Shamanzarek

I think the Casio XW-P1 came close. With some improvements it could have been a Nord killer. Also Casio's WK-3XXX series from the 2000s could have been a great do-it-all instrument with some upgrades. Its organ section has capabilities that no other keyboard has yet to come close to at any price. I don't know if these capabilities were an intentional design decision or was just simpler to implement the way they did. It seems Casio often doesn't realize what they have and how to take it to a professional level.

I saw them when they were opening for Steppenwolf. They hadn't had any hits yet but the local AM Top 40 station was playing "Nobody" and "Try a Little Tenderness". TDN stole the show and were immediately booked for a return date as headliners by which time "One" was a big hit. Several years ago I got to open for TDN in Connecticut. Jimmy Greenspoon and Cory Wells were still with us then. Jimmy was playing a Roland VK-88 through a Motion Sound Pro 3 and used a Kurzweil PC3 for the various EP sounds. They sounded great and did a new piece with very impressive vocal harmonies on which Cory played bass. In our show we played "Elenore" by The Turtles which sounds like "One" on the intro. A bit of trivia: In 1966 Paul Revere and the Raiders tried to get Cory to join them as bass player while he was still in The Enemys and both bands were playing at the Pussycat A-Go-Go in Las Vegas..

There are many degrees of veganism. You could eat potato chips and other junk food and still call yourself a vegan. I became vegan in 1977 strictly for health reasons. For the first few years I ate only raw uncooked food. I grew wheatgrass, various sprouts, some vegetables, and collected fruits that a lot of people overlooked at the time like persimmons, pomegranates, avocados, and loquats. That is a rather difficult discipline to maintain unless you live alone which I did at that time. Gradually I started incorporating some cooked food and prefer to do my own cooking from scratch as much as possible. I still eat a good amount of uncooked food, mostly fruit in the morning and leafy greens at dinner time. I consider it important for health reasons to eat a significant amount of raw food every day.

The "other" keyboard player for The Stones was Jack Nitzsche who also worked extensively as orchestrator and conductor for Phil Spector. From 1964 t0 1966 he was their primary keyboard player on all recordings done at RCA Studios Hollywood.

Don't forget "Afternoon Delight" had three Grammy nominations in 1977. It won Best Arrangement for Voices over "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Can't Hide Love" by Earth Wind and Fire.

Never knew much about Bobby Caldwell but from 1985-1992 the southern California band I was in played "What You Won't Do for Love" as part of our first set five nights a week.

In 1961 Leon filled in on tour with Paul Revere and the Raiders when Paul Revere was drafted into the Army. At this time they had a top 40 hit with the piano instrumental "Like, Long Hair". Russell was also involved with The Ventures usually playing organ. He can be heard on their version of "Telstar". A few Ventures instrumentals feature a trademark organ-like sound which is actually a soprano sax played through a Leslie. It wasn't just any Leslie. It belonged to Leon Russell. Hear it on "Walk Don't Run "64".

I don't know if it was coincidence but one of the cable channels showed Encino Man (1992) the same night as the Oscars which co-stars Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan.

I am reading a borrowed copy of Phil Collins' Not Dead Yet: A Memoir. Offers some interesting insight into the inner workings of Genesis over the years. Tony Banks would sometimes make fun of Phil's songs for having only three chords.

The original Renaissance band was formed in 1969 by former Yardbirds vocalist Keith Relf and drummer Jim McCarty. Former Nashville Teens pianist John Hawken , former The Herd bassist Louis Cennamo, and Keith's sister Jane were the other founding members. This line-up started changing in 1970 until no original members remained and the band went on to greater success with Annie Haslam on vocals and John Tout on keyboards. The surviving founding members of Renaissance did get back together from 1977-1979 and 2001 under the name Illusion. The original Renaissance live on German TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrSCU_3hK34

I recently discovered Proto-Kaw Kerry Livgren's band before he joined Kansas. I think this band would have succeeded if they had stayed together. The have a very good singer and a sax/flute player. They evoke a bit of King Crimson or Tull at times. Kerry reformed the band after leaving Kansas and the later version is still very good.

The Venus Flytrap plant is native to a small area that overlaps two American states. Few people seem to know that it is even native to North America and I found out because I now live in one of those states.

