Phread
Manfred Ullman
Kitchener, Ontario
Canada
Plays: Keyboards (65 years)
1 post total | IP Logged
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Greetings from the Great White North. Home turf, as it were. I remember your gigs at the Coronet (had one there myself a few years later) and I've been following your work ever since.
Congrats on this new album. Simply amazing. Track 7 is indescribable. I've never heard anything like it, even from you. Music for the 21st Century. So how come no genesis? All the other tracks have one...
I've been playing keyboards most of my life and after thirty years of bells and whistles in the electro-arena, I'm back to 88 hammers. And something marvelous has happenned. I'm coming up with stuff where sometimes I have to stop, thinking 'did I do that?' I've somehow come full circle and been musically reborn, and I have you to thank.
My influnces have been vast but in my new spectrum it comes down to two. There's Dr. Oscar P. who pretty much sets the bar for what I do, and who taught me that any combination of notes can made into music. And there's you, who like some modern-day Paganini taught me that I can maybe stretch the limits of my instrument like you do yours. Together you've given me a kind of fearlessness I didn't expect. Prestigious company for you too, eh? Thx again.
Just a little anecdote to wrap up. My friend Manuel (bass player) went to see you at Massey Hall a month ago. Just before the show, he gets a tap on the shoulder from Graham Greene (they've been tight since Greene was a roadie in
the seventies). A little banter and Graham gets a tap on the shoulder from Kim Mitchell. Some more banter and Kim gets a tap from Alex Lifeson. I have to wonder who else was there, and I just think it's nice to know that the best guitarists in Toronto still feel they have something to learn.
I have three heroes - Oscar, my dad, and Frank Lloyd Wright, whose best work came after he turned fifty. I sense terrific prospects for you. And maybe me too. Let's rock the house, my friend.
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