Thursday, August 10, 2006
| Wright about music |
|
Michael Patrao |
|
Robert Wright a poet, jazz pianist, musician and philosopher from
Seattle, will be performing on the piano and vocals... |
The grass is always greener,
the streets are so much cleaner,
the people seems to be so much finer,
on the other side of the town.
The other side of the town” is a poem as well as a song by Robert Wright a poet, jazz pianist, musician and philosopher from Seattle, who will be performing on the piano and vocals along with Geetha Navale on the veena at the at 7pm on August 10 at the Alliance Francaise auditorium.
On the eve of his performance Wright spoke to Metrolife on his 35 year old journey as a musician, poet and philosopher.
“I wanted to be a rock star guitar player, but my parents brought me a piano. I also played the trumpet for a while”, says Wright who hails from Manchester, England, but migrated to Seattle, US with his family when he was 9 years old.
“The piano is a complete instrument. It is a good composing vehicle. It has melody, rhythm and percussion. It goes well with any instrument”, explains Wright.
Wright started playing with classic rock bands in Seattle and Phoenix before discovering esoteric jazz and other world influences and becoming a solo act performing across US and UK. “Seattle is a good place to perform as it has a number of venues to perform. It has different styles of jazz and new sounds”, he says.
“It is a rubber world”, philosophises Wright, “You can go west by going east, and the world is so flexible now that two places so far apart as Seattle and Bangalore can touch each other musically.” Incidentally, “Rubber world” is also the name off the opening track of his CD. “ He recorded in Seattle during his first musical encounter with veena vidushi Geetha Navale during her group Esperanto’s US tour in 2001.
“Man out standing in his field", his world fusion CD is eclectic. It has many different styles featuring Geetha Navale playing the veena, Gopal Navale on mandolin and native American singers Rob Charles and Arlie Neskahi on 'blown away'. It has Darlene Parnell singing with him on "Taliesin"(Celtic), Wayne Porter playing drums and percussion on the ragas and "Don't fall down easy" (Blues) "The other side of town"(Beatnik) and "Kosmos"(New age). The songs "The land beneath the waves"(Celtic and "New age) and “Cosmic dust" (ingenious) are performed by him. Some of the songs on this album will be performed at the concert in Bangalore. His other two albums are "Towers of love” done many years ago and “Short stories."
“I keep writing poetry all the time. I must have written hundreds of poems. Every poem is a song and every song is a poem.” For all his poetry, music and philosophy Robert is a qualified engineer.
As an avionics designer he has designed the computer architecture for the Boeing 777 cockpit display systems. He now works as a consulting engineer and spends most of his time on music.
This is not only his first visit to India, but also to the East. While in Bangalore he is making the best use of his time learning the finer aspects of Carnatic music. When he gets back to Seattle, he hopes to write a poem or two on Bangalore.
If all goes well, Wright is scheduled to play at the Freedom Jam at Palace Grounds on the eve of Independence Day. His website www.rawpro.com takes you to his world of music, poetry and philosophy.