Keyboard April 2014

8/20/2019 Keyboard April 2014

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04.2014 | $5.99A MUSIC PLAYER PUBLICATION

ROLAND FA-06Back in the Workstation Game

YAMAHA MOXFHard-Hitting Studio and

Gig Machine

SYNTHMASTERSof Synth Sleeper Hit

HK LUCAS NANO Your PA for Small Gigs?

WAYS TO PLAY LIKEBENMONT TENCH

BOLD HARMONICMOTION FORJAZZ PLAYERS

CLICK TRACKWORKOUT FORRUSSIAN DRAGONS

REVIEWS

CHICK

COREAKeeping a Vigil on Your Musical Voice


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NEW!

OSCILLATE! Nord Lead 4 is a virtual analog synthesizer with 2

oscillators per voice and 4 slots. New features include Wavetables with

formants, Hard/Soft Sync, Noise-generator with dedicated filter and a true

Unison-mode for meaty leads!

MODULATE! 2 LFOs and a Modulation Envelope can control

anything from filters to effects and even offer very flexible triggering options.

FILTER! Nord Lead 4 features 7 filter types including an extremely steep

48 dB low-pass filter, two amazing simulations of the legendary transistor

and diode ladder-filters and a powerful drive for distorting the sound

internally in the filter.

MUTILATE! Color your sounds with simulated tube amp distortion,

sample-rate reduction, comb-filtering, a talk box-effect and a compressor.

Each slot also features a tweakable delay with analog-mode plus reverb.

SYNCHRONIZE! Arpegg iators, LFOs and delays can all besynchronized to the internal Master Clock or an external sequencer.

IMPROVISE! The flexible Morph functionality offers unprecedented

control over your sound while playing. Change multiple parameters at once

- gradually with the mod wheel or velocity - or instantaneously with the

powerful new Impulse Morph buttons.

Listen to sound demos:nordkeyboards.com/nordlead4

Handmade in Sweden by Clavia DMI AB

With innovative new live features, advanced layering and synchronization options,

new filter simulations and powerful effects, the new Nord Lead 4 is a flexible synth

that’s just as brilliant on stage as in your studio.

Nord Lead 4R - Rack mountable table-top version

Nord Lead 4 - 49-key synth version

Follow us:facebook.com/nordkeyboards

For more information contact

[email protected]


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MicroBrute is the tiny analog synth with

vast possibilities. The MicroBrute puts all the

essential building blocks of an analog classic

into a package that’s pure hands-on fun. If

you’re new to synths, you’re looking at one

of the most unique sounding synthesizers we

think money can buy. And if you’re a synth

“The MicroBrute is a pure analoguesynth, and it sounds like one. TheMicroBrute will become a signicantsuccess in its own right.”

Sound on Sound, 02/2014

veteran, MicroBrute is also a seriously capable

semi-modular sequence-able beast. Wait till

you hear how it sounds

Tiny in size, tiny in price, huge in sound, and

vast in potential. We’ve had so much fun with

MicroBrute: Now it’s your turn.www.arturia.com

Looks tiny, sounds massive


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6/70Keyboard 04.20146

APRIL 2014CONTENTS

12 In our monster eight-page report, we go hands-on with the latestand greatest gear to make its debut at the biggest musical

instrument and pro audio expo in the western hemisphere.

50 WORKSTATION

Roland FA Series

54 WORKSTATION

Yamaha MOXF and Karma-

Lab KARMA Motif software

58 SOFT SYNTH

KV331 Audio SynthMaster

62 PA

HK Audio Lucas Nano 300

64 APP

Master Record

66 Five things in-demand sideman Henry Hey has

learned about Playing Soft Synths Live.

KEYBOARD (ISSN 0730-0158) is published monthly by NewBay Media, LLC 1111 Bayhill Drive, Suite 125, San Bruno,

CA 94066. All material published in KEYBOARD is copyrighted © 2013 by NewBay Media. All rights reserved. Re-

production of material appearing in KEYBOARD is forbidden without permission. KEYBOARD is a registered trade-

mark of NewBay Media. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Bruno, CA and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER:

Send address changes to KEYBOARD P.O. Box 9158, Lowell, MA 01853. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement

#40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.

NEW GEAR

TALK

22 LEGENDS

Jazz fusion and multi-keyboard pioneer Chick Corea

returns with new compositions and a new band, the

Vigil. Get his advice for keeping a vigil on your own

musical development in this candid interview.

26 SONG STORIES

Hear straight from songwriter Marc Cohn about the

transformative trip that busted his writer’s block and

led to the iconic hit “Walking in Memphis.”

30 TALENT SCOUT

With a jazz-infused technique and fearless senseof musical exploration, Ariadna Castellanos is

making amenco hot again.

32 PLAYLIST

What we’re listening to this month.

10 Voices from the Keyboard community.

34 LATINFive ways to play like Heartbreaker

Benmont Tench.

38 JAZZ

George Colligan on harmonic motion.

40 TECHNIQUE

Kimmel keysman Jeff Babko on playing to a click.

44 THE ART OF

SYNTH SOLOING

Two-handed techniques

inspired by Chick Corea.

46 BEYOND THE MANUAL

Music production wizard Craig Anderton serves up advanced tips

and tricks for working with MIDI

tracks in part 2 of MIDI Reloaded.

48 DANCE

Create the square wave synth

bass predicted to be the dance oor

sound of 2014.

Online Now!

keyboardmag.com/april2014

Web-only special: Great

pianists check out high-end

grand pianos at NAMM!

HEAR

SPECIAL REPORT: THE LATEST FROM NAMM 2014

PLAY

REVIEW

KNOW

CODA


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Keyboard

Magazine

Go to www.keyboardmag.com/ipad


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Keyboard Magazine isNOW AVAILABLE ON THE iPAD!

Get the NEW and IMPROVED

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You’ll have lessons penned by music’s brightest

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notes to play and which knobs to turn—empowering

musicians of all styles and skill levels to use music

technology the way they want to.

To download the app for FREE go

to www.keyboardmag.com/ipad


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Designed and built in California Visit davesmithinstruments.com

Dave Smith

Instrument DesignerCo-Creator of MIDI

Grammy® Winner

Over the past 40 years,Dave Smith has designed more ground-breaking synthesizers than anyone, ever.

Dave Smith Instruments has the largestline of analog and digital/analog hybrids y n t h s i n t h e w o r l d . T o p t o b o t t o m ,D a v e S m i t h I n s t r u m e n t s ’ a w a r d -winni ng, A merican-made productl ine inc lude s a synthe s ize r fore ve ry ne e d and budge t , f romthe flagship Prophet 12 to theaffordable and ultra-port ableMopho product family.


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VOL. 40, NO. 04 #456 APRIL 2014

Follow us on

Keyboard 04.2014 8


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VOICES FROM THE KEYBOARD COMMUNITYTALK

10 Keyboard 04.2014 10

Recently, a parenting blog piece called “Te High

Cost of Music” showed up in my Facebook feed.

It wasn’t terribly recent itself, but I’ve seen many

forms of the complaint it expressed: $60 per

hour—the going rate in the author’s affluent

suburb of Boston and places like it—is too much

to pay for music lessons for kids.

Te author quotes U.S. labor stats showing that

several ostensibly tougher jobs pay less. She then

argues that assuming roughly 40 hours per week, a

piano teacher makes $120,000 per year. Assuming

$60 per hour is an accurate median (debatable), the

error here is that most music teachers don’t book

anywhere near 40 hours of lessons each week. Why

not? Kids have school most of the year, making for

a brief late afternoon window for other activities.

Seriously, if you’re pulling $120K a year teaching,

let me know and I’ll hang out a shingle myself.

Not that you shouldn’t be. Countless stud-

ies have shown that music education improves

academic performance and social skills, so I’m

always indignant when folks who would never

haggle with a car mechanic or hairstylist have no

shame about doing so with a music professional.

At the time of this writing, the piece seems

to have been pulled from the host site, Parenting

Squad, so I don’t want to throw mud. Kids have a

myriad of different needs, all of which must be bud-

geted for, and that ain’t easy. Tat said, I believe thatmusic is fundamental—and our kids are worth it.

