11-20-24

Paul and Susan hosted a concert in their home, and I brought a stand-alone digital recorder. Back in the studio I added a little reverb and let it roll unedited. You'll hear the applause and little side comments here and there. As always, such a pleasure to play together. We're doing a fully improvised concert on the 14th as part of the Hastings River Arts Festival. Kinda gettin' out there!  

Hmm. I seem to have not uploaded the last episode or two. If you see the dates out of order that'll be why. My friend Paul came with his flute again tonight, and will come next week as well. We do have a sympatico vibe. I lean towards more chordal playing to allow space for his melody, but we are always listening to each other and adjusting moment by moment. A couple nods tonight; opening of Sound of Silence and a little Charlie Brown. Enjoy.

Thank goodness the piano was tuned! The cold and dry weather wreaked havoc, and my tuner said the pin block was at risk if I didn't get humidifiers going. Humidifiers are now going... Small crowd tonight, more snow is on the way. My friend Paul Harris joined again, and I tried to give him open-ended accompaniments. We got into the groove right away, and danced around little motifs as we improvised. Such fun. Enjoy.

ooohhh, so sorry; I'm posting this, but damn is it out of tune! I didn't realize it was so bad. I'm grimacing as I'm playing, but the music had to happen! There was a variation on a Chopin Prelude in there; see if you can find it. 

Whoops. I didn't turn on one of the microphones... I mixed it in mono, added a little gain, messed with EQ and crossed my fingers. Good crowd tonight, who wanted to clap, so I left it in. Went to some pretty lush romantic harmonies, and did one atonal piece (which always sounds like there is more tonality and shape when I listen back!). I think I quoted the theme to All Things Considered in there. One piece went sort of Musical Theater, Pippin style? You be the judge.

I was away for a few weeks without a piano, and once back still didn't have a chance to do much playing, so, interestingly, I thought I may feel rusty. But in point of fact I felt fresh and renewed! I paid a little more attention to the sound of the notes, and just enjoyed the harmonies as they rolled along. As a consequence, the music felt very organic and 'in the flow'. If you enjoy this podcast, please consider leaving me a review!

Paul Harris and his magic flute joined us again this week, and it looks good for more guests for next week as well! I have long wanted to share these evenings with other musicians, but like any relationship, sometimes there's more "chemistry" than others, especially when the stated goal is to make music completely on the spur of the moment. I'll let you be the judge, but I certainly feel a musical kinship with Paul. I didn't even tell anyone, but if there are any listeners out there that went to Camp Wigwam in Maine, you will recognize "We'll Remember Wigwam"! At the very end, I was playing something that reminded me of the classic riff in Bruce Hornsby's "Just the Way it Is", so I popped that in there. Enjoy.

My friend Paul Harris joined me again with his amazing flute playing! Plus, we had a big group with several new people! When it's a large group I tell them it's fine if they clap after a piece; I ask people not to clap when there are only a few in attendance, because it just sounds sort of sad. Anyway, I also didn't edit out the banter in between pieces because I feel the whole evening was a unified feeling, so why not include it all?! You can hear Paul and I quasi-deciding on a direction here and there, and I roamed around the other instruments on one piece while Paul played flute. Enjoy!

A few new folks tonight; always fun to introduce them to this free improv thing! Got into some rhythm grooves and a wee bit of jazz. Not much more to say, but, enjoy!

Newly tuned by the great Victor La Gamma! Had a conversation with the guests after the music about the creative process. One person was talking how there are two approaches; one, to plan everything out and do your best to materialize exactly what you envision, a la Da Vinci, the other, to follow the inspiration where it leads and allow the creative impulse to guide you. Obviously what I do is the latter. I'm getting ready to explore non-spontaneous composition for a change, and see if I can bring the spur-of-the-moment approach to actually creating well-crafted instrumental music. I plan to start mining all this material from eight years (!) of doing Piano Meditations. Will be an interesting journey!