Volume 1:
Music Box Dancer Breakout 5:14
The Return 4:45
T.G.I.F 2:49
Gethsemane 2:57
Honky Few Lie Kit 2:10
Piano Improvisations 6:40
To Be Or To B 4:17
Rockin' Demo 1:13
Silver Reflections 4:46
Anti-March 4:58
Blown From The Water 19:41
Never Again 4:43
Slated for a 2010 Release
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Volume 2:
Once Upon A Time 4:32
Child At Play 3:43
Hazy In The East 16:11
Nervous Energy 7:36
The Separation 5:40
High Expectations 4:38
FM 5:05
I Have No Idea 6:17
Afterthought 2:10
Slated for a 2011 Release
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Volume 3:
Beyond My Reach 10:36
Six Days Away 7:28
Looking Ahead 5:06
Rapidly Changing 5:25
The Mighty Oak 14:15
Every Day 6:32
Lonely, But Never Alone 7:12
Downtown In The Rain 4:43
Slated for a 2012 Release
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During the process of going through all of my old tapes & archives,
I came across a collection of tapes of piano music I'd written between
the ages of 16 & 20, enough to fill over 3 CDs worth (or five-plus
LPs in the days of vinyl.) Rediscovering these tapes & getting
reacquainted with them was a bit of a revelation for me, because
I'd long since set aside this material which almost nobody has
ever heard before because I was painfully shy about sharing them
with anyone.
As I listened to these, loads of memories came flooding back,
and a number of things struck me about them:
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There was pure joy in nearly all of these pieces, even the
quiet, contemplative ones.
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As I listened to them chronologically, I found it interesting
hearing the extent to which my "musical vocabulary" expanded
between the ages of 16 & 20, as I developed from what might
be the literary equivalent of "Dr. Seuss" to
"Shakespeare" (a bit of hyperbole in both directions,
but you get the idea. I'm a big fan of Dr. Seuss, by the way.)
Each new "discovery" was fresh & new to my ears back then.
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Most of these piano solos were note-for-note renderings.
There was very little improvisation if any, much like a
piece of classical music. I could transcribe these pieces
note-for-note if I were so inclined.
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Some "EJ signature" riffs came & went, & others remained.
Some I still use to this day; others I'd long forgotten
about & were instructive for me.
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When one is playing to four walls rather than with a band,
the piano kind of becomes the drummer, the rhythm section,
the bass player, the lead singer... Suffice to say, I
played a *lot*
of notes in those days.
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The "musical structure" of many of these pieces of music
is not unlike a tree, where I would try an idea, go with it,
vary it, go back down the branch, re-state the idea, & go up
another branch, then another, then up yet another branch, then
back down to the trunk (the original idea) & up yet another
branch. Verse-chorus-verse was out the window. These were
more like long classical pieces of symphonic music where
various musical themes & variations of those themes weave
in & around each other.
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What might be the most mind-boggling part for me was that
after not listening to these for (in some cases) nearly
20 years, it was almost as if at times I was listening
to somebody *else*
playing. In some respects, perhaps that's true; I'm not
really the same person I was when I first wrote these.
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Some of this music I'd truly forgotten.
As I listened to the tapes of songs I'd forgotten, there
would be the points where I had no idea what was going
to be played next & then with a turn of a chord,
or a phrase, the next 3 minutes of the piece would come
flooding back to me. Or even weirder still, I'd be
literally humming along with the tape (even the really
crazy complicated bits), but if I stopped the tape,
I had no idea what was coming next. Then I'd restart
the tape & be humming along again -- which is an amazing
testament to the workings of the human brain & how
much we remember to forget to remember to forget. ;-)
Or maybe that's just my brain...
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I was probably a better (certainly a more precise) piano
player from a pure technique standpoint back then,
especially around the age of 20-22, when I was playing
for two to six or more hours a day. I'm a much better
*musician*
now, of course, but I was a better player then.
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I've probably just shared a bunch of thoughts that have little
or no interest for anyone but me, but there you go... :-)
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There was/is some amazing material in here, mixed in with
some really forgettable and/or unoriginal material. Some
of it is recorded well; others not too well. The tapes
have held up rather nicely. What do with that?
- Do I present them as is?
- Edit them?
- Hide them?
- Re-record them? (Can I still play this stuff?)
- Add drums and/or bass and other instruments to them?
- Do I add/include new piano-based instrumentals I've written since then?
- Cannibalize the good parts & use them in some
new material (which has actually been done a couple of
times over the years!)
The answer is turning out to be "All of the above".
I'm still tinkering with the tentative track listing, but
this little side project/series (yet another one) is starting
to come together & I've got a good idea of how to present it.
Hopefully, time-permitting, I'll be able to release one CD
of these a year beginning near the end of 2009, perhaps in
time for Christmas, or beginning in 2010.
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