Paul Taylor - Whirl and Magnet 2024

Исполнитель: Paul Taylor
Альбом: Whirl and Magnet
Жанр: Experimental Jazz
Год: 2024
Страна: UK
Лейбл: Discus Music
Формат: FLAC (tracks)
Official DR value: DR10
Разрядность: 24bit / 48kHz Stereo
Размер: 386 MB
Источник: qobuz
Залито на: XFile (tracks)

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Paul Taylor is an improvising pianist / electronics player based in North East England, and who is often heard as a solo improviser. Here he turns his attention to two improvisations for Hammond organ, an instrument which allows him to explore his passions for both jazz and more progressive / kosmische styles.

The Hammond C3 organ at the erstwhile Sage Gateshead Music Centre (now The Glasshouse International Centre for Music) is a powerhouse of an instrument hidden in plain sight. Concealed in a corner of the basement labyrinth of studios and practice rooms, I've rarely heard or seen it played in earnest by anyone else.

Being privileged to work in an environment surrounded by music and instruments, it did not take me long to encounter this timeless box of tricks. Nor did I need much encouragement to uncover the keyboard, fire up the archaic starting motor and hear the mechanical whirr of the Leslie rotary speaker cabinet scythe through the air. And then to see what I could conjure up from the hidden recesses of the unfamiliar box of tricks.

The piano is my primary instrument, and over the years I have recorded many albums of solo piano improvisation. Although the organ's keyboard is the same as the piano's, the two instruments completely contrast in terms of dynamics, sonic quality and range, and thus require very different approaches to playing and technique. The organ requires greater, or more accurately, different levels of dexterity and physical stamina than the piano, especially when played solo. As well as the necessity to be able to play the keyboard to some standard, there is also a battery of switches, drawbars and pedals to contend with, all of which must be mastered to some extent in order to create a coherent piece of music.

Growing up immersed in the soundworld of progressive rock, albeit doing so anachronistically in the 1990s, an era intrinsically hostile to all things prog, the sound of the Hammond organ in all its infinite glory and permutations has become a familiar landmark in my musical hinterland. It was only a matter of time before I rose to the challenge of creating new music with the Hammond, and I am very grateful for this opportunity to do so.

Although these recordings are completely improvised, the discerning listener will be able to detect certain indelible influences, which I will not divulge here.

I would like to offer my profound thanks to Martin Archer at Discus Music, who initially heard these recordings, saw something in them, had faith in their potential and then invited me to release them as an album.

Paul Taylor, October 2023

Трэклист:

01. Whirl and Magnet, Pt. 1
02. Whirl and Magnet, Pt. 2

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