Te original Korg Kaossilator has a cool rhythmic quirk you can recreate with almost any sampleror audio editor: If you record a loop on the Kaossilator and then increase the tempo, the instru-

ment chops samples off the end of the loop to make it t the shorter duration. (Te typical way to

t a loop to a faster tempo is to time-stretch it or raise its pitch.) By dialing in the right tempo on

the Kaossilator, you can chop off eighth-notes or entire beats, turning a 4/4 groove into 6/8, 3/4, or

other feels. You could also chop beats manually in your DAW for fresh variations. Hear an example

at keyboardmag.com/april2014. David Battino

THE POLL

Q: IS THE

NAMM SHOW

STILL A

RELEVANT

SOURCE OFGEAR INFO

FOR YOU?

Polls rotate every two weeks, and can be found at the bottom of our homepage.

Key Secrets Crop and Roll

Stephen Fortner

Editor

Connect

Comment directly at

keyboardmag.com

twitter.com

keyboardmag

facebook.com

KeyboardMagazine

SoundCloud.com

KeyboardMag

Keyboard Corner

forums.musicplayer.com

email

[email protected]

Editor’s Note

NO

16%

THE WHAT?

6%

YES

78%


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1104.2014 Keyboard

The Emphase is a “concept car” synth under development at Non-

Linear Labs, the brainchild of Native Instruments’ Stefan Schmitt.

The concept? A custom keyboard sending high-resolution (not MIDI)

controller data to a DSP engine based on NI Reaktor. No computer

is required, and for gigging, the keyboard works detached from

the control panel; the latter accepts overlay labels for its myriad of

assignable buttons. Aesthetically, it reminds us of the Synclavier II, but

is sure to be far more powerful and not involve a second mortgage.

Follow the Emphase’s progress at nonlinear-labs.de

My First _______________. David Rosenthal“I began playing piano when I was seven,” recalls multi-keyboard master and Billy Joelmusic director David Rosenthal, “but my first experience with a synth came at age 15

when I went to music camp at Glassboro State College.” While attending, Rosenthal

heard Isao Tomita’s synth-fueled reinvention of Pictures at an Exhibition and was floored.

“It gave me goose bumps,” he recalls. Luckily, the camp had a Moog Modular on site

and Rosenthal jumped at the chance to dig in. “The teachers gave me a little class

and I tried to figure out signal paths as I went,” he says. “Between that experience and

hearing the Tomita album, I knew—this is what I wanted to do, no question.” So inspired,

Rosenthal worked two summers to earn enough cash for a Roland SH-1000, on which he

reproduced the sounds of his favorite Tomita records, and emulated the stylings of Yes,

ELP, and Chick Corea. “I used that first synth to help one of my high school bands win

the Garden State Arts Center talent show playing ELP’s ‘Hoedown,’” he says, laughing.

“Today, I still have it in the original case.” Keep up with David at davidrosenthal.com. | Michael Gallant

_______________iano w en I was seven ” recaSynthesizer

NEXT TECH >>THEULTIMATE HYBRID?

30 YEARSAGO

TODAYOur April 1984 cover fea-

tured Joe Sample of the

Crusaders, who has recently been touring with Wayne Henderson

and Wilton Felder of the original Jazz Crusaders lineup. April has

long been our NAMM report issue, and keyboards spied at that

year’s expo included prototypes of the Kurzweil K250 and Rhodes

Mark V (with MIDI out), as well as Casio’s dual-manual monster,

the Symphonytron 8000. Also, Eddie Van Halen talked about play-

ing synths on the album (wait for it) 1984.

+


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Keyboard 04.2014 12

NEW GEAR


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1304.2014 Keyboard

MOOG MUSIC SUB 37

The Sub 37 is the first more-than-monophonic Moogin 30 years, with a duo mode that squeezes out two

voices of polyphony. Technically it’s paraphonic,

meaning that the oscillators feed a common filter and

amp, but “paraphony” would sound like we’re talking

about Milli Vanilli. Expanding on the Sub Phatty

with more presets, loopable envelopes for filter and

volume, and an arpeggiator, it provides everything

Moog purists want while also taking off in a more

experiment-inspiring direction. In fact, we think it has

the sweetest features-to-price balance of any Moog

synthesizer currently made.

$1,579 list | $1,499 street | moogmusic.com

See even more gear in our monster

video report from NAMM 2014.

NEW SYNTHS

G MUSIC SUB 37MO

Sub 37 is the rst more-than-monophonic Moogeyears, with a duo mode that squeezes out two3

es o po yp ony. Technical y it’soic parap onic,

ning that the oscillators eed a common lter andea

, but “paraphony” would sound like we’re talkingmp

t Milli Vanilli. Expanding on the Sub Phattyo

more resets, oo a e enve o es or ter an it

me, and an arpeggiator, it provides everythingolu

urists want while also takin o in a morMoo

riment-inspiring direction. In act, we think it hasxp

weetest eatures-to-price balance o any Mooge

hesizer currently made.ynt

9 list | $1,499 street | moogmusic.com$1,5

See even more gear in our monster

video report from NAMM 2014.

NEW SY HS

BY STEPHEN FORTNER, FRANCIS PRÈVE, AND THE KEYBOARD CONTRIBUTORS

Our Favorites from


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Keyboard 04.2014 14

CLAVIA NORD LEAD A1

With real analog having made such a huge comeback in

recent years, why go with a virtual analog hardware synth?

Polyphony for the price, signal routing flexibility, and moredigital-sounding timbral options when you want ’em are three

reasons. Where the Nord Lead 4 (reviewed Dec. ’13) was the

successor to the Wave, the Swedes intend the Lead A1 to

replace the Lead 2X in their more-affordable slot. Compared

to the 2X, you get more polyphony, more waveforms, MIDI

over USB (finally), an effects section including reverb, and

comprehensive sync-to-host-tempo options.

$2,099 list | $1,799 street | nordkeyboards.com

KORG MS-20 KIT

Not to be confused with last year’s MS-20 Mini, this limited

release is a full size analog replica of the original MS-20.

You assemble it yourself, but a soldering iron is thankfully

not among the tools required. Notably, Korg has included

both the earlier (aggressive and self-oscillating) and later

(creamier) filter designs from the originals, letting you switch

between the two. You still can get all the same sounds from

the MS-20 Mini, which also makes more sense if your other

analog gear uses 1/8” patch cables. But if you’re a collectorand/or would prefer a 1/4” patch bay, snap one up, as Korg is

only making around 1,500 units.

$1,599 list | $1,399 street | korg.com

ELEKTRON ANALOG RYTM

Elektron’s MachineDrum has become a favorite among

hardware-loving producers, thanks to its tweakable dedicated

synth engines for each percussion element. This new remix of

the MachineDrum formula boasts eight hybrid drum voiceswith both sampling and analog tone generation options, with

a built-in analog compressor and distortion for good measure.

Add 12 velocity- and pressure-sensitive pads, throw in a

16-step sequencer, toss with some decidedly digital reverb

and delay, and you’ve got a drum machine that covers all

the bases and then some. The price point places it squarely

between Korg’s Volca Beats and Smith and Linn’s Tempest.

$1,549 list | $1,499 street | elektron.se

Wave Your Hands in the Air . . .The Theremin is a haunting, mesmerizing, and infamously difficult instrument. Moog Music aims to change

that with the Theremini, which we had to tear ourselves away from to see the rest of the NAMM Show. It’s

based on the Animoog synth engine, and can give various forms of assistance including visual feedback

about your hand position, programmable lowest and highest possible

notes, even scaling that won’t let you play a bad note. For

the $299 street price, anyone can rock more like Clara—

and with the EDM crowd always looking for the next

rush, we bet it finds its way into a few DJ rigs.

. .difficult instrument. Moog Music aims to change

ay from to see the rest of the NAMM Show. It’s

orms o assistance including visual eedback

st possible


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1504.2014 Keyboard

ROLANDRD-800

Often, a

keyboard’sspecs don’t

scream

anything special. Far less often, we play said keyboard and go,

“Oh, there it is!” Such a keyboard is the RD-800. “SuperNatural”

programming; four zones that you can quickly split, layer, and

mix on the fly; lots of knobs for tweaking the sound in real time; a

Tone Color knob that macro-adjusts the sound (e.g., stereo spread

on a grand piano or tine-like quality on a Rhodes); high-end

weighted action; blah, blah, blah. Here’s what that doesn’t convey:

The RD-800 sounds so fantastic across the board, and its action

has such exquisite finger-to-music connection, that it’s getting

early raves from everyone who touched it at NAMM—including us.

