Music can be the best inoculation against the penetration of extremist ideas into the center of society and thus an important protective mechanism for democracy and our community of solidarity.
And Mandoki Soulmates' "Music is the Great Unifier" concert is online on @YouTube.
We now have the opportunity to make a constructive update to our socio-political model so that people are the focus again, mindfulness defeats indifference, and humanity reigns over greed.
Who, if not we musicians with our direct line to the audience, should re-ignite the light at the end of this pandemic tunnel and rebuild society?
Music is the greatest unifier! Bridging the gap around the world!
Soulmates and their location in our online concert
Number 1 in Hungary & Germany, Building in North America
"Living in the Gap/Hungarian Pictures” is the 11th
album by Mandoki Soulmates. It’s finding and building support in North America,
because of the music and unity themes. We’re setting up interviews with Leslie
Mandoki, the leader of “the band of bandleaders.”
The release of “Living in the Gap/Hungarian Pictures”
(Cleopatra Records) follows the 2018 USA tour of Mandoki Soulmates, including a
performance at New York City’s The Beacon Theater. Just passing 350,000 streams
of the album, and reaching over 1.3 million people on Facebook.
Mandoki Soulmates is currently
planning to tour the USA and Germany late 2021. In the meantime, Leslie’s
finding ways to thank and support, “all the frontline workers, doctors, nurses,
grocery clerks, supermarket workers--all the people, who kept the world turning
and took care of our daily needs and our lives…”
The album “Living in the Gap/Hungarian Pictures” features a Who’s
Who of Classic Rock: Ian Anderson, Jack Bruce, David Clayton-Thomas, Bobby
Kimball, Tony Carey, Simon Phillips, Chris Thompson, Al DiMeola, Mike Stern,
Randy & Ada Brecker, saxophonist Bill Evans, Supertramp´s John Helliwell
and Jesse Siebenberg, bassists: Steve Bailey and Richard Bona, former Snarky
Puppy keyboardist Cory Henry, and the Cutting Crew’s Nick Van Eede.
Leslie teamed up with his Soulmates Ian Anderson, John Helliwell, Bobby
Kimball, Al DiMeola to record the song “WeSayThankYou,” donating all
royalties to US charity organizations (The United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19
Solidarity Response Fund in support of the WHO (World Health Organization) and
The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City).
The album topped the Amazon Classic Rock Charts in
Germany end of 2019, and is growing throughout the world including “Eccelente
supergruppo” writes StoneMusic.it. Mandoki Soulmates is finding support on
prog, classic rock, singer-songwriter and fusion playlists, especially with the
songs: “The Torch,” “Living in the Gap,” “Wake Up,” and both “Young Rebels” and
“Old Rebels.” Thanks to a great campaign from the Planetary Group, over 70
radio stations in North America, alone, are playing Mandoki Soulmates. This
includes medium and high rotation on tastemaker and buzz stations
KFAI-Minneapolis/St. Paul, KPSU-Portland, WDCE-Richmond, VA, WICR-Ithaca, New
HD Radio w/ Zach Martin, KVCU-Boulder, WRHU-Hempstead.
WUSB-Stony Brook’s Captain Phil Merkel’s been spinning
Mandoki Soulmates all summer, “my biggest takeaway from the entire work is the
amount of caring and empathy Leslie has for everyone, especially us here in the
USA as we struggle to cope with that monster COVID 19. I am so glad we
have Leslie looking out for us. Give it a listen, you won't be
disappointed.”
Making a Scene writes “Leslie Mandoki is making a
scene! The band is pure sophisticated jazz rock, or as Greg Lake (Emerson,
Lake, & Palmer) put it, ‘One of the best bands you’ll ever see.’”The late Mr. Lake, also, dubbed Mandoki
Soulmates as “the band of the bandleaders”!
Canada’s LetItRock calls “Living in the Gap/Hungarian
Pictures”, “A glorious thing.” Classic rock’s Strutterzine gets the message:
“The impact now is so much bigger and the result is a journey which should be
heard by as many people as possible…”
Why are so many of us pushing for Mandoki Soulmates to
be heard?Leslie says, “Music is the
greatest unifier and nothing is more timely than to raise our voice to unify
the world and to build bridges over the gap we are living in, to get out of our
news bubbles and echo chambers.”
House of Prog Radio writes, “the coming together of
such a diverse cast perfectly expresses the album’s lyrical theme of unity,
which couldn’t be a more timely message for today’s world.”
Since escaping from the Iron Curtin in the 1970s,
first becoming a refugee in Germany, and then creating a life that included
running the largest recording studio in Europe, Leslie’s life has been
dedicated to unity, and it shows—in part—because of the pleasant and hard
things he went through in order to achieve the Great European Dream. Recently
Leslie told Germany’s Tekdeeps.com that “rock and roll means revolution and
rebellion for a better world.”
Ian Anderson and his longtime friend/collaborator Leslie
Mandoki have recorded the song “We Say Thank You,” as a dedication to everyone
on the frontline, from the doctors to grocery store workers, in the
unbelievable Coronavirus battle.The
hashtag to use is “#WeSayThankYou”
Written by the Hungarian-born/German
producer/songwriter/bandleader of Soulmates (which has featured Ian through the
years), “#WeSayThankYou” was written in the context of Leslie’s own isolation
in Germany, where his doctor wife, Eva, is a first contact physician.
Using social distancing as the foundation for their
collaboration, Leslie emailed tracks to England for Ian to sing and play flute
on between April 7 and 8.
Ian and Leslie have worked together for over 20 years on various
collaborations with his jazz-rock band Soulmates featuring the good and great
of classic rock and jazz. Artists in Soulmates
(through the years) have included— David Clayton-Thomas, Bobby Kimball, Tony
Carey, Jack Bruce, Chaka Khan, Chris Thompson,Steve Lukather, Eric Burdon, Nik
Kershaw, Greg Lake, Al di Meola, Randy and Michael Brecker, Bill Evans,Mike Stern,Paul Carrack, Peter Frampton, and Jon Lord.
Mandoki’s Soulmates toured North America in 2018.
In addition to the brave, hardworking front-line medics and
care workers the lyrics reference the police, grocery clerks, supermarket
workers too. Ian adds the dark reference to the speculators making a killing
from the current crisis.Ian says, “They know who they are.”
