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Don Airey
By Lisa Davenport
If you imagine a galactic blending of sound and energy, you may think of the cosmos. But if you're talking music, you might think of Don Airey's "A Light in the Sky," an astonishing showcase of instrumental ingenuity. His first solo album in twenty years, it illuminates why Airey remains one of the best keyboard players of this era. He juxtaposes genre's--from swanky jazz fusion, to dazzling classical, to fast-hitting, uncompromising hard-rock. Each song has a different inspiration. The album's almost elliptical in that it ends where it begins and changes us along the way.
Astronomy compellingly shaped Airey's music and life. He has "a telescope set up" in his backyard and often indulges in a starlit night. He even has a star chart. Very contemplative, he set out to delve into "themes of loneliness and alienation--all the things that cause you to clash with humanity. Dilemmas." These universal ideas guided him through a far-reaching personal odyssey. The title track is "autobiographical," he says, based on a "strange encounter I had years ago. I saw a light in the sky at 3 o'clock in the morning…. I thought 'what on earth was that?'…. I couldn't count my movements for 24 hours." He doesn't know what happened in the span of that day but became "very confident to find out years later that such things happened to a lot of people." He calls it: "a little brush with the unknown."
That day became part of Airey's intellectual journey, an experience that propelled him to ask deeply existential questions about "our relation to the universe and everything around us." He probes for "answers that we're all looking for when you look up into the heavens"--it's a continual process of self-discovery. Even loving someone too much can feel like being lost in space, he professes. "When we discover ourselves really--where we are, who we are,--the more we discover" how "incredible … our position is in the universe, this immense unimaginable space." Three songs refer to galaxies: Cartwheel, Sombrero, and Andromeda--perhaps the highlight--an extravagant, luminescent instrumental. When reflecting on who else might be "out there," Airey proclaims: "There isn't really anybody else, it's just us." That seems to be part of what drives his music: the desire to fill a vast space with something more. For Airey it's almost like Jim Levy viewing the earth from the moon and seeing how "incredible" the "earth really is."
It's the live recordings that allow for effortless musical invention, remarkable keyboard flourishes--sonic synergy. Song's like "Shooting Star" evoke Deep Purple's quintessence. In others, he says, "I wanted to refer to my past. It's a bit of a genre change. It's progressive material." He collaborates with "a brilliant violinist" Lidia Baich in "Into Orbit." Of course, Don muses "I favor the old fashioned way of recording… The red light [is] on--you better get it right." With musicians like Chris Childs, Harry James, Darrin Mooney, Danny Bowes, Ron Harris on guitar, and vocals by Carl Sentence, this album became an "open ended experience," as expansive, indulgent, and far-reaching as it could be. These guys get everything right "in just a coupla takes," "very little over dubbing." He jokes that it sometimes "sounded like a police patrol" to some of his friends. He likens the album to "Martin McCockland's band in the 70s, a fusion band." It was a "tip of the hat "to them.
For Airey, music's "very simple." It's the idea of "playing together, making everything accessible…. That's what I tried to do on the record. That's the great thing about playin' live." A classically trained pianist, he calls Daniel Barenboim, whom he met in Manchester, "a great hero of mine." Barenboim once said: "music exists in record; it exists in your head; and exists on a page. But it only really exists when its played."
Amy May at Genghis Cohen
By Jonathan Weichsel
Edmund Burke, in his influential essay, "On the Sublime and Beautiful," wrote about how "Poetry, painting, and other affecting arts transfuse their passions from one breast to another." Occasionally in one's lifetime one hears an artist who is willing to offer so much of herself that you don't just hear her music in an audio sense, but you feel it on a deeper level as well. When this happens, the passions swelling around in her breast are transfused to you, and briefly become your passions as well. Amy May is one of those artists.
Amy May's songs tell the wistful story of a young girl at the beginning of a voyage of discovery. Amy's longing for answers, her quest to find her place in the universe, and the surprising discoveries she makes along the way stir the listeners' spirits, but it is the honesty with which she expresses herself that is truly uplifting.