Forget everything you know about the RD series—this is different.

$2,999 list | $2,499 street | rolandus.com

STUDIOLOGIC NUMA CONCERT

Studiologic

is the in-

house brandof world-

dominating

keybed maker

Fatar, and the latest of their Numa stage pianos aims to

incorporate many of the features of higher-end offerings

from competitors, such as triple velocity sensors per key

and modeling of acoustic nuances including sympathetic

resonance. Upon first play, we thought it indeed sounded

richer and fuller than previous Numa pianos. It certainly got

on our gotta-review-it radar, so stay tuned.

$2,199 list | $1,999 street | studiologic-music.com

KAWAI MP11

We actually

didn’t see

the MP11 at

NAMM, as

it launched

February 17.From what we do know, the MP11 ups the game from Kawai’s

former flagship, the MP10 (reviewed Mar. ’11) in the areas of

sampling, action, and a user interface that sports more gig-

useful tone adjustments. As on the MP10, three separate

panel areas cover sound selection and control: acoustic piano,

electric piano (which includes Clavs), and “sub” for everything

else (pads, strings, mallets, etc.). A small but big thing is that

the onboard XLR outs have a ground lift switch, or as we like

to say, the good kind of buzzkill.

$3,299 list | $2,800 street | kawaius.com

A keytar is like a fedora: Donning one makes you either look bad-ass (e.g.,

Jordan Rudess, Polysics, or George Duke) or like a dorkus maximus (e.g.,

a certain magazine editor), with intentional irony as the only possiblemiddle ground. For those who dare, the fun factor is undeniable, and Korg

and Alesis ramped it up this year.

KORG RK-100S

Billed as a redux of their

RK-100 from the ’80s, the

RK-100S is in fact much

nicer. The hardwood

body has to be seen and

held to be appreciated,

with a fit and finish you

might expect from some

far smaller company’s

boutique instrument.

The three-quarter size

keys are surprisingly

comfortable for soloing,

and you get one ribbon

controller on the neckand another running the

length of the keyboard.

Inside is a MicroKorg XL+ engine, which can do virtual analog

synthesis, intentionally digital tones, and vocoder effects (via

an optional headset mic). Battery power and a programmable

arpeggiator round out the feature set.

$899.99 list | $699.99 street | korg.com

ALESIS VORTEX WIRELESS

Last year, the Alesis Vortex controller turned

heads for bringing aftertouch, velocity sensitive

pads, and a MIDI-mappable tilt sensor to almost

an impulse-buy price. Because it could run

on four AA batteries, the big question was,

“But does it do wireless MIDI?” The Vortex

Wireless does, via a built-in transmitter and

USB receiver dongle you plug into your sound

source. A custom soft synth from Sonivox is

included, featuring patches programmed forthe Vortex’s control capabilities.

$299 list | $199 street | alesis.com

We’ll be reviewing both the RK-100S and Vortex Wire-

less in depth, but our initial feeling is that while the

Korg’s craftsmanship and built-in synth make it highly

desirable, its price point puts it in the “because you

can” le whereas the Alesis is more “because how can

you not?”

STAGE PIANOS KEYTAR HEROES

t


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Keyboard 04.2014 16

Roland’s Aira (pronounced “eye-rah”) series was the stuff of speculation at NAMM

time, and not exhibited on the show floor. Common to all the Airae is a technology

Roland calls Analog Circuit Behavior. Their engineers studied vintage TR-808 and

909 drum machines, the TB-303 Bassline, SH-101, Jupiter, Juno, and System 100 and

700 modular synths, and VP-330 vocoder, paying careful attention to how all the

original components actually interact. We got to play with them at a secret, invite-only hotel suite. Our first impression is that they sound great and are wickedly fun

to use. Roland has also taken a “chicken in every pot” stance with the pricing.

Roland bills the System-1 as a “plug-out” synth, because it can run emulations of

classic analog synths that you program patches for on your computer, then pipe

into the System-1, take to the gig, and play using the standalone hardware. The

first such emulation is the SH-101. It also has a native two-oscillator subtractive

architecture. Currently, the hardware is in two-octave form only, but we hope for

a “System-61” with a full keyboard and maybe even more knobs and sliders. The

version we played was a very early prototype—the rest of the Aira line being much

more fully baked as of NAMM—but the sound was in-your-face yet lush, not unlike a

Jupiter-8. Design features include a video-style jog wheel for pitch-bend, which can

also do glitchy breadkdown effects Roland calls “Scatter.” Street price: $599.

The TR-8 Rhythm Performer is what’s generating the big buzz. Note the contrast

with Roland’s historic term for a drum machine, “rhythm composer,” and hence the

implication of live use. It emulates the sounds of the TR-808 and 909 perfectly, and

simultaneously recaptures and improves upon the experience of entering drum hits

as the sequence runs via volume faders and tone-sculpting knobs for such things astuning and decay. The Scatter function is on hand as well. Street Price: $499 at the

end.

The TB-3 Touch Bassline is a bass synth and sequencer in the style of the TB-303,

the most obvious cue that it’s from the future being its backlit touch membrane in

place of the original’s piano-key buttons. It emulates all the sounds of the TB-303,

adds new bass, lead, and FX patches, and the touchpad can act as a keyboard or

X/Y controller for playing with continuous pitch or creating modulation. Street

price: $299.

The thing about the VT-3 Vocal Transformer is that you get a great sounding Darth

Punk machine for $199. We think we’ve seen some of these vocoder chops before,

such as in the Vocal Designer mode on the V-Synth XT, but never has the price of

admission been this low.

TR-8 Rhythm Performer

TB-3 Touch Bassline

VT-3 Vocal Transformer

AIRA 51


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Keyboard 04.2014 18

ANALOG OUTFITTERS

ORGANIC

We reported on these

in February’s New Gearcolumn, but having

played them at NAMM,

mention bears repeating.

They’re MIDI controllers

for playing software

clonewheel organs, and

the feel is impeccable—we didn’t think a tactile experience

could make an emulation sound more real, but now we’re not

so sure. Contact the manufacturer for pricing on the dual-manual, single-manual, and 44-key Mini models.

analogoutfitters.com

ARTURIA BEATSTEP

This has to be the

runaway bang-for-

buck hit of NAMM

2014. Cleverly

disguised as just a

pad controller, it’s alsoa hardware sequencer that can drive software instruments

via USB, hardware via MIDI (a five-pin adaptor is included),

or analog synths via its CV/gate outs. We saw one flawlessly

playing a vintage Oberheim SEM. The pads are both pressure

and velocity sensitive. So whether you need drum machine-

style groove entry or a primary sequencer for your modular

synth rig, you’re covered. For peanuts.

$129 list | $99 street | arturia.com

M-AUDIO TRIGGER FINGER PRO

Speaking of drum pads

and step sequencers,

M-Audio has revived

their Trigger Finger

controller with a Pro

version that really lives up

to its name. Housed in a sexy

aluminum case with multicolored

backlit pads, a gorgeous four-lineLCD display, hardware step sequencer,

and transport controls, the Trigger Finger

Pro is a huge leap beyond the original. It also

includes its own plug-in host environment, Arsenal, that can

itself be hosted as a plug-in or operate standalone. Throw in

samples and loops from Toolroom Records, plus AIR Drums

and the Hybrid 3 soft synth (remember when that was a

Digidesign thing?), and you have all the makings of your

next dance floor hit. Of all of the portable controllers we sawat NAMM, the TFP seems most poised to find its way into

countless gig bags, and the price is certainly right.

$449 list | $399 street | m-audio.com

BEHRINGER

MOTÖR 61

We haven’t seen

motorized faderson a MIDI controller keyboard since CME’s VX series back in

2007. The Behringer’s faders are also touch-sensitive. For both

ergonomic and space-use reasons, it could make a lot of sense

to combine your black ’n’ whites and DAW control surface into

one slab that occupies that prime desk real estate between

your monitor speakers. The rest of the feature set—endless

rotaries, velocity-sensitive drum pads, and Mackie Control

protocol—is robust, the price is hard to argue with, and there’s

no extra charge for the umlaut.

