JON FURNISS

BY STEPHEN FORTNER BEINGBEING MMikeike GGarsonarson hen Mike Garson’s likes of , , and you wouldn’t know that most of the 2000-plus piano solo ripped Smashing Pumpkins. Then there are the other Now! Music pieces Garson’s composed were through the title track projects, like playing all the piano parts for simply improvised in real time and captured of ’s 1972 the 1988 ABC TV biopic Liberace (Garson for posterity by a Yamaha Disklavier piano; on album AladdinSane, duplicated the flamboyant pianist’s chops the contrary, they more often seem like the mindsW of all stripes were blown. Its passionate with uncanny accuracy) and his work with product of intense forethought. pyrotechnics captured attention as thoroughly -classical fusion ensemble Free Flight. A As you read this, Bowie, Garson, and band as any guitar god’s miracles would, yet it displayed glance at the bio and timeline sections of his have completed a tour of Europe in support of a mastery of theory that perked up the ears and website, www.mikegarson.com, shows that Reality,Bowie’s 26th studio album, and are lowered the turned-up nose of many a classical all this is just the tip of the iceberg. now midway through the North American leg. purist. It’s the definitive example of virtuoso Since about 1994, he’s been developing an Just before the tour kicked off, Garson made piano in a rock context. approach to playing he calls “Now! Music.” time for a conversation with Keyboard about Garson has not only continued supporting (Let’s derail a potential word association: It’s his classical roots, his genre-defying career, and one of rock’s most original and mercurial auteurs not related to the Now! That’s What I Call his views on improvisation and inspiration. in the three decades since ,but has Music compilation CDs. It is, however, what also been extremely active in composition, we call music!) “Now! Music” is best described Can you give us an example of a “Now! Music” solo performance and recording, and music as a philosophy that sees improvisation as the piece? education. To say Garson is proficient in all primary means of musical expression, and [Sitting at one of the three Yamaha grand styles would be a wretched understatement. By emphasizes it. While an untrained musician pianos in his studio, Garson demonstrates, age 13, he was studying with Leonard Eisner of does not have the resources of one who has taking this writer on a one-minute journey Julliard and Lennie Tristano. He has interpreted spent a lifetime studying to draw on, players that defies musical categorization. It begins Gershwin and played with jazz giants such as at all skill levels can overcome the mental with quiet, plaintive chordal statements, , , and Freddie Hubbard, obstacles that hinder the joyful and spontaneous crescendos into physics-defying arpeggios, and and lent classical and modernist motifs to the translation of emotion into notes. To listen, ends thunderously, morphing from a piece

28 KEYBOARD JANUARY 2004 www.keyboardmag.com STEVE FORTNER Gershwin could have written into what might happen if Rachmaninoff and Beethoven played a duet with their pianos in a mosh pit. What’s remarkable is that the listener can’t discern a single point at which the piece switches styles, though it does reveal one thing Garson can’t do: find a bad-sounding note.] That was just completely made up on the spot. I’ve never played it before right now. Of course, you heard the product of a lot of training in classical music as well as jazz improvisation. There’s a lot in the memory banks that I have to draw on. If I tried to improvise like that on a violin, it would sound horrible! [Laughs.]

