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Realizing a “Dream”: My 1st Piano CD (part 1)

the NAIL — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 23:33:05 +0000

Greetings, Dear Readers!

It’s finally here: “Darn That Dream Solo Piano Vol. 1″, my first official solo piano album. A long time in coming, this recording represents a very significant milestone for me. This post gives a little backstory and a little about my process. This is Part 1.

Darn That Dream: Solo Piano Vol. 1

This record took almost 2 years to go from the recording session to the final product. Part of that was simply not having enough time to finish the things I needed to do – buying licenses for the standards, or setting up the mastering; editing the artwork, etc – but a more significant part of it was grappling with my fear of failing – or more specifically, not measuring up to my unrealistically high expectations. Many decades of listening to 1st class piano music will do that to you. How could I possibly hope to compete? The only way I could actually complete this process is to let go of all that and make something much more personal. I feel I’ve accomplished this, and although the lingering fear, now mostly habit, still floats around my head and makes me overcautious, I am proud to present you with this recording.

Part 1 – A Story Telling

My first connection to music was thru the piano. When I was 6, we moved out of NYC to the suburbs. My family bought a house on a cul-du-sac in one of those new developments, the kind of houses the song “little boxes on a hillside/and they’re all made out of ticky-tacky” was written about. It seemed like a big old house to me, however, coming from a small apartment in NYC. We had very little furniture to fill what seemed to me to be a gigantic living room. And then one day it appeared: The black Chickering & Sons baby grand piano that I learned to play on. That piano became my friend, my confident, my escape, my lover, my universe.

My dad got the piano because he loved to play; mostly Beethoven & Chopin (from what I remember). I remember hearing about Mozart – how he had written his first sonatina at age 7. I was 6, and fully convinced I could do the same. I plucked out some kind of melody and insisted my dad help me write it down. In my mind, I was Mozart… yet somehow I knew that that was a much larger world to explore. It was decided I should take lessons.

One of the earliest pieces I learned to play was the 2^nd movement from Beethoven’s “Pathetique” sonata. My father taught it to me note for note. Years later he admitted that I could play it better than he could. All I really remember is spending hours & hours at the piano. We lived on a suburban cul-de-sac and that meant stickball, kickball and a variety of other games were always happening. I did play a lot – kicking the ball over the house on the other side of the circle was always a big challenge – but I also chose to spend a lot of time indoors at the piano. My 1^st teacher didn’t work out so great, so another was found – Mr. Printz. I studied with him for 5 – 6 years. Under his tutelage I learned the ins & outs of basic harmony; was introduced to jazz greats like Oscar Peterson (thru jazz studies books), and had the opportunity to learn anything I wanted – all I need to do was ask.

I remember Deodato’s ”Prelude” album had a big effect on me (remember the funky version of “2001″?), and by age 13 I had composed & arranged a tune for my High School Big Band. I was hooked on music. During this time my parents marriage fell apart. They fought constantly. I stayed in my room, or at the piano whenever possible. By age 16 I was gigging fairly regularly, and was cutting high school to stay home and practice. Another key moment came when I first heard Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon”. I knew then that music was my best option in life, and I could not wait to get into the studio and start making records. (That would have to wait until 1990, 27 years later when my band “A. Animal” recorded our first CD “Overhaul”.)

So why a nearly 40 year delay in recording a solo piano CD? And how did I get back to it? As already stated, I started with piano. My first electric Keyboard was a Fender Rhodes Electric Piano, 73 Stage Mark I. (I still have it..!)

I had, early on, made up my mind to always include some piano on any CD I would release. Those few tentative tracks can be found on “Overhaul” (1990), Alone At Last (1996) and Galvanized (2004).

I had always dreamed of doing a solo piano record – hence the title, “Darn That Dream” – but listening to records by people like Keith Jarret, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and the great classical masters like Van Cliburn, Vladimir Horowitz & Glenn Gould (among many others) I always felt like my own work could never match up. As my friend composer/pianist Richard Cameron Wolfe once said to me, “a little bit of competition there, eh?” Geez. Part of my trepidation was that I didn’t fit comfortably into a particular style – I was not a “Jazz Pianist”, or a “Prog Rock” keyboardist, or a Classical musician. I did, however, wear all those hats at one time or another – preferably at the same time.

