"If I am truly passionate about what I do, that feeling can inspire people who receive my art. As a musician I'm not concerned with whether I play jazz, rock, classical, or pop so long as it's creative."
When Mike Garsons piano solo ripped through the title track of David Bowies 1973 album Aladdin Sane, minds of all stripes were blown. Its passionate pyrotechnics captured attention as thoroughly as any guitar gods miracles would, yet it displayed a mastery of theory that perked up the ears and lowered the turned-up nose of many a classical purist. Its the definitive example of virtuoso piano in a rock context.
Garson has not only continued supporting one of rocks most original and mercurial auteurs in the three decades since Aladdin Sane, but has also been extremely active in composition, solo performance and recording, and music education. To say Garson is proficient in all styles would be a wretched understatement. By age 13, he was studying with Leonard Eisner of Julliard and Lennie Tristano. He has interpreted Gershwin and played with jazz giants such as Stan Getz, Stanley Clarke, and Freddie Hubbard, and lent classical and modernist motifs to the likes of Nine Inch Nails, No Doubt, and Smashing Pumpkins. Then there are the other projects, like playing all the piano parts for the 1988 ABC TV biopic Liberace (Garson duplicated the flamboyant pianists chops with uncanny accuracy) and his work with jazz-classical fusion ensemble Free Flight. A glance at the bio and timeline sections of his website, www.mikegarson.com , shows that all this is just the tip of the iceberg.
From Keyboard magazine, January 2004
By Stephen Fortner
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Do you want to hear what people like David Bowie, Trent Reznor and Billy Corgan have to say about Mike Garson? Read our Quotes page Here
Please send all enquiries to Mike Garson PR (please note this address is to contact Mike Garson PR, and not Mike directly)
Stop by our MySpace site and listen to the latest tunes from OPERA DIABOLICUS, featuring SNOWY SHAW (King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Therion, Notre Dame, Dream Evil etc), MATS LEVÈN (Yngwie Malmsteen, Therion, Krux etc) and NICK NIGHT (Dream Evil) among others...
“One day, men will look back and say we gave birth to the twenty first century” – OPERA DIABOLICUS
With over ten thousand downloads I'd like to thank you for your support and greatly introduce to you my 19th since I work alone on my own tracks I have yet to send you them but will place them on my mixes soon ok. For those who dont know of me well give me a chance I just might raise your eyebrows for a minute or two.
Here I am again in my 19th mix I hope it comes at the right moment for this hot weather. I placed some really good tracks here I hope as always you can be open minded to actually listen and feel than just hear.Here is the track list:
Intro Tony Montana(Al Pacino)-Human Rights(Our favorite, Scarface Movie) 1.Carlo-Always 2.Moonbean-Poem 3.Dankann-Born Slippy(Original Edit) 4.Chase Status-Eastern Jam(Original Mix) 5.Carlo-Carmencita Mixed with Singing by Kyle Lara 6.Hernan Catteaneo & John Tonks-Anime(Rocco Dub Mix) 7.Dirty South-Alamo(Original Mix) 8.Fredski Tomas Barford-March On Swan Lage(Original Version) 9.Dca Projec-Sandcastles(John Dahlback Remix) 10.Danny Clark Jay Benham-Wondrous FEat.Susu Bobien(David Penn) 11.Faithless-Music Matters Feat.Cass Fox(Mark Knight Dub Mix) 12.Dop-Mambo Jumbo(Guy Gerber & Hemlock Remix) 13.David Tort-Acid(Lost in Acid Ausfahrt Mix) 14.Interlude-Hectors Death-Troy Original Soundtrack 15.Emilio Fernandez-Saltillo 16.The Doors-Break On Through(BT Remix)
I am glad for your support on my mixes and thank you for choosing me. Tell a friend pass the word about this and the other mixes. I am very glad that were I was not supported I am now being supported by you just listening to my mixes. Visit my podcast email it what ever hear me out play the music loud tell the ladies they can shout to my Ladies Nightout Mixes freedom is in your mind not where you are I know that from experience. Love Nece
Amazing music as ever. My band is back, kicking hard. Vid' up from the Love & Peace-festival (Swedens biggest) last weekend. String of clubdates in Scandinavia and Europe in the Fall. New records in the pipeline. And I certainly hear the brillant pianoplaying of you, in the midst of it. Shaking and bending the boundries of contemp rockmusic. Interested? All the best for the summer, my friend.
We have another new song for your listening pleasure – please check out US band Lostdog in Loveland and their amazing cover of one of the truly classic Roxy Music tracks “Mother Of Pearl! “Mother Of Pearl” is another one of those tracks that seemed like it might be impossible to cover, but I think that Lostdog in Loveland has done a wonderful job of altering the track and layering their own vision upon it while still leaving it wholly recognizable. One reason why the track sounds so great is the presence of longtime David Bowie pianist MIKE GARSON on piano! We can’t tell you how proud we are to have the man who played the unforgettable piano riffs on “Aladdin Sane” and so many other classic Bowie tracks be a part Take Refuge In Pleasure: The Songs of Roxy Music Revisited! Speaking of David Bowie, Robert Mag’s vocal treatment is reminiscent of how “Mother Of Pearl” might sound were Bowie to have covered it.
THE RETURN OF THE BAT
Specimen will bring their special brand of glam mayhem, The Batcave to London again.
After last year’s wildly-successful 25th anniversary Batcave event, The Batcave returns to its original spawning ground of London’s West End on Sunday July 19 for another night of blasphemy, lechery and blood.
Specimen (Fresh from a fantastic show at Leipzig’s Waves Gotik festival), the original Batcave instigators will headline the lurid frolics at the Embassy Club, (29 Old Burlington St, London W1S3AP) Also on the bill are original Batcavers Sexbeat, with DJs Hamish and Cavey Nick, cavorting from decks to decadence with the usual brutal, trouser-dropping surprises & suitably confronting & barbaric entertainment.
The 2009 Batcave will feature installations from exciting new artists of the ‘Dark London Underground’ and visuals from the upcoming ‘Welcome To The Batcave’ book, along with this year’s bitcrushed message from the creature in t