All Episodes

Quite the large audience tonight! I never know, nor does it matter, but it certainly is fun. I followed a common pattern of starting off with a few single notes which becomes the thematic material for the piece. Later pieces can have more energy and movement, and we bring it home with a simple tune to say goodnight. At the very end, I played a little phrase that took me into the final notes of "Where is Love" from the musical "Oliver!". I thought that was some subconscious at work. It felt good in any case. Enjoy.

A couple new people tonight; always fun. I felt in the zone tonight, and enjoyed composing as the music unfolded moment by moment, which has always been what I try to do! A few pieces felt like they could have ended a bit earlier but I was enjoying messing with them too much!

My friend and flautist Paul Harris joined me again tonight. It is always such a treat to play with him. It is rare indeed to meet another musician who can jump in to free improv, listen for harmonic shifts, know when to play and when to pause, take the lead and generate ideas for us both to develop, indeed a treat.
I have been away for several weeks, but back now for some time, so look for a new episode each week!
Tonight Paul and I did several pieces in solid diatonic territory, but we stretched out on one atonal piece, which was actually quite fun. 

All good friends who know the drill here tonight. I edited out the clapping. I spent most of today doing paperwork and purging emails, so I was in a blah state when people arrived. I told them there were no guarantees; the music may put people to sleep or I might start banging as loud as I could. Kinda did a bit of both! Enjoy?

Several new friends tonight! Had about 12 people in the the audience. The piano was tuned today by the great Victor LaGamma, so I naturally was drawn to the most sonorous of harmonies. I seem to be averaging about ten minutes per piece. That's not a plan, but an observation!
Some melodies were circling around in my head that might have been a nod to "Laura", "But Beautiful" and something else, but I never quite went there.

I was busy doing house chores and paperwork and din't have a chance to set up sounds for using the electronic music studio, so once again tonight is solo piano only. But hey, that's how this whole thing got started so I'm not worried I'm not meeting expectations... Anyway, had a good sized group tonight, and more than one person seems to have visual responses to my music, which I think is super cool. Enjoy.

My friend Paul Harris came again tonight with his gorgeous flute playing! This is the first podcast posting, however. I'm a bit backed up with a few evenings that I never mixed down. If you suddenly see three or four episodes on one day, that's what's going on.
We played Manha de Carnaval from the movie Black Orpheus, and chose an Arabic scale to mess around in, but otherwise improvised free together. It takes a special kind of musician to jump in like that, but I think we listened well to each other.  We did some talking between pieces so I edited that out. Enjoy.

Small but appreciative audience tonight. I stayed in the lyrical realm, using the first few improvised notes as the thematic material for the pieces. There was a Spanish-sounding piece (happens with the Phrygian Mode), a pop-chord piece at the end, some impressionistic arpeggios and something that was at times in 7/8. Enjoy!

We have had several weeks with guest musicians! The downside is that I need to spend time mixing and editing, and the end result is procrastination. Tonight was just solo piano, however, so here it is. I felt like I was digging into the music tonight, and felt very focused on following the flow.

I know I've been less frequent with new episodes, and now the next won't be until March 27th. I'm actually leaning towards ending the podcast, and focus on recordings for albums on the streamers. Podcasts are inherently free, and it costs me over $300 a year for hosting. I don't have much hope for true income from Spotify, iTunes and the rest, but something is better than nothing. If you have enjoyed this podcast, please consider a donation, and/or look me up and stream one of my albums. In the meanwhile, here is some new music for you.

We are having people over every other week for the time being, in case you've noticed the episodes are less frequent. Tonight I played three live looping pieces, but only the last one recorded well, so I'm including it here. The rest is solo piano. Enjoy!

This episode only includes two rather long pieces. The second one began sounding like a Baroque melody I remembered, so I explored it without really knowing the whole tune. Afterwards I tracked it down, learning it was a Sarabande by Handel which was used in the movie Barry Lyndon. Go figure!

Well, I finally figured out how to record into the mixer while looping in the recording software on the computer. Here are two evenings put together, followed by solo piano as usual. If I were to try and make these into "finished" pieces, I would do some editing and better mixes, but at least you'll have an idea of where this is headed. 
In the solo piano section tonight, I fell into Gracias a la Vida by Violetta Parra. Not completely, but enough I should mention it. Enjoy.

Our whole family and romantic partners took a sound bath at a local studio. It was very relaxing. Tonight I wanted to try to use the piano as a sound vibration vehicle; much of the music was quite mellow, but of course a couple pieces had a natural build so I went for it. Enjoy.

Once again, big crowd! Still asking them not to applaud after each piece so the podcast can be just music. The first four notes reminded me instantly of Danny Boy, so I played with it thematically, and Stephen Foster's Shenandoah got in there for a minute. Tried a ragtime ditty and a waltz, a jazz ballad style and an impressionistic, sort of atonal thing. Hope you enjoy.