Meanwhile, I was constantly playing for dance classes – first in NYC (1982-1989) and then at SUNY Purchase (1992 till today), and that meant I was playing the acoustic piano constantly, in the wide variety of styles needed to accompany both Ballet & Modern Dance.

It was during my time at Purchase, in 2001, when former Masters Student and teacher Jill Echo said to me “you should make a solo piano CD. I would buy it.”

Jill & I had worked together in class, and she was a great appreciator of music. Somehow, even though it had been said to me before, it just…stuck. It took up residence in a forgotten corner of my subconscious and refused to budge.

A 2^nd arc was happening around the same time, as later that year I premiered my solo piano arrangement of Stravinsky’s “Rite Of Spring” – first for the Conservatory faculty (read a review here) and then in a series of local performances, none of which were well attended. I knew I was going to have to record it at some point, though I was experiencing the same insecurity regarding recording. This was before I learned what REALLY goes on in the classical recording world these days, with literally thousands of edits..!

Meanwhile, I was trying to run NAIL around the rigorous touring schedule of a different band. This was taking up most of my time; that plus various other factors led to a decision to leave the touring group and focus on NAIL. This resulted in a CD in 2007 [“Tugging At The Infinite”] and a full gig schedule. However, I still felt like I was spinning my wheels. Then in 2010 I turned 50 – and I released “the train doesn’t go backwards, or stop” – basically that “we ain’t getting’ any younger!!” So I made the decision to put the band on hold (while I reflected on what wasn’t working), and went ahead with plans to record my first Solo Piano CD.

That’s it for part 1. Part 2 will follow in a week or so. Thanks for reading. You can download the new CD here.

Return to the Piano: Rite of Spring revisted

the NAIL — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:29:16 +0000

This is the story of my ongoing personal journey with one of the most iconoclastic pieces of music in history… Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite Of Spring”, the piece that caused a now famous riot at it’s premier in 1913.

My journey started when I went to see Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” at age 7. I was completely captivated by the music/image combination. It stuck with me something fierce. I’m not even sure I was playing piano yet, but I remember asking my dad for a recording of the piece (on vinyl, of course!).

Many years later in 1982, I received the 4 hand score (Stravinsky’s rehearsal score) as a birthday present. I was 22. An informal performance at New York University followed in 1984, with fellow pianist Bradley Kaus. Still entranced by the piece and not wanting to let it go, I started kicking the score around – exploring both parts – and this is when I began the process of casually “squeezing” it down to 2 hands.

I was really interested in the orchestral power of this amazing piece of music. As I worked towards a completed 2 hand score, I realized what I was trying to do was bring the Orchestral “experience” of the piece to the piano. i did the 4 hand score again, with Pianist Roberto Pace in 1995 for the Purchase Dance Corps. I continued to work on a 2 hand version, more for my own enjoyment then as a performance piece.

in 1999 I moved to Orange County and met quite a few musicians right away. One of them was Flautist Lynette Benner, who was programming classical shows at the Howland Cultura Center in Beacon NY, right across the river from me. “I’ve got it about 70% percent completed,” I told her. She said “Great! We’d like you to perform it in about 6 months”.

Gulp! Probably the best thing, tho – forced me to finish my arrangement and get it going. The thing I remember most about that 1st performance is that I was SO nervous, I thought I was gonna toss my cookies. (Note: It took 15 years to cull the initial arrangement….1984 – 1999.)

The show was great fun, and a serious pianistic workout.

I also performed it in a private setting for the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance Faculty. In attendance was an undergrad student, Jonathan Reidel. He was given the assignment of writing a “review” of sorts, for credit.Here’s that review:

A séance was held this past Thursday at 3 p.m. in studio J of the Dance Building at Purchase College. Primordial forces of Pangean proportion were channeled through pianist NEIL ALEXANDER as he single handedly (well, there were two hands and a foot involved) interpreted Stravinsky’s “The Rite Of Spring”.

