News - Sheridan Square Records is due to release a new version of Into The Rainbow in the US on January 30th 2007. It will include previously unreleased material.
Kymaera began as an idea created to match a project that Shane Hill and I had spent a year working on and which, when it came to fruition, we felt needed a band that reflected the approach we had taken to the music.
The project was the instrumental arrangements of George Michael songs to celebrate his historic third Ivor Novello Songwriter of the Year award. Supported by his publisher Dick Leahy we had arranged his music in both Jazz, Latin and Classical traditions; it seemed appropriate that the band should reflect that: the best of British musicians to play the best of British songwriting. Shortly afterwards we were asked to do the same thing for the Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim; with the invaluable help of Corcovado Music, Jobim’s publishers, the two albums were finished within months of each other.
It quickly became apparent that we had found something more far reaching than the individual excellence of the musicians working with us on the recordings; and so the idea of Kymaera was born. The name is derived from Chimera a mythical Greek beast composed of parts of other animals - head of lion, body of goat, tail of scorpion for instance. In Greek mythology these parts of other animals do not have to always be the same, and so it is with Kymaera, the band will include the best of whatever musical discipline best suits that project.
Since then we have recorded three more albums and a DVD of our Christmas show (2001) at Ronnie Scotts with opera diva and fine jazz singer Maria Ewing. Musicians who have worked and recorded with us include Martin Drew, Jason Rebello, Rainer Bruninghaus, Dave O’Higgins, Dick Pearce, Mark Lockheart, Hilary Cameron and Lynieve Austin. The basic quartet remains as ever Shane Hill, Dave Markee, Michele Drees and myself - Simon James.
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