Dave's Report:  Article -- Origin of The Dueling Pianists:  

"The dueling pianos of Jerome Rossen and Peter Dizozza (Tuesday, September 16th, 1997)

"One of the real pleasures in seeing Jerome Rossen and Peter Dizozza play together is the fact that they probably shouldn't be playing together. Their songs, their ideas, even their performance styles are so wildly different that by all accounts it shouldn't work. Jerome's performance is pure professional showmanship while Peter's immensely entertaining performance relies on his obvious but bewildering passion over his convoluted and seemingly arcanic references.

"Dizozza is, to put it lightly, intriguing. You get the impression that his incredibly dense and intelligent songs are above even his head. Every once in while as he's singing he'll look very confused at whatever it was he just said. But then, in the middle of a Dizozza number just as you're about to give up on understanding what the hell is going on, he'll sing a phrase that hits you emotionally. This, of course, only bewilders you more.

"Jerome's songs have a stronger emotional center in that the jokes are jokes; the sad parts are sad; and the sad parts that turn into jokes (and vice versa) do so exactly when Jerome wants them to. You always know where you stand in a Rossen tune while with Dizozza you always feel as if you came in halfway through the conversation. (I don't mean that as a bad thing by any means.)

"The kink in the evening of dueling pianos was the presence of only a single piano. On one or two songs, they played this piano simultaneously, but on everything else it was piano and accordion, or just piano. One of the brilliant strokes of the evening was having Jerome play Dizozza's songs while Dizozza came into his own as a vocalist. Standing up there without a piano to hide behind, Peter's called forth an astounding array of hand gestures and facial expressions that I did not know he was capable of.

"What magical tie binds these two bizarre performers together? What strange bond held the evening from splintering into a thousand pieces? Perhaps we'll never know. But perhaps it's obvious. In either case, it's not something you can easily forget. Or remember.... Or whatever." (Dave Wechsler)

Jerome's site is http://www.freshmademusic.com/index.html

Add info here.

A Return to the Galaxy: