SKySWiM Sep 08, 2022
I was going through old cassettes I recently found in my garage. I was specifically looking for my own songs I had done in the past, including rough drafts, and solo improvisations I put on there.
I was greatly surprised as I found one very long solo piano tune that sounded at least 85% of how I sound doing piano improvisations. I could not remember playing this recording, but since it sounded so much like me, that I was blown away by it. The mood, timing, left and right hand activities, chords, fingering styles, melodies, etc., was like I had a musical mirror up to my ear.
Well, at the end of the recording, it turned out to have been a recording I made off the radio (probably NPR here in the USA), and it turned out to be from this album! I was both pleased but also a bit disappointed that it was not my recording. Call me a narcissist, but I loved this because I totally relate to it (well, at least to 85% of it), obviously.
Steve is probably more consistent in his tempos and timing than I am overall in his improvisation work. But it is uncanny how similar his solo piano style is to me. I literally learned to play similar to this as a form of music therapy, where I would just sit for hours at a time doodling. For YEARS, I did not want other people to hear me play like this, but as I got older, I finally tried recording some of my doodling. This doodling help me through Major Depression I had all the way to age 31.
If you like this album, I'd say that there is an 85% chance you will like my own piano improvisations. You might even end up liking some of my other rather eclectic tunes that I have written. You can find my tunes at http://skyswim.com/
Normally, I don't like to ride the coattails of another artist like this. However, because of how uncanny his playing sounds like me, I thought it wrong to not let other people know.