I can tell already that this is a process that’s faster than conscious thought. Can you say anything to make it visible to us? It sounds cliché, but when I’m playing it feels more like I’m downloading it than thinking of Gear de Garson it cognitively. It’s as though the song is out Garson’s stage rig is elegant and powerful. His piano is a Yamaha GranTouch Disklavier digital there and I’m lucky enough to be the one it piano. “They put a real piano action in there,” says Garson. “Feel is really important to me, and comes through. it feels right.” Atop the GranTouch sits a Yamaha Motif 8, to the left of which are a fully The actual decision to do “Now! Music” pumped-up Kurzweil K2600 and the remote for an offstage KSP-8 effects processor. A pair happened, I think, in ’94. I wanted to get outside of M-Audio BX8 monitors flank the piano, and on its music rack is a Freehand Music Pad Pro, the jazz vocabulary and really find my own which holds Garson’s charts.Yamaha P90 and Kurzweil PC2 digital pianos are placed offstage. voice, so I started making myself do these etudes Keyboard tech Peter (“Peter D”) Danilowicz and NYC-based synth programmer Tony Widoff that had four simple rules: They had to be made gave up the details. up in the moment, atonal, about 30 seconds “I tried to put together a lean and mean system,” explains Peter D. “Tony did the bulk of the sound design, leaving me more time to deal with build issues. Sort of an architect-contractor long, and unlike the one you just heard, contain relationship. no conscious jazz statements. After a while, I “The K2600 is our platform of choice for sound gathering from the many Bowie albums, got comfortable enough that longer pieces as well as system control,” he continues. “The Motif functions mostly as an alternate controller, developed; sonatas, nocturnes, ballades, and but we use some of the orchestral, electric piano, and organ sounds.” Surprisingly, the my first piano concerto. sound from Garson’s GranTouch is doubled with that of the offstage P90. “Together, they’re more robust and alive, without any sort of the phase problems one might expect from stacking two Do you get to apply this philosophy much when piano samples,” says Peter D. “The P90’s volume is set 2 or 3dB below the GranTouch, and its working with David Bowie? overall tone is shifted slightly towards treble. Hey, Mikey likes it!” It’s funny. Anything I’ve done with him that I Widoff turns to the K2600 for sound creation tasks large and small. “I’ve been amazed at feel is significant, such as the Aladdin Sane solo, how well I can cop the original sounds [on the old records]. It’s not as if the 2600 was has been improvised. Bowie deserves a ton of expressly designed as an analog emulator, but so far, nothing has proven impossible. It’s also credit for pulling that out of me. When we were a great machine for live performance, given its plethora of controller and setup options.” recording that track, he showed me where he Peter D notes one example: The eight assignable sliders of Garson’s 2600 talk to the 01V, wanted the piano solo, and it just goes over a allowing him to control the elements of his own onstage keyboard mix. STEPHEN FORTNER two-chord progression of A and G. The first thing I tried was a blues solo. Then a Latin one. He thought they were good, but they weren’t been very strong and very rock-oriented, and I I did play on that album, but obviously not what he wanted. He said something like “Look, kind of put my piano thing on top of that. I think on that track. Live, I add some piano to it. When you’re into that whole avant-garde piano scene. the real reason I’m playing with David is that he there’s lead vocal, or something else that’s Just improvise something you really want to simply likes how my style, which is the style I’d the focus, I just do really simple comping — do.”So, that was also a beginning of the whole have in any case, fits in with his songs. I don’t footballs, sparse chords with no 3rd, that “Now!” thing, even though I didn’t know it at think he considers me a rock player. For a lot kind of thing. But in the turnarounds and the time. I’ll say it again: David was one of the of songs, I’m certainly doing basic keyboard emptier spots, I’ll throw in atonal fills, some- first to pull that spontaneity out of me. parts anyone could do, like holding down pads what sparingly, just whatever I’m feeling in and playing simple lines, but when my piano the moment. It could just as easily go over Taking the whole of your tenure with Bowie into technique is relevant, it’s definitely the classical with no keyboards, but since I’ve been around account, is there any particular technique or elements that are brought to bear. Relative to 30 years, they tolerate a little of my f***ing training in your background that stands out in what I do solo, I play fairly simply with Bowie, around with it. [Laughs.] your mind as especially useful? and I think he’s into that simplicity. Well, you have to understand that I’m something What tunes on this tour are the most rewarding like the whipped cream on the cake in this band. Live, what do you do on a classic like “Fame,” for you to play? The rhythm and guitar elements have always with no keys on the original track? We’re actually not doing “Aladdin Sane” this

