MP3 Alan Darragh - Time to Disenchant

Alan Darragh goes solo with his piano improvisation. Penetratingly elusive melodies that linger in your mind.

9 MP3 Songs in this album (42:47) !
Related styles: JAZZ: Modern Creative Jazz, JAZZ: Modern Free Jazz



Details:
Alan Darragh continues to explore his creativity on the piano. All nine tracks on Time to Disenchant are original. More importantly, these are not versions played from the written music but are the original improvisations, recorded live in Alan's studio in Toronto over the course of the year. And there lies the challenge - creating music, as complete in structure, form and melody as possible, straight out of one's head from beginning to end. For this twenty-three year old pianist and composer, there is no other way. He sits at his piano, his large hands covering an eleventh on the keyboard. While his emotions wrestle with the inconveniences of life, his intellect roams free creating song after song. Alan writes: âOnly I know what I'm going to do next. But until I do it, even I don't know what it will be. Musical improvisation is like getting up on the stage at a writers convention and writing a novel on the spot. Nothing is predetermined. When I sit down to play I don't think - today, I'm going to play six hundred key changes or just one tone center. What I play is what comes out that day. Although it's not a conscious decision, by not trying to cover too many keys, it allows me to concentrate on the song and less on the 'music.' But I am a glutton for chords. They give music a soul ââ

Alan Darragh, a young poet, composer and jazz pianist, has been studying and playing piano for more than 16 years. A natural improviser with an instinctive relaxed feel, he discovered early that jazz was his métier. He began his formal studies with Dave Hildinger, âa brilliant arranger at home with both bebop and modern jazzâ as well as a pianist with a magical touch. A rigorous teacher, Mr. Hildinger left no jazz touchstone unturned.

After moving to Toronto in 2004, Alan continued his studies with Bernie Senensky, who helped develop his natural bent for jazz composition. To date Alan has more than 90 compositions, many with lyrics.

Adam David's bio - "Adam has kept the beat with such greats as Ray Charles, Vince Gill, Tommy Newson, Michelle Wright, Charles Brown, Shirley Eikhard, Oliver Jones, Tommy Hunter, and Morgan Davis. He's also an accomplished actor, with regular parts on such hit TV series as "Degrassi High" -- if you think you recognize Adam from somewhere, it's probably from TV. And he's been the Toronto District School Board's percussion specialist since 1979.

Despot Studio
With the exception of mind reader, which was recorded by Jim Morgan of Acrobat Studio in Pickering, Ont., the other three CDs are a DIY project. They are recorded out of Despot Studio, Alanâs home studio in Toronto. It took the slave wage production team endless tinkering to fix the acoustic problems, which are generated when a grand piano shares a room with a full drum kit and a spectrum of cymbals. It was a challenge not only to record the piano and drum, but also to design an acoustic environment where Alan and Adam could hear what each was doing without resorting to isolation booths or sacrificing dynamics. Because they continued to record throughout the process, there are noticeable variations in sound quality in some of the tracks. Rather than attempt to redo those tracks, it was decided to include them because they are the originals.