Run to Fly

Groundbreaking Celtic/Jazz group Alba's Edge celebrated the release of their debut album Run to Fly (Paddledoo Music) on May 20th, 2015 in front of a packed house at the back room of the Burren in Davis Square, Somerville, MA. The release concert was presented by WGBH's Brian O'Donovan and the energy in the room was electric as fans lined up to experience the quartet's energetic and enthralling performance and be one of the first to get a copy of the new album. The product of a brother-sister collaboration between pianist Neil Pearlman and fiddler Lilly Pearlman, Alba's Edge has been rapidly gaining attention for their original brand of music, drawing on influences from such diverse sources as Celtic, Jazz, Latin and Funk styles. Over the past few years the quartet has played festivals and concerts around the US and toured Mexico through the US Consulate in Guadalajara as ambassadors of American Celtic music.

To record Run to Fly, the band worked with producer Aidan O'Rourke, the 2014 BBC Folk Musician of the Year, one of Scotland's greatest living fiddle players and a member of the experimental Scottish folk trio Lau (“The UK's best live band” -The Guardian). The first full length release from Alba's Edge, Run to Fly presents their latest original material that has been written and developed over the last year. The music draws on the imagery of sunrise, life cycles and cosmic cycles, inspired by the double meaning inherent in the band's name: the word “Alba” as both Gaelic for “Scotland” and Spanish for “Dawn”.

Alba's Edge is made up of Neil Pearlman on piano, Lilly Pearlman on fiddle, Doug Berns on electric bass and Jacob Cole on drums. Neil is an innovative pianist who has received international acclaim for his work blending traditional and modern sounds in Celtic accompaniment (“a tremendous pianist” -BBC Radio Scotland). His piano blends seamlessly with Lilly's fiddle. A recent graduate from Barnard College, Lilly is turning heads as one of the top Scottish/Cape Breton fiddlers of her generation, touring the country with multiple projects and teaching at fiddle music camps such as Maine Fiddle Camp and Alasdair Fraser's Scottish Fiddle & Cello Camp at Ashokan. Holding down the low end, Doug Berns brings a wealth of experience to the table from years of playing Jazz, Funk and Afro-Beat in New York City. Doug is a part of countless projects around the city, most notably the Afro-Beat band Emefe, who are on the rise as a new voice in the genre. Rounding out the rhythm section is Jacob Cole, a versatile drummer from California by way of Puerto Rico. Although he holds a degree in Jazz Performance from New England Conservatory of Music, Jacob's varied musical chops find him playing with established groups in a variety of genres ranging from Indie-Rock (Eksi Ekso) to Ska (The Toasters).