Dave Ferris

I was in a mellow mode late last night on a cold, rainy night in LA. A short version of the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic, "O Grande Amor".

Some choruses on "You Stepped Out of a Dream" on the AvantGrand in the living room.

Thanks, good to know. I need a new one after 15 years. My old one still works, just getting a bit wonky.

In a Sentimental Mood (Duke Ellington). Blowing over the first two A sections, melody on the bridge and out. On a super nice Fazioli 228 at Pierre's Fine Pianos a few weeks back. As always for best audio, listen with good phones or studio monitors.

There are many classical pieces to work on that incorporate stride techniques. Here's a couple I've worked on over the years. I play the Chopin nowhere near at the tempo that concert classical pianists do but you still can highly benefit your playing in this area by getting them solid at slower tempos. Debussy And Chopin Or of course you can go to the source and study the many Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Teddy Wilson, etc., transcriptions and apply the same concept of getting them solid at slower tempos. And the Scott Joplin rags as well.

Thanks appreciated ! No I've taken a cue from Reezekeys' and Al Quinn's modus operandi the last 9 months or so. The 16" folding steps. RCFs sit perfectly on them and sounds great ! No ear fatigue for anyone. https://www.amazon.com/Acko-Inches-Folding-Kitchen-Stepping/dp/B01MA0N1P3

Last tune of a very long but memorable evening! Around a thousand people were filing out of the ballroom and many were getting up onstage having their photos taken with guest of honor. At 83, she must've been exhausted! Apologies for having to view my mug the whole time but there was nowhere else to set my phone. At least you can hear the CP88, that's all that matters anyway.

The CP88 + RCF TT-08A mk2s + JMK Audio JM-110 were all singin' in tandem last night for the Public Counsel's William O. Douglas Award at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Encore did the sound/ production and both FOH and monitor mix gave the piano sound as one of the best they'd ever worked with. FOH guy said "exemplary". They said, you guys are making our job too easy, we don't have to do anything. Honoring a special guest and John Coltrane fan. She requested "Equinox", we played it twice. She also asked for "Mr. PC" and "Blue Bossa". A side-- our Sax player, the Great Dale Fielder, just had triple by-pass surgery only two weeks ago. He sat out on some tunes as his energy was sagging and he could feel the stitches being stressed when he blew too hard. But overall, man what a trooper and memorable night !

Late last summer an old friend asked me to put together a Jazz Quartet for his 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration. He was going to rent a Yamaha C7X from Faust-Harrison (formerly Keyboard Concepts) but at the last minute something with the scheduling on the store's end got messed up, so the only rental they had in the chain wasn't available. He didn't want me to play my regular keyboard so I said, how about you pay for a mover and we use my AvantGrand N3X? He didn't know what it was. So I explained to him the concept of a hybrid digital piano, showed him some photos of it and he was good to go with it. It actually probably worked out better then the acoustic because we were out in this huge backyard of his horse ranch out in Old Agoura. When we started at 5PM, it was still really hot but he provided shade cover and a stage that the movers had to lift the AG up on. After the sun went down it got pretty chilly. Usually with an acoustic under those kind of temp fluctuations, the tuning becomes a nightmare when it gets damp. No worries there. We ran it through a rented sound system and it worked out great. Good movers, no issues on either end.

