Solo Concerts
Released: August 24th, 2014
Tracklist:
Disc One:
1. Entrance
2. Song E (Hymn in Eb)
3. Preacher in the Ring part 1 / Variation II (Webern) / Caténaires (Carter) excerpt
4. Life in the Psychotropics
5. Piano Concerto (Schoenberg) excerpt
6. Might As Well Be Me
7. Continents Drift
8. The Valley Road
9. Caténaires (Carter)
10. Where No One’s Mad
11. Where’s The Bat
Disc Two:
1. Sticks and Stones
2. Invisible
3. Gavotte (Schoenberg) & Variations
4. Paperboy
5. 20/20 Vision / Night on the Town
6. Arc de Terre
7. La Grive Musicienne (Messiaen) excerpt / Camp Meeting
8. Mandolin Rain
9. Etude 5 (Ligeti)
10. Here We Are Again
About the Album
Dedicating oneself to the pursuit of the unattainable is a beautiful way to live a life. One area of that pursuit for me has been the development of a solo piano language that serves my music, allowing me to play my songs in a way that I felt could be original and interesting. One of the main goals has been the development of two-handed independence.
Two-handed independence in improvising, or the "split-brain thing," is an aspect of piano playing I always admired but never dealt with. Generally, I’ve felt it manifested itself in the development of left-hand ostinatos, patterns, rhythmic accompaniment for singing, and the right-hand soloing that I've always done, even on some of my "hits." For years my musician friends couldn't believe what I was getting away with on "Hit Radio," most notably on lengthy solos in "The Valley Road" and "The Way It Is." Several traditional American piano styles feature two-handed independence, and these styles are well represented on this record.
My solo concerts are an ambitious attempt at deep musicianship rooted in basic American music forms like blues, boogie, modal folk, New Orleans piano, and the hymnal. Several songs and performances are heavily influenced by the chromatic, harmonic, and melodic language and techniques of modern classical music (twelve-tone music, pointillism, bitonality, and atonality).
For me, this use of modern chromatic language broadens the expressive range of my music to enhance the subject matter of the songs, i.e. 1) snake-handlers of Appalachia, 2) depression drugs, 3) paranoid local rumors, 4) father-son tensions, 5) time-travel fantasies involving re-connecting with a lost loved one. So from serious angst to humor, this musical content expresses emotional content in newer and different ways.
1. “Song E (Hymn in Eb)”: A piece from the soundtrack to Spike Lee's 2012 film Red Hook Summer.
2." Preacher in the Ring Part 1": The first song of a two-song set about someone visiting an Appalachian snake-handling service, inspired by Lee Smith's novel Saving Grace. Musically it's based on a boogie pattern shown to me by my keyboard player of 24 years, J.T. Thomas, who is a fantastic boogie-woogie piano player. Over the pattern, the right hand plays New Orleans blues licks spiked with various dissonances that lead into Anton Webern's "Variationen 2" and Elliott Carter's "Caténaires", kindred musical spirit pieces that, to me, evoke the feeling one might experience at one of these services. Truly part of what the writer Greil Marcus called "The Weird Old America." So this is a boogie tune spiked with chromatic color; the traditional meets the modern.
3. "Life in the Psychotropics": A song about psychotropic drugs, with the pointillistic middle section providing the musical commentary. From our continually-developing musical SCKBSTD.
4. "Excerpt- Schoenberg Piano Concerto": The first five pages of the beautiful atonal piece that led me to the twelve-tone row used in the next song.
5. "Might As Well Be Me": The second song I've written with Robert Hunter, the Grateful Dead lyricist. I call it my "dodecaphonic Dixieland" song.
6. "Continents Drift": Also from SCKBSTD and like "Psychotropics," written with my childhood friend and cohort in silliness and mirth through the years, Chip deMatteo.
7. "The Valley Road": For many years I've been interested in old-time traditional American music, a deep well of amazing, influential and inspiring material. This blues version of our old hit is an attempt to slightly channel the great bluesman Elmore James, with an angular solo section added.
8. "Caténaires": In his book The Rest is Noise, writer Alex Ross calls modern classical music, "that obscure pandemonium on the outskirts of culture." One of the great practitioners of the art has been Elliott Carter, who wrote "Caténaires" in 2006 at the age of 98! (He passed in November 2012, one month shy of his 104th birthday.) This is a performance of the entire piece excerpted on "Preacher in the Ring." The angular lines and melodic content from this perpetual-motion piece have inspired lots of my new music, and the next song is an example.
9. "Where No One's Mad": This piece from our play is a conflict duet between a father and son; the son sings the first verse and the dad sings the second. Highly demanding to play and sing, and probably demanding to listen to!
10. "Where's The Bat": I take the role of an embattled woman in this song inspired by a mordantly funny story I was told by one of my singer-songwriter friends. This song takes me musically into a bit of New Orleans territory.
11. "Sticks and Stones": From my "electronica-blues" record Big Swing Face, trying to express my feeling regarding the old adage "sticks and stones can break my bones..."; I've always felt that generally, the opposite is true.
12. "Invisible": From the Bobcat Goldthwaite-Robin Williams film World's Greatest Dad, where I played myself and was terrible.
13. "Schoenberg Gavotte and Variations": More from the creator of twelve-tone music, with variations on this piece that inspired the following song.
14. "Paperboy": An eleven-tone row pop song from SCKBSTD - Schoenberg meets the Beatles.
15. "20/20 Vision > Night on the Town": I recorded this Jimmy Martin song with Charlie Haden for his Rambling Boy record in 2008. This solo version segues into my old 1990 song "Night on the Town", rearranged for solo piano. It's a two-handed workout about two country boys whose idea of a good time is getting drunk and giving beatings.
16. "Arc de Terre": Another piece from Spike's Red Hook Summer, inspired by the upcoming Gyorgy Ligeti étude.
17. "La Grive Musicienne" excerpt/ “Camp Meeting": The French composer Olivier Messiaen was well-known for going out into the woods with score paper to transcribe the sounds and songs of the birds. Here is an excerpt from a Messiaen piece illustrating his "musique d'oiseaux." It segues into the title song from my 2007 jazz trio record Camp Meeting with Christian McBride and Jack deJohnette, that takes the opening bar from Charles Ives' "Symphony No. 3" and expands on it.
18. "Mandolin Rain": Woods, bird song, revival meetings and carnival tents - they all go together for me, so I segue into my old song here, played in the bluegrass-folk version from the 2007 Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby record.
19. "Ligeti Étude 5- Arc-en-Ciel": Ligeti, inspired by the music of Bill Evans, composed this piece as part of his magnificent sets of etudes. Content from other Ligeti etudes informed parts of "Where No One's Mad."
20. "Here We Are Again": Bill Evans voicings play a role in this song, a time travel fantasy from SCKBSTD. For years people have asked me to describe my piano voicing style, and my standard answer is, "Bill Evans meets the Hymnal."
The continuing search for inspiration, challenges and new vistas has led me all over the musical map through the years. In the end, it is all simply a search for inspiration and transcendent moments; moments that give you chills, make you cry, laugh, or make your head move. Mostly it's about the chills.
At 59, I remain in search of ecstatic, humorous, and sublime moments. It's a beautiful obsession, and a fortunate way to live one’s life.
Bruce Hornsby | March 2014