#ahh thank you I had forgotten how good this patrick moraz album was!

[yesterdaysanswers]

Disco-Test • Flavio Premoli (PFM) • Ciao 2001 (date unknown, sometime in 1977?)

(as always, thanks to @quantumabyss6​ for helping with this!)

translation:

The second guest of the new series disco-test is the keyboardist of Premiata Forneria Marconi. For Premoli we played ten records: he had to recognize them or otherwise comment on them. We started with the "Star Wars" soundtrack (playing Meco) and with Philip Glass and the latest Bowie to talk about experimental keyboards and the future of music. So, to focus on the current keyboards, especially the American ones, we proposed Jan Hammer, Joe Zawinul (two European emigrants) without the Weather Report and the Crusaders. Flavio also listened to ex-Yes Patrick Moraz, the Animals to talk about the Sixties, and among the groups operating in Italy, the newly dissolved Perigeo and the newly formed Kim & the Cadillac. Here are the things that Premoli told us during the “session"...

MECO 

Cantina band / The last battle (from the LP “Star wars and other galactic funk”)

-I really have no idea who it is. I find it extremely nice, danceable, it could be a Barry White song without vocals, because of the violins, the huge orchestration. Wait, one thing comes to mind... it could be "Star wars". Yes. I haven't seen the film: I don't like science fiction, unlike my group mates, who overwhelm me with comics and the like.

-In “Star wars”, this piece is played by a spatial orchestra in a sort of tavern. What will music be like in the future?

-Extremely electronic; it already is today, but it will lead to excess. Maybe there will be a musician who will play everything, with strange machines at his disposal.

-And maybe they will all be programmed robots and computers. In "Star wars", at least, the figure of the musician has remained: will the depersonalization not be total?

-Anything could happen. In 10 or 20 years, we may have a computer capable of playing any instrument, and perhaps simulating the arm of the disk-jockey putting on the discs, so we won't even need him. But let's remember that there are always courses and appeals: once the disco was made for playing records, then the live musicians arrived, now it's back to the record again, above all for reasons of cost. The "Star wars" night complexion is an exceptional gimmick, and a sign of hope: because it maintains the figure of man in a largely mechanized climate.

PHILIP GLASS

Etoile polaire (from the LP “North Star”)

-Beautiful! I'm thinking, waiting for what happens. I don't know how to describe this music: I would say "a very tense peace". It seems to me a musically old speech. I like the idea of ​​the choir. I have always loved the choruses of human voices, like at the beginning of "L'isola di niente", written by me. Philip Glass? No, I've never heard of him.

-How do you think you can use electronic tools while maintaining personality and creativity?

-I am opposed to a type of electronics that is too complex. I tried the polymoog, technically of impressive quality, but I’ll never play it, because it allows little room for creativity, while the smaller electronic instruments, perhaps because of their size, are built to be as expressive as possible. From "Jet lag" onwards, I used the micromoog, much less cold than the others, with the digital possibility of making the notes vibrate: not at a predetermined frequency amplitude, but according to the pressure of the hand, like the finger on the cello. The same goes for small ARPs. Among electronic musicians, I prefer the Japanese, Tomita. Then there is a wonderful piece on Stanley Clark's "School Days": and I discovered that Herbie Hancock is playing the moog, on a bluesy harmonic loop. I also like how Corea uses the micromoog in "My spanish heart”.

DAVID BOWIE

Neuköln (from the LP “Heroes”)

-It sounds like a pan hit with something soft. They are all atmospheric records… however, the sax is very beautiful, it is very modern and at the same time old. I know it's not them, but it reminded me of Eddy Busnello with Area. If Demterio's voice came out at this point, I wouldn't be surprised.

-It's David Bowie.

-Bowie is a great artist. This music could represent well on stage. If it is credible? Well, it goes from one side to the other with ease, from space to everything in its head, it is not a definable, well circumscribed one.

-On this album he worked a lot with Eno, ex-Roxy Music. How much Eno do you think there is in Bowie's piece?

-We could say that there is more Eno as a musician, and more Bowie as an image.

JAN HAMMER

Oh, yeah (from the LP of the same name)

-It seems English to me, but I don't know who it is. The fact is, I never listen to records...

-Don't worry, that’s what everyone says when they undergo the disco-test.

-I don't mind the piece, but it doesn't make me jump in my chair. I like the taste, and the phrasing with which it misleads you. I think it's a Moog guitar, or a synthesizer.

-To be precise it is a combination of a minimoog and an Oberheim, and it is Jan Hammer, ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra. What is the most experimental effect you have tried with PFM?

