Patrick Moraz ...Etudes, Sonatas, Preludes

http://www.patrickmoraz.com/sound-1.htm

Please go to the above link and learn why I gush over this man to any who will listen to me.

I was absolutely mortified at myself to realize that hadn't written anything about this man or this album when it came out. Patrick's career goes back to the early 70s, and includes working with people like Chick Corea, Yes, The Moody Blues, Syrinx, Bill Bruford.....His virtuosity and extraordinary talent get lost to the backdrop of "pop" or more properly termed popular music, but I tell you this man is a modern Mozart.
All the others will fall to the wayside overtime, but I know what this man has composed, especially on the above album will live on for generations.

I am something of a classical music buff, though only something of. My ears know what works and what doesn't and the best of the classical world is usually a musical challenge to the player. Patrick composes and plays his own work, as he has for most of his 60-odd years. I can tell you something about the man by describing how I know he recorded this album.He doesn't even have to verify this- I know it is how he works. If the entire piece didn't work, felt wrong or didn't sound right on a playback, he recorded it again, as you hear it, verbatim. There is no manipulating in the studio.

Why? Because that is how he is.

Back in the mid 1990s, he did a small show tour of the US, playing for audiences often less than 100 at a seating. I was with him in Dallas for the show there, and witnessed something most of us will never experience again.
Patrick came out into the audience before the show, shook hands with and talked to everyone in the room, including bartenders, staff, me....I'd been with him much of the day at that point. The whole show was Patrick and a baby Grand piano, nothing else- not even any amplification. After going back to the stage he said "Thank you all for coming. I would like to now give back some of what you have just given me."

The man sat down and began a completely improvised piece of music, encompassing every emotion in the spectrum, drawing all those in the room into his world, his music, and making us all part of each other in the process.

One and a half HOURS later......he started the concert. We were all drained, put thru an emotional wringer, and still, he caught us up even further and took us on a journey even further into his world. My level of elation and exhaustion was unmeasurable. All of the people I went with were unable to speak about the experience for hours afterwards. There were no words. It was one of those moments that elude even the best poet. To this day I have not experienced a more intense, moving and utterly engulfing concert. I am not sure I could survive another.

But then again...what an astounding way to leave this mortal coil, if that be the case.