June 2005 CDs
Imaginary Piano
Don't worry—there's nothing make-believe about the piano playing on Imaginary Piano . Gary Paul Bryant's jazz-influenced—yet not jazz—musical genius weaves in and out the doors of romantic classical and boogie-woogie with ease and energy.
It's a new, cohesive, one-of-a kind sound, an intelligent fusion of acoustic and electronic pianos, profoundly arranged. The title track features simple-keyed cascades against an ornate instrumental background, while in the vastly complex “Last Night in Paris,” the piano, threading its way along the Seine on a dark night, encounters intense pulsating strings… conjuring visions of Irma la Douce. I wanted to do something different with a piano,” says Bryant. “I'm just trying to put some power and positive energy behind a few simple piano melodies that I hope people will enjoy.” The entire album truly works. I agree with pianist Michael David: “It's about time somebody brought life into this genre.”
—Chiwah
Return to Om
People of Peace is wonderfully multicultural, evocative, funky, thoughtful, playful—truly an adventure in musical exploration. It starts out soft, then lifts you up and jazzes you. I thought for a moment I was in China! And nature is truly alive here, wind blowing up a storm.
The first cut on Return to Om is titled “A Call to Silence.” Really. It is that. We played it, and the room immediately fell into a deep hush.
Well known in San Diego for her healing work with Tibetan, Bhuran and Nepali singing bowls, Diane Mandle offers an invitation to rediscover oneness with sound itself, sound as a doorway into the divine. The invitation is not to a concert, for this is more tonal bath than music. Diane and friends wash us clean in the energy of bowls, gantas, tingshaws, chimes, rainstick, gong, dorje, and the voice of Jay Myerson. Highly internal, great for meditation.
Diane's poem inside the album says it all:
Out of silence comes the sound
Awakening the fullness of my heart
One still point – Then another
Mirroring the musings of love.
Sound, then Sound-less-ness
Carrying me further into a place
That has no name
But is known as “Om”—Chiwah
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