That was a highly turbulent, sad but still memorable time in my young life. Only a month earlier on 1/10/64 my father passed away from leukemia after being diagnosed in early Nov. of 1963. In those days, it was pretty much a death sentence, he went quick, leaving my mom to care of me at 10 and my sister at 8. Compounded by the JFK assassination also in Nov., our close knit N. St. Louis 'burb of Florissant, Mo., which was mostly an Irish/Catholic/Democrat demographic, were highly in a deep funk, to put it mildly. I remember watching this on our neighbor's B&W TV, they had the nicest one in the neighborhood. It was somehow a big event, it seemed everyone knew about them and the fact this was their US debut but me. I wasn't playing yet and had never even heard of the Beatles. The pastor of our church had called my mom and urged her to "get out" on this Sunday night and be among the neighborhood parishioners, who were all very supportive in these early days of grief for us. There were probably twenty of us kids sprawled on the living floor of the largest house in the neighborhood. There were at least a dozen parents there as well. When they came on, none of the girls were screaming like you'd normally see. The room was transfixed on, what was to us, a huge 20 inch console screen just watching and taking it all in. I do remember after the show there was a discussion among the adults on what just took place. Most of the parents said, while the long hair shocked them, they liked it but still preferred Perry Como or whoever. I think everyone in that room, adults and children, knew that somehow they were witnessing something special. They might not have been able to verbalize it, but they knew. I did listen to the radio in those days but I didn't have any preferences, in fact I didn't even know what I liked. Initially, this new sound was foreign to me, I didn't know what to make of it at first. But there was something there that drew me in and I was glued to the Sullivan show for all the subsequent appearances. Within the year, the Beatle Tsunami had overtaken the entire US and especially our little world in the 'burbs. You couldn't go anywhere, turn on the radio, or go to any store or kind of event without hearing cuts from "Meet The Beatles". Seemingly everyone at our Catholic grade school had a portable transistor radio, so as soon as school was over, I'd step outside to the strains of "This boy" or "I wanna be your man". All of this was a Prelude to me playing in my first band at age 12 in the 7th grade. Like Pat Metheny once said and I'm paraphrasing, "if it weren't for hearing the Beatles on the Sullivan show for the first time, I don't know if I would've gotten into music".

73 million people tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show to see the Beatles. Uh, how NOT to read a room. Pretty hilarious !

A HUGE CONGRATS to LA's own, Billy Childs, for yet another Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Record. Second time he's won that award. Also congrats to former LA resident, bassist and old friend Scott Colley, who played on the record. ❣️

I once did a gig with the volatile Patti LuPone where I was on synth doing the string, woodwind, horn and percussion effect parts on my old Kurzweil K2000. Her Pianist/MD was NYC based and total top notch. The charts were meticulously written and both he and MS. LuPone were very specific about what they wanted sound wise. Although they were both cool in realizing the limitations of a synth. It was a one off show and we rehearsed probably a couple hours in the afternoon. We stopped and started quite a bit during rehearsal, repeating certain sections multiple times. Which was not the norm for a show biz type gig like that where I was used to a one time run through at best. She was a definite Diva but a perfectionist, with radar ears. And while she really honed on what I was doing, she was always professional and never raised her voice. I've heard stories and a couple guys said...you got off easy, she must've been in a good mood that day. She was in her prime, both popularity and chops, at this time. It was a great experience to work with her, and get more of an insight into the musical theater world at that high level. They were very serious biz.

Chris, I'm really sorry to hear about your health problems and that you are going to sell your fine piano. That is a classic, any year. I had my Yamaha S6 on Piano Mart but ended up selling it through eBay. A friend who had an account took care of the listing specifics for me. You could also try the other usual suspects- Craigslist and I'm even seeing good pianos now on Face Book Marketplace and Reverb. Someone also sent me a link on FB because he saw a Steinway D, a little older then mine on there. https://www.facebook.com/groups/332486807115271/permalink/2092979777732623/?sale_post_id=2092979777732623&ref=messenger_share I asked Pierre Julia, the Los Angeles Fazioli dealer about possibly selling my piano to help fund a brand new smaller Fazioli that he has. He said eBay is where he's had the most movement on higher end pianos. He said I could put up my D on his account and he wouldn't take any commission. The trade in price would be much lower then what I could get selling it privately. I did put sort of an informal, "testing the waters" type ad on my FB page on my D. I don't have a ton of friends on there but I've gotten a couple inquiries. It's a tough time to sell even a good piano though unless it's priced very aggressively. And again, the few piano stores still around will only give you 60% tops of what's it worth on a trade and maybe 35-40% on a cash buyout. I'm seeing pianos on eBay and there is one D, same year as mine, that has been languishing on Reverb for around nine months. It's a store up in Modesto and they keep dropping the price about 20K every few months and still no takers. My friend in Dallas is still trying to sell his C7. He's had it for sale coming up on a year but I feel it's priced way too high but he won't move off his price. Heck I'd put it up here on the classifieds, you never know. Good luck on it and again really sorry.

