Zone Entertainment is proudly releasing the single, “The Greatest Lives” in digital stores and streaming sites on Friday, January 31.
The song is from “The Greatest Lives Songwriter’s EP,” which will be out March 21. It is sung by Thembeka Mnguni, a finalist for South Africa’s The Voice in 2016. Her name is pronounced “Them-bek-kah Mmn-Gu-Nee.” From Durban, SA, she is signed to Universal Records. Her greatest cause is as a spokesperson for Autism. She is also a brand ambassador for MUD Designer Makeup SA and for Body Confidence International. In South Africa, Universal is releasing a new song “Stimel” from her upcoming album, which will also include “The Greatest Lives” as a bonus track. Visit her on social media at instagram.com/thembeka_thediva.
The idea for the song came to Anne in 1984 when Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. She wrote in a newspaper article, “What would he want us to know?” and filed it in her box of song ideas. “It would have been a totally different song if I wrote it then because I was more sentimental.” Instead, she worked on the song as her first assignment for when she was offered a songwriting deal during her 60th year in 2018. South Africa’s Sheer Publishing handles one of Anne’s favorite songs, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
She started watching South African news and discovered many women expressing hope for a kinder world. Many went through bullying and abusive situations, and the females were open enough to talk about their experiences. The lyrics for “The Greatest Lives” came from Muhammad Ali’s quotes and philosophies. They became a message about leadership and treating people right.
Joe Deninzon, who grew up in Cleveland, OH, went to college in Bloomington, IN and played throughout the Midwest, knew Muhammad Ali’s hometown of Louisville. He understood the Midwestern sound that Anne was looking for, made a demo, and then the two began to put musicians to work. Using John Mellencamp’s “Ain’t Even Done with the Night” as a role model, they asked Cactus and Vanilla Fudge’s Carmine Appice, who also played with Rod Stewart.
Thembeka loved “The Greatest Lives”’ message about having a strong character. Joe and Anne chose her because they thought she was one of the greatest singers they ever heard. Thembeka showed she was (as the song says) a master by being the runner up on “The Voice South Africa.”
After they heard Thembeka’s performance, they found inspiration from keyboards on albums from the late Oliver Mtukudzi, a Zimbabwean vocalist/guitarist/social activist. Joe knew the perfect keyboardist, Jeremy Beck, who used both acoustic piano and Hammond B3. Hence, the hashtag #BeckDeninzonAppice.
“Joy and optimism in this song, I think, comes from its mission and inspiration. Muhammad Ali dealt with obstacles with optimism and a wink and smile,” Joe says. Joe and Anne, and their musicians, know “The Greatest Lives” will make a difference, and are proud to—as their lyrics say–take a “Never say die” attitude in promoting it!
The Richland 2 School District Honors Orchestras will present one concert on Friday, January 31 in the District Auditorium, featuring electric violinist and recording artist Joe Deninzon. The district auditorium is at 7500 Brookfield Rd, Columbia, SC 29223. The District Honors concert begins at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
The program will include original songs by Joe, as well as some of his arrangements of popular songs from The Beatles, Queen, and Pink Floyd.
Joe Deninzon, the music world’s expert on alternative violin techniques, will also lead a two-day workshop with Richland Two District Honors Orchestra students, focusing on rock stylings and improvisation. A musician who transcends many genres.
Joe has also recorded and performed with a variety of artists including Renaissance, In Continuum, Thank You Scientist, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Everclear, Ritchie Blackmore, Smokey Robinson, Johnny Mathis, Les Paul, Phoebe Snow, Jane Monheit, Robert Bonfiglio, and President Bill Clinton.
An active clinician, he has taught at Mark O’Connor’s renowned String Camp and Mark Wood’s Rock Orchestra Camp. He leads the crossover prog band Stratospheerius, which was a winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition. Additionally, he was awarded the Online People’s Choice Awards in the Cornucopia Festival, and named “Best Jam Band” in Musician’s Atlas Independent Music Awards.
He is also a member of the classical Hip Hop Latin Jazz String Quartet, Sweet Plantain. Joe is the author of the Mel Bay instructional violin book, PLUGGING IN: A Guide to Gear and New Techniques for the 21st Century Violinist.
The concert and clinics are made possible through the generous support of Parents, Students, and Richland School District 2.
Just saw Bohemian Rhapsody, and even though they screwed up a lot of things chronologically and factually, it still captured the essence of Freddie Mercury and brought back a cool memory from when I was 18. Queen was an obsession for me in high school. Their music was a constant soundtrack of my life and I had all their albums. My band at the time wrote many songs inspired by Queen and even learned all the harmonies to “Love of my Life”, including Brian May’s guitar solo, which I transcribed and taught myself to play.
