The famous singer/pianist comes back with a refined combination of music, history, and even fashion designs.

The renowned Venezuelan pianist and singer Prisca Dávila releases the second part to her “Piano En Canto Venezolano I”. The release is now her fourth outing. The pianist’s musical work focuses on rhythms that she did not present in her previous CD. Rhythms like calypso, joropo con estribillo, tarma drum tonada or tambora gaita are present here. “Piano En Canto Venezolano II” is the result of a vast musical-historical investigation that took place in various regions of her native country. She combined her historian side with the musical one since she’s a Historian graduate from Universidad Central de Venezuela.

<<Venezuelan music is very broad and diverse. It has such great amount of genres and rhythms that it takes me to explore it constantly so that I can have more knowledge about it. We, historians, call this “calibration sources” and it allows us to know our music in depth so that we can write new compositions based on that knowledge>>, declared Prisca regarding her research on the subject. 

Father-daughter chemistry.

Prisca’s previous album featured songs written by renowned composers, but this time around she has included her own compositions as well as previously unreleased songs written by her father Eduardo Dávila. The chemistry existing between them has been seen on stage, and it comes out again in the recording studio.

<<My father is a real poet. He’s developed a beautiful lyricism. We’ve been working together in compositions  like “Pikirillo”. In this album, we work together in the quirpa “Prisco” and the polo margariteño “Amor y Mar”. He also wrote the lyrics to “Tonada de la Despedida”, “Malembe” and “Todo Mi Amor”. In addition, he recorded backing vocals, and played tenor and soprano saxophones>>, said Prisca about her father’s role in her new album.

A Colorful Vernacular Repertoire.

<< The criteria for “Piano En Canto Venezolano II” was to work with the musical regions of Venezuela that we did not work with in the previous album. That took us to the Afro-Venezuelan music, the Andean and eastern regions. It also led us to work with composers we hadn’t work with like Rafael Salazar, César Prato, Hernán Marín, Lourdes Basante and Juan Pablos Ceballos >> said the artist referring to how the repertoire was selected.

<< I always choose a song by Aldemaro. I chose “Carretera” in my previous work, and this time I chose “El Catire” for being one of the songs I like the most. I like the form of the composition and also because it shows what a genius the maestro Aldemaro was >>, explained Prisca.

Once again, Prisca chose maestro William Sigismondi as the arranger. He also took part in the production, recording and musical research. He is the composer of the song “Tonada de la Despedida”. Sigismondi is well known for his work with Ilan Chester, Franco De Vita and Cecilia Todd, among others.

<<William Sigismondi is a wonderful arranger, musical producer and friend, besides being pianist and composer which means we have an affinity there. He has an impressive knowledge about Venezuelan music as well as recording technology. He is also a very organized person and a great musical producer. He really knows where we are going and knows my work as pianist, singer and composer deeply>>, emphasized Prisca.

Prisca goes further on and explain the production and repertoire: << My father, William and I selected the songs always looking after the balance between fast, medium and slow tempo tunes. Then, we screened them and left those who passed the test in term of final arrangement and preproduction. That is why we had 20 songs during the preproduction and ended up selecting just 12 songs>>.

Fashion and good taste to the service of music.

Prisca has been careful about her image as an artist and the graphic art of her recordings. In “Piano En Canto Venezolano II”, she decided to take a step further so you can see her wearing dresses designed by famous Venezuelan fashion designer Alberto De Castro with photographs taken by renowned photographer Felipe Di Ludovico on both the CD and the inner booklet.

Part of her wardrobe designed by De Castro has ornamented Prisca’s presentations in 2008, and 2009 won’t be an exception, specially now the artist will tour various cities in the country and other dates abroad that are about to be confirmed.

2009 with many possibilities.

<< I am planning a national tour. I want to visit the most important cities of the country to let my album be known. I’d like to visit  the places that are reflected in the album like the Andean region, Guayana, Cumaná, Quibor, Barquisimeto, Maracaibo, among other cities. However, I’ll start with the international tour in February in Europe>>, informed Prisca about her plans for 2009.

After three successful recordings, “Piano Jazz Venezolano” (2003), “Estoy Aquí” (2005) and “Piano En Canto Venezolano I” (2007), and her latest CD, Prisca has become one of the most important artists in the Venezuelan musical universe.

Her quality as a pianist is undeniable. She’s regarded as one of the best performers on the instrument, a fact that is backed up by her being awarded at “Concurso Nacional de Piano Rosario Marciano” as “Best Interpretation of Latin American Popular Music” and “Best Venezuelan Popular Composition”.

With her new outing “Piano En Canto Venezolano II”, she demonstrates her maturity and quality as a singer. In fact, she was invited by the renowned percussionist Gerardo Rosales to take  part as a singer in the song “Arepas” which will be included in his new recording.