last weekend I spoke to the great pianist Sarah Cahill about PLAYFAIR SONATAS. That hour-long convo is archived at this link until Sunday. I start talking about 34 minutes in https://www.kalw.org/show/revolutions-per-minute
Hello, I would like to access the PDF of your Playfair Sonatas if still on offer to the public, if so, how can I? Thank you. Nice interview and conversation, from the Sarah Cahill broadcast.
Beirach has been occasionally leaving intemperate comments on Youtube videos for a couple of years now. I must admit that on one - a concert video of a pianist I won't name in his early 50s - I agreed with B's judgment: this is very well played music, but when this guy hit the scene there was a fire and excitement that's gone from his playing now. I have to say I like that a guy Richie's age sees it this way with a musician 25 years younger than him: where's the invention? where's the guts? But I've also seen a comment where he just kind of craps on a guy's transcription of a Herbie Hancock solo, which I think could've been done nicer. (Especially since Richie talks about getting hazed on stage by Chet Baker - Hal Galper tells almost exactly the same story about Chet, getting yelled at mid-song for comping too loud on a ballad - in a way that suggests he wishes Chet had been a little more emotionally sensitive about it.)
Grouchiness aside, I think Beirach is stuck in a particular paradigm about how the music is supposed to move forward that I think made sense for his era but not the current one, but I wonder if he would've better liked this Charleston video, which was one of my favorite things when I first encountered it way back when: a bracing blend of old and new that still sounds fresh to me 15 years later.
Thanks for comment. To reverse the polarity of the neutron flow: Beirach himself is slipping from the conversation, and perhaps he would have had a better chance of maintaining a spot at the top table if he had practiced Stride Piano and bebop.
hah. You are talking about Beirach calling my upright piano "grandma's piano." Actually I have two pianos, a grand and the upright. In this case I judged the upright actually recorded better for that repertoire. I'm not saying that James P. doesn't deserve a concert grand--he does!--but pop productions usually feature uprights, there is something immediate in the sound.
I was! Again, not a piano expert, but when I think "grandma's upright," I tend to think of some scuffed old brown thing covered in doilies, not some lovely shiny thing. I mean, don't me wrong, I'd love to hear James P. on a grand, but you're right - there's something more immediate and downright FUN about hearing it on a upright.
well so this is unimportant, but the little sculpture on the piano in the Carolina Shout video is by David Nyvall, who mentored Pinkwater. Pinkwater "loaned" me this thing years ago (it was mouldering in his lawn). If you read all the Pinkwater literature, Nyvall is discussed and explicated at length.
So it's THAT Nyvall - the guy we should be grateful to for nudging Pinkwater into writing (according to the Wiki, anyway). You have an idiosyncratic circle of acquaintances, Mr I.
Not exactly related, but perhaps there’s something related, in stumbling into good local jazz, with no cover (not advocating musicians don't get paid), perhaps the players are there for no reason other than the music… sometimes a rough frame’s ragged threads and edges are sift and burnish at the edges of the bigger frame of life at street level - - grandma’s piano timbres - - an unsung dissonance embedded with grace, overlaying the composition/performance
last weekend I spoke to the great pianist Sarah Cahill about PLAYFAIR SONATAS. That hour-long convo is archived at this link until Sunday. I start talking about 34 minutes in https://www.kalw.org/show/revolutions-per-minute
Ethan, thanks for hipping me to Carolina Shout. Reminds me of Monk. Especially those right hand shouts in the upper register. Little Rootie Tootie.
Why did Mr Beirach have to be so rude? Your playing is amazing!
Thanks Carlo! Well he sees it from his point of view. But I stand by my choices.
that charleston is one of my favorites!
Thanks Erez!
So what did R Beirach say? Were his comments removed? I can’t imagine jumping in and criticizing your playing.
Hello, I would like to access the PDF of your Playfair Sonatas if still on offer to the public, if so, how can I? Thank you. Nice interview and conversation, from the Sarah Cahill broadcast.
Beirach has been occasionally leaving intemperate comments on Youtube videos for a couple of years now. I must admit that on one - a concert video of a pianist I won't name in his early 50s - I agreed with B's judgment: this is very well played music, but when this guy hit the scene there was a fire and excitement that's gone from his playing now. I have to say I like that a guy Richie's age sees it this way with a musician 25 years younger than him: where's the invention? where's the guts? But I've also seen a comment where he just kind of craps on a guy's transcription of a Herbie Hancock solo, which I think could've been done nicer. (Especially since Richie talks about getting hazed on stage by Chet Baker - Hal Galper tells almost exactly the same story about Chet, getting yelled at mid-song for comping too loud on a ballad - in a way that suggests he wishes Chet had been a little more emotionally sensitive about it.)
Grouchiness aside, I think Beirach is stuck in a particular paradigm about how the music is supposed to move forward that I think made sense for his era but not the current one, but I wonder if he would've better liked this Charleston video, which was one of my favorite things when I first encountered it way back when: a bracing blend of old and new that still sounds fresh to me 15 years later.
Thanks for comment. To reverse the polarity of the neutron flow: Beirach himself is slipping from the conversation, and perhaps he would have had a better chance of maintaining a spot at the top table if he had practiced Stride Piano and bebop.
Well, I think it's a lovely piano. So there. Yes, I know nothing about pianos. This is irrelevant.
hah. You are talking about Beirach calling my upright piano "grandma's piano." Actually I have two pianos, a grand and the upright. In this case I judged the upright actually recorded better for that repertoire. I'm not saying that James P. doesn't deserve a concert grand--he does!--but pop productions usually feature uprights, there is something immediate in the sound.
I was! Again, not a piano expert, but when I think "grandma's upright," I tend to think of some scuffed old brown thing covered in doilies, not some lovely shiny thing. I mean, don't me wrong, I'd love to hear James P. on a grand, but you're right - there's something more immediate and downright FUN about hearing it on a upright.
It's unlikely, but did you ever read Daniel Pinkwater?
I did not. Never heard of him until now.
well so this is unimportant, but the little sculpture on the piano in the Carolina Shout video is by David Nyvall, who mentored Pinkwater. Pinkwater "loaned" me this thing years ago (it was mouldering in his lawn). If you read all the Pinkwater literature, Nyvall is discussed and explicated at length.
So it's THAT Nyvall - the guy we should be grateful to for nudging Pinkwater into writing (according to the Wiki, anyway). You have an idiosyncratic circle of acquaintances, Mr I.
Not exactly related, but perhaps there’s something related, in stumbling into good local jazz, with no cover (not advocating musicians don't get paid), perhaps the players are there for no reason other than the music… sometimes a rough frame’s ragged threads and edges are sift and burnish at the edges of the bigger frame of life at street level - - grandma’s piano timbres - - an unsung dissonance embedded with grace, overlaying the composition/performance