What Rob said. I've known some pretty monster musicians that when they took a gig doing a show, they were reduced to a green, rookie status, shaking in their boots because of having to follow the conductor, plus all the details and specifics of reading and tempo changes. I subbed on a circus gig probably around 38 years ago now and it might have been the hardest five days of my life. By day 4 I was starting to feel more comfortable but like Rob said, I had to be on my toes from the initial downbeat to the final cut off cue. While I felt good that I "cut the gig" and the conductor gave me a "nice job" at the end, I was never so happy to get back to my world. Shows that run a long time, you actually end up memorizing the charts and it becomes boredom city for players that are used to improvising, or hopping from one gig to the next as a freelance player. We all do what we do and have our wheelhouse but it is good to be taken out of your comfort zone now and then. It makes you grow as a musician.

Jazz people like myself usually defer to flat keys but there are many cases when F# enters into the mix. Take the bridge on Cherokee when the first modulation goes to the key of B. I'm thinking C#m7 to F#7 the whole way. Same with the bridge on "The Song Is You". That goes to the key of E, so I'm thinking F#m7 to B7 there. I Remember April - F# all the way through. Con Alma starts in the key of E, so more F#s. On Giant Steps, on the first chord, B Maj., I'm always thinking sharps all through that sequence with the D7 and G Maj.7, before it gets to the Bb7. F# is a common tone for those chords. On Recorda Me, I'm thinking F# over the Am chord for the first 4 bars. But when it goes to Cm, I'm in flats for the rest of the tune because of the descending ii-Vs in whole steps starting with Bb. On the Strayhorn tunes like Isfahan, Upper Manhattan Medical Group, Lush Life, those are Db tonal center, so I'm always thinking Gb there. It just depends on the particular tune.

Thanks, yes I obviously got the details wrong. I thought I heard retina but I'm not always the best listener, at least when it comes to those specifics. I should've written it down but normally my wife is in the room. So between the two of us, we get it right. In this case she was in the other room getting her eyes checked. In any case I'm guessing he'll probably want to do the laser at our annual checkup in early March. And needless to say, choosing a Dr. who has performed literally hundreds , if not thousands, of these procedures, plus someone you have total confidence in, is most important. Here was my guy. https://www.drbeeve.com/

It will be six years this June since I had it done at age 65. And yes he did one eye, and the other a week later. It was a little wonky because I did have a patch over the operated eye, but it wasn't that big of a deal. The week went by pretty fast but I didn't do any gigs, just some light practicing. Yes, reading two stave piano music, particularity classical music, was a challenge at first. No blurriness but that spatial relationship (good way to put it) that you mentioned took a couple of weeks before everything felt normal again. I was making a lot of mistakes in the Bach WTC, pieces I'd been playing for decades because my whole sense of space was off. I was a bit scared at first. As the days went on, again, everything returned to normal. I do remember my first gig reading chord charts subbing on the church gig-- they were very simple, just triads in a christian pop context and computer copied, but I didn't even need my glasses. What a revelation! They did stress no lifting of any weight over 10 lbs. during the first two weeks as well. Luckily my gigs at that time were all on acoustic, except for one. I enlisted/$$ the help of a young kid in my neighborhood to be my cartage for the gig. He also said take two weeks off from running because of the impact. The whole experience was life changing. I was better then 20/20. And this was coming off extreme nearsightedness at around a -15 and wearing thick glasses my whole life. It had gotten so bad, I wouldn't have been able to pass the DMV eye test to renew my license. He said he would no longer be able to correct me with glasses or contacts. My eyes have gotten a little worse in the past two years. I don't think I'm at 20/20 anymore. At last year's check up he said because of the extreme near nearsightedness you will form particles, or scar tissue in the retina that will decrease the clarity. He said you'll know when it's time to have those particles removed. In this last year I can tell my vision has dropped off from what it was, so he said he could zap them with a laser in the office. Not at all a complicated procedure.

75 dollars going once, twice....sold to the man with the black spray paint can in his hand!

