**New CD's available at montchrishubbard.com!** This seems to be developed from Crane II, which was recorded immediately previously. It also sounds related quite a bit to a harmonic theme in "Glacier Discovery" (the third track on "Passages") – it shares phrase lengths and harmonic relations. But it is more florid, more active, and ultimately more mistake-ridden and uninteresting — it ends up sounding too much like noodling. Hence my dropping the F-bomb at the 3:20 mark (parents, cover your children's ears!). Then I glissando to figuratively wipe the slate clean and start over. I'll say, though, I've no idea how I got the sostenuto pedal and the low register depressed in the middle of the improvisation. Literally – I don't remember. It makes for a fascinating and shimmery texture. But if people don't realize that what you are doing is organic, they think it's just some Enya effect. And I will admit that it makes me play a little like Enya. By which I am less than thrilled. And you can hear it when, at the end, I realize just how banal I've become and have to wipe the slate clean again. Why am I posting this? Maybe to show you that sometimes the good stuff just doesn't come out. http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2009/05/1-september-2008-5-goose-6m07s.html

**New CD's available at montchrishubbard.com!** Let us continue through these outtakes, these aborted takes. This one gets its overdone reverb effect from the magical middle pedal of the piano, the one that's rarely used. It is called the sostenuto pedal, it keeps raised any damper that is already raised when the pedal is depressed. This means you can sustain some notes while keeping others dry. However, I prefer to use it in a subtler manner. If a key is played softly enough, the hammer does not strike the strings, but the damper is lifted. So the strings are left ready to vibrate. When other strings in the piano are played, the wonderful phenomenon of sympathetic resonance causes some of the open strings to quietly vibrate. Only the closely related notes will ring sympathetically. That is, if I strike a C, the others C's will ring, as will some G's (not as loudly) and a few E's (quieter still). (It's a little more complicated than that, but I don't need to get all technical on you...) I like to prepare the lowest and/or highest registers of the piano, the ones that I rarely play in, and let them be the resonators. That is what you hear in these next two recordings. http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2009/04/1-september-2008-4-crane-3m16s.html

**New CD's available at montchrishubbard.com!** Let us continue through these outtakes, these aborted takes. This one gets its overdone reverb effect from the magical middle pedal of the piano, the one that's rarely used. It is called the sostenuto pedal, it keeps raised any damper that is already raised when the pedal is depressed. This means you can sustain some notes while keeping others dry. However, I prefer to use it in a subtler manner. If a key is played softly enough, the hammer does not strike the strings, but the damper is lifted. So the strings are left ready to vibrate. When other strings in the piano are played, the wonderful phenomenon of sympathetic resonance causes some of the open strings to quietly vibrate. Only the closely related notes will ring sympathetically. That is, if I strike a C, the others C's will ring, as will some G's (not as loudly) and a few E's (quieter still). (It's a little more complicated than that, but I don't need to get all technical on you...) I like to prepare the lowest and/or highest registers of the piano, the ones that I rarely play in, and let them be the resonators. That is what you hear in these next two recordings. http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2009/04/1-september-2008-4-crane-3m16s.html

**New CD's available at montchrishubbard.com!** I love how austerely this piece begins. It is open and empty. I left the sustain pedal down for much of it, giving an extremely wet texture. It doesn't stop, either — as I throw more notes in, leaving the pedal down, they all mix together in a swirl. Unfortunately, I lose it and abort the piece at 4:35. So I suppose this is what's called an "outtake", but the beginning was too lovely not to post. http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2009/03/1-september-2008-3-albatross-4m50s.html

**New CD's available at montchrishubbard.com!** I really dig the rhythm in this, how the two disjointed hands mesh together to form something cohesive. You can hear, though, that at times my hands and brain could barely manage to stay together and in time. The ragged (and repetitive) nature of this piece is why it didn't make the cut for the new CD, but the energy is so great that I wanted to share it. http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2008/12/1-september-2008-2-humming-bird-7m18s.html

This is the last piece in my "Paintings" series. Coincidentally, the painting for the first piece was also by Andrew Wyeth - I am pleased at the symmetry. I am also pleased at how this piece turned out. I found a very interesting motif and explored it thoroughly, but I don't find it belaboured. The piece does not settle into a standard key and avoids standard cadences. It is open, cold, and harsh. http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2008/11/12-august-2008-11-winter-1946-4m03s.html

I don't think my piece fits this painting at all. It's not sleek or hip or cool. It is rumbling. http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2008/11/12-august-2008-10-in-car-3m35s.html

The first time I tried to channel a Thiebaud painting, I failed. This time, however, I had the image in front of me, and I must say I was much more successful. This improv is peaceful and slightly melancholy. It has a nice arc and doesn't overreach. http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2008/10/12-august-2008-9-man-sitting-back-view.html

I did not know what to do with this painting by Winslow Homer, other than to do my best to evoke the teeming, whitecapped water and the imminent violence. http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2008/10/12-august-2008-8-gulf-stream-2m02s.html

http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2008/10/12-august-2008-7-portrait-of-artist.html

I thought longer than usual about how to render this painting. I decided after much contemplation to imagine this act, frozen in time in the painting, in an unusual way. Instead of the tragedy of a man burning, I wanted to focus on the spectacle of the flame. I imagined the man as a work of art himself, comprised of deeds and experiences, and tried to capture the solemn beauty of the destruction of such a piece of art. Like the best funerals, it became a celebration of life. (I noticed that this piece shares a lot with the last two minutes of "Nighthawks." I was still quite enamored with the tonalities I had discovered in that effort, and found the right opportunity to explore them further.) http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2008/09/12-august-2008-6-night-burn-8m05s.html