$449.99 list | $299.99 street | behringer.com

KORG TRITON TAKTILE

Billed as a controller

augmented by

classic sounds

from the Triton

workstation,

the Triton Taktile

comes in 25 or 49 keys, and focuses on lots of tactile (get it?)control: A Kaoss-style X/Y touchpad that can play riffs in a

user-specified scale, a ribbon that doubles as an increment/

decrement clicker just below that, and velocity-sensitive pads.

The 49er has eight knobs and twice the pads. There are also

soundless siblings answering simply to Taktile, but for an extra

100 bucks, one might as well have the patches onboard.

25 keys: $490 list | $249 street

49 keys: $679 list | $499 street

korg.com

Though MIDI controllers aren’t the first thing most

folks think of when they think of Samson, we love their

Graphite line because the keys feel good and it offers a

lot of controls for the price of dinner for two at a trendy

gastropub. For the space challenged, they’ve now released

25- and 32-note mini-keys versions. In an interesting design

choice, the 25-key model (shown, $79.99 street) actuallypacks in more controls (eight knobs and four drum pads)

whereas the 32 ($69.99 street) is for those who need “just

keys.” Find out more at samsontech.com.

INNOVATIVE MIDI CONTROLLERS

ER PRO

exy

ico ore

four-line


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1904.2014 Keyboard

KORG GADGET

Korg’s Gadget iOS app will

change the way groove-

makers think of their iPads.Gadget delivers 15 soft

synths (including three drum

machines,) each specializing

in a different EDM flavor.

Then, Korg took it further

by adding full-featured

sequencing that’s actually usable in

iOS with few compromises. They added essential effects like

reverb and a limiter—and a track freeze function so you can

actually finish a project. Since this is an iPad app, Korg baked

in all kinds of modern compatibility tools like CoreMIDI and

WIST, as well as in-app sharing via SoundCloud, Dropbox,

Facebook, and Twitter. While we’ve seen quite a few iOS

DAWs, Gadget is the first single app that can go toe-to-toe

with laptops when it comes to electronic music production.

$28.99 at iTunes App Store | korg.com

VIR2 ACOU6TICS

Vir2’s Electri6ity instrument tookelectric guitar emulation to a level of

authenticity that gave real guitarists

yet another reason to be mad at

keyboard players. Acou6tics does

the same for the acoustic guitar. Six

guitars are covered including steel,

nylon, and 12-strings, and with some

practice triggering the articulations,

you can get all Michael Hedges orRichard Thompson pretty quickly.

Seriously, it’s pretty sick.

$399 list | $299 street | vir2.com

VI LABS RAVENSCROFT PIANO

The Ravenscroft is a boutique

concert grand piano handmade

in Arizona. How does it compare

to well-known marques? If a

Ferrari or Porsche is too ordinaryfor you, it’s the McLaren. The

makers of TrueKeys are now

virtualizing it. At press time, it was still under development,

but we do know that it has exhaustive sampling to capture

things like key release, repetition strikes, and four stereo mic

positions—requiring a total of 38GB of disk space. This should

be a doozy.

$199.99 street | vilabsaudio.com

IZOTOPE BREAKTWEAKER

Co-designed by one of

the most influential EDM

artists of the past decade,BT, BreakTweaker puts

Brian Transeau’s nano-scale

approach to groove editing

within reach of mere mortals. BreakTweaker keeps the process

straightforward with six instrument tracks, each offering a

wide array of synthesis tools including sampling, wavetable,

additive, FM, and AM—along with a boatload of filtering,

processing and modulation amenities for zeroing in on really

detailed percussion sounds. From there, iZotope incorporated

micro-editing tools that facilitate BT’s trademark production

techniques, much like their previous collaboration, StutterEdit,

but on a per-track, per-event basis. Thirty-second-note

fills that collapse into audio-rate buzzes? No sweat. Tuned

micro-flams? Got it. Morphing drums that go from massive to

miniscule over the course of a few events? Nailed.

$249 list | $199 street | izotope.com

EDM BUNDLE FOR OMNISPHERE

Comprising all three electronica-orientedpatch collections for Spectrasonics’

Omnisphere soft synth— Ascension, EDM

Ignition, and EDM Fire—this caught our

attention for rising above the button-

pushing loop-jockey stereotype that

trained keyboardists might associate

with electronic dance music. It does all

the expected affectations and much

more, but in a way that’s eminentlyplayable and musical. If you don’t make EDM, you’re still

sure to find inspiration for film/TV work and synth-driven

songwriting.

$59.97 list | $49 street | ilio.com

WAVES METAFILTER

Though Waves is best known

for high-end audio processing

plug-ins for engineers and

record producers, MetaFilteris best thought of as a virtual

version of a synth filter that

you just had to have for

your Eurorack modular rig

because it was made by some

mad scientist in a garage. Its

cutoff, resonance, and delay

can be modulated by three sources: an LFO, an envelope

follower, and the onboard 16-step sequencer. It’s also fullyMIDI-controllable.

$200 | $99 introductory price | waves.com

VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS AND PLUG-INS

STUDIO AND LIVE ESSENTIALS


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Keyboard 04.2014 20

MOTU 828X

FireWire has left the building—and PCIe cards won’t be farbehind if Apple gets their way. Now, it’s all about Thunderbolt

if you have it and USB2/3 if you don’t. That’s why MOTU

chose their most popular box, the 828 series, to inaugurate

what’s sure to become a trend in computer audio interfaces:

both types of connectivity. On the USB side, they’ve opted

for USB2 over 3 for maximum compatibility, as USB2 devices

work fine on USB3 ports but not the other way around.

Otherwise, it’s the 828 Mk. 3 we all know and love.

$999 list | $849 street | motu.com

UNIVERSAL AUDIO APOLLO TWIN

This 192kHz beauty packs the benefits of

UA’s Key Buy-winning Apollo interface

into a desktop wedge. As in that piece,

“powered plug-ins” (which include many

excellent emulations of classic recording

gear) run on their own DSP, and because

the DSP lives in the audio interface,

you can opt to track through plug-ins as though they werehardware. This is especially relevant given UA’s new Unison

mic preamp modeling, which is frankly the best technology

of its kind we’ve yet seen. Single- and dual-DSP versions are

available, and an optical port lets you hook up an eight-channel

lightpipe preamp to expand the inputs. The price is right, too,

but since the Apollo Twin is Thunderbolt-only and Mac-only,

you’ll need a pretty recent Mac to use it.

Solo: $879.99 list | $699 street

Duo: $1,129.99 list | $899 street | uaudio.com

MANLEY CORE

Manley? Isn’t their stuff

for A-list engineers

and producers who

can throw thousands

at their recording front end? Maybe, but the Core puts much

of what those A-listers love into an all-in-one channel strip, at

a price targeted at committed home studio dwellers. You get a

transformer-matched tube preamp that can take mic, line, andguitar-level signals; ELOP compressor with fixed 3:1 ratio; three-

band EQ with sweepable mids; and brick-wall limiter. Uniquely,

the compressor operates upstream of the mic pre, making

clipping all but impossible. If you’re ready and able to add that

one deadly serious channel strip to your recording rig, this is it.

$2,250 list | $2,000 street | manleylabs.com

FOCUSRITE ITRACK DOCK

This very nice iPad dock and

audio/MIDI interface is, for

starters, the one to get if

your iPad is of the Lightning

variety. Its Lightning

connector slides into one

of two positions so that either an iPad Air/fourth-gen or a

Mini can sit centered and snugly. You get two of the super-

clean mic preamps Focusrite is known for, and a USB type A

port as a MIDI input, letting you piggyback a keyboard or padcontroller to play your iOS soft synths.

$249.99 list | $199 street | focusrite.com

QSC TOUCHMIX

QSC matures the concept of

touchscreen live mixing in a way

that’s easy for musicians who

run their own sound to grasp, yet

familiar to engineers accustomed

to reaching for a fader. Versions

exist with eight or 16 preamps on

XLR inputs, each with two stereo line-level pairs in addition.

What was most striking to us was that you get everything

you’d expect from a larger digital console in terms of I/O,

routing, and effects, in the footprint of a drum machine. It’ll

record multitrack mixes directly to an attached hard drive

(letting you turn that great gig into the band’s demo), has

a lot of “wizards” to help novices get set up and sounding

good quickly, and has an advanced mode for more seasonedsoundfolk who want to get their hands on every parameter.

