 As
an instrumentalist, Joël Dilley aspires to give a human voice to
the bass, with all its various emotional tone colors. He hears
music as essentially a human
voice telling a human story, and his compositions spring from
the stories unfolding around him. Hannah Castellaw of
WomanSpace writes of Dilley’s debut album, River of Hope: “A
deeply passionate and personal work....He deftly translates all
the colors, sounds, and feelings associated with his life
experiences into music....His rich bass is the stuff of heart
beats, ocean waves, and other natural earth rhythms.”
The award-winning bassist/composer/producer has toured
internationally and played with Willie Nelson, Eddie “Cleanhead”
Vinson, Herb Ellis, Tal Farlow, Arturo Sandoval, Richie Cole,
Russian classical/jazz pianist Valery Grokhovsky, and regional
symphony orchestras. A featured guest bassist on Public Radio
International's Whad'Ya Know and a featured composer on
Texas Public Radio's Classical Spotlight, he authored
three critically acclaimed albums on Dragon Lady Records,
River of Hope, The Window, and A New World.
Commissioned works include settings for poems by Li Young-Lee
for Poetry at Round Top and improvisational solo accompaniment
for a reading of Allen Ginsberg's Howl for the San
Antonio Museum of Art. He co-owns Mandala Music Production,
where he produces music licensed worldwide for commercial and
non-commercial use, including tracks on HBO, Discovery Channel,
Travel Channel, Cooking Channel, Food Network, and ambient play
in retail settings throughout the United States and Australia.
His composition "Luz de la Luna" was a nominee in the 2010
Independent Music Awards, and he received the 2011 Artist
Foundation award for musical composition.
His new CD of
original music, Lullaby of the Flatlands, is currently in
production; and he partnered with vocalist/pianist Bett Butler
on American Sampler, a soon to be released album of selections from the
Great American Songbook.
"I always want to speak
from my heart rather than my ego, because the bottom line is,
music is from the heart. Everything else is an attempt to
explain that, so everything else falls short."–Joël
Dilley
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