Thursday, October 12, 2006

relieved

I just did a little research on something I've been experiencing, fearing that it was serious. I've identified it and it, apparently, is harmless:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precordial_catch_syndrome

Mysterious, and therefore worrisome, but, thankfully, harmless.

Phew!

You just might have it, too - it's apparently somewhat common - just less so in adults and moreso in adolescents. Again, though, it's harmless.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

testing new audio feature

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

October

Well, I'm about to jump in the shower to get ready to get out of here, but I have had the thought to update the blog.

Yes, October is here, but Fall hasn't TRULY hit St. Louis yet. It kind of comes and goes, trading true Fall beauty with echoes of the harsh summer.

So, what's happened since the last update?

Well, new music and new developments. An Italian music podcast has asked if they could devote an episode to me. Very cool! It's called the Indie-Eye Podcast Magazine - and they're apparently very popular. I asked an Italian friend of mine if he knew of the broadcast, and he said he did but that he didn't know it was based in Italy!

http://www.indie-eye.it

I have to get a recording made of me talking about the music. They gave me a few questions, but the main thing, they say, is that I talk freely about the music.

There's also this:

http://www.critiquesdisques.com/j-k/pianosaga.htm

It's a review by French Canadian composer and music enthusiast Vincent Bergeron. He has reviewed over 1,000 albums since 1998. He says an 8.5 rating is 'rare' and is given 'only a few times a year.' Here's a rough English translation:

Kenny Jaworski "A Piano Saga" (2006)
Rating: 8.5/10 One of the best of the year.

Without being an expert on pianists (far from it), the piano of Kenny Jaworski is for me a phantasmic interpretation of the instrument, free of the standard traditional rigors and expectations.

Jaworski learned to play on his own. I don't know of any other pianist with his sound and approach. In his own language, the popular and cinematographic melodies keep their balance between the physical acrobatics carried out like a serious fall down a staircase; somewhat reminiscent of the piano in the film Science of Sleep (Michel Gondry)

The two seemingly polar opposites [accessible melody and intense piano virtuosity] are made to work together with equality and mutual respect.

"A Piano Saga" is conceived for everyone. If a New Age piano review site [Solo Piano Publications] finds enjoyment and merit in Jaworski's music, anyone else can as well.

Jaworski's most remarkable quality is to never lose sight of the melody for the sake of virtuosity and intensity. It would be very easy to do so with a formidable technique such as his, but the sets of themes among the various pieces of "A Piano Saga" make the album quite listenable and understandable in spite of its unforeseeable changes of rate/rhythm.

Even the most discerning listener will find shoe with his/her foot, to the point that some of them, in this year of pop punt and abrutissante, will find this to be one of their favorite albums to listen to in loops!

Recorded live on April 14, 2005 at St Françis Xavier College Church in St. Louis (Missouri), this 'take one' performance has what it takes to draw the attention of purists still disavowing the use of the studio like an instrument. Jaworski "cheats" not and throws his musical talents on tape such as they are in reality.

Each composition contains various images, a palpable mood and a boisterous rate/rhythm bringing the melodies in ways that are hard to believe. Shostakovich, Tori Amos, Debussy, and Erik Satie all pass through this music rapidly. Jaworski learned it all by himself and without making discrimination.

Here is Jaworski's second greater quality: he treats the best of each one of his ideas with equality and care. Jaworski goes really far in the intensity of his playing, with many notes and many contrasts, but each note seems in its right place.

Jaworski's incredible talent allows the music to seem honest and natural while still having academic sophistication.

He draws from the fastest and noisy passages all the melancholy of the slowest and discrete passages. Memories are attached to the acrobatics and the music certainly succeeds, even though it suddenly goes to very different places during its slow and discrete passages. Thus, the end of the album is slower with its very small hopping interruptions and an absence of continuous tempo. At the beginning, I was hesitant about this development. Now, I do not know any more; he may very well be reaching a higher level of consciousness during those pieces.

Capsizing and beautiful, so beautiful! An album of this calibre doesn't come to me even once per year, an album that touches me this much and made on only one instrument!

Vincent Bergeron
Montreal, Canada