www.keyboardmag.com JANUARY 2004 KEYBOARD 29 tour, but I really like “Bring Me the Disco King” the dynamics of a live performance. It keeps the A Selected Mike Garson Discography from the new album. From Heathen, there’s technology out of your way; it’s a real piano “5:15 the Angels Have Gone” and “Slip Away.” and that’s how you relate to it, as opposed to For a much more complete list, as I also like “The Motel” from Outside and “The dealing with a computer. Without them, there’s well as a timeline of Mike’s life and Battle for Britain” from the Earthling record. no way I could be said to have composed over accomplishments, visit his web site at 2000 pieces to date. www.mikegarson.com. I may be reading in too much here, but it seems Another cool gadget I rely on is the Music like the wildness of the “Aladdin Sane” solo, along Pad from a company called FreeHand Systems. WITH DAVID BOWIE: with the more structured wildness of your current Though I know a lot of them by heart, we ■ Aladdin Sane (1973) “Now! Music” creations, are classically-influenced learned 50 or 60 songs for the Reality tour, Pin-Ups (1973) bookends around this middle period when you which we rotate, so it’s great to have all those ■ (1974) ■ were heavily involved in jazz. Where does the charts in one LCD tablet. It’s really hi-res, and (1975) ■ Black Tie, White Noise whole jazz idiom stand in relation to who you you can use a footswitch to turn pages. I should (1993) are musically? also mention M-Audio. In my home studio I’ve ■ Outside (1995) That’s a very good question. [Pauses.] Coming had great results with their mic preamps and ■ Earthling (1997) from such a heavy classical education, jazz was audio interfaces. ■ Heathen (2002) originally this puzzle I wanted to figure out. Like ■ Reality (2003) I said, there was also the centrality of improv in You also create abstract visual art on the computer. it, and that freedom really fascinated me. I was Do the visual and musical realms cross-pollenate WITH OTHER ROCK ARTISTS: told, “If you don’t feel jazz, fuhgeddaboutit.” I one another at all? ■ , Slaughter certainly wanted to feel it, so I sought out the Definitely. They both come from a conceptually on Tenth Avenue best teachers I could, including Hal Overton, similar place. I may have a shape in my mind, or (1974) who was an expert on Monk, and in 1964, at age be in a mood where I’m reminded of certain ■ Seal, Human Being 19, I had a six-hour piano lesson with Bill Evans. colors. A certain image or pattern might come (1998) Even today, though, I wouldn’t say I’ve had a to me when I’m practicing piano. Software like ■ Nine Inch Nails, jazz career. I’ve played with some great people, Photoshop and Illustrator has really given me (1999) but ultimately I realized I was mainly coming the means to find a whole other way to express ■ No Doubt, from a place of intellectual curiosity, and that myself. ...There are more than a few people who (2000) there would always be better keepers of the jazz don’t get my classical and “Now!”stuff — it’s just ■ Smashing Pumpkins, flame than me. So now, I like to think I passed too “out there” for them. But they like the art a Machina (2000) through jazz, picking up a lot on the way, and lot. Ironically, it comes from the same place. that the improvised classical pieces are closest, It’s also taught me that the basic spirit of AS A JAZZ SIDEMAN: so far, to my heart. the creative process — being able to take what ■ , you’re feeling and do something with it — is The Bley/Peacock Synthesizer Show A lot of keyboard-trained composers were really senior to any sort of technical skill in (1971) attracted to synthesizers because they offered any medium. I may have technical skill on ■ Stanley Clarke, I Wanna tonal landscapes not possible on the piano. Have the piano, but I have none where visual art is Play for You (1977), you ever felt constrained by the piano and/or concerned. I’ve never taken a lesson, and Modern Man (1978) liberated by synths? barely crack the manuals for these computer ■ Stan Getz, Stan Getz Live I understand the question, and I think it’s valid programs. Yet it’s an outlet that can make me (1980), Stan Getz & for a lot of great musicians to answer yes. But feel incredibly good, especially if I’m having a Colleagues (1994), for me, not really. I did write a symphony for day where I’m burned out on piano playing. Live by the Sea (1999) synthesizers, called “Symphony 5.1,”but I first So, by analogy, you don’t have to go to Julliard worked it out at the piano. Perhaps it’s that and take piano lessons your whole life to find SOLO ALBUMS: my training at it started so young, but the something inside yourself you can express ■ Avant Garson (1979) piano is really my home, and I never get bored. through music. ■ Jazzical (1982) I love synths: They offer a fascinating palette ■ Serendipity (1986) of colors to experiment with. I use Ableton Live Clearly, your playing shows the depth of your ■ Remember Love (1989) a lot, as well as Propellerhead Reason, to get a own piano and theory training, though. What ■ The Mystery Man (1990) groove going, and while it’s playing I’ll create would you say to an aspiring pianist, or any ■ Oxnard Sessions,Vol. I textures with my Kurzweil and Yamaha synths, artistic person, about balancing fundamentals (1990) but in the end I always want to put piano on with freedom? ■ A Gershwin Fantasia top of it! I’m not saying the piano is inherently From age seven to around 24, I did nothing (1992) superior. If your thing is synths, or drum loops, but study. A lot of it was pure torture, every- ■ Oxnard Sessions, Vol. II or the guitar, or even dancing, you can create, thing rigorous and boring that a person (1992) improvise, and express yourself with those. might stereotypically associate with “piano lessons.” The next 15 years, from age 24 to of improvising, but at a point it had nearly Is there other musical technology that’s made a 39, in a way I had to unlearn everything I destroyed me. I could sound like anybody difference for you? had learned. It wasn’t easy. So the training did else in any genre, because that’s what they The Yamaha Disklavier has been invaluable, an amazing thing by giving me all the basics teach you to do. But now, at 58, I’m still in because it’s so good at capturing and replaying and theory that I still draw on in the course that process of establishing what my music

