FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MASTER IMPROVISATIONAL PIANIST
JOHN BAYLESS
RETURNS TO HIS ROOTS WITH AN ALBUM FUSING THE MUSIC OF ELTON JOHN AND THE STYLE
OF BACH

CIRCLE OF LIFE MARKS BAYLESS'S FIRST ALBUM RELEASE
ON ANGEL RECORDS SINCE 1999

(May 20, 2008) In 1985, pianist John Bayless began his recorded music career
with Bach Meets the Beatles, an album where he brilliantly improvised on the
songs of the Beatles in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach. Twenty-three years
later, Bayless remains one of the top classical crossover stars in the US - his
albums have consistently topped the charts, and he has sold well into the
hundreds of thousands. On his new album, Circle of Life, he once again fuses the
music of Bach with popular tunes - though this time taking his melodic
inspiration from the songs of Elton John.

The juxtapositions are striking. "Your Song" mixes with snippets from the D
Major Piano Concerto, "Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road" dances with the gigue from
Brandenburg Concerto No.5, while "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" becomes a
solemn chorale. In each track, Bayless gets to the heart of the song, pairs it
with a Bach piece of similar emotional sentiment, and then lets the music flow,
often leading to unexpected places.

Bayless's improvisations never fail to impress, surprise, and move listeners. In
Elton John, he has found a sympathetic muse, and the stunning results speak for
themselves, sure to pique the interest of fans of either artist.

John Bayless has built a career on his gift of improvisation and his canny
musical choices. Born and raised in Borger, Texas, John Bayless won a
scholarship to the Aspen School of Music at age 15, and two years later moved to
New York to study with Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School of Music. Bayless
was invited to participate as a composer in the inaugural class of New York
University's Musical Theater Masters Degree Program where he studied with
Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

His Puccini Album, released in 1993, topped the Billboard Classical crossover
chart for 18 weeks and sold over 170,000 copies. "The Movie Album" (1996) and
"Romantica" (1999) followed with nearly the same level of success. In recent
seasons, John Bayless has played more that 175 concerts. He has appeared at
Carnegie Hall in a performance of his own West Side Story Concert Variations for
solo piano and orchestra, made his Tanglewood debut playing Gershwin's Rhapsody
in Blue with the Boston Pops, opened the San Francisco Summer Pops season with
the same work and appeared in three sold-out concerts at the Hollywood Bowl with
John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Most recently he has been
presenting "Amadeus Live" in which he takes on the role of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart in a typical day of the composer's life.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Circle of Life
2. Your Song
3. Tiny Dancer
4. Can You Feel the Love Tonight?
5. Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word to Say
6. Believe
7. Daniel
8. Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road
9. The One
10. Crocodile Rock
11. Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)
12. Candle in the Wind
13. The Last Song

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For more information contact: cinemediapromo@...

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