TouchMix 8: $1,199.99 list | $899.99 street

TouchMix 16: $1,799.99 list | $1,299.99 street

qscaudio.com

MACKIE VLZ4

The original MS-1202 put Mackie

on the map because it sounded

decent, was tiny, and had enough

inputs to be the live or studio

traffic cop for multi-keyboard

rigs in the late ’80s and early

’90s. Coming in all sizes from

the tiny 402 to a 32-channel

console, the VLZ4 generation

adds Mackie’s Onyx mic preamps to all XLR-equipped input

channels, lower noise and higher headroom all around, and

bright color-coding for easy operation in the dark.

Prices vary based on size | mackie.com

SOFTUBE CONSOLE 1

Until now, we’ve associated Softube with guitar amp and

cabinet modeling—of the extremely excellent variety. Console 1

applies those coding chops to mixing, combining emulations

of channel strips from coveted

large-format recording consoles

with a dedicated hardware control

surface. The inaugural channel tobe modeled is from the SSL 4000E.

$1,149 (est.) |

softube.com

g consoles

ware control

l channel tohe SSL 4000E.

STUDIO AND LIVE ESSENTIALS


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Though Grammy-nominated and multi-platinum-

selling Gavin DeGraw was raised in a prison town

two hours north of New York City, and had seen

harsh reality from an early age, the hippie vibe

of nearby Woodstock lingered in the air, offering

a feeling of limitless possibility and freedom.

“Music was definitely part of our family culture. Mygranddad played music. My granddad’s brothers

played music. They were basically like a bunch of farm

kids who played music,” DeGraw says. “My dad plays

guitar and he’s a great singer. He wasn’t a piano player,

but he could figure it out and say, ‘Here, check this out.’”

DeGraw says his exposure to live music at an early

age helped him build a passion for learning to play.

His brother already had a three-year jump on playing

guitar, so DeGraw gravitated toward the piano.

“My family was unusually supportive about playing

music because they just loved music. So when I told

them I wanted to play rock and roll, they were like,

‘Cool, yeah, go do that. Good idea.’ It was weird

how there was no way to be rebellious about it.”

DeGraw’s songwriting reflects that freedom,

incorporating aspects of several different popular

music genres into one album, from stripped-down

Americana and analog synthesizer sounds to hi-tech

electronic dance sounds.

Read the entire interview and see the keys toGavin’s sounds at guitarcenter.com/gavin-degraw

NEW ALBUM

MAKE A MOVE

Available on iTunes

GAVINDEGRAW.COM

YAMAHA ARIUS DIGITALPIANO IN POLISHED EB0NY

(VDPC71PE)LIST: $2499.00

$1499.99

SPARKING KEYS TO CREATIVITYGAVIN DEGRAW


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Keyboard 04.2014 22

LEGENDS » SONG STORIES » TALENT SCOUT » PLAYLISTHEAR

BY JON REGEN

CHICK COREA KEEPING A VIGIL

Continuous growth has been a mainstay of Corea’s career since its inception. Fromearly landmark outings like Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, to his work alongside

Miles Davis, to his acoustic and electronic explorations with Return to Forever and

the Elektric Band, the only thing you can predict about Chick Corea is that you just

don’t know where he’s headed next.

On The Vigil , he returns with a captivating set of compositions and a ferocious band

with which to bring them to life. “Galaxy 32 Star 4” brims with ensemble interplay

and electric piano prestidigitation. “Planet Chia” pits Corea’s signature Spanish-

tinged piano work against shifting harmonic and rhythmic tides. On “Portals to For-

ever,” Corea’s revered Rhodes sound—custom-sampled into his Yamaha Motif XF—

anchors a trance-inducing stew of guitar, horns, and percussion. At 72 years young,

Corea has never sounded more energized on record. He took time to speak to us

about the project, and about keeping a vigil on your own musical identity.

“I WANTED TO GIVE A NAME TO THIS BAND THAT HAD A SPECIALNESS TO IT,”

legendary pianist and composer Chick Corea says of his nimble new group, the Vigil.

“I haven’t had my own band where I write the music, hire the musicians, and oversee

the project, for over ten years. I missed the sense of musical community that hap-

pens in a band—the kind of environment where things are constantly growing.”

A R N E

R O S T A D


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2304.2014 Keyboard

What was the impetus to put this new bandtogether?

In this day and age with the nature of live work,

I can’t expect even a young, upcoming musician

to hang with me if I’m going to take a break. He

or she has got to do other gigs. So I thought that

this time, I’d put together a band where the con-

cept will continue to be the same thing. I gave it

a moniker, the Vigil, and then whoever’s going to

be in it will be in it. And so far, everybody from

the first group I put together is still here, except

that the bass position has changed a little bit.

Te name “Vigil” is about me wanting to stay

connected to the music I grew up with and love—

the lineage of Black American jazz music. As I

learned more about the music of the world, I con-

nected with Spanish-speaking communities: South American music, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. Tose are

my personal, musical roots and communities by

choice. So I want to keep a “vigil” on that.

It’s also about how there are always invita-

tions from presenters of music such as record

companies and promoters. Te businessman’s

idea of how to make something a success is by

observing what kind of music “brings people out”

and then doing more of the same. I understand

that way of thinking—it’s “business sense.” But

it’s an invitation to an artist to compromise. So an-

other part of the Vigil was to not make that com-

promise, which I’ve never really done, but it gets

harder and harder to

avoid. For example,

we “stretch out” and

play rhythms that

are grooving to me,

but sometimes theaudience doesn’t

pick up on them

because they’re so

subtle. Tese are

almost the exact

opposite of the ele-

ments that make

music easily reach-

able by audiences,

like vocals and nice

steady rhythms.

But I want to keep

that sense of ad-

venture in music. Otherwise I’m gonna die! I

need unknowns in the music I’m playing with my

friends—enough improvisation and spontaneity

to keep me interested.

How did you choose the particular membersof the band?

I knew I needed to get musicians who were young

enough in their musical careers that the gig

would be good for them. Tere’s a point where

musicians need to start forming their own bands

and doing their own thing. For instance, I worked

with [bassist] Christian McBride and [drum-

mer] Brian Blade, who are two of my favorites.

Christian had agreed to do the first summer tour

with this band. But he couldn’t do the recording

because our schedules conflicted. With young

musicians, the exchange between what they give

me and what I can give back to them is nice and

even. I give them gigs and some adventurous

music to play, and they give me their time and

their devotion to come on the road and stay inthe band. Tat’s how I found [guitarist] Charles

Altura, who’s an amazing musician and quite a

sensitive concert pianist as well. Stanley Clarke

recommended him to me.

I’ve known [drummer] Marcus Gilmore since

he was a kid, because he’s Roy Haynes’ grandson.

Roy brought him by the Blue Note when he was 14

and told me, “Listen to my grandson play.” Marcus

got up and we played my tune “Windows,” and he

just knocked me out. I thought, “Tank God there’s

a guy that age who can play with that rhythm feel.”

Carlitos del Puerto on bass was also recommended

to me by Stanley Clarke. He’s having a blast.

Were you thinking of

this band in particular

when you wrote the

music for the album?

It would be a fairy storyto say I wrote all of this

music for this project,

because the practical

side was that when I

made the decision to put

the new band together, I

didn’t want to take two

years to make it happen.

I wanted us to go out on

tour the next season.

In order to do that, I

needed to make a record

quickly. So I pulled com-

positions that I had been writing. I had written

“Galaxy 32 Star 4” for the 2011 Return to Forever

reunion, but we never got around to playing new

music, so I had that composition sitting there.

“Planet Chia” I wrote for an experiment that

Stanley Clarke and I did at the Blue Note in early2012. “Portals to Forever” was actually the only

piece I wrote specifically for this band.

What about the song “Royalty”? Tat one

has a great piano intro. . . .

Roy Haynes invited me to play on his record-

ing about a year and a half ago. I admire Roy so

much and we’ve been friends for so long that I

wanted to write a song and dedicate it to him. So

I wrote a song in 3/4 time and called it “Roy-L.”

I brought it to the date, but it didn’t fit. He liked

it, but he wanted to do more of an improvisation

with piano and drums on a couple of tracks. We

didn’t use it, so I had the song.

