Last night I made a decision that I will never play a piano trio gig again on an electronic piano. It is impossible to get any real subtlety of tone or touch. Especially when playing someone else’s keyboard, you never know if the action is going to be decent or not, and usually not.
We had a pretty good crowd, probably due in part to Greg Burke’s Jazz Pick Of The Week in LA Weekly. I was especially pleased and honored to see musical luminaries Mike Melvoin and Vinnie Golia there.
Here are some pictures from the Two Bass Band part of the evening. Below, Billy and Ratzo discuss the charts, and saxophonist/arranger/composer Kim Richmond warms up.
Hi Roberta,
Although I can understand the difficulty with most “electronic” pianos, as well as playing someone else’s instrument, I have found the state of the art in electronic piano’s is amazing, and comparitavly affordable. I don’t perform in a live situation as you do, I am much more familar with the challenges faced in the studio.
What I have seen is a seperation of the “sound”, and the “keyboard”. When I buy a keyboard, I buy it for how it “feels” and it’s ability to convert the neuances of a performance into data which the “sound module” can respond to. For keyboards I have had a long time appreceation of Yamaha. I have always liked thier equipment, and they produce a wide variety of keyboard from consumer grade keyboards to some awesome paino’s.
For the “sound module” , for the first time since electronic music was introduced I have actually found a “sound module” which is stunning. Check it out http://www.steinberg.de/displaydoc_sb_tg2_av_eu.html