Expand, version 2 Breath Go ahead Breathe me what I need To inhale Exhale Listen Wind blows and trees creak They do not care that You do not sleep Though it is one AM They will let you be Let them be, too Expand – dual spontaneous poems with photos by Stan Stewart Click To […]
Streaming or not With all the furor over Taylor Swift pulling albums from Spotify, my music blogging friends are writing posts partially propelled by that news item: Steve Lawson on why the major labels love Spotify, Christine Infanger on how artists are fighting the wrong battle, and Solveig Whittle on having dialogue on this whole mess.
In music one must think with the heart and feel with the brain. ~George Szell Perhaps best known for “building the Cleveland Orchestra into a world-class ensemble”, George Szell (1897-1970) was a composer and conductor. I wonder if he had any idea that so many people would share his quote about the heart and mind of music.
Part of the beauty of Twitter is the brevity. But there are some things you can’t say in 140 characters. Answering the question What does 100,000 tweets mean, anyway? Click To Tweet is one of those. I don’t know exactly what drew my attention to it. (Probably one of the dozens of Twitter interface remodels.) Suddenly, it
Sometime in the Summer of 1991, John Bennison encouraged me to create a set of recordings of piano improvisations. We talked about the how since we knew the where would be the sanctuary of the church we both served. A church member loaned us a beautiful acoustic piano. I had the condenser microphones, but we had to
Old Hymns For A New Age – #piano #improv re-release Read More »
NoiseTrade vs. BandCamp Another blogger that I really respect — Joy Ike of grassrootsy — recently posted about a number of services for independent or DIY musicians to share their albums or tracks with fans. As usual, I agree with a lot of what she says. She said that she “leans towards” NoiseTrade (NT) over
“Why prefer blue skies over grey? Because you can sing and play the blues.” ~ Stan Stewart After the opening, at times disjointed part one of Cracked Open Blues comes this very bluesy improv. If you start to dance, be ready for some changes in the count (time signature)! This spontaneous composition bounces around from
Digging Through Blues After digging into the recordings from the Painting Piano series of improvisations, I’ve found a few more tracks that are interesting, but did not make the cut for the album. One of my favorites so far, is “Cracked Open Blues”. Because the improvisation is so long, I’ve split it into a parts one
Crescent moon, Glowing iridescent through Humid clouds, Morning’s orange glow, and Aging eyes. I look Once more Inspired by your Walk across night’s edge. When you shine so Vividly, coaxing night walkers, Early risers, And lovers To wander with you In the darkness, It is easy to Forget that your light Is reflected from another
Thanks to everyone who is helping to make “Painting Piano” my best-selling album ever! I’ve chosen to include several of the piano improvisations and paintings from “Painting Piano” throughout this post. I’ve also linked (near the end of this post) the videos related to this project from YouTube. I hope you enjoy them. What do
