Tesselations

Weston, Veryan
Emanem
Jazz | Nov 2003

Reviews

Craig Matsumoto
Reviewed 2003-11-21
Solo piano in an upbeat jazz-recital mood, with lots of fast, precise playing and nicely melodic soloing. Abstract feel overall. It's upbeat but rather relaxing in a way.

The gimmick is that he's playing "Lutheal" piano: a grand piano outfitted with a mechanism to change the strings' timbre, muting the piano or making it sound like a harpsichord. (There's a photo of the Lutheal on the back of the CD booklet.)

As for the "melodic soloing" ... Weston apparently walks through a series of 52 scales, which aren't explained in the booklet. (I think he just *changes* scales 51 times, so he doesn't use 52 different scales). Whatever - it sounds nice.

1- Starts near-silent and crystalline; gets into some more vicious playing with a muted sound.

2- Chaotic scramble. Gets into some interesting, jazzy low-note grooves.

3- Keeps an upbeat jazzy sound. Listen for Lutheal effects a little after the halfway point ... makes it sound like a fast-forward toy piano.

4- A children's march with low notes. Gets fast and dissonant.

5- Skippy riffs with fun Lutheal effects.

Recent airplay

Scales 39-52 and 1 [excerpt]
Memory SelectJan 09, 2004
Scales 13-26 [excerpt]
Memory SelectDec 12, 2003
Scales 7-12
Baptism of SolitudeDec 11, 2003
Scales 7-12
Memory SelectNov 14, 2003

Charting

2003-11-10 — 2004-01-12 Jazz
Week EndingAirplays
Jan 11 1
Dec 14 2
Nov 16 1

Track listing

1. Scales 1-6
2. Scales 7-12
3. Scales 13-26
4. Scales 27-39
5. Scales 39-52 and 1