"John Margolis" vocal's are the perfect compliment to the haunting and cinematic stories he and Don Rosler have created...incredibly unique and moving" - Linda Lorence, SESAC

"A moving, interesting...meaningful, beautiful piece of music...", Jonathan Schwartz, WNYC (NPR), see Our Bandwagon.

John Margolis
Christine’s Refrigerator

John, Don, Dad and the Fridge

"Christine’s Refrigerator" is John Margolis' debut CD, and also introduces the formidable writing and production team of John Margolis and Don Rosler. On this CD, they have created a beautiful and original songbook, that fully displays their talents as songwriters and producers and John's gifts as a vocalist, arranger and piano player

John Margolis

The idea for this project was initially inspired by some recordings John had made with his father in 1997, shortly before his father died.

His father Paul was a civil case attorney in Kansas City and a pianist and clarinet player in the Teddy Wilson/Benny Goodman style. In the recordings with John, Paul played piano and John sang. Included amongst some of the tin pan alley standards on this tape were the songs "Russian Lullaby", "Drink to Me With Thine Eyes," and "Elvira".

It was the combination of John’s vocal texture with a classical setting that struck John and Don as unique and moving and set the tone for this the first batch of original songs for "Christine’s Refrigerator".

Paul Margolis; John's father

They both thought that this concept, writing and producing songs with their original musical and lyric sensibilities, with John’s vocal quality, wrapped around a somewhat classical texture, would be, well, something you don’t hear everyday.

They believe that’s what will distinguish this CD, and also appeal to a large base of music fans who are rooted in different styles and who love artists and songwriters ranging from Randy Newman to Tony Bennett, Stephen Foster to Poulenc, Kurt Weill and Edith Piaf to Astor Piazzola, Marianne Faithful and Diana Krall to Elvis Costello. And we’ll throw in Chopin to the mix as well (listen to "I Happen to Be Free"!) (And to hear the Piazzola influence, try a bit of "You Think You Know Someone").

The "sneak preview"version of this CD has already garnered a formidable bandwagon of fans,see Our Bandwagon/NPR Accolades and John hopes to be touring with this material, and some new songs, in the spring of 2002.

In the meantime, John has a full schedule of upcoming performing events. He will play a leading role in composer Mikel Rouses' Lincoln Center Premiere of "Dennis Cleveland" in May 2002. John previously created the role in this modern opera for the first production at NYC’s The Kitchen, to critical acclaim. It moved to BAM in ’98, and then to Los Angeles, with Fred Zollo as Executive Producer.

John conducting the Blue Goose Quintet

John recently completed his 2nd national Christmas tour with the Trans Siberian Orchestra (he toured with TSO in 1999 as well). He was a featured vocalist on the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas record, released on Atlantic Records in ’99, which was #3 on Billboard’s top 10 for 6 weeks, and went Platinum. In January 2002, John the featured vocalist on the song “Show Me Your Face” by Bob Telson (who appears on the “Refrigerator” CD) and Lee Breuer, featuring Wynton Marsalis that will be on Bob’s and Lee’s upcoming CD. John has also recorded a duet with Astrud Gilberto which will be featured on her latest release.

Here’s some other cool stuff John has done in the past few years: He has had a blast working with such diverse artists as Tony Bennett, Brian Wilson, Joni Mitchell, Earl King, Bo Diddley and the Harlem Boys Choir. Just a few of the names he has had the wonderful experience of opening for, or for whom he played piano and sang. John wrote the original title theme and score for the popular series, "Wild Things," syndicated nationwide. Spelling Entertainment has featured John’s songs for various shows, and is holding others for future use. John writes regularly for the "Songs of Love" foundation, a non-profit group that writes personalized songs for terminally ill children. One of these songs, "Ashley Abernathy" was sung by David Lee Roth.

In the last year John has contributed original music for productions of the critically acclaimed theatre company Stage Works in Upstate New York. Around town, many New Yorkers know John from his live performances in such venues as Tramps, Beacon Theatre, Fez, The Bitter End and The Ear Inn. His bi-monthly soirees at The Ear Inn always attracted an overflow crowd and it became a hot spot venue for many great guest musicians.

Don Rosler

Don Rosler began working with John Margolis in 1997 and both had almost immediate success with their collaboration. Their first placement was the "No Small Wonder," which was the musical centerpiece of an episode of NBC's primetime series "Malibu Shores." Since then, they've had featured songs on many other television shows and in films, including “Tanta Belleza” which is prominently featured in the upcoming HBO film “The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt.”

The international songwriting association "Just Plain Folks" recently awarded the song "Christine's Refrigerator" the "2002 Song of the Year" award over 100,000 other (jpfolks.com), and the CD was also named "CD of the Year" in another category. And, as mentioned above, this CD has received tremendous amount of airplay from NPR, even though itˆs release date hasn’t been set yet (See our "News" link).
Though Don is known primarily as a lyricist, and for coming up with incredibly unique concepts for songs and projects over the years, “Christine’s Refrigerator” was a full-fledged collaboration on many levels.

In August 2003, Don was commissioned to write lyrics for 3 compositions written by Bobby McFerrin and Roger Treece for the upcoming Bobby McFerrin Chorale CD, which will be out on Angel/Capitol in 2004. 2 of these, “Brief Eternity” and “Messages” will have their World Premiere with the Grammy Award-nominated, 120-voice Los Angeles Master Chorale at their inaugural concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA on November 16, 2003.

Don has had numerous songs on various film and television soundtracks/CDs, the most lucrative being a number of songs he wrote for films and television shows on the international film/TV and record company Global/Som Livre. (one song that appeared on the "Patria Minha" soundtrack, sold over 800,000 copies, and "Drop on By" on the "Four by Four" soundtrack sold half a million). He's had other songs featured prominently on many film and television shows, including on HBO and NBC.

Don also co-wrote "To Whom It May Concern", which was the title track to the RIFF CD on EMI (co-written with Peter Valentine). The RIFF version was produced by gospel great Fred Hammond.

Recent collaborations include teaming up with Grammy-award nominee Everett Bradley to write the song "Christmas Is Kickin' In," which kicks off Everettˆs Christmas CD "Toys" which will be released nationally this Fall (everettbradley.com).

Don has also written songs for major Off Broadway theater shows, including the NYC premiere of Kenneth Branagh's "Public Enemy" and "Brothers of the Brush" (both written with Jay Ward). Jay and Don teamed up on another project called "The Bone Jockeys", that was produced by Jay and features Bobby Watson, Dave Tronzio, Bernard Wright and LaJuan Carter (available at cdbaby.com).

He has been commissioned as a lyricist and songwriter on many outstanding projects over the years.