Last year, due to the generosity of Alistair and Helen Hyatt I was able to spend two hours recording my first solo piano album in superb Echo Mountain Recording Studios. With such limited time, I sat down and played for about an hour straight and recorded almost all of these songs in a single take. The second hour I spent with engineer Josh Blake doing mixing and mastering, and was able to come up with 12 tracks out of the session that I wanted to release. Since it’s been almost a year, I’ve been thinking about my next solo album, which I may be able to record at home. I’m also considering putting out an album where every track has a different singer, or small combo with it, a “Fletcher & Friends” sort of concept.
Take a listen, and if you dig it, order a CD or spend some money on the digitial download. Below is the entire album embedded here, or you can find my recordings at music.andrewjfletcher.com
Here are the liner notes:
Dear Listener,
Thank you for buying my CD. Your support means that I get to continue my work as a stride piano player and keep the tradition alive and vital for the next generation. My approach to this recording was to show you on a CD what I do at my numerous solo performances in Asheville and beyond, but with a more relaxed and thoughtful sensibility at the piano. I sound the way I do thanks to my mentor Reese Gray and my teacher Pam McNeil, as well as the excellent education I got on the job with my first band, Firecracker Jazz Band. Come out and see a live show sometime and make sure to introduce your self.
Cheers to you!
Thanks to John Gellman for including me in his photo series of buskers. Check out his work and the many other Asheville buskers that he’s photographed at jgphoto.com.
In addition to being a semi-retired busker, I advocate for street performers rights (a 1st Amendment constitutional issue) with the Asheville Buskers Collective. The reason I don’t busk often anymore is simple: I’m playing about 200 gigs a year in venues. But I truly value the experience of busking and I think it’s been a major part of my development as an entertainer. I suggest all musicians, no matter the level of your experience, to try street performing at least once. It can be a humbling, thrilling, informative and, many times, even lucrative experience.
via Instagram http://ift.tt/2cuH609
This is in response to Moogfest’s damage control spin-zone press release published today. I recommend you read it before continuing on.
Dear Moogfest,
Thanks for the $14 million in economic activity. But, maybe Asheville would be even more thankful if Moog would have planned for the future and created an Asheville-appropriate event that could have been successful year after year. That could have brought in a lot more than $14 million over the years. Maybe Moog could have brought in some profit to be shared with their new employee owners too. That would have been pro-Asheville for sure. Now before I continue, remember that this is what Moog pitched as the raison de vivre of the festival:
“Beyond a traditional music festival, Moogfest aims to be an engine for driving economic development in Western North Carolina … the long-term goal say Moogfest organizers, ‘is to inspire big thinking start-ups, entrepreneurs, and innovators to consider Asheville as a community to relocate their forward thinking businesses, just as Bob Moog did in 1978’…”
“Moog Music President Mike Adams took the risk on financing this speculative venture because of the potential payoff for the community’s future – helping to attract new businesses and create jobs in Western North Carolina.”
(Newsflash: Durham is evidently now in Western North Carolina)
