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Quick: name a famous Swiss rock musician.<\/p>\n
Okay, a few of you might be able to name-check Celtic Frost<\/strong>, Brainticket<\/strong><\/a>, or Yello<\/strong>. But for those who aren’t hopeless music nerds, there’s pretty much only one answer: Patrick Moraz<\/strong>. The keyboard virtuoso first came to fame \u2013 in the rock idiom, anyway \u2013 as a member of Yes<\/strong> from 1974-1976. After a couple of years as a solo artist, Moraz played with The Moody Blues<\/strong><\/a> from 1978 to 1990.<\/p>\n But his esteemed career extends well before \u2013 and well beyond \u2013 those two high-profile rock gigs. Before joining Yes, he was a member of progressive rock trio Refugee<\/strong>, alongside two ex-members of The Nice<\/strong>, Lee Jackson<\/strong> and Brian Davison<\/strong>. And even before all that<\/em>, the classically-trained pianist had a thriving (if not yet world-renowned) career as a jazz artist. His 1976 solo debut album, The Story of I<\/em>, is highly regarded as an early example of the synthesis of progressive and \u201cworld\u201d music.<\/p>\n He has released more than twenty albums since that debut \u2013 including two with acclaimed drummer Bill Bruford<\/strong> \u2013 and remains very busy with composing and performing. His latest release is MAP: Moraz Alban Project<\/em>. A collaborative effort with American drummer Greg Alban<\/strong>, the album exclusively features music, themes and arrangements by Moraz.<\/p>\n The keyboard legend currently lives in Florida. I recently chatted with him about his life, career, new album, and future plans. What follows is an edited transcript.<\/p>\n Bill Kopp:<\/strong> I’ve long been a fan of keyboard-based music that makes use of then-current technology. But one of the traps into which that kind of music can fall is having a \u201cdated\u201d sound. For example, when you hear a Synclavier, it pretty much screams very early 1980s. And the Mellotron, my favorite instrument, is associated with the late 60s and early 70s. How do you approach technology in a way that avoids creating something that will sound \u201cstuck in time\u201d a few years down the line?<\/span><\/p>\n Patrick Moraz:<\/strong> The nature of your question is very interesting. As you know, Moraz Alban Project<\/em> is not a solo album; it was commissioned by my very good friend Greg Alban. And the music I wanted to compose, I didn’t want it to have too many sounds that were completely out of this world. Because the music is fairly simple…well, it depends for whom [laughs]!<\/p>\n How I approach keyboards: of course I’m always into the newest technology, but I always keep a foot not only in the past, but in the legacy of sonic hierarchy, if you will. In terms of acoustic instruments [like] harpsichord, organ, and percussion instruments from Africa and Brazil, in the last few hundred years we’ve had them sounding better and better and better.<\/p>\n Creativity is about combining these in within a state of dynamic tension, creating a balance between the extreme forces of sounds from five thousand years ago and modern synthesizers built one or two years ago. To be able to combine these, and also to play live with a drummer, a bassist and so on, really knocking doors down, that’s what it’s about. It’s about people playing at the height of their ability, at the highest level of information transfer. To put it mildly! [laughs]<\/p>\n BK:<\/strong> So Greg Alban asked you to compose music to which he could add drums. Can I take that to mean that you composed, arranged and recorded the music, and then he went in and added his drum parts? Or did the sessions unfold some other way?<\/span><\/p>\n PM:<\/strong> No, no. No. Some other way. It was a balance between the two. We played together and jammed and so on. The music was composed, first and foremost. Actually I composed more than [the] nine pieces \u2013 at least fourteen pieces \u2013 and then I let him choose the ones that felt the most comfortable. And when I say \u201ccomfortable,\u201d I’ll tell you what: he took the challenge to play the drums on \u201cJazz in the Night,\u201d which is such a challenge for a drummer. Because although one can tap your foot to it in 4\/4, it’s never really<\/em> in 4\/4. He said [to me], \u201cI’d rather not read the music; I’d rather not even write it down. I’m going to listen<\/em> to it.\u201d He’s very good. Absolutely fantastic.<\/p>\n Greg and I and [bassist] John Avila<\/strong>, we can now play that music with our eyes closed! We can play it the way it is [written], but we can also jam. And that’s what we will do for the next album. We are really, really determined to put out a bunch of albums together. We had so much fun making this album, and we still have fun listening to it now!<\/p>\n BK: <\/strong>You’ve worked in many idioms \u2013 progressive, fusion, jazz, and world music. When you’re composing music, do you approach it from a point of view such as, \u201cOkay, now I’m going to write some music destined for a world music project\u201d? Or do the works sort of tell you, \u201cthis is what kind of music we are\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/moraz_alban.jpg\")
\nDrummer Greg Alban<\/em><\/center>Even nowadays in terms of sampling instruments, nothing will replace the real McCoy, so to speak. But they’ve really improved. At the end of the day, music is music. A sound is a sound. But creating it \u2013 using those sounds, and here I’m talking about modern technology \u2013 are artists like Isao Tomita<\/strong>. Even now, fifty years into this sonic hierarchy, I feel able to produce amazing sounds, whether they are completely analog, analog and digital, or sampled. It’s a world; no, it’s more<\/em> than a world: it’s a universe!<\/p>\n
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<\/center>I also met Pierre Boulez<\/strong> when I was very young, and met Karlheinz Stockhausen<\/strong> several times in the studio. And that’s where I got the knack to learn everything I could about synthesis and contemporary music, whether symphonic or on an individual basis.<\/p>\n