The piece that originally moved its audience to riot during its premier in Paris at the beginning of the Twentieth Century was originally intended as a ballet score to conjure images of primitive man, tribal reverence for nature, and ritual human sacrifice. It was subsequently brought forth visions in animated film of prehistoric Earth; molten, cooling, plates shifting, mountains erupting skyward, the evolution of species, their reign and cataclysmic extinction.

This is a formidable amount of energy to pass through an orchestra. The present question, posed in Studio J on Thursday, is what happens to such sonic energy when bottlenecked through a solo instrument? Neil Alexander will tell you that it must gush and stream out the other end like water through a fire-hose.

Clever transcription, first by Stravinsky himself for a four handed piano version, then by Alexander for solo performance, has kept much of the original depth and dynamics of the symphonic version alive. All of the thunderous crashes, floral flourishes, stomping rhythms and tidal pulls are represented. The monochromatic aspect of this version (dealing solely with the timbre of the piano) does not leave us wanting. What is lost from not having the other instruments represented is in the intrinsic connotations that they provide (a bird-like flute, a majestic French horn); what is gained is a broader interpretation of The Rite’s gestures and sweeps. Perhaps the Chaos and beauty is all in the mind of one figure. Maybe the setting is now that of film-noir. There are sections that even sound jazz-infused, yet seem in keeping with the stylistic continuity. The transcription is as “monochromatic” as Picasso’s Guernica; a piece many people forget is in gray-scale.

Purists may cringe, claiming that that the concept of a piano reduction is only meant for ballet rehearsals. But this piece was made for riots and I believe Mr. Alexander will welcome them.

Jonathan Riedel, Purchase Dance Corps

Jonathan has since gone on to start his own Dance company, Riedel Dance Theater. We stayed in touch; I would jokingly bug him about doing “Sacre” with his company.

I continued to perform the piece sporadically for about 3 years, and finally had “had enough”. It’s a bit hard on the hands. Besides, I wanted to move on to other things. And as it seems with all (or most) of my shows, no matter how much promo I did attendance was lite. I guess maybe I was expecting – hoping – that it would generate interest on it’s merits alone.

I did get one really good review out of it, from one of the last performances in 2002. Here’s that review:

Shy brilliance

>Neil Alexander rediscovers The Rite of Spring for solo piano

> Leslie Gerber, Woodstock Times

More than a quarter of a century ago, in l976, I traveled up to Arkviile to hear a piano recital. In this most unlikely location, and on a less than ideal piano, the composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski played one of the most memorable piano recitals I’ve ever heard. For virtuosity and musical comprehension and for the chance to hear Rzewski’s masterpiece, the People United will Never Be Defeated, that afternoon remains in my mind as one of the most unusual and satisfying piano performances in my experience.

I had to wait until last Friday evening for a similar experience, and it was even more unexpected. Neil Alexander is a jazz pianist and synthesizer player. When he played Friday night at the Uptown in Kingston, he introduced himself by saying that he usually performed behind a wall of electronic equipment. But he was going relatively naked, with just an acoustic piano, because of his love for Stravinsky’s orchestral score The Rite of Spring. For the past fifteen years, Alexander told us, he has been working on a piano solo arrangement of this music, and he was finally ready to perform it the first time two years ago. “Don’t “expect too much from me,” he said with excessive modesty. ~I’m no Vladimir Horowitz.” Well, he was right about that. Horowitz could never have performed this music the way Alexander did it.

The Rite of Spring is an extremely complex piece, with thick and often dissonant harmonies and irregular jagged rhythms more the rule than the exception. It’s difficult enough for a good orchestra to play it well. Alexander has truly nailed the piece in his piano arrangement. He’s got the harmonies I and the rhythms, the textures of the music, accurately and lovingly reduced to the piano keyboard. The color of Stravinsky’s orchestration is missing (although Alexander’s playing had excellent tonal coloration, despite the limits of another less than ideal piano), but the rhythmic and harmonic aspects of the music are clarified in this arrangement.