"When you playthat phrase orwrite that song,how are yougoing to knowwhen it’s good?When someone

else tells you?Wrong."

You didn’t announce any song titles when you You’re also using the Minimoog Voyager on the idea of “the Vigil”—to have that hour or two


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24 Keyboard 04.2014 24

You didn t announce any song titles when you

played at the Blue Note. Was that intentional?

When we rst started touring, for months I was

announcing every tune. I was trying to make

it entertaining, and everybody in the band an-

nounced different tunes so that the audience

got a touch of their personalities. It seemed likeit was going over well, but it became a strain to

keep switching hats, from making the music to

being an announcer. So recently on the Asian

tour, I thought, “Tey can nd out the name of

the song anyway, so I’ll just play and keep things

seamless.” Te musical ow just kept going that

way, and it allowed almost a rest period in be-

tween tunes where I’d play a little soliloquy.

Tere’s a goal I have that I think everybody in

the band shares as well, which is that we all wantto get across to an audience. We want to please

them in some kind of way. We don’t want to pan-

der to them, but we want to include them. Tere’s

no rote way to do that. You don’t have to smile

and bow all the time, or tell a joke or announce

song titles. Or , you can if you feel like it. But if

the intention is there to include the audience,

that’s the most important thing.

When I heard you play your own Rhodes

sound on the Yamaha Motif XF8, I felt like Iwas sitting in front of an actual Rhodes.

Tat’s a sample I did of my vintage, beautiful,

tweaked-over-decades Rhodes Mark V. Every time

I’d come back from a tour, my technician Brian

Alexander out in Los Angeles would tweak it up

and improve things on it. By the time we sampled

it around ve years ago, it was really in beautiful

shape. Later Yamaha gured out a way to take

these huge samples we’d created, and allow them

to be placed in Flash memory and played on the

Motif XF. It’s a good illusion. It works for me, plus

I don’t have to repair my Rhodes every time it

spends ten hours bouncing around in a truck on

the way to the gig.

You re also using the Minimoog Voyager on

this project?

Yeah. It has a sound that sails over the ensemble.

What piano are you playing on the road

these days?

Yamaha has a new concert grand called the CFX,which is my favorite piano of all time. Tat same

technology is also used in their seven-foot grand,

the CF6, which I wanted so that I could t the

percussionist on the stage. I’m enjoying playing

that piano so much. I’ve played Yamaha pianos

since the 1960s.

Why Yamaha over other pianos?

Tey’re nice people! [Laughs.] Really, they are.

What happened, though, was that each new itera-tion of their concert grand became better and

better. By the early 1980s, I actually preferred the

Yamaha concert grand to the Steinway. Now with

the CFX, it ’s absolutely my favorite. Plus, Yamaha’s

R&D department is quite active and intelligent.

Tey’re always improving their instruments. Te

Motif XF is beautiful. I’d like to get deeper into the

sonics and synth engine inside of it.

When I saw you live at the Blue Note, there

was an almost continuous evolution to eachsong. How do you stay so seemingly excited

at every turn?

Well, if I’m not interested in what I’m doing,

how can I get anyone else interested? It’s just a

matter of pulling elements together. Life keeps

changing, the world changes, promoters change,

audiences change. For an artist, the changes that

are happening in our society aren’t always in an

“up” direction. But I consider the challenges part

of the adventure. For example, just to travel and

be on tour these days is really hard, compared to

ten or 20 years ago. Now it’s stressful, so I have to

tell myself, “If I’m gonna play music and present

it to audiences, I have to travel.” It gets back to

the idea of the Vigil to have that hour or two

onstage that’s unencumbered and problem-free

enough that we can get into the matter at hand,

which is just making music.

What words of advice do you have for aspiring

artists who hope to have a career like yours? All of the musicians that I know and admire

had one simple intention: Tey wanted to lead

a creative life and create something they really

loved. It gives me great pleasure to see others,

especially young guys and girls who are coming

up, want to make music. I know they might need

some encouragement, because they might not

be getting it in their homes. Teir parents or

their teachers might be saying to them, “Hey, you

should do something more predictable,” or, “Youneed to have something to fall back on.” But I like

to encourage others into the arts, and one of the

things I tell them is that it’s a great life. Te rea-

son why is because you’ve found something that

you love to do. Ten, in addition to that, you not

only get to enjoy the feeling of doing what you

love to do, but you also get to see someone else

receive pleasure from it. So it’s a good life, and it’s

something that people everywhere really need.It’s what keeps us alive.

If I were to offer one concept or piece of advice,

it would be this: Tink for yourself . Because what

happens when you study music is that all of this

information is coming in at you. You read books,

your teachers tell you things, you look at Youube,

you see musicians play live, and so on. It’s like a ow

that comes into you, but in order to be a musician,

you now have to do something that directs that ow

outward. You have to play your instrument. So when

you play that phrase or write that song, how are

you going to know when it’s good? When someone

else tells you? Wrong. You’re going to know it’s good

when you know it’s good. You have to be your own

judge. Tere’s a kind of integrity and ethics about it.

You have to take on the responsibility of your own

tastes and say, “No, that wasn’t as good as I wanted

it to be.” So if you say that, you must have some

concept of how you want it to be. Tat’s good. Sonow make it how you want it to be! Tink for your-

self. Tat’s my whole philosophy.

Chick Corea and the

Vigil live in 2013.

Sampling Chick’s

Rhodes for the

Yamaha Motif

keyboardmag.com/april2014

S A K U R A I T O S H I


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HEAR LEGENDS » SONG STORIES » TALENT SCOUT » PLAYLIST

HEAR E EN DS S N ST RIES TALENT S UT P LAY LI T


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26 Keyboard 04.2014 26

HEAR HEAR

The Songwriter’s Predicament Around that same time, I was reading an interview

with James aylor. Te interviewer asked James

what his antidote for writer’s block was. James

responded, “I do a geographic,” meaning that he’d

attempt to reawaken his sensibilities just by being

someplace unfamiliar. He said, “I’ll take my guitar

and put it in the trunk of my car, or I’ll get on a plane

and go somewhere I’ve never been, hoping to nd

some idea I wouldn’t get just by sitting at home.” I

thought I’d try that as well. Memphis was the rst

place I decided to go in my search for inspiration.

Beyond just trying to cure writer’s block, the

trip was also about nding my songwriting voice.

By that time I’d already been a songwriter for many

years. I’d struggled in Los Angeles, playing all the

clubs, but had never been signed. Later when I came

to New York City, I started having success as a ses-

sion singer, but I still didn’t get a record deal. One

night while listening to all of my demos, I came to

the realization that I shouldn’t be signed, because I

didn’t have any great songs yet. My voice was good

and the demos were interesting, but the songs were

only just okay. I was 28 years old and not in love

with my songs. James aylor had written “Fire and

Rain” when he was 18, and Jackson Browne wrote

“Tese Days” when he was only 17. I thought, “I’m

already ten years older than these geniuses. It’s

never going to happen for me.” So it was a pretty

desperate time, and I went to Memphis with that

struggle at the forefront of my mind.

I did all the touristy things you’re supposed to

do. I went to Graceland, and I saw Elvis Presley’s

tomb and his airplanes. I also went to the Rendez-

vous restaurant for ribs. But a friend told me there

were two things in particular that I had to do, thingsthat would forever change me. Tey would later

become the centerpieces of “Walking in Memphis.”

Transcendent ExperiencesTe rst thing was go to the Full Gospel aberna-

cle Church on a Sunday morning to hear the Rev-

erend Al Green preach. I’ll admit that I didn’t go

for religious purposes—I went to hear one of my

favorite singers sing. But it didn’t take long until

I had chills running up and down my spine. Te

service was so deeply moving that I found myself

with sweat running down my face and tears in my

eyes, totally enveloped by everything I was see-

ing and hearing. Tere was something incredibly

I FIRST WENT TO MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE IN 1985. I ALWAYS KNEW IT WAS A

place I had to visit because so much of my favorite music came from there. From

Al Green, Ann Peebles, and everything on Hi Records, to Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes,

David Porter, and the Stax catalog, an almost endless stream of brilliance and soul

came out of Memphis. I was aware early on that just like Detroit and the music of

Motown, there was something going on in Memphis that was utterly inexplicable. It

was part of what me want to be a musician in the first place.

