Coming soon: new piano musings! I'm working on putting together a whole new batch of them... currently deciding on whether to auto-post them every three days, every week, etc. In the meantime, you can check out the old ones here. I think my favorites are still An Elusive Sweetness and Slow Rain.
Another Kasey Baker painting, in response to my piano musings.
Strumming Lost Threads is one of my earlier improvs, and basically illustrates what it feels like to come up with one of these improvs. There's a peculiar mix of care and blitheness that goes into these pieces.
"That occasional state of mind of when you're trying to remember an old memory but don't really mind when you can't. Maybe because you're drunk on a porch swing."
Another Kasey Baker painting, in response to my piano musings.
A Young Church is again part of the small town theme I've been drawn to. There's a lot of hope and potential and idealism and goodness in new churches - as much as there can be weight and corruption in stale churches. It's a hint of what to avoid in the journey.
"It starts with a gathering. Healthy ideals. A gentle church is formed, and it grows - hopefully not too quickly."
Another painting by Kasey Baker, in response to my piano musings.
Drunk On A Porch Swing was one of my first improvs where I felt like I really stumbled onto a distinct concept. I have a porch swing of my own and I've never really enjoyed it to its full potential, but this piece is about a porch swing properly used. Kasey really captured the sense of it.
"Sitting on a porch swing, swinging back and forth, looking at a sun-drenched field with dandelions and breezes, except your lemonade is spiked and you're completely soused."
Another of Kasey Baker's paintings, in response to my piano musings.
Slow Rain made me think of a pen pal romance I had with a woman in Indonesia. We would exchange sweet and verbose letters, and pictures of our vacations. She sent a picture of herself floating up the Mekong river in Van Vieng during the rainy season.
"It's gentler than a drizzle, but more than a mist... is it rain if the droplets feel like they are floating?"
Another of Kasey Baker's paintings, in response to my piano musings.
Secret Treehouse Gang reminded me of some innocents thinking they're sneakier and tougher than they really are. Cute. Kasey had fun with this one. She informed me that there was a secret message on the piece of paper, but that she wouldn't tell me what it was. I guess I'm not part of her gang.
"The meetings are planned by writing messages inside of paper throwing stars. No girls allowed."
Another painting by Kasey Baker, done in response to my piano musings.
Empty Circus Fields just mystifies me. There's this sense of loss but it isn't about grief, because there's that foundation that just silently is - what remains beyond what is transitory. This is part of the small town theme that keeps reappearing in these works. Press the play button to hear it:
"Small town circuses set up in big fields... when they leave, they take everything with them, but the fields remain."
Here is another of Kasey Baker's paintings, done in response to my piano musings.
Rundown Playground is a playful little improv that also struck me as wistful and sad, with a touch of defeat at the end. I explored that a bit more when coming up with the caption. One interesting bit of trivia: Kasey is actually an architect by trade and has designed playgrounds. Press the play button to hear the piece:
"It used to be a nice playground. But the teeter totter's rusty. The swings have broken chains. There's probably broken glass somewhere."
Well, part of the process of getting to know my own website is reacting to new information. I was so much in the mindset of having this be a site about my creative process and development of a jazz musician that I didn't think anything of posting recordings of me playing jazz standards, but it is evidently illegal (and I should have remembered that).
The songs still exist on the site, but just in unpublished (not public) form. I can of course send recordings of me playing to my friends. So I will eventually open up the site to memberships, and add my friends (which are most of you) to the list - that way they'll be available by request.
In the meantime, I have posted a new Piano Musing called A New Steeple. I've also posted another one of my originals, As One, to make up for the loss of the standards. I'll be using the Bits And Pieces podcast more for song ideas, roughdrafts, and other original material from now on.
More postings coming soon about the art/music collaboration that Kasey Baker and I are doing.
One of the things I love about having a public podcast is that you come across people who respond to the music in creative ways. An artist and I are starting a series of art/music collaborations based off of my piano improvisations. Kasey Baker is an artist and architect based out of Las Vegas, and is similarly interested in reactive and improvisational creativity.
This is her treatment of Insects Crossing Ice, a chaotic and skittering little improv I came up with about nine months ago. You can also hear it by clicking the play button:
It looks like we'll be doing a series of these, and playing around with various ideas of how to package them. She's delivered a few more paintings already, but some are for piano improvs I haven't released yet, so stay tuned.
"Small creepy creatures trying desperately to cross something slick. They flail about, but eventually succeed with pride."
