Tag Archives: jazz piano

Free Piano Music

On these four albums, you will find compelling improvisations around contemporary classics you may recognize.   These and other albums were sold as CD’s between 2018 and 2020, mostly locally.  As of today, I’m offering them for free.   Any charitable donation will of course be appreciated.  

 

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Exile 


Abstractions 


Pinnacle


Suspended 

 

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Hunted

This is a take-off on the song “Hunted” which is the opening number of Act Two of my musical. Tom & I actually did this yesterday, but it was a rush job because of the conditions at the church. It doesn’t really represent the song the way it’s presented in show context. I had to sleep on it to consider whether it might stand on its own. You decide.

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A little bit goes a long, long way. 

Disturbances

I’ve been a bit under the weather lately, with laryngitis keeping me from speaking or singing.  I canceled everything yesterday, though showed for a single rehearsal this morning before calling it a day early.  Whilst inside, I have wanted to let you know how this Howard upright piano, almost a hundred years of age, sounds in my living room.  Here’s a little something I spun out yesterday afternoon, spontaneously as it were.  The old guard has dignity.  

Please donate to Eden in Babylon.
A little bit goes a long, long way.

 

Interim

My new piano album Interim is now available on CD, including the following songs:

1. “Awake the Dawn” – Andy Pope

2. “Billy’s Blues” – Laura Nyro

3. “Cities” – Andy Pope

4. “Hey Jude” – John Lennon & Paul McCartney

5. “Shades of Happiness” – Andy Pope improv referencing “Happiness” by Clark Gesner

6. “Somebody Loves Me” – George Gershwin

7. “Sounds of Silence” – Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel

8. “You’re a Holiday” – Robin & Barry Gibbs

9. “Fumblin’ with the Blues” – Tom Waits, involving “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love” by Peter Schoates

10. “A Day in the Life” – John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Hymn Sing | St Andrew's Presbyterian Church

If you’re reading this and you’re local, the deal is that you get an Interim CD for ten bucks and I’ll throw in and Exile or Abstractions CD for five extra bucks.   If you’re reading from online or elsewhere, make that $15 and $20 rather than $10 and $15.   You can just hit here to pay me for it, and I’ll mail them to wherever you are.  

Please donate to Eden in Babylon.
A little bit goes a long, long way.

 

Billy’s Blues

Earlier I wrote that I’d be posting a piano piece, and here it is.  It’s “Billy’s Blues” by Laura Nyro, an early influence of mine.  You might note that it becomes a bit ‘chaotic’ towards the middle there.  I kinda like it like that.

I’ll be at the piano bench again next Friday, this time doing my original “Bubbles Taboo” with singing. Yes, it has words. I think you’re gonna like them — so stay tuned.

Please donate to Eden in Babylon.
A little bit goes a long, long way.

 

Hermit

I believe that we who write lyrics and music tend to remember the music we write better than we remember the lyrics.   At least, that is true of me, and especially if the song was written long ago, and then more-or-less abandoned.

The song that is featured today is something I wrote in April of 1976 in an effort to come out of a long period of isolation and creative famine.  I remember it took me a month to write the song.   This was also the first month of my now 42 years as a long-distance runner.  Writing this song was part of a complete lifestyle change.

Since it took me so long to squeeze it all out of me, I remembered the music very clearly, and continued to remember it over the years, even though I hardly ever played it.  But I forgot a lot of the lyrics, which I never sang.

At some point in the 42 years since I wrote the song “Hermit,” I forgot all about it.  But this past week, the song for some reason resurfaced in my consciousness.  This time, it had been so long, I didn’t even remember some of the music.   But as the week progressed, I remembered more and more of it; and I practiced it several times on the piano.

As for the lyrics?  Here are the ones I remember:

Shifting back and forth
Between one reckless thought and the next,
Trapped inside a rented room
Behind a world that’s too complex.

And later:

Your life is just a rented room!

Still later:

We all need our time to think –
But how much?  That’s all I ask!
You could spend a lifetime claiming you’re close to the cure,
But when life itself is such a task,
You’re never sure . . .
Never sure . .  .

Interesting.  I was 23 at the time.  I wonder why the song came back to me this week?  I hadn’t thought about it in years.  Here’s what it sounds like.

Please donate to Eden in Babylon.
Anything Helps – God Bless!

The Long and Winding Road

Hey, it’s Friday, and I got some piano for ya.  This one’s an old Todd Rundgren tune I kinda like:

This one here’s a Christian tune I heard in the 80’s.  (I had to google for the name.)

And finally, the famous Beatles song:

Usually I use a high-end Motorola smartphone, the property of my lady friend, to record these piano vids.  But she’s housebound with a bad knee, so I used the low-end Motorola of my Pastor Norman (the guy I’m talking to at the beginning of “Torch Song.”)  Its quality is not quite as crisp.

If you want even better quality, feel free to make a contribution.  The O.G.’s coming off of twelve years on the streets, and it’s not as though his net worth is anything bigger than Zero Point Zero at any given moment.

That said, still very grateful to for the blessing of indoor living.  I’m putting it to the best use possible, in God’s good time.

Please donate to Eden in Babylon.
Anything Helps – God Bless!