Walking inBY MARC COHN, AS TOLD TO JON REGEN

E R I K

V A L I N D

MYRI AM SANT O S

KA

YDA

Fig. 3. Cohn with

h i l f h

Fig. 2. The legal pad

hi h h


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2704.2014 Keyboard

powerful about Al Green’s voice in that context.

Even after three hours of continuous singing,

his voice only got stronger and his band only got

better. I sat there crying in the church, aware of

the irony of how I used to cry in Synagogue in

Cleveland as a kid—but because I wanted to get

the heck out of there! Al Green’s service was one

of the great experiences of my life.

Te second thing was to go to the Hollywood

Café in Robinsonville, Mississippi, about 40 minutes

outside of Memphis, and hear Muriel Davis Wilkins

sing. I’d never heard of Muriel before, but I took myfriend’s advice and went anyway. Te Hollywood

Café had supposedly once been a slave commissary,

but it was now a lovely little restaurant that served

fried pickles and catsh. Muriel was a schoolteacher

who on weekends made extra money playing mu-

sic. When I arrived, Muriel, who at the time was in

her 60s, was onstage playing a beat-up old upright

piano and singing Gospel standards like “Te Glory

of Love” and “Nearer My God to Tee.” I felt an im-

mediate connection to her voice, her spirit, her face,

and her smile. I was totally transxed by her music.

While many of the patrons were busy eatingand not paying close attention to Muriel, I couldn’t

take my eyes off her. During her breaks, the two

of us would talk. Muriel asked me why I was there,

and I told her I was a songwriter trying to nd in-

spiration. I also told her a little bit about my child-

hood—how when I was two and a half years old,

my mom had passed away very unexpectedly, and

about ten years later, my dad had passed away and

I’d been raised by a stepmother. My mother’s death

was a central event in my life, and I’d been writinga lot about it over the years, both in songs and in

journals. I think a part of me felt stuck in time,

like I’d never quite been able to work through that

loss. Muriel was as sweet as could be, and she was

Memphis

the “Muriel” of the

song, pianist Muriel

Davis Wilkins.

on which Marc Cohn

first started working

out the lyrics.

MARC COHN ON THE GENESIS OF HIS 1991 PIANO HIT

Fig. 1. The first line of the lyrics to “Walking in Memphis” over its signature

opening piano arpeggio.

really funny, too. I remember that she asked how I

ll d l t Wh I t ld h h li d

nal lyrics yet (see Figure 2 on page 27). I was still

ki th “ h t f El i ” d th

ply trying to write songs that sounded complete with

j t d i dI’d dth ith littl


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28 Keyboard 04.2014 28

spelled my last name. When I told her, she replied,

“You mean, like corn?” We had a lot of laughs.

By midnight, the Hollywood was still packed,

and Muriel asked me to join her onstage. We soon

realized that there wasn’t a song in the universe that

both of us knew in common. A quick thinker, Murielstarted feeding me lyrics to Gospel songs so that I

could catch up in time to sing somewhat in rhythm

with her and make up my own version of the melody.

Some songs I was vaguely familiar with, and some I

didn’t know at all. Te very last song we sang togeth-

er that night was “Amazing Grace.” After we nished

and people were applauding, Muriel leaned over and

whispered in my ear, “Child, you can let go now.” It

was an incredibly maternal thing for her to say to me.

Just like sitting in Reverend Al Green’s church, I wasagain transformed. It was almost as if my mother was

whispering in my ear. From the time I left Memphis

and went back home to New York City, I knew I had a

song in me about my experience there.

Pen on Paper

Tere have been countless songs about Memphis,

so I knew if I was going to go down that road, it

needed to be deeply personal. Within a few days ofcoming home, I began to write the song on guitar.

I think I already had the opening line, “Put on my

blue suede shoes and I boarded the plane.” I start-

ed playing an arpeggiated gure that I liked, but

it didn’t take long for me to realize that I couldn’t

play it very well on guitar. So I went to the piano,

where that kind of rolling rhythm was easier for

me to play. Ten I added that rst line to the piano

riff (see Figure 1 on page 27) and I was off to the

races.Te music for “Walking in Memphis,” except for

the bridge, is really just the same thing over and over

again. It’s an attempt to keep things simple so that

the narrative is what the listener focuses on. Te

story keeps changing; it goes from one scenario to

another, all following the thread of my elation, de-

scribed in the lyric “Walking with my feet ten feet off

of Beale.” What’s being expressed is my love of music

and the spiritual transformation I’ve always feltthrough it. Te line, “ell me are you a Christian child,

and I said ‘Ma’am I am tonight’” . . . even in the mo-

ment I wrote it down, I knew I was getting closer to

nding my songwriting voice. o this day, people still

ask me if I am a Christian. While I have to admit that

I enjoy the confusion the lyric brings, the thing that

makes that line work is the fact that I’m a Jew. So

many great artists over the years needed to hide the

fact that they were Jewish to protect themselves and

their families from anti-Semitism, so I’m proud of thefact that I could come right out and practically an-

nounce my religion on the rst song I ever released.

I kept writing and rewriting the lyrics. Even

in some of the later drafts, I still didn’t have the

working on the “ghosts of Elvis” verse, and there

were still some things that weren’t in place yet.

When I nished the song, I felt like I had com-

pleted a jigsaw puzzle. I wasn’t sure if it was a “hit,”

because I was still years away from being signed

to Atlantic Records. Six months later, after I wrotemany of the songs that would later comprise my

album Marc Cohn, I went back to the Hollywood

Café to play them all for Muriel (see Figure 3 on

page 27). After I nished, Muriel said to me, “You

know the one where you mention me at the end?

Tat’s the best one you got!”

Later in 1986, my engineer and co-producer Ben

Wisch and I made a piano/vocal demo of “Walking in

Memphis” in a studio in New York City. At that point,

I wasn’t thinking about how my songs would workwith a band or on record. I wasn’t thinking about a

groove or what a guitar player might play. I was sim-

just me and a piano, and I’d record them with a little

Sony Walkman. Years later, after I signed with At-

lantic and it came time to turn that demo into some-

thing they thought would work on the radio, I barely

knew where to start. After many different versions of

it with just as many different musicians, I went to Pe-ter Koepke, the guy who signed me, and said, “Maybe

this just needs to be a piano/vocal track. Or maybe it

shouldn’t be on the record at all.” He replied, “If it’s

not on the record, I’m not sure we’re going to make a

record! So you better go gure this out, because we

think this just may get on the radio.” Later, I went

back to the label and said, “I’d like a shot at producing

this record with Ben Wisch, who I made the demos

with in the rst place. He got a great sound on my

voice and on the piano, and that’s at least half of whatthis is all about.” Atlantic ultimately agreed, and the

rest, I guess, is history.

“Marc was basically signed to Atlantic Records because of ‘Walking in

Memphis,’ co-producer Ben Wisch says. “We probably recorded it five

different times in different configurations. On one version, we actually had

Steve Gadd playing drums in the studio. It was after midnight and we wereall frustrated because the recording wasn’t going well. And Steve said, ‘Let’s

all switch instruments!’ That version didn’t work out, but I’ll never forget

Steve’s devotion to getting the song right. Eventually, we settled on a band

that featured John Leventhal on bass, Denny McDermott on drums, and Chris

Palmaro on Hammond organ. Everything was based around Marc’s singing and

piano playing. We recorded live to 24-track tape at Quad Recording Studios in

New York, with any editing done between entire takes of the song. The piano

sound is very in-your-face, not unlike Bruce Hornsby’s sound of a few years

prior. We used the old Steinway grand at Quad Studios, and I miked it with a

pair of AKG C451 condensers. Those are bright mics, and I put a fair amount of

compression on them. For vocals, Marc sang through a vintage Neumann U67

tube condenser microphone through a Teletronix LA-2A compressor and then

into an SSL console with outboard API EQ.”

BEN WISCHON RECORDING“WALKING IN

MEMPHIS”


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30 Keyboard 04.2014 30

AriadnaCastellanos

HOMETOWN: Madrid, Spain.

INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Piano, violin,

harp, and drums.

DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND: “Flamenco mu-

sic mixed with a classical background, plus jazz

harmonies and improvisation.”

MUSICAL TRAINING: “I studied classical piano

at the Guildhall School of Music in London, aswell as the Berklee College of Music in Boston. But

amenco music is really learned from people in the

street—from guitarists and singers in Spain—and

from many, many records.”

