today's the street date for my new record, Out of My Hands on White Tie/Mesa Bluemoon. incredibly excited about it, and thrilled that i'll be able to preview most of the record and lots of old favorites when i play @ highline ballroom on the 24th. here's a nice preview piece that appeared in yesterday's New York Post.
special thanks to paul geluso, the genius on the board for this release, to lisa and george nauful from the label for their incredible support and enthusiasm, and to jonathon rosen & steve byram for their beautiful work on the package (there's even more artwork in the extended digital version of the album booklet notes).
tracklist:
tori amos - mother
radiohead - all i need
elliott smith - new disaster
nirvana - heart-shaped box
portishead - the rip
pink floyd - us & them
tears for fears - woman in chains
cocteau twins - blue bell knoll
r.e.m. - world leader pretend
radiohead - videotape
the smiths - asleep
reid anderson (of The Bad Plus) - lost of love
nice surprise to wake up this morning to the leak of an apparently new song by radiohead, THESE ARE MY TWISTED WORDS. really nice effort, i think. sounds like a nice dollop of the john mclaughlin/miles davis years in the guitar writing.
thanks to shira and howard for getting the word to allan kozinn about the new record coming out, as well as the highline show on the 24th. nice to have allan remember so fondly the first radiohead record i did, from which he quotes his own impressions extensively in this morning's new york times. i like his idea of my getting actual piano works composed for me by the folks i've been playing. i bet REM's mike mills has a few things knocking around in his instrumental (piano only) file (we recently made our first trip to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame here in Cleveland and admired mike's lovingly displayed concert garb), the mind boggles @ what tori amos might devise, toccata-wise. and thom yorke is the most engaging and innovate savant pianists i've ever played. i think he'd probably rather stick with his laptop, though; jonny would be quite another matter; he's already proven himself a quite capable piano composer in his piano for children, a piece for solo piano and chamber orchestra. alas, there'll be no new work from elliott smith, kurt cobain or nick drake; more's the pity.
actually, john schaefer of WNYC got hold of some copland foundation money a few years back, and he and i talked over a couple of beers about who i'd most like to have a solo piano piece from. ralph towner, the guitarist of the paul winter consort and more lately, oregon, was at the top of both our lists. i'd loved ralph's music for many years, and so simulacrafor solo piano and a joint appearance for new sounds @ miller theater with ralph/me and oregon was born.
still have yet to record that piece. ralph's written a fair amount for piano, just for his own use (i tell him he could be a really great pianist, if he'd just cut those damn fingernails!), as well as for film and theater work. i played an encore that night, a piece of incidental music for a staging of midsummer might's dream ralph did the music for.
whilst marking my eading time, waiting for the impending arrival of the new pynchon, i cooled my page-turning heels in the well-entrusted care of donald e. westlake, in two of his great mob-releated caper-noirs of the 60's: THE CUTIE and SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY. both well worth your while.
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