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SamuelBLupowitz

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Posts posted by SamuelBLupowitz

    Pandemic pianos

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Keeping my little spinet in tune since we moved into the new house has been brutal. It was always a little honky-tonky, but until we can afford to beef up the climate control in the house, the studio temperature is consistently closer to the temperature outside than it is in the rest of the house, despite our best efforts, and the last time the tuner came, I started tracking a piano part literally minutes after she left, and I could hear the notes drifting back out of tune as I played. It's rough.

    RIP Chick Corea

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Chick Corea is a legend, but not someone I'd call one of my great musical influences... so I was surprised just how hard the news hit me yesterday. Part of it is just the time we're living in, but also, I had some very crucial, formative experiences learning and listening to his music (especially the Light as a Feather record) during my high school jazz band years. We're all lucky to have been alive at the same time as such a creative force.

    Clavinet Songs

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Although you don't find much clavinet on his albums, but the opening track "Yell Help / Wednesday Night / Ugly" on Elton John's "Rock of the Westies" has some really nice clav work, especially on the third part "Ugly".
    Some great parts on "(Gotta Get a) Meal Ticket" from Captain Fantastic as well!

    Clavinet Songs

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    In addition to "Trampled Under Foot," a few other tunes on Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti feature John Paul Jones on clavinet, including "Custard Pie" and "In the Light." Pink Floyd uses one on "Have a Cigar," but it's sort of mixed down in the later verses.

     

    On a more contemporary note, Kofi Burbridge played a lot of clavinet with the Derek Trucks Band ("Already Free" comes to mind) and Tedeschi Trucks Band ("Don't Let Me Slide," "Made Up Mind," and "Signs (High Times)" among others). Ivan Neville plays clav all over the place with Dumpstaphunk ("Do Ya" is a good example).

     

    I think that Lachy Doley guy plays clavinet occasionally too, right? :wink:

    Thoughts on KeyStage automation for iOS?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I've used Keystage on a few gigs with success, and Ali is great. Definitely curious about version 2.0, which appears to be able to load apps as plug-ins like AUM rather than just serve as a central MIDI control app. It's the best thing I've found for set list management and patch changes with iOS, but the more things you try to do with it, the more points of failure that pop up... I so desperately want iOS to work as well for me as a laptop and Mainstage, but I haven't found my sweet spot yet.

    Not OT: I just got a Valente. Ask me anything.

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    One more. Getting my Richard Tee on...

     

    A little OT, but wanted to circle back and let you know that posting this demo back in December got me deep into a Paul Simon kick I have to thank you for. It's also going to be very, very handy for learning to play this tune.

     

    I did want to mention, though, since you and Mr. Fortner have both referenced the inimitable Richard Tee regarding this song (a phasey Rhodes being something of a signature for him), that while Richard played this tune in Paul Simon's live band, the electric piano part on the album is actually played by Barry Beckett of Muscle Shoals fame. He plays on "My Little Town" as well. There's your trivia for the day!

    • Like 2

    OT - What are you listening to right now?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I've come really late to the party to the band Dawes, and have been completely knocked out. The star of the show is Taylor Goldsmith's unbelievable songwriting -- I think he is a lyrical genius, so down to earth but so direct and honest and smart, more comparable to someone like Stephen Sondheim than to most pop songwriters -- but they have a lot of tasty keyboard parts, especially since the arrival of Lee Pardini in the keyboard chair in 2016. Lee Pardini first caught my ear playing with Vulfpeck's Theo Katzman on his solo work, and I think he's magnificent, a player with a ton of chops who only ever plays exactly the part the song needs.

     

    I'm going deep into this band's 10+ year discography but I included a tune with some somewhat showy keys below.

     

    [video:youtube]

     

    Oh, fun fact: Taylor Goldsmith and drummer/background vocalist brother Griffin are the sons of Lenny Goldsmith, who sang in Tower of Power in the 80s. Pretty sure Lee Pardini is also the son of Chicago's Lou Pardini. Talk about a leg up.

    Buy this or that Hammond: serviced A100 v cheapish C2

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Ask if the A100 has the dreaded foam in the manuals. That can create issues down the road.
    This for sure. Otherwise, this is a no brainer -- get the serviced A100 rather than the might-need-some-work C2. Servicing the C2 could easily add up to more than what they're asking for the A100 depending on what needs to be done.

     

    Of course, if you only have enough for the C2 now, and you need to pull the trigger, that's another story! But if you can afford it and you're going back and forth on whether or not it's worth the extra money... it's worth the extra money.

    Yamaha YC88 and YC73

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    The comparison of the YC88 to a Nord Stage makes sense to me and stopped my head-scratching. It's a solid choice to have the most flexible, powerful all-in-one board possible, configured for someone who is predominantly a pianist. Indeed, a scant five years ago, that would have really, really appealed to me.

