Richard Bower
& his Tyros 2 twin set
Richard Bower
February 4th 2006
Richard Bower was our artist for February, he played what he affectionately calls his twin set. This meant that we not only had the Tyros 2, but also coupled to it the Yamaha PSR 290 plus pedal board.
Keith provided an apt red background plus revolving shapes for Richard's very lively Latin opening numbers, the Tico Tico and Amorada.
Slowing things down he next played Summertime (beautiful Harmonica) followed by Autumn Leaves showing off the fabulous strings on the Tyros2. We all make promises to do this, that or the other when we get the chance, If I Only Had Time sums this up nicely! A Foggy Day, played at a lively tempo using drawbars, suitably expressed the British weather of that week.
With Torvill & Dean co-hosting the TV series Dancing On Ice, we heard the music to one of their most successful routines. I am of course talking about the History Of Love which Richard opened with a beautiful guitar solo. When the rhythm set in, so did the panflute, strings, trumpets, piano and finishing off with the guitar sounds once again. Stupendous. Whilst still in Latin mode, he followed this with Poinciana (Talk of the Trees) by Nat Simon.
Valentine's Day is not far off, to put us all into a romantic mood, Eric Clapton's Long Live Love was enhanced by colourful bubbles, followed by My One And Only Love and Lonely Is A Man Without Love - naturally!
After the break Richard opened the second half with more drawbar sounds and The Wonder Of You, closely followed by Satin Doll and Lil Darlin'. Judy Garland made the Trolley Song famous from the 1944 film "Meet Me In St. Louis" and thank goodness Somewhere Over The Rainbow, in all its glorious colours, did not end up on the cutting board floor!!
More film music, this time from the 1965 film Dr. Zhivago, Lara's theme, Somewhere My Love, set to a nice slow ballad tempo. Benexida by Jerry Allan was next closely followed by Antonio Jobim's One Note Samba before slowing things once more with a wonderful rendition of Misty, big strings to open with, and then piano and sax voices - great stuff.
The sounds on the Tyros 2 really have been massively improved as we could hear with Frank Sinatra's arrangement of Summerwind. If you were thinking of being kissed much more (!), then Besame Mucho and More would certainly put you in the right frame of mind.
Someone else - Richard spoke in this aspect of the late Mark Shakespeare - who left us far too early some ten years ago, often influences professionals and amateurs alike in their music. The next two were two lively numbers he performed regularly in his concerts, namely Mac The Knife & Hello Dolly, both played at a lively tempo.
Richard is of course very heavily involved in the development of new keyboards, both in the sound and style department. This gave him the chance to use a new style for his encore, i.e. the Celtic Dance, the tune of course the Lord Of The Dance, a show that has deservedly enjoyed huge success all over the world.
Why not come along to a Basildon Keyboard Club Concert, you will be made very welcome, have a great evenings entertainment, a complimentary cup of tea or coffee with biscuits and of course experience the delights of live music played on top of the range electronic organs & keyboards by the best players.