So my old friend, drummer Gary Hess, sent me this today. I believe it's from 1988 (based on the Korg keyboards and Invisible keyboard stand I was using) and I had totally wiped my memory banks clean from this ever happening. What a surprise! I've mentioned before how I was at the Musician's Institute in Hollywood from 1980 to 2006. They used to feature the teachers in a Concert type setting for the students so they could see if we actually practiced what we preached. This was the very fine guitarist, Dan Gilbert's gig. The title and release of the video on the MI youtube page was commemorating Dan's 40 year tenure back in 2020. I'm not sure but he still might be there. I actually didn't know Dan all that well outside the school but Gary and my other old friend, Alexis Sklarevski on bass, both teachers there as well, hooked me up with this. The instrumental tunes were all Dan's and he plays some smokin' solos! He brings up the three female singers near the end of the set. The singer in the middle I recall being a teacher there. The other two might have been her students. It's a 48 minute set video and I wouldn't expect anyone to watch it all the way through. But just some highlights. In the first tune Dan broke his his guitar strap, so he made a bit of a show out it playing on the floor. There's a bit of a Chick Latin fushiony uptempo thing at 9:50. My solo is around 12:40. Dan does a nice solo feature that's very Metheny-ish at 22:38. He then launches into a Blues where he plays great but doesn't sing very well..lol, but he admits it at the end. I do a solo at 29:00. There's a tune with singers where I play an organ solo at 36:05. And then they close the set with Get Ready. I chose the jazz route on the minor 7 vamp and do a synth solo at 43:22. Gary and Alexis are rock solid through everything as always. And Alexis takes some fantastic slap bass solos, which is what he's highly known for. I thought it would be fun to post this to show I actually did play synth and organ in a world long ago and far away. Man we were all so young once.

Really nice arrangement and playing Al ! Maybe time for these old arrangements I did now 12 years ago for the Reharm Room to make yet another appearance. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Hi Alex, long time my friend, I hope you are doing good. Allan Cate mentioned that I might want to replace the damper felts at some point. I'm still getting this occasional zing on the release, no specific notes, just all over. I've had a few damper felts replaced where I initially heard the problem but it seems like the ping or zing just moves to a different area. Luke agreed. He also mentioned I could alleviate more noise by replacing the felt on the back rail (I think I got that right). However the labor cost was really starting to add up. I was at $3500 plus parts, just under 6K total for the entire job. So that's for a later date. But I will pass along those other two suggestions to Luke for the next round. Thanks for posting.

The piano was actually at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa. And the owner was Phil Matson. At the time, Phil headed up the music dept. and bought the piano to lure more talented classical and jazz pianists to the school. Sadly he fell into some serious financial trouble and was forced to sell the piano. Phil was highly regarded in the Jazz choral world where he wrote and published arrangements, many in the style of the Hi-Los. Stylistically he was influenced by Clare. I believe the two met in the 60s and became life long friends. And then Phil lived in LA for a number of years too, Clare lived in Studio City so they saw each other frequently. A side story with Clare- I took three lessons from him in the early 80s when I was new in LA but pretty sure he didn't remember me. I called him and just about anybody I knew in LA that was either a player/composer/arranger, or who I thought might know someone that might be interested in buying my Yamaha S6. Clare's initial barked response was...."why are you calling me?! I already have a piano" ! I laughed and said, Clare I know you do but I just thought I'd let you know in case you might hear of anyone looking. I know you have the Yamaha S-400, this is the later handmade Yamaha and it's larger. He said tersely , "oh ok but I don't know anybody, (again) not sure why you called me". I'm thinking jeez ok why did I bother. And then in an attempt to mellow him out I said, you know the piano I bought is your friend Phil Matson's Steinway from Iowa. All of a sudden the nice Clare surfaces..."oh what a lovely piano that is. I had such a wonderful time visiting that quaint little village he lives in. How is he doing by the way"? I said good and he sends his regards. Clare was a complex guy. He could be highly volatile or a pussycat. A true genius.

The light colored hardwood is the original color flooring, the rest of the studio used to be a low nap green carpet that we removed two years ago and replaced with darker hardwood. The original plan was to replace the entire floor with the dark hardwood but when they got into the job, I thought it looked cool just keeping that section. But my wife has been after me to change it so everything matches. After two years I could go either way at this point. And yeah every day I've sat down at that piano for the last 17+ years I realize how super fortunate I am. Out of all the many great players in this town, probably 90% don't own an instrument of this magnitude. Here's a photo with the carpeting.

