New Age songwriter and pianist Monica Logani.
By Chris Spiewak
Inspiration. Perhaps the one singular word that drives every artist to create. Any type of experience or observation can ignite the process, but the individual artist is responsible to form those thoughts into song. With an abundance of creativity, songwriter and pianist extraordinaire Monica Logani of Rumson has assembled her inspirations, education and talent to produce some of the most beautiful New Age music in the world today.
Born in the West African region of Ghana, Logani arrived in the U.S. at a very early age and her family settled in Chicago. Classical piano training as a young girl led to many recitals in her late grammar school years and into high school. College years at The University of Illinois led to a degree in finance, resulting in a move to New York to begin her career on Wall Street. Within the next few years, marriage and motherhood would take precedence over music, and Logani took a break from the piano to concentrate on family and business.
Of course, world economies experience bumps in the road every now and then. As a financial analyst and advisor for Lehman Brothers in New York City, she was caught up in the recession of 2008. Disenchanted with the corporate lifestyle, she decided to leave Wall Street and enroll at the Village East Conservatory of Music in Old Bridge to rekindle her passion for music. Here she would meet renowned musician/teacher/composer/producer Gregg Zubowicz. Zubowicz, a veteran of almost every aspect of music, studied at Musicians Institute in California in the 1980s. At that time, he met and studied alongside guitar greats like Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai. Later moving to New York, he attended the prestigious Mannes College of Music in Manhattan. Now living in New Jersey and teaching full time at his Village East Conservatory, he quickly accepted Logani as a student and a prodigious relationship was born.
Before meeting Zubowicz, Logani was largely a “hostage to sheet music,” as she puts it. She soon learned how to play music by ear without constantly referring to charts and also began her study of music theory. Music theory is not only the study of music practices, but also the application of tunings, timings and key arrangements as they relate to song com- position. Being a spiritual person, Logani had always found inspiration from the people and places around her. Combining that inspiration with her analytics background and now her music theory education, she had everything she needed to create beautiful, articulate music.
Motivation has never been an issue with Logani. She grabbed her pen, paper and piano and focused on writing music that not only she, but the whole world would be proud of. New Age music may be the most universal music in the world because it reaches and motivates millions of people, no matter their race, creed or color. Her initial CD, titled “Secret Garden,” is a soothing and uplifting collection of 12 instrumental tracks released in 2016. Her mentor Zubowicz lent his guitar talents to many tracks and also produced the album. Grammy award winner Corin Nelsen engineered the tracks to capture the rich piano sounds. This was an impressive first release; it garnered airplay around the world and Logani was already looking forward to more success.
Unfortunately in 2016, Logani lost her close, longtime friend Juliette Calayag Pralle. Logani was devastated. At the urging of her husband, she sat at her piano and slowly regained her emotional strength enough to finally start writing again. This would be no easy feat, but the grief and sadness had to come out.
Inspired by her dear friend, Logani set out to honor Pralle’s legacy with a collection of tunes titled “The Long Road,” released last month. This 15-track instrumental collection features the highly-praised Yamaha piano at Lakehouse Studios in Asbury Park. The same team of Zubowicz and Nelsen have perfectly recorded and engineered some of the most beautiful piano tones ever heard. The tracks, some sad and some uplifting, tell a story about life, love and loss as seen through Logani’s eyes and heart.
This is a CD meant to be experienced several times in order to properly grasp the story of Monica and Juliette, two friends whose spiritual and inspirational journey Logani believes will never end.
Please visit monicalogani.com for additional info and links to preview and purchase music from this burgeoning virtuoso.
This article originally appeared in the April 9th, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
