jwnicholson78

Hi Bjorn, Thanks for the kind words and the interesting suggestion. If I get a chance, I'll play with that notion a little bit. That made my week!

Thanks! To be honest, I don't think I was ever able to play it all the way through at the original speed with eventually crashing like a train wreck.. I don't know what I was thinking putting in those damn left hand arpeggio's, especially on A flat, but they just about killed I much prefer the slower version, too. I've never really revisited the composition too much on this piece, other than to rework some of the chord voicings. But I totally get what you are saying about simplicity. I often find myself these days recording something, and then after first pass, stripping out so many excess notes to try and simply.

Thank you Mark. I really appreciate your comment about the new mix being clearer. It's something I've been working on improving, so it's nice to know that you can hear the difference.

Thanks, Andy. I appreciate the kind words.

Thanks!

Very nice. I enjoyed that.

That was cool. I liked the opening sounds. And then the break that kicked in at around 2:00 was really awesome

Wow, that was so smooth. The horns sounded incredible. Personally I would have loved to hear them a little more forward in the mix.

Vocals sound great, and guitar has some excellent licks. I like the piano fills you threw in there as well. Yeah there some timing issues, but it's still some great work.

That was outstanding. The singer is phenomenal and the groove had me bopping along in my chair.

I wrote this solo piano piece some time around 2006. and I have been wanting to re-record it for while now. When I go back and listen to the original version now, I find it a little too frantic, and I wanted to redo it to be more contemplative. I also reworked some of the chord voicings in the newer version. I'm playing this on a Yamaha Clavinova digital piano. Then I use the midi recording from the piano to render using NI's The Grandeur and replace the video audio. Comments and suggestions are always welcome on how to improve it. Thanks for listening. Jeff Here's the original version, for comparison.

Thanks so much.

Thanks, I really appreciate the listen and the comments. I work so slowly it takes me forever to finish a song. And the last one I worked on seemed to take forever. So I made a conscious decision to do a few shorter songs, so I can maybe work on a few different things.

Thanks so much!

Nice cover. I thought you did it justice.

Sounds incredible to me. Very professional.

The song is incredible, and I love your description of how it developed. I had to quit watching the video though, because the pictures of people smiling and posing over their kills was making me too angry.

If I recall correctly, I survived my last wookie vocal exposure. With more exposure, I'm beginning to rather enjoy them. Super interesting, I particularly looked the tempo changes, and for me the drums were outstanding.

I've never heard the Giant Rooks version. It's an incredible cover, and your cover cover did it justice. Your vocals on this are excellent.

Excellent. You had me from the guitar riff, and the organ is killer.

Thanks, Nigel. I do come back to the Grandeur again and again. It's one of my favorites.

Thanks Ross for taking the time to listen and the kind words! Jeff

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it. Jeff

Thanks for listening!

After digging through my hard drive, I came across a couple more piano recordings from some time ago. Beethoven's Adagio Cantabile, the second movement from his Pathetique piano sonata, is for me, one of the most beautifully sublime solo piano pieces ever written. I think I recorded this around fifteen years ago. I tried my best to do it justice. I can't even remember when I recorded Mozart's Sonata in C major. Probably 20 or 25 years ago. This is a simple, absolutely lovely piece, and I was really happy when I found the midi file from the recording. I used Native Instrument's the Grandeur to render these with minimal processing. Jeff