''STORIES' - JOHNNY ALEGRE AFFINITY

"Stories" (on MCA Music) consists of the most exciting and memorable performances from AFFINITY's first two recordings, 2005's Jazzhowd and 2007's Eastern Skies.While Jazzhomd features the quintet, Eastem Skies has AFFINITY (with Joey Quirino as the group's new pianist) joined by the Global Studio Orchestra conducted by Gerard Salonga. "Eastern Skies was recorded in a facility built for a classical music orchestra Recording the orchestra together with a hard-rocking jazz group made it a challenge for the jazz musicians who had to scatter into other rooms. Our way of communicating visually with each other was through closed circuit cameras. I give a lot of credit to Gerard Salonga for holding everything together."

The two opening songs on Stories are each taken from the Jazzhound and Eastern Skies albums, respectively. The melody of "East Indies" from Jazzhound introduces Johnny Alegre's attractive and personal tone on the guitar. "East Indies" was the name that European explorers originally gave to the region of the Philippines, Indonesia,Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. After the relatively mellow theme, Tolentino's high-powered alto is passionate, Johnny delivers a melodic statement that builds on the saxophonist's ideas Saison has a short spot and, following the catchy theme, Bermejo's drums are quite active over the closing vamp. This is followed by the celebratory "Light And Joy" from Eastern Skies, written by Johnny back in the 1970s as a fusion piece, which has been part of his repertoire ever since. The infectious melody serves as a perfect orchestral introduction for this definitive reissue.

The next songs are quintet pieces. Part of the upbeat melody of "Guardian Angel" was thought of by Johnny years ago."It was almost a mystical experience for me, because the recollection would surface in fleeting moments. I would forget the phrase, remember it again, and then forget it again. This happened continually until I finally decided to write it down." The concise alto, piano, guitar and bass solos make each note count with Tolentino hinting a bit at Eric Dolphy. The joyfully funky title track, "Jazzhovnd" (named after a friend who had a huge record collection) was partly inspired by Ron Carter's "Blues Farm''. Cotby dela Calzada enthusiastically plays the groove and Johnny creates a particularly inventive solo.

The following three selections are from Eastern Skies and have AFFINITY joined by the orchestra. 'oNatural Jazz," arranged by Ria Villena-Osorio, is a little reminiscent in spots of Oliver Nelson's "stolen Moments." It is a straight ahead romp for the musicians.

''Mother's Day" and "The Stranger", also arranged by Villena.Osorio, are showcases for Johnny with the orchestra. His sound on these pieces falls between Wes Montgomery and Pat Metheny but his musical personality is very much his ov.vn. "The Stranger", in particular, has a mysterious atmosphere caused by using both major and minor themes. Tolentino's exciting soprano solo is a highpoint.

Returning to the Jazzhound sessions, "Perfect Imperfect" includes Spanish-inspired accents, a haunting chromatic melody, superior solo statements by Saison, Johnny and Tolentino, and heated interplay in the background by dela Calzada and Bermejo."Vertigo" is Johnny's tribute to both Alfred Hitchcock and Wayne Shorter (who loves Hitchcock's films).It has some of the most adventurous solos of the set, with Saison,Johnny and Tolentino all stretching themselves.

 Finishing with the orchestra, the picturesque "Beacon Call" was written by Johnny to express the feeling of openness and joy that he gets when seeing meadows and fields in the country. Quirino's solo inspired Johnny to come up with a memorable statement of his own.

The music and playing of AFFINITY still sounds very fresh today. In more recent times,Johnny recorded the "Johnny Alegre 3"album with bassist Ron McClure and drummer Billy Hart, made a world music CD ("Humanfolk") with percussionist Susie Ibarra and today leads a trio version of AFFINITY. But while Johnny Alegre looks towards future projects, the music on Stories shows that he can certainly be proud of what he has accomplished so far.

"Stories" is now out in CDs at Astroplus and Odyssey and digital downloads via spinnr.ph and iTunes.
  It is distributed by MCA Music, Inc.

Dell Launched Dell PowerEdge R920 which has 6 TB Memory

Dell, one of the largest PC manufacturers in the worldwide kicks of its Solutions tour in SM Aura last March 18, 2014 with some guest audience from Mongolia have joined the event.

Dell Solutions Tour announced about their new marketing strategy, also their innovation in redefining storage economics. Some of the speakers were from different countries, also Chris Papa, the marketing manager of Dell Philippines, discussed some of the new products of Dell specially here in Asia-Pacific region.

In 2013, Dell broke ground with its impressive line of Windows 8-powered products, including the Latitude 10 tablet, Optiplex 9010 All-in-One with optional touch screen, Latitude 6430u ultrabook, and the XPS 12 hybrid convertible tablet-notebook PC. These became the toast of the client PC market as they received acclaim from PC experts and tech editors from leading publications and blogs.

Dell unveils its brand new series of full-featured enterprise storage. The new Dell SC4000 Series arrays demonstrate Dell's continued innovation to bring full-featured, enterprise class, low cost but high performing, smaller scale solution. The new storage array series, with an all-flash solution that can cost 76% less than competing pure flash arrays.

FYI, Dell has been constantly number 1 in store devices sales.

Launched during the event is their newest server:
Dell PowerEdge R920 which has 6 TB Memory
• A world record 4-socket Linux benchmark result of 24,150 benchmark users on the SAP SD 2-Tier benchmark.
• A 71% improved performance over the previous best E7-4800 4-socket SAP SD benchmark.
• Nearly the same performance in an SAP environment compared with the previous generation 8-socket servers, providing up to a 50% cost savings in software licensing to the customer.

www.dell.com

www.dellsolutionstour.com

McDonald Kiddie Crew WorkShop

 Alexa is now only participate in a workshop, and McDo kiddie crew workshop, said it turned her happy. Draw her name and picture in chef hat, he made humburger done, and who they tour kitchen and more...

DISCOVER FUN, LEARNING  & FRIENDSHIP

Kiddie Crew Workshop is back for 6-12 year old kids to enjoy summer activities, the McDonald’s way.

Participants will get the limited-edition Kiddie Crew Workshop shirt, bag, ID lace together with artwork materials, their very own set of badges every after activity and meals for all workshop days for just Php595. More than the exciting Kiddie Crew goodies, kids will also get a chance to make new friends over the summer vacation.

Last year, close to 40,000 kids all over Philippines enjoyed the 5-day workshop with its several activities such as burger-making, design-your- apron activity, singing and dancing sessions plus the fun restaurant on-floor training like Drive-Thru and front counter activities that help develop their skills and also instill  important values such as hard work, discipline and teamwork.  This year, new activities such as jazz-up-your-own-hat, talent workshop and the new value formation topic on sharing will surely help develop your kids’ skills and values.

A series of grand graduation will be held in key cities to congratulate all Kidde Crew members in the country and lots of activities are in-store not just for the Kiddie Crew members but for the whole family, too!  The fun definitely doesn’t stop there because all Kiddie Crew graduates will receive McCelebrations Gift Certificate worth Php500 that they can use anytime this year and they have freebies to enjoy too with their Kiddie Crew Club Card.

So what are you waiting for? Let your kids have the most memorable summer experience, the McDonald’s way! Registration is now open in participating McDonald’s stores nationwide and the workshop will run until April 30. Sign them up for the McDonald’s Kiddie Crew Workshop today!

For more information and the complete list of participating stores, visit

www.mcdonalds.com.ph.