Musicology, Numerology and the Pianobabbler @ 100
April 05 2010

Pianobabbler no. 100. My Mother's Father's Song. 3. 7. Lucky 7?

100
For this, the 100th edition of The Pianobabbler, I want to talk about numerology and new recordings. Well, one new recording. My Mother's Father's Song.

The Pianobabbler may have seemed a tad grumpy in recent Pianobabblings. Too much music everywhere! (Pianobabbler 98- Note Bloat.) Difficulties in the music industry! (Pianobabbler 99- The End of Music.)

Plus ça change. Last year around this time, the Pianobabbler was grumbling about his non-zip-nada-nomination for any award (Pianobabbler 39- Was It Something I Said? or How I Learned to Live Without a Juno Award.)

Well, know this: the Pianobabbler leads a happy life, is a happy guy, and is perfectly capable of happy writing.

Which brings me to the happy announcement I am making in this happy 100th Pianobabbler. (OK- I'll lose the happy. People can take neither too much happy, nor too much truth.)

7
Announcing: My Mother's Father's Song. My 7th recording. I'd say my 7th CD. Nowadays, though, CDs serve as but one medium of distribution.

I'll be releasing My Mother's Father's Song in a Toronto concert on May 27, at Hugh's Room. Wonderful Hugh's Room (hughsroom.com). One of the finest music venues I know of.

3
Odd. Most jazz piano recordings follow the classic piano/bass/drum format. Not the Pianobabbler. The six I've done before now went in different directions. My Mother's Father's Song represents my first all trio effort. This threesome includes my esteemed colleagues Mike Downes and Ted Warren on bass and drums.

Also new on this recording: mostly standards. I compose. My past recordings comprise mostly original music. For My Mother's Father's Song, I wanted to revisit the jazz tradition of taking others' songs, and making them my own. Coldplay, Stevie Wonder and Anne Murray(!). Songs by all of them have found their way onto My Mother's Father's Song.

Finally, as the title suggests, I include three separate versions of a song about my maternal grandfather. I never met him. He died before World War II in Warsaw, Poland. Quite the story lies behind the song, and my coming to it.

Crunching the Numbers
I'll leave details about the new recording and the song for other times and places. For now, I'll just ask that you stay tuned. Hold May 27, 2010. If you find yourself in Toronto, do come. (And please join my mailing list for updates: click here).

I write here about the numerology. Numbers beguile.

100 Pianobabblers. 100. We have a primal fascination with round numbers. Round, that is, in the Western base 10 system. A primal but real fascination. Not 99. Not 101. 100, exactly 100, feels like a milestone. We see this when Italians convey good wishes to one another. They exclaim cent'anni!, "100 years!"

My 7th recording. 7. The number of colours in the rainbow. The number of days it took for biblical Creation. The number of notes in the scale. The lowest number we can represent as the sum of the squares of three integers.

A trio recording. Three versions of the title's song. 3. Do I need to even mention its symbology?

Where do these numbers take us? 7+3=10, the square root of 100. This is the 100th Pianobabbler... hmmm. Back to where I began this post. What does it all mean?

I'm not really sure. The only certain meaning: the Pianobabbler is excited to be releasing My Mother's Father's Song.

I hope you'll number among our supporters. We'll count you in. Add you to the equation. Cent'anni!

The Pianobabbler has babbled.

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