30 KEYBOARD JANUARY 2004 www.keyboardmag.com Would you say that to succeed or fulfill oneself, that fit into the view you just expressed? one has to put discipline and rigor into some- It’s cheating. You see, here’s the trap. People

MARK PLATI thing, then? love beats. Strong beats connect to something Whatever you put attention and intention into primordial within us, and melodic hooks aren’t is what will manifest in your life. My own far behind. They make your body move, and experience with visual art proves that it doesn’t draw your mind into the lyrics. If you have any need to take the form of traditional training, talent at using those tools, I think you have a although that’s certainly an asset. Many people duty not to use them to glorify violence. It’s an will never put focused, regular intention into insidious perversion of what music is really for, anything creative, and so they might never which is to bring people together. happen into their gift. I really believe everyone has something inside them, and it’s a tragedy But some great work has come out of the need to David Bowie on when everyday life or survival needs prevent vent anger and other negative emotions. You it from being realized. The human race should worked with on The Fragile, and Mike Garson be beyond that by now, which is why it makes it’s fair to say that his music wouldn’t be as intense Mike has been working with me, on and off, me sick that funding for music and other arts without the obvious anger behind it. since 1972. I was looking for a pianist to in the schools is being cut. Of course. It all comes back to what I said about flesh out stage sound, as there were a number of songs intention. If your intention is catharsis, or to that we wanted to do that required key- Elaborate on how you think the arts is good share your feelings, that’s a primary purpose board, and as Ronno and myself didn’t feel for people. of any art form. If your intention is truly to we could cut it on things like “Life On Hey, you can use this for one of your large-print make it seem cool or macho to degrade or hurt Mars,” we went searching. Annette Peacock, quotes: More arts equals less war. If your hands other human beings, or to hate, that’s where I the avant-garde jazz writer/performer, are busy learning an instrument, or holding a part ways with you. recommended Mike to Ronno so we gave paintbrush, then they’re not picking up a him a super fast audition at a recording weapon. This is why I try not to get snobby We’ve covered acres of philosophical ground studio in . Within 20 notes we knew about one style being better than another. here. Who do you feel typifies your own ethics he was the guy. He was quite astounding. Anyone doing any music is better than the of improvisation and passion, but applied to Because of his varied background, I person stealing or hurting their neighbor. say, rock? will often throw a composers name at him That’s easy. David Bowie. He’s the Miles Davis mid-recording and he’ll pick up on it It’s not a new thing, nor exclusive to one style, but of rock. Always fresh, always changing, and immediately and respond with some- what about music that seems to revel in violence, that’s something for which I have deep respect. thing that touches that area. He is so fast boorish sexual attitudes, and so on? How does It’s been a bond between us for 30 years. k to respond in that way. It is pointless to talk about his ability as a pianist; he is exceptional. However, there are very, very few musicians, let alone pianists, Capturing the Now! who naturally understand the movement Both Garson’s original compositions and his solos with Bowie are so technically dense as to seem and free thinking necessary to hurl them- inscrutable. Figuring them out could wear out your rewind button, not to mention your sanity. But selves into experimental or traditional with huge ears, lots of patience, and a little technological help, Los Angeles music copyist David areas of music, sometimes, ironically, Arana took on the task. He began working with Garson in 1992, transcribing a solo jazz piano at the same time. Mike does this with book entitled What is This Thing Called Jazz, and remains today, transcribing virtually every note such enthusiasm that it makes my heart Garson plays. glad just to be in the same room with “Mike’s ‘Now! Music’ provides an extra level of difficulty, since it’s composed in real time,” Arana him. DAVID BOWIE tells us. “His technical skills allow him to play anything he can conceive of, so notating the more florid passages can be a real challenge.” Arana’s weapons of choice are a Yamaha Disklavier DC3A piano and a Mac running MOTU Digital Performer and Coda Music’s Finale. sounds like. I think I’m beginning to figure “The Disklavier preserves the details, which helps me make better editorial decisions. Some it out, finally. of the extremely short-duration, low-velocity notes aren’t included in the final score, so although Theory is an invaluable tool, but it has to the MIDI files from the Yamaha give me an exact record, there are always some ‘grey notes’ I serve your passion. That passion is the first decide to edit out. thing I need to know about any student I take “The style of the piece determines the next step. With works that have a definite pulse, I on. I had a guy familiar with my jazz work sit sometimes play beats manually into the performance using Digital Performer’s Record down and play terribly; in some sense correctly, Beats function. The more free-form pieces are best transcribed with the MIDI file playing at but with no feel. I said. “What’s up with this? one-quarter speed on one computer monitor while I’m notating in Finale on the other. Seeing You’re obviously not into jazz.” He said, “I’m the note durations in DP’s graphic editor helps me infer the correct meter and beat groupings, trying to show you I can play it,” to which I as well as figure out which hand played which part; in some cases, I’ll even split the MIDI file answered, “I don’t care about that. What have into left- and right-hand tracks. After that, it’s just a matter of putting in markings for phrasing, you always wanted to do with music?” Sheep- dynamics, and so forth, so that the performer can faithfully reproduce the piece.” Things are ishly, he said,“Write a rock opera,”and we took a little easier with most of the Bowie material, as Arana explains: “The parts for Reality were locked it from there — and a year later I was invited to a MIDI tempo track, so notating them was fairly simple, although manually devising chord to the opening of his rock opera. When I was symbols was a bit arduous.” STEPHEN FORTNER in school, they didn’t ask that question.