     

    As it stands, as the owner of a vintage A100, a boutique dual-manual clonewheel, and a Nord Electro 4D, I'm just hoping this makes it easier to find a good deal on a CP88. :grin:

    OT - Recommend some movies.

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Walk Hard, The Dewey Cox Story

     

    should be required viewing....

    Another of my favorite comedies ever. We just showed it to my father-in-law for the first time a few months ago, and he said he liked it more than Spinal Tap.
    Do you love to cook? Do you love to eat?

    Big Night

    Just watched this for the first time a couple of months ago! What a fun, interesting film. Tony Shalhoub, Stanley Tucci, Ian Holm... how can you go wrong?

    OT - Recommend some movies.

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Hot Fuzz (a buddy cop pastiche from the same team that brought you Shaun of the Dead) is one of my absolute favorite comedies of all time. It's basically an American action flick set in a rustic English village. Not a wasted line in the script.

     

    The third film in the loose trilogy, The World's End, is also excellent, but a little heavier in tone and subject matter (it deals a lot with alcoholism and not being able to outrun your past).

    OT: I don�t need coffee, I just need sleep and exercise

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I've been a runner on and off throughout my life, picked the habit back up early in the pandemic, then lost it again after we moved into the new house. I did start going on early morning walks right after the new year (with my coffee in a thermos instead of taking my hour on the couch with a warm mug and the Times), and it's been a godsend -- I was unraveling a little bit with all the isolation that the holidays, cold weather, and increased virus activity brought on. Plus, it's giving me time to just listen to music in a way that I've been having trouble doing, say, sitting in the living room. The constant, meditative motion helps me listen more attentively.

     

    I made it all through college without drinking coffee. Didn't want a habit/substance that I relied on at all back then. Then I graduated and got one of those soul-sucking 9-5 jobs they always tell you about. That's when I got hooked. Now I look forward to going into the office in the morning (er, I did, anyway) but I enjoy my snobby locally-roasted coffee far too much to give up the daily habit.

    Fastest way to lose a keyboard player

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Play Superstition in E, playing hogging the main riff on guitar.

     

    It's funny you should say that. I think simply asking what key they play Superstition in and would they be willing to do it in the original key would probably tell me everything I needed to know to take up or turn down an offer to join a covers band.

    This is a little OT, but I used to occasionally sub for an R&B/Funk/Soul cover band that did Superstition in... C. Their lead singer was excellent, but they had to take pretty much all the Stevie stuff WAY down for him. It wasn't too bad, though it did really start to change the character of the tunes to move the key that far from the original. Certainly playable... though you still can't do the black-key gliss at the top of You Haven't Done Nothin' in C minor!

    The best looking modern stage piano

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    For whatever reason, if we're talking pure aesthetics, the taller a stage piano is, the more of a turnoff it is to me. I like sleek and slim, a clean horizontal line across my platform stand. It's one of several reasons (most of which aren't aesthetic) I'm hoping to grab a CP88 rather than a used CP4.

    My anti-feel-like-crap list

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I'll never forget Colin Mochrie on "Whose Line"... Things You Can Say To Your Dog, But Not Your Girlfriend. He makes the Matrix "Bring It" hand just once and says "Come." Instant pandemonium reigned and ABC let a couple of minutes of it play through, too. Golden.
    I remember watching that episode on ABC Family (!) when I was probably 12 or 13 or something. I couldn't believe it. Man, that show had some high highs.

    My anti-feel-like-crap list

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    +1 to the Last Waltz version of Cripple Creek. If Levon doesn't move you, I don't know what can.

     

    Thanks for this thread. We all know why no one on the forum is talking about current events, but surely we all need something to help us process.

     

    This one always puts me in a good place.

     

    [video:youtube]

    Churchy Sound - Gospel Harmony

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Backing up preachers is an Art in itself and i always look with envy! These guys are born into this tradition, even the way they change chords under the voice is unique. Thanx for sharing

     

    Glad you enjoyed it Yannis. Given how bad Pop music has become over the last 25 years and how tone-deaf it had made the millenials and GenZ, I'm grateful for the musical standard Gospel folks managed to maintain.

    Since there's already some spirited debate in this thread, I'm going to object to this line of thought and point out that the Millennials and Gen Z gave us Snarky Puppy, Turkuaz, Vulfpeck, Jacob Collier, and surely a host of other musically mind-blowing artists who don't immediately come to mind, despite the Boomers and Gen X establishing radio conglomerates that would never play them. The enemies of musicians and art are the same, not confined to a single generation, and are responsible for, rather than the result of, cultural deficiencies. :wink:
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