-I don't know, I'm not a daring one. I would say the sixteen superimposed moogs, in "Il banchetto". Remember that it's been four years already.

JOE ZAWINUL

From Vienna with love (from the LP “Concerto retitled”)

-It is not Jarrett, I exclude. It has a kind of harmony reminiscent of the Weather Report, but I don't know if Zawinul has ever done things by himself, with the piano and the orchestra. Yes, it could be him. The thing that makes Zawinul unmistakable is the underlying texture in the group, which is not grasped on first listen if you are not a keyboard player; however he is a monster: he does very difficult things and yet they seem easy, they arrive, they communicate. Unlike others who pretend to be difficult, and in any case incomprehensible things, rather easy effects.

In short, Zawinul convinces both the technicians and the public.

-Hammer is Czechoslovakian, Zawinul is Austrian. How do you explain so many European talents, especially in the East?

-I think there is an incredible tradition in those countries. This is all the reason.

PERIGEO

New Vienna (from the LP “Non è poi così lontano”)

-It sounds like another movie music. Is it Chick Corea?

-No, we went from Zawinul's "old" Vienna to someone else's "new" Vienna.

-Wait, I think I have understood. He is one of those Americans: they all sound alike. Listening to them for two minutes on the electric piano is not enough to recognize them. It could be both Hammer and Hancock.

-It’s actually someone from Trentino, Franco D'Andrea, with the Perigeo.

-I have never heard their records. I know they have now broken up. And I think with their kind of music it's hard to stay afloat. Our rock-jazz, the experimental one in "Jet-lag" is watered-down. This Perigeo album seems to me a very good thing. But did it sell?…

KIM & THE CADILLACS

Come on baby (dance the twist) (from the LP “Rock’n’roll”)

-This, however, I do not like at all. It could be 20 years old. If it’s that old, then it makes sense that it exists, but if the record is new, then I don't agree: how do you get the same stuff and 100% rearrangement? It takes three million to make such a record. I would do it all by myself with a Revox. But it doesn't sell. It is not a "Crocodile rock", which despite being poor compared to Elton John's repertoire, had some remarkable ideas.

-They are some former Renegades, the group is brand new. What do you remember about rock'n'roll?

-Nothing, I was eight at the time. I remember the Renegades at the Sanremo festival. In Sanremo, Francone Mussida and I played hidden behind the amplifiers instead of other band players. But these things are better untold.

CRUSADERS

It happens everyday (from the LP “Free as a wind”)

-At first it seemed like McCoy Tyner, then the sax made me change my mind. It seems to me far less modern than Tyner.

-This is the album that remained at the top of the American jazz charts for five months, until October. Do you think it deserved it?

-It is beautiful, pleasant. Knowing the US market, I think it makes sense that it has been very successful. It's jazzy, yet easy to listen to.

-It's The Crusaders. What do you say about the many jazzmen who are now making disco music?

-I talked to some of them. They do it for the dough, the dollars. There is no other explanation. It's all very simple.

PATRICK MORAZ

Out in the sun (from the LP of the same name)

-This is already a fresh thing, well done, without too many pretensions, pleasant to listen to. I've heard it before, but I don't remember who it is. American? British?

-No, he's Swiss.

-Moraz? Then it's the new album. It is good. Mind you, nothing particular, but for what he did with Yes he must be considered a worker consistent with the music of the moment, one who knows how to adapt. The best things about Yes are still "Fragile" and part of "Close to the edge", even if Rick Wakeman, alone, I never liked.

-By the way, do you remember the old and sterile controversy between Emerson and Wakeman? How would you solve it?

-In my opinion, Keith Emerson is far better. Think of what will remain of one, such as "Tarkus", and what will remain of the other. The fact that Emerson has recently done a few things that are not always convincing does not affect the judgment: however, I would not even have stimulated the controversy between the two.

ANIMALS 

It’s all over now, baby blue (from the album “Before we were so rudely interrupted”)

-The piece is famous? Typical music that sells in America. Is it Rolling? Is it from the Animals? How he sings, guys!

-What were you listening to in the 60s?

-My favorite were the Beatles, who influenced me a lot, creatively speaking. Then the Rolling, the Who and the Animals.

-So why don't you recognize him? This is Eric Burdon, and the song was by Bob Dylan.

-Burdon was one of my favorites. A record like this can still be successful. If I did it again, it would be a laugh.

-To conclude, which keyboard players have influenced you the most?

-In the 60’s, I would say Jimmy Smith, and of course the jazz pianists, for example, Erroll Garner and Oscar Peterson. At the time of the first Award, I would say Emerson, from which, for better or for worse, everyone has drawn. But don't forget that my background is classic.