And best of all, Alexander played the music with amazing command. Some parts of the score are inherently unpianistic, but those fifteen years of work really showed in the way Alexander managed to transcribe and play them so accurately and with such exciting force. In short, this was a riveting experience, world class playing all the way. The dozen or so people scattered around the Uptown shared in a great musical experience, one I won’t soon forget. After a break, Alexander returned to what he usually does, jazz improvisation — although it was fascinating to hear the way his study of Stravinsky’s score has influenced the technique and thought of his jazz playing. I am not as much of an expert on jazz as I am on Stravinsky, so all I can safely say about Alexander’s jazz is that he obviously knows , what he’s doing and executes his ideas with the same facility and power as he does with Stravinsky. For He certainly held my attention. And when he was working with material I recognized, l Loves You Porgy from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, I was best able to recognize the ingenuity of his improvising. It’s a pity that a performance like this drew so few people. But I have a suspicion that those of us who heard it are going to be telling our friends.

Watch for Neil Alexander’s name in the papers. And if you love great piano playing, go to hear him — and tell him not to be so modest!

A very good review indeed; however, my “lack of audience” problem has persisted – to this day, no matter what type of show – and so I ceased performing “Sacre”.

ZOOM FORWARD to 2011. Jon Riedel has come back to Purchase to get his Masters Degree. His company is doing well….and he has an idea for new Choreography, based on Ingmar Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring”. Dark stuff, but ultimately well suited to the overall mood.

So – after not performing it for 7 years, I brought “Le Sacre” back. I made a few improvements to voiceings and such, and we premiered his chorepography, with live music, 2 nights last May. It was a smashing success! I have some video footage which I will post as soon as I get a chance. We are also talking about working it into his upcoming (2012) season.

And – we are also approaching the 100 anniversary of the Rite Of Spring, and I have my own plans: an International tour of small concert venues & house concerts, ending in Paris in May 2013 where the piece premiered 100 years before. I have to tell you, I’m very excited by the whole prospect. Plans are being drawn up as I type. Of course this syncs up very nicely with my return to purely acoustic performance, and the (soon the be released) Solo Piano CD.

..And there it is! We’ll be keeping you posted, you can be sure. Thanks for reading.

Looking Ahead: 2011 and Beyond

the NAIL — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 01:22:12 +0000

Greetings, all comers! Welcome to another installment of the NAILblog…

About 13 months ago, I had started to write my 2009 Year-End wrap up post, about all that had happened in, well, 2009. There was quite a lot that happened; and in fact, kept happening – to the extent of which I never actually finished writing it. In fact, a whole other YEAR went by, and all the time I was thinking I could still get to it…. Not. Ridiculous, actually. So as 2010 came to close, I grappled (however briefly) with the idea of a 2010 Year End Wrap Up post again, and realized my mistake: its actually much more important for me at this point in my life to look FORWARD, instead of back. So I therefore change tack and offer more of a “what I hope to Accomplish in 2011″ type of post. There’s a whole pile of projects and ideas I want to try and get to this year, and posting them here might (I am hoping) help me actually GET to them. Here goes:

What I’m planning for 2011: The Adventure continues

1) The Solo Piano CD & Performances
Folks have been after me to record a solo piano CD for something like 20 years. I know I’m off to a good start this year because Ive already recorded it. Editing/mixing now. The plan is to release it late spring, combined with a series of shows.
Coincidentally, I’ve been asked by choreographer Jonathan Riedel to perform my solo piano transcription of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for 2 shows in May. It dovetails perfectly with the release of the CD, and “The Rite of Spring” will be featured in many of these performances. I am psyched!

2) The Planets Project
Gustav Holst’s amazing orchestral work, arranged for Jazz Octet. This will be one of my Kickstarter projects this year; in fact, Ive already got backers. Inspired by Duke Ellingtons arrangements of the Nutcracker, Mary Poppins, etc. A lot of the conceptual groundwork has already been put in place over the last 18 months. This year it HAPPENS.

3) ASCO
This is an idea that ive been kicking around for a lot of years at this point. Not necessarily new or original, but I feel very strongly about it nevertheless. ASCO stands for the Analog Synthesizer Chamber Orchestra. I imagine it as a kind of a live version of Switched on Bach, a work that had a tremendous influence on me. My goal here is to bring ASCO into existence as a viable Chamber ensemble; stay with it for a number of years and then let someone else take the reigns. The main reason I have not acted on this idea is because it includes the creation of a not for profit organization. (Not to mention the initial equipment costs!). This year I will begin the process of creating this ensemble.

