I remember twelve years ago when my mom shared a picture of an infant Cohen with some other women: "Just look at him," one lady said, "Pure potential." My mom told me about the story, and I still remember us marveling at the truth of it. Here are some moments that capture the f...
According to her biographer Richard Witts (Nico: The Life and Lies of an Icon, Virgin Books, 1993), Ornette Coleman told her that the normal way to approach a keyboard was to play the chords with the left hand in the lower register and the melody higher up with the right hand. He sug...
It’s his version of what used to be called “arranger’s piano”, the spare approach associated with Tadd Dameron and Gil Evans, among others. And you could hear very specifically what he meant when he struck thick, dark chords and allowed them to resonate and bounce off the lid of th...
I sent my snapshot of it to the pianist Alexander Hawkins, who shot back a reply within an hour. It turned out that, by coincidence, he had just been transcribing some chords fromPrime Design/Time Design,
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Also available on Soundcloud, early in the year I created a synth-y set of tracks exploring the “Axis progression” or “4 chords of pop” by applying the sequence to other scales and modes than the usual major or minor key versions, as an entry in a challenge on one of the discord...
“three chords and the truth” motto to its logical conclusion. Even album cuts like “Love on the Rocks” and “Back to the Rocking Horse” rocked respectably, a major victory in the hits-and-filler era. And to understand the abject absurdity of the decade's crusading parental groups, ...
Fat Wreck Chords The Bombpops, 'Death In Venice Beach' — March 13 Pop-punk favorites the Bombpops followed up their infectiousFear of Missing OutwithDeath in Venice Beachthis year, taking a darker and more vulnerable approach to the genre. One of the album's main topics is the recovery ...
of the piano solo on a relaxed “Don’t Blame Me”, to the way he spins out his double-time lines, shaping them so beautifully, allowing them to float and curl and wind before moving into a passage of contrapuntal and parallel lines, followed by the lightest of block chords. By that ...