Today there be crickets.

Not like, the audience was so quiet you could hear crickets.

But, I left the office window open and the recording equipment is so sensitive you could hear actual crickets.  And it was dusk.  So like, a cricket rave.

Which actually, somehow...works.

Because here there also be Dan Tepfer.  I don't have the brain or experience to do what he does.  But I do have the brain and experience to appreciate what he does...with a player piano, a computer, various algorithms, and a visual interpretation of what he does.  Which is create improvisational jazz pieces which, when the algorithm responds, requires that he then respond in kind to what the algorithm creates...thus making exciting and precarious pieces that require precision and structure but allow for such soul and depth of playing and communication that I guarantee you've never heard, nor will you feel, anything quite like this.

And, when you watch the video from the tiny desk, or any of his live videos on YouTube, including pieces from his wonderful "Natural Machines" album, it becomes an entire multiple sensory experience.  Have a nice drink, alter your mood/mind in whichever way(s) you find effective, diffuse essential oils or burn incense, put on comfy clothes and make it a FULL ON sensory spa experience.

And the crickets somehow add.  There are times when it feels like they are responding to Dan, or he to them...kind of like the Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz situation.

Hang, won't yinz?

-G