32 KEYBOARD JANUARY 2004 www.keyboardmag.com Like Mike: Copping the Chops TRANSCRIPTIONS BY DAVID ARANA

The final song on Reality, “Bring Me the Disco King,” consists only This excerpt is from Mike’s solo over the outro. “Chordal solos of Bowie’s lead vocal, a drum loop, and Mike’s piano playing. “I can be very interesting.You don’t always have to play lightning riffs; want it clear that Bowie came up with these chords and this they wouldn’t support this song’s mood anyway.” melody,” Garson admonishes. “A lot of the voicings and motifs For a complete chart of “Bring Me the Disco King,” as well as the in the chart, though, were just improvised. I never play it the same famous Aladdin Sane solo and one of Mike’s “Now!” pieces, point way twice.” your browser to www.keyboardmag.com. F m11 Em11 Fm11 F m11 Fm11 Em11 Fm11 F m11 G m11 Fm11 Fm11 1 3 4 4 3 4 4

Fm13 Fm11 Em11 Fm11 5 B m11 F m11 B6/9 Fm9(maj7)/A G m11 Dmaj7 11 Fmadd2 3 9 3 3 sub.

D /F Fm11 maj7 Fm11 Fmadd2 Em11 F m11 Gm7/F Fm11 Gm/F 13 3 sub. sub. etc. 3

"BRING ME THE DISCO KING," WRITTEN BY DAVID BOWIE. ©2003 RISKY FOLIO, INC. PUBLISHED BY TINTORETTO MUSIC (BMI), ADMINISTERED RZO MUSIC, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

34 KEYBOARD JANUARY 2004 www.keyboardmag.com