The Alesis QS has the added benefit of Release Velocity which can be very expressive and is not often found on other keyboards these days. Release Velocity allows you to vary the sustain of a sound by how quickly a note is let off. A quick let off will sharply cut off the sound and a slow let off will produce a longer sustain.

I played this with a band for several years. In addition to the keyboard parts I had to do the bass. It is not a busy bass line and sits well on one octave of bass pedals leaving both hands free to do the the synth parts. It was a bit difficult to do all the higher parts at the same time so I would play single note low synth in the left hand and do the right hand parts incorporating each part starting from sparse double and single note lines and then going to chordal parts building to a crescendo into the chorus with heavy low notes and high notes. If I didn't have to do the bass too I could have done the low synth parts on pedals and had a free hand for the higher parts.

I was reading that some of the other members of Genesis would only allow Tony to have around three songs per album due to the complexity of his compositions which took too much time and effort for them to work out. He had a backlog of material that was mostly used on his solo recordings.

"Fountain of Salmacis" is primarily a Banks composition for which he also co-wrote the lyrics with Peter. The dramatic Mellotron sweeps are brilliant unlike anything I've heard anyone else do. "Seven Stones" is a composition by Tony for which he wrote all the lyrics. His keyboard textures, chord progressions, and melodies in this are beyond amazing.

Now that I'm living in a retirement community I am meeting a lot of people with serious health problems. Currently I am subbing for a keyboardist who had a triple bypass. He may or may not come back but they have extended my stay with the band for another few weeks and asked if I would consider going permanent if needed.

I am now living in South Carolina and just saw this tonight on the SCETV Network. Chuck Leavell has collaborated with bassist Mike Mills (REM) and violin virtuoso Robert McDuffie for a concert performance of songs written/recorded by Georgia artists and songs about Georgia. They are backed by a string orchestra composed of many of McDuffie's students. Filmed in November 2022 at Macon's Grand Opera House. Featured are two Leavell compositions as well as "Jessica". An extended cut video can be streamed here: https://www.gpb.org/television/show/night-of-georgia-music/special/night-of-georgia-music-extended-cut

I was happy to see a nom for Best New Artist and win for Best Bluegrass Album go to Molly Tuttle. She is an incredible guitar virtuoso and her band plays Bluegrass with a jam band attitude. Along with her originals she does some great covers in her shows. Check out her version of "She's a Rainbow".

I played my first real gig on guitar in the 9th grade opening for a well-known local band. No girls ever payed attention to me before but at school on Monday three girls I didn't know started talking to me because they saw me at the show.

I just joined a band that does "Call Me the Breeze". I'm doing an in-depth study of that solo right now. They also do "Sweet Home" but I know that that one pretty well having played it for years. I hate it when some bands I've played in play "Sweet Home" much faster than the recording. Some of those licks are difficult enough to play at a slower speed.

The biggest shortcoming of the S3C is the split and layering capability. It is better than previous Nords but still seriously limited by most standards. If this isn't a concern then it is a good reliable live performance instrument with more hands-on control than most other keyboards. Good luck finding a dealer with one in stock anywhere let alone Alaska.

One of my students had a Boston upright. It sounded amazing with a big rich low end. The best sounding upright I've ever played. Other students had top quality Yamaha, Baldwin, and other brands but none compared to the Boston.

Tesla was the inventor of the first functional alternating current generator and a proponent of AC power. Edison favored DC and opposed AC doing public demonstrations to convince people of how dangerous it was. AC won out because it could be transmitted over long distances with little power loss. There was no strict standard frequency for AC power in the early days and it could vary from location to location. Hammond invented a synchronous motor that would only run at an accurate speed for his clocks if the power frequency was precisely 60 cycles. He sent free Hammond clocks to all the local power grid managers throughout the US and in order for their clocks to keep accurate time they had to set the AC frequency to precisely 60 cycles. In other countries such as the UK the power runs at 50 cycles which requires the addition of a frequency converter when using a Hammond organ. When running a Hammond organ from a portable power generator at an outdoor concert the cycles can sometimes vary from 60 which often caused Hammond organs to not play at concert pitch.

One thing I found interesting about Laurens Hammond is that he was solely responsible for the US power grid running at 60 cycles.