Amy's music is not at all sunny. Along with a childlike playfulness there is a cold strain of bitterness, an awareness of the harsher aspects of life, which runs through most of her songs. Her music is about love and the curiosity of life just as much as it is about pain and the state of being lost. Hers is the kind of music that gives you support both in times of sadness and joy.
Amy May took the stage at Genghis Cohen Wednesday evening simply dressed in a black shirt and black slacks, perfectly befitting her style of playing which is simple, beautiful acoustic folk stripped down to the basics.
The first song Amy played was titled "Open." This song can be considered a metaphor for Amy's sound. Amy starts out hesitantly, unsure whether or not to go forward. But just a few bars into the song she bursts out singing, "Well, here it goes. I'll tell you everything I know. I'll give you everything I never let go. For you I am open." The rest of the song is a confession of love, but not love as we know it from the story books. This is a stranger, scarier kind of love; one filled with uncertainty and doubt, as well as longing and need.
Many of Amy May's songs are about the feeling of being lost. Her song "Homeless" is about being at the end of a relationship, and not having any place to go. Her song "Blindfold" is about wandering with a blindfold on, and longing for home.
Perhaps the reason so many of Amy May's songs deal with wandering is that she is so far from home. Amy is from Cornwall, England, and has traveled across the seas in order to find herself in Southern California. But through all of her wandering she has also developed a set of romantic, gypsy ideals. These are best expressed through her songs "Storm Chaser" and "Gypsy." "Storm Chaser" is about how another person can make you jump out of your skin, and become somebody else. "Gypsy" is about how wandering and traveling can set you free.
The final song of Amy's set was called "Denial." This is kind of ironic, because Amy May is not in denial. She is a confident singer songwriter with a unique message, and a unique point of view. All she wants is to share her voice with the rest of us.
If you want to learn more about Amy May, including upcoming shows and information about her new CD, Right Right Now, visit her website at http://www.amymaymusic.co.uk/ or check out her myspace profile at http:ww.myspace.com/amymaymusic. Also, if you are ever in Santa Monica you can usually hear her playing along the Third Street Promenade.
Amy May is just at the beginning of her journey. Please check out this artist who shares so much of herself, and has so much to offer.
REMIX Night at Sagebrush Cantina: it's Global Hip
By Judi Uthus
While Sundays at the Sagebrush Cantina might belong to bikers and Mondays to sports fans, Thursday nights are claimed by the young and hip. That's when REMIX, a hipster mix of glam rock and 80s dance hits, converges on the cantina. VJ/DJ Scott Blackwell, who established his reputation as resident DJ at New York's Palladium and Studio 54 among other clubs, is holding the house happening every week. His ability to beat mix, scratch and loop has inspired superstar music artists and producers, earning him two platinum albums and one gold album for mixing and producing artists Debbie Gibson, Taylor Dayne and Madonna. At REMIX he will be performing his techno art, along with special guest DJs that will include Little Louie Vega, Dave Dresden, The Groove Junkie and others.
REMIX, however, is not just a narcissistic night offering the ultimate in sight and sound indulgence. "It's part of RemixOurWorld.org which works closely with various humanitarian efforts around the globe to establish a network of relationships that cultivate aid, peace and hope," says Blackwell. As a 601C-4 non-profit organization, 100% of the money raised through the website's downloads and donations go to such projects as distributing farming and reforestation kits in Sudan or backpacks filled with supplies for homeless kids in the U.S. REMIX night will share awareness on its aid projects happening around the world and ways everyone can make a difference.
REMIX is every Thursday @ 9:00 and admission is free. Recession buster 16 oz. Firestone draft beer is $3.75 all night and dinner is available in the cantina's restaurant before the event. Sagebrush Cantina is located in Old Town Calabasas at 23527 Calabasas Road. For more information, call (818) 222-6062 or visit www.sagebrushcantina.com or remixourworld.org.