Contact me for more information about these recordings. I no longer stream recordings to visitors' computers for a couple of reasons. Now that I have a piano that sounds great to me when played live, I'm disappointed with the degradation that occurs when I convert the sound to a computer format. (If anyone with more experience doing this can provide some good advice, I'd appreciate it.) And although I give away my music rather than selling it, I am told that streaming requires licensing of the songs to be completely legal.

Never the Same Stream (2011)

The philosopher Heraclitus said that you cannot step twice into the same stream. In that spirit, I enjoy creating new piano arrangements from familiar songs. A few of these songs I learned for this album, but most of them I've been experimenting with for quite a while. This is my first album recorded on the Yamaha Clavinova CVP-509, the first digital piano I've owned with a sound approaching that of an acoustic grande.  

 

Ed's Fakebook (2008)

“Fake books” began circulating in the 1940s and 50s to help piano players learn a lot of songs quickly, so they could take requests and keep up with the rapidly changing world of popular music. The first ones were illegally printed, since they didn’t bother with the niceties of copyrights and royalties. Later “legitimate fake books” appeared that were large collections of legally obtained songs. The music in these books has always been very basic, consisting only of a melody line, lyrics and basic chords. The performer creates the complete musical arrangement on the fly, based on this minimal information. I usually figure out the melody and chords by listening, and then write my own fakebook score using music-writing software. Over the years I've accumulated hundreds of such scores.  These are a few of my arrangements demonstrating some interesting harmonies and rhythms.  This and the following album were recorded on a Technics electronic keyboard, usually by mixing a number of instrument sounds recorded on separate tracks.

 

Transcendence (2000)

A friend of mine suggested this title, not because it is an album of religious songs, but because she said that my playing took her to a higher place.  What a lovely thought! Many of these selections represent the more serious side of popular music, but I've also lightened it up a bit with "The Entertainer" and "What's New Pussycat?"  This was my first recording in which the songs were transferred directly from the keyboard to CD, instead of being recorded on tape.

1990s Recordings

Most of my tracks from the 1980s and 90s were recorded on a Roland electronic keyboard.  They were copied first to tape, and only later to CDs, so the sound quality is sometimes a little shaky.  "Could It Be Magic" and "My Funny Valentine" were tape-recorded from an acoustic baby grand when I was rehearsing for a live performance in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1980s Recordings

Until 1988, I had no sequencer on my electronic piano or organ, so I wasn't able to record different instruments on different tracks or store recordings within the instrument itself.  I just played a piece from start to finish and recorded it to tape.  "I'm So Excited" and "One" represent an early period of recording, when I was using an electronic organ.  It had a few background rhythms and sound effects controlled by various buttons, slides and pedals, but I had to control everything in real time like a one-man band.  "How Can You Keep the Music Playing," "I Was a Fool," "Light a Light," "Yentl" and "You and I" were recorded from a Roland electronic piano.  That keyboard could simulate a few other instruments besides piano, but it could only play one of them at a time.  "Dreamland" uses the vibraphone effect, and "Gentle on My Mind" uses the guitar.

The purchase of a sequencer and sound box in 1988 allowed me to mix many instruments together on the same recording.  Most of the tracks here were recorded that way. Many of my initial efforts at sound mixing are best forgotten, but I still enjoy listening to a surprising number of these old arrangements.  Some of them are among the most elaborate I've ever done.  I especially like "Year of the Cat," "Penny Lane," "I Dreamed a Dream," and "We May Never Pass This Way Again."