In February of 1993, about a year and a half after Freddie’s death, Brian May put out a great solo album called “Back to the Light.” I heard through the grapevine that he was giving a secret, free concert at the old Agora in Cleveland. I went with my bandmates, Matthew James Murphy and Matthew Parrotta. The show was killer and afterward, we wanted to try to get backstage. It was frigid cold and snowing outside and there was a huge line of people waiting to meet Brian. We were in the back of the line freezing our asses off, so we just started singing as loud as we could, hoping the guy guarding the door would hear us.
All of a sudden, the door opens, someone from the crew along with the drummer Cozy Powell walks up to us and leads us past the crowd straight to the backstage area. There, standing in front of us, was Brain May! We sang him one of our songs and gave him our demo tape. He was very gracious, complimentary, and we chatted for a while. He signed our CD’s and we thanked him.
For what it’s worth, the memory of that night is forever etched in my mind.
Thank you, Brian, Freddie, and Queen for the incredible music and inspiration!
– Joe Deninzon
Music legends Renaissance featuring Annie Haslam will be back in the US Northeast playing select dates in November 2018. Based on the great success in 2017 with the addition of a “10-piece Chamber Orchestra” on four of their shows, the band has been invited to once again bring this special line up to the Scottish Rite Auditorium, Collingswood, NJ. November 17th. 2018 marks the 49th year since the band’s formation and its tenth consecutive year of touring since their reactivation in 2009.
photo by Esa Ahola
Renaissance leader and vocalist, Annie Haslam remarks, “The band keeps getting stronger and stronger and the addition of the chamber orchestra has been the most exciting development for the band in years. This addition of ‘live’ orchestral musicians adds an incredible dynamic to our big numbers like ‘Mother Russia,’ ‘Carpet Of The Sun’ and ‘Song For All Seasons,’ Day of the Dreamer, all of which included an orchestra on the original recordings.”
Ms. Haslam will be joined on stage by longtime musical director and associate; Rave Tesar on piano, along with Geoffrey Langley on keyboards, Mark Lambert on guitars, Frank Pagano on drums and percussion, and Leo Traversa on bass.
Tour dates:
NOV 8 THU – THE KENT STAGE – KENT, OH
NOV 9 FRI – THE TRALF – BUFFALO, NY
NOV 11 SUN – YMCA BOULTON CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS – BAY SHORE, NY
NOV 15 THU – BALTIMORE SOUNDSTAGE – BALTIMORE, MD
NOV 16 FRI – NEWTON THEATRE – NEWTON, NJ
NOV 17 SAT – SCOTTISH RITE AUDITORIUM – COLLINGSWOOD, NJ (With The Renaissance Chamber Orchestra)
NOV 18 SUN – TARRYTOWN MUSIC HALL – TARRYTOWN, NY
Renaissance is a band with a rich history unique unto themselves as progressive rock pioneers who rose from the ashes of the seminal UK rock band, The Yardbirds. Acclaimed for their unique blending of progressive rock with classical and symphonic influences, the band’s career has spanned forty plus years spearheaded by the 5-octave voice of Annie Haslam and the masterful songwriting skills of Michael Dunford. They are widely considered to be the band that most successfully and routinely utilized the sound of a full orchestra in their recordings.
The band has toured throughout the world and has performed at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and additionally at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Chorale Society. Renaissance had a top ten hit in the UK with their song Northern Lights that still demands airplay to this day.
On September 14th Renaissance will be releasing their new DVD entitled ‘A Symphonic Journey’. The DVD was filmed in October of 2017 and included for the first time the addition of The Renaissance Chamber Orchestra, a hand-picked group of 10 musicians, including strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion. This is their third DVD release preceded by the 2015 ‘Live at the Union Chapel, London, England’ and the ‘Turn of the Cards/ Scheherazade and Other Stories’ 2011 release ‘Live’ at the Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA. For this new DVD, the band once again returned to the Keswick Theatre, this time employing the use of track and boom mounted cameras to create more up close and personal shots of the band and orchestra. The concert also featured large-screen projections of original paintings by Annie Haslam, with corresponding titles to each song performed throughout the concert.
