Paul and Susan hosted a concert in their home, and I brought a stand-alone digital recorder. Back in the studio I added a little reverb and let it roll unedited. You'll hear the applause and little side comments here and there. As always, such a pleasure to play together. We're doing a fully improvised concert on the 14th as part of the Hastings River Arts Festival. Kinda gettin' out there!
--------
51:34
--------
51:34
3-12-25
Hmm. I seem to have not uploaded the last episode or two. If you see the dates out of order that'll be why. My friend Paul came with his flute again tonight, and will come next week as well. We do have a sympatico vibe. I lean towards more chordal playing to allow space for his melody, but we are always listening to each other and adjusting moment by moment. A couple nods tonight; opening of Sound of Silence and a little Charlie Brown. Enjoy.
--------
44:43
--------
44:43
2-12-25
Thank goodness the piano was tuned! The cold and dry weather wreaked havoc, and my tuner said the pin block was at risk if I didn't get humidifiers going. Humidifiers are now going...
Small crowd tonight, more snow is on the way. My friend Paul Harris joined again, and I tried to give him open-ended accompaniments. We got into the groove right away, and danced around little motifs as we improvised. Such fun. Enjoy.
--------
42:50
--------
42:50
1-29-25
ooohhh, so sorry; I'm posting this, but damn is it out of tune! I didn't realize it was so bad. I'm grimacing as I'm playing, but the music had to happen! There was a variation on a Chopin Prelude in there; see if you can find it.
--------
42:31
--------
42:31
1-23-25
Whoops. I didn't turn on one of the microphones... I mixed it in mono, added a little gain, messed with EQ and crossed my fingers.
Good crowd tonight, who wanted to clap, so I left it in. Went to some pretty lush romantic harmonies, and did one atonal piece (which always sounds like there is more tonality and shape when I listen back!). I think I quoted the theme to All Things Considered in there. One piece went sort of Musical Theater, Pippin style? You be the judge.
Welcome to Piano Meditations Podcast by Blake Rowe. For the past eight years (with occasional breaks), Wednesday nights have been devoted to creating freely improvised music for about 45 minutes. Known melodies may come to mind and may be explored, but the pieces are primarily “spontaneously composed”. The music tends to follow an arc from introspective to energetic and back again. The first few notes become a motif to be explored; sometimes a piece is more structured and and other times more free form.
After more than 300 episodes, Piano Meditations will be ending soon. Blake is embarking on an open-ended road trip around the USA, and although he won’t be able to play his beloved Steinway, he did fit most of his electronic music studio into his camper van! So, expect a period of no uploads, but something new will emerge. You can follow his travel blog by signing up for his mailing list at www.blakerowe.com. The blog is titled Road to Joy.