4) Duets (various)
Theres a handful of wonderful musicians Ive been talking with over the last few years, about doing various types of projects. Classical, improvisation, recording, performance, remix. Lots of amazing ideas and energy. Some of these folks are:

Who loves ya, kiddo?

Pianist and author Stuart Isacoff
Drummer Greg Burrows
Bassist Steve Lawson
Multi instrumentalist Alan Wentz
Violinist Zach Brock
Bassist Trip Wamsley
Guitarist Rob Michaels
Wind player Premik Russel Tubbs
Drummer vibraphonist Gregg Bendian

..and quite a few more I’ve not listed at the moment. Also on this list is my lovely wifeNita Rae, a songwriter & keyboard player. We’ve done things together now & again; she’s acted as coproducer and/or engineer on almost all of my recordings. My collaboration with her is way overdue, and will take top priority when it begins to take shape.

5) NAIL reborn, or reinvented, or just renamed…
I’m not sure why NAIL never really caught on after 11 years of playing out. Didn’t get far enough away from home? Too many personnel changes? Just not the right combination of tunes and musicians? Or a promo FAIL? Ah well. Whatever the reason, I had really good response to my last Winter Solstice show which was more of a piano based quartet (still using synthesizers, tho). Ive been chewing on a lot of ideas about what to do next with NAIL, and I think Ive decided on a more flexible approach – i.e., not sticking to any particular ensemble size or instrumentation, but still featuring the piano. Im starting to get excited about this, but the idea needs to cook some more. Ill be hoping to take this version for a spin in the fall, or maybe sooner. This means that the Planets Project would also fall under the guise of NAIL. That works for me.

Who is "the Mysterious Phantom"?

6) The Mysterious Phantom

I did this solo show at the Annual Zombie Barbecue hosted by my friend Dan at the Wherehouse restaurant in Newburgh. It was a sort of hardcore avant techno thing; I dressed in a cape, used a Theremin and was billed as The Phantom. There were suddenly a lot of requests for a Phantom CD. Sometimes you just gotta give the people what they want. Ill be doing that gig again this year, and I will have product in hand this time.

7) Choice NAIL: Live & Unreleased trax
Gee, Ive got a lot of these lying about. Enough for 2 CD’s, actually. It won’t take quite that much work to get these out; most of them just need to be mixed. Here’s a taste: “Box 555″:

Box 555 by nailmusic

8) UK House Concert & Lecture tour
If I can get this together, it will be amazing – especially to meet in person all the awesome Brits I’ve met thru Twitter. Its all about earning enough cash to cover the cost of the trip. More on this story as it develops.

9) NAILMUSIC.COM Website Overhaul
Wrangling Nailmusic.com into shape, with a more comprehensive non-flash site, optimized mobile site, and full integration with Soundcloud, Bandcamp and all my blogs – WordPress (this one), Posterous and my new Tumblr Synth blog. I’m gonna need some serious help with this one, and it needs to happen soon. Any web ninjas out there up for the challenge?

10) Solo Performances: Raves, Galleries, Concert Halls & House Concerts

Right alongside the acoustic piano concerts will be the electronic ones. In fact, I’m working a set of music for Piano/Laptop that has the best of both worlds. There will also be electronic only gigs, like Raves - I did 2 last year, major fun. The idea is to get out there and PLAY.

….And the question now is: only 10?
In reality, the idea factory has been working overtime over the last few years. Ive got literally an amazing amount of idea energy. The problem has always been the actual way forward: how to proceed, and on which ideas. I still don’t have the answers, but Ill learn as I go. Like the song says: ” you cant always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find… You get what you need.”
I say: BRING IT.
As always, I welcome your comments. Thanks for reading!

NEXT: The year of the Piano

NAILMUSIC.COM » Blog

Realizing a “Dream”: My 1st Piano CD (part 1)

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Return to the Piano: Rite of Spring revisted

Looking Ahead: 2011 and Beyond