FIRST GIGS: “Classical concert halls when I

was six years old. My rst amenco shows were

in Spanish tablaos in Madrid.” [Tablaos are cafés,

nightclubs, and less formal venues where amencois performed. —Ed.]

MUSICAL INFLUENCES: “Paco de Lucia,

omatito, Jerez, Debussy, Ravel, and Calle 13.”

FAVORITE KEYBOARDS: “I’m a fan of

acoustic pianos, especially Bösendorfer.”

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW:

“Silence. I use music to change my state of mind,so when I’m feeling down, I play energetic mu-

sic. When I feel sad I play aggressive music to

give me strength, and when I’m extremely happy

I allow myself a soft, romantic song.”

BIG BREAK: “Meeting Javier Limón, the eight-

time Grammy award winner who has recordedmany famous amenco, jazz, and modern artists

such as Paco de Lucia, Alejandro Sanz, Wynton

Marsalis, and Bebo Valdés. He recorded my rst

album Flamenco en Black and White. Tis year he

was nominated for the Latin Grammy as Producer

of the Year for my album. Another big break would

be winning the Presidential Scholarship at Berklee,

as I’m the only Spanish musician to ever receive it.

I’ll always be extremely thankful to them for allow-ing me to come to the United States and open my

mind and music up to a whole new world.”

WHAT’S NEXT: “I’ll tour Spain in March

2014. I’m also recording a new album entitled

Flamencool with producer Javier Limón.”

ADVICE: “Always be

humble, yet never let

anybody pull you down.Nobody knows everything,

yet we’re all special. Also,

always love the music more

than yourself onstage.”

FLAMENCO-MEETS-JAZZ PIANIST AND COMPOSER ARIADNA CASTELLANOS

has been wowing audiences around the globe with what has been called “a brutal

technique and a wild intuition” on the piano. Find out more at ariadnacastellanos.com.

BY JON REGEN


33/70

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34/70

32 Keyboard 04.2014 32

HERBIE HANCOCK

The Complete Columbia Album Collection 1972-1988

This 34-CD compendium celebrates the legendary keyboardist and composer’s recorded output for the

storied label, including eight albums never before released in the United States. Covering everything from

his electrified outings like Sextant and Head Hunters, to acoustic works like his V.S.O.P quartet/quintet and

his soundtrack to the film ’Round Midnight , the collection is further proof of Hancock’s enduring artistic

legacy. Key track: “4 AM.” | herbiehancock.com

MARC CARY FOCUS TRIO

Four Directions

Jazzer Marc Cary has been crafting an alluring vision since anchoring the piano chair in vocalist Abbey

Lincoln’s band. Cary’s latest offers a myriad of keyboard sonorities, from the synth-laden, Indian

explorations of “Todi Blues” to the backbeat-infused acoustic adventures of “Tanktified.” (Cary also shines

on Rhodes electric piano on a number of cuts.) With nods to everything from R&B to smoldering straight-

ahead jazz, Four Corners is worth a spin. Key track: “Spectrum.” | marccary.com

STACEY KENTThe Changing Lights

While vocalist Stacey Kent has been a veritable institution in Europe for the last decade plus, it’s only

recently that her well-deserved acclaim has migrated stateside. Her new album The Changing Lights

should help speed up the process, with a near perfect blend of bossa nova-tinged soul and buoyant band

interplay. Kudos to pianist Graham Harvey for framing Kent’s vocals with artful accompaniment. Key track:

“This Happy Madness.” | staceykent.com

KOREL TUNADOR

The Early Mournings EP

Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Korel Tunador (Katy Perry, Goo Goo Dolls) surprises on his sophomore

solo release The Early Mourning EP , which marries sonic tricks with killer song licks. From the synth

shimmer of “You Dropped a Bomb,” to the funk strut of “Bringing You Back Down,” Tunador proves he isn’t

afraid to take center stage and tell his own side of the story. Key track: “My, My, My.” | koreltunador.com

HELEN SUNG

Anthem for a New Day

Jazz pianist and composer Helen Sung’s Anthem for a New Day is a hard grooving aural affair. From post-

Bop burners like her original “Brother Thelonious,” to a classically-cadenced take on Duke Ellington’s“It Don’t Mean a Thing,” Sung soars alongside bandmates Reuben Rogers on bass and Obed Calvaire

on drums. When clarinet master Paquito D’Rivera guests on her rendition of Chick Corea’s “Armando’s

Rhumba,” Sung proves she’s more than up to the task. Key track: “Chaos Theory.” | helensung.com

BENMONT TENCH

You Should Be So Lucky

Long regarded as the pinnacle of rock keyboard tastefulness, Benmont Tench delivers a

knockout punch with his debut as a bandleader, on the Blue Note label. Four over four

decades, Tench has anchored Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with his signature swirl of

Hammond, Wurlitzer, and piano. But on his first solo outing, Tench surprises with a captivating

collection of original songs. Recorded entirely to tape by legendary producer Glyn Johns

(Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, the Who), the album features cameos by Petty, Ringo Starr, and

alt-country crooner Ryan Adams. But the real star here is Tench, whose songs sear with

heartbreak (“Today I Took Your Picture Down”), humor (“Blonde Girl, Blue Dress”), and piano

perfection (“Wobbles”). We all knew he could kill on the keyboards, but YSBSL proves thatTench is a devastatingly great singer and songwriter. Key track: “Hannah.” | bluenote.com

BY JON REGEN


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POP/ROCK » JAZZ » TECHNIQUEPLAY


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34 Keyboard 04.2014 34

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1. Blending Tones

Finding the right part is alwaysimportant, but picking what

sounds you use can be just as

vital. Some big staples of Ben-

mont’s sound are the Hammond

B-3 organ, acoustic piano, and

Wurlitzer electric piano. Benmont

even finds ways to blend these

sounds into a tasteful combina-

tion of their own. Ex. 1 demon-

strates this, starting with piano

only and then adding in an unfor-

gettable B-3 riff that announces

the song in the best way possible.

Benmont played a part similar

to this on the om Petty and the

Heartbreakers song “Don’t Do Me

Like Tat.”

IN THE LEXICON OF ROCK KEYBOARDISTS,

one doesn’t go far before coming across the one

and only Benmont Tench. Known primarily as the

ever-so-tasty keyboardist for Tom Petty and the

Heartbreakers, Benmont is a consummate song

player. Every note he plays is for the betterment

of the song. He can often be found playing an

affecting Hammond B-3 organ solo, or finding a

keyboard part that blends so perfectly in a song

that it would literally cease to be the same song

without it. There is no way that anyone could dis-

till Benmont’s taste, feel, sounds, and parts into

only five elements, but we’ll give it our best shot!

Ex. 1.

PLAY

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Just because a song has a defined

musical style doesn’t mean you can’t

infuse different sections with other

alluring sounds. ake Ex. 2, a honky-

tonk piano part dropped smack into

the bridge of an otherwise driving

rock tune. Tat’s the genius of Ben-

mont ench—he’s always crafting

parts that serve the music and make

it soar. Tis example is in the style

of a part Benmont played with the

Heartbreakers on the classic song

“American Girl.”

Ex. 4.

Ex. 3.3. T Is for TasteHow do you define taste? Te answer

is, you just know it when you hear

it. Benmont is revered among fellow

musicians for his ability to make the

music shine without ever “show-

boating.” Ex. 3 illustrates a typical

Benmont piano part in the chorus of

a song. Notice how he delineates the

chord changes by creating an infec-

tious piano melody out of them in

octaves. Listen to his playing on the

om Petty tune “Here Comes My Girl”

for further examples of his sympa-

thetic sonics.

4. UnexpectedInstrumentsBenmont is always open to finding

unexpected sound sources to lift asong higher. While primarily known

as a master of acoustic and electro-

mechanical instruments like piano,

electric piano, and Hammond organ,

Benmont often works wonders on

synths as well, even though they

might seem unlikely in a rock context

such as the Heartbreakers. Ex. 4

shows how he might weave his magic

on an analog synth patch.

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TOM PETTY AND THE

HEARTBREAKERS

Damn the Torpedoes

RYAN ADAMS

Ashes & F

Keyboard April 2014

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Transcript of Keyboard April 2014