I just completed a three and a half day major overall of the action on my piano last week. I took delivery of it on 5/6/06 and it was 9 months old when I bought it from a private owner. By my estimation after 17 and half years, it has roughly 13,500 hours on it. In the 9 months before I bought it, it was pretty much under lock and key at a school in Iowa and had seen maybe 50 hours if that. It was only used for a couple student recitals and master classes by Clare Fischer. I had a major filing of the hammers back in March of 2022. The tone had been on a downward trajectory the 5 years prior to the filing to my ears. While the filing eliminated the brightness of tone and restored the richness that Steinways are known for, the whole process seemed to open up a can of worms with the action making noises that were never there before. It also simply felt too loose and sloppy from all the hours of use. I had many techs over in that time and spent hundreds on the consultation, inspection and work they performed in an attempt to make things better. With one long time tech, we didn't see eye to eye on the severity of the problem. After the dust had settled, nothing really had significantly improved. I was highly frustrated, to the point that on some days I was spending more time on my AvantGrand because the action was tighter and felt more firm. I contacted a few Steinway artists in town, inquired as to who took care of their piano and the name Luke Taylor came up a few times. Ok, a new and unfamiliar name. Luke, I found out, is the current Chief Steinway Concert Tech for Los Angeles. He's 46, has a lot of experience and is at the age where he's not burned out or has physical issues (like carpal tunnel, back, shoulder) that would limit his work. After contacting him it took six weeks for our initial consultation because he was out of town up in the Bay area working at a classical musical festival all month. This was the second week of July. Within 15 minutes of him playing the piano and pulling the action out, checking the hammers, backchecks and repetitions, he sussed out my problems. After another 20 minutes of further discussion about what work he would do and the parts he would use (all original NY Steinway parts), I felt confident he was the guy. What sealed the deal was, I'd been having this obnoxious intermittent wood knocking noise starting from Ab7 up to C8 ever since the original hammer filing. All the techs could never figure this out and it was driving me mad. Fortunately I was able to duplicate the noise when he was there. He instantly said...I know what that is, your key blocks need to be adjusted. After he made the adjustment, the almost like a woodblock noise that I'd been living with since March of 2022, never reared it's ugly head again. The reason for the delay in the work, aside from him being very busy, was it took that long to get the whippens from Steinway. We were lucky he said, some techs have been waiting over a year. Why? No one seems to know. Here's his detailed report of the work done for all you aspiring piano techs out there. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Hi David, Here is a breakdown of what I did. Steinway D #571692 *Reconditioning File hammers to restore shape Pin hammers (21.5-22 gauge) Resuscitate key bushings (.147 balance, .129 front) Resuscitate balance holes File knuckles Lubricate knuckles Lubricate key pins *New Parts Installation Repetitions and Backchecks were replaced for noise reduction - Noise caused by old yellow version of ecsaine. *Repetitions - Remove old repetitions - Install new repetitions *Backchecks - Remove old backchecks - Install new backchecks - Correct height *Regulation Angle hammers Travel hammers Align repetitions to knuckles Align knuckles to hammer tails Align jacks Adjust repetition lever height Adjust repetition springs Bed key frame (over bedded) Adjust let-off Adjust drop Adjust hammer blow distance (46mm) Adjust key dip to .400” (highly uneven) Adjust damper pedal lost motion Adjust una corda shift distance *Tuning/Voicing Mate hammers to strings Seat strings on the bridge Tune to A440 Needle voice hammers _________________________________________________________ As you can see from the list and photos, it's very detailed, labor intensive work. There's no shortage of Great pianists out there today but there is a shortage of Great Master techs. Luke showed up at my house everyday at 9AM sharp and worked solid till 5 PM, with a 45 minute lunch break. After playing the piano for 4 days it's a night and day difference in the action. Tone is even more refined from the new filing. He said I have some years left on the felt of the original NY Steinway hammers but it would be up to me whether or not I wanted to replace them with the new Renner NY hammers. He said for concert halls or music schools where the piano is heavily played and for many hours a day, replacing the hammers on a model D is common practice after 7-10 years. In my case, I'm a lightweight with regard to touch. My estimated hours on it come out to around an average of 2.5 hours a day over the 17 years & 7 months. Also regarding the new hammers, aside from being around another 4K to 5K for parts and labor, there's the issue of Steinway changed their hammers around 2015/16 resulting in brighter pianos. Their tone today doesn't resemble my piano at all. That gives me pause. I might like it but perhaps not as much. So that's a maybe for the future. As it is right now, it's not like a "new piano" but it's a vast improvement and should give me years of continued satisfaction and inspiration.