Renaissance:
Annie Haslam – Lead Vocalist
Rave Tesar – Keyboards
Tom Brislin – Keyboards & vocals
Mark Lambert – Guitar & vocals
Frank Pagano – Drums, percussion & vocals
Leo Traversa – Bass & vocals
String section
Joe Deninzon: 1st violin
Eddie Venegas: 2nd violin
Orlando Wells: viola
Leo Grinhauz: cello
Allen Won: clarinets and flutes
Bob Magnuson: double reeds and flutes
Vinnie Cutro: trumpet
Bob Ferrel: trombone
Bill Hughes: french horn
James Musto: percussion
The DVD/2CD set will be available from Amazon USA, Europe, and Japan. Also, ‘Annie Haslam’ signed copies will be available through the band’s website: www.renaissancetouring.com
Melodic Revolution Records is pleased to announce that Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius will release their LP of their highly acclaimed fifth album “Guilty of Innocence” a year after the official CD release via Melodic Revolution Records. The 10-track LP will be available worldwide in both Physical and Digital formats. As with the previous CD & Digital version “Guilty of Innocence” features special appearances by Alex Skolnick(Testament), Rave Tesar(Renaissance) and Randy McStine (Lo-Fi Resistance, The Fringe).
“Guilty of Innocence” highlights include the hit singles “Behind the Curtain” a reimagined cover of Muse’s “Hysteria,” and the 12-minute prog mini-epic titled “Soul Food” which features many of the guests mentioned above, plus “Dream Diary Cadenza,” a solo electric violin extravaganza lifted from Joe’s electric violin concerto.
Stratospheerius is led by founding member, electric violinist & vocalist Joe Deninzonwho has been called the “Jimi Hendrix of the electric violin.” “Guilty of Innocence” features French guitarist Aurelien Budynek(Cindy Blackman, Vernon Reid), bassist Jamie Bishop(The Syn, Francis Dunnery), and drummer Lucianna Padmore, praised by Modern Drummer Magazine for her “Deep grooves and serious fusion chops.”
Joe talks about the Vinyl/LP version of “Guilty of Innocence” Guilty of Innocence was a watershed moment for Stratospheeriusthis past year. After years of touring and putting out CD’s, I felt that this record was embraced by the progressive rock community on a bigger scale than any of our previous releases. In our touring and festival appearances alongside other artists in the prog world, I noticed more and more artists are manufacturing vinyl, and in many cases, it is outselling their CD’s at live shows. I believe the resurgent interest in vinyl has to do with the fact that in the digital age, we consume music on the go in a condensed mp3/streaming format. There is a hunger to hold something tangible in our hands, admire the artwork on a record, and have the home listening experience be something special. We are excited to join the growing community of artists putting out vinyl and hope our fans will buy the record and rediscover it (or DISCOVERit)!
LP Details
Artist: Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius
Album Title: “Guilty of Innocence”
Status: Limited Edition of 250 copies
Format: 33 rpm black vinyl – LP
Extras: Custom LP sleeve, all LPs come with a FREE download card
Release Date: Monday, October 8th, 2018
Pre-Orders begin Friday, September 14, 2018
Pre-Orders Price $25
Catalog No. MRRLP-12-006
Label: Melodic Revolution Records
Track Listing
Side One
1. Behind The Curtain 03:43
2. Take Your Medicine 04:10
3. Guilty Of Innocence 03:16
4. Face 05:46
5. Hysteria 04:13
6. Affluenza 03:08
Side Two
1. Parallel Reality 03:10
2. Game Of Chicken 05:03
3. Dream Diary Cadenza 04:12
4.Soul Food 12:46
“Joe Deninzon has made a career…wielding his violin like a guitar. In that way, he has pioneered a new standard for rock violin, much the same way Ian Anderson did for flute.” – PROGRESSION MAGAZINE
This is infectious, with no cure in sight. The arrangements are tight, everyone bounces off each other, and is one of the most poptastic progressive album one is likely to come across 5/5 Kev Rowland // Prog Archives
One of the perks of being a reviewer is that on some days you get the pleasure of getting introduced to some music or bands you never heard of but are actually quite good. Or in the case of Joe Deninzon And Stratospheerius, really good! 9/10 Arno Agterberg // DPRP
Joe Deninzon’s music is always both entertaining and creative. I have to say that this might very well be the best Stratospheerius album. Gary Hill // Music Street Journal
The album comes with plenty of Progressive Rock tracks, it’s the other songs containing other styles that help to make the release even more entertaining. If you happen to be a fan of Progressive Rock, the new album of Guilty of Innocence album from Joe Deninzon and the band Stratospheerius is one album you need to check out. Matheson Kamin // The Rock and Roll Report
Upcoming Shows
Sonic Voyage Festival and “Vinyl Release Party” with special guests
Oct 4th, 2018 doors at 7 pm
Shrine World Music Venue
2274 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. NY, NY https://www.shrinenyc.com
ProgStock Festival
October 6th2018 at Midnight
Union County Performing Arts Center
1601 Irving Street, Rahway, New Jersey 07065 https://www.progstock.com/
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