Sans . . .

. . . lyrics


Video performance of the original composition Church by Ray Jozwiak, sans lyrics . . .

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 

My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!
The Ocean City Ditty Video is now on YouTube
Also, be sure to visit: www.rayjozwiak.com and www.ohomusic.com

Tweet  

Follow me on Blogarama

Working . . .

. . . on the live performance of Your Luck Is Awake . . .


. . . another gloriously catchy composition by Jay . . .



Your Luck Is Awake
by Jay Graboski

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 

My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!
The Ocean City Ditty Video is now on YouTube
Also, be sure to visit: www.rayjozwiak.com and www.ohomusic.com

Tweet  

Third . . .

. . . is a charm . . .

. . . the wonder of modern, digital, recording technology enables one (literally. . . ONE, although not in this case) to conceive a composition of the musical persuasion and to create a record ("As in a record of an event, the event of people playing music in a room". . . Ani DiFranco) documenting a performance of said composition for posterity.  Well that's what we're doing here.  And, like most of like, good things are worth waiting for.

This tune was conceived quite a while ago as a sort-of 12/8, 1950s-style ballad (think Unchained Melody-like), lyrics dealing, somewhat nebulously, with the phenomenon of gossip. Jay took the tune and OHO-ized it, introducing a heavy rhythmic guitar riff to underpin the introduction (and repeated turnaround) and the unusually-timed, uptempo mid-section to incorporate sonic variety into this longer-than-pop-radio-boss-hit-bound-single-running piece.

Drums are soon to follow.  We kind of like how its coming along.   You? . . . .


Third-Hand Intelligence
work-in-progress recorded at The Bratt Studio (Bill Pratt at the helm) by OHO- Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!

The Ocean City Ditty Video is now on YouTube

My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet  

Practice . . .

. . . makes

. . . perfect . . .



“Practice doesn't make perfect.
Practice reduces the imperfection.”
― Toba Beta

“Practice makes the master.”
― Patrick Rothfuss

“No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear.”
― Greg Kincaid

“If you want to find the real competition, just look in the mirror. After awhile you'll see your rivals scrambling for second place.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“It is a mistake to think that the practice of my art has become easy to me. I assure you, dear friend, no one has given so much care to the study of composition as I. There is scarcely a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently and diligently studied.”
― Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“Sex, whatever else it is, is an athletic skill. The more you practice, the more you can, the more you want to, the more you enjoy it, the less it tires you.”
― Robert A. Heinlein


Paleolithic Goddess Figurine
Recorded live at the compound by OHO (Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak)





What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!

The Ocean City Ditty Video is now on YouTube

My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet  

Art . . .

(from http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-art-of-billie-holidays-life)
" . . . Some biographies of artists take in the whole life—preferably with equal attention to the work, and integrating the two elements to the extent that the work invites it. Others offer a bio-slice or synecdoche, centered on one particular period, relationship, or field of activity to provide an exemplary angle on the life and work. John Szwed’s brief but revelatory new book, “Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth” (Viking), which comes out this week—just under the wire for her centenary (Holiday was born April 7, 1915)—is in another category. It’s a meta-biography, about the creation of Holiday’s public image in media of all sorts: print, television, movies, and, of course, her recordings, but with special attention to the composition of her autobiography, “Lady Sings the Blues,” which was published in 1956. . ."

What do you think?

Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 


OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak.  Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com 


My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet  

Glaciers and Music . . .

(from http://www.priweb.org/ed/finger_lakes/nystate_geo3.html)
". . . The Finger Lakes consist of 11 long, narrow, roughly parallel lakes, oriented north-south as fingers of a pair of outstretched hands. The southern ends have high walls, cut by steep gorges. Two of the lakes (Seneca and Cayuga) are among the deepest in North America and have bottoms below sea level. These lakes all formed over the last two million years by glacial carving of old stream valleys. Ithaca is located at the south end of Cayuga Lake, the longest and the second deepest of the Finger Lakes. Cayuga is 38.1 miles long and 435 feet deep (53 feet below sea level) at its deepest spot. The actual depth of carved rock is well over twice as deep, but it has been filled with sediments; there may be as much as 1000 feet of glacial sediment in the deep rock trough below the lakebed.

The Finger Lakes originated as a series of northward-flowing rivers that existed in what is now central New York State. Around two million years ago the first of numerous continental glaciers moved southward from the Hudson Bay area, initiating the Pleistocene glaciation, commonly known as the "Ice age."

The "Ice age" was really a series of many advances and retreats of glaciers. The Finger Lakes were probably carved by several of these episodes. Ice sheets more than two miles thick flowed southward, parallel but opposite to the flow of the rivers, gouging deep trenches into these river valleys. Traces of most of the earlier glacial events have vanished, but much evidence remains of the last one or two glaciers that covered New York.

The latest glacial episode was most extensive around 21,000 years ago, when glaciers covered almost the entire state. Around 19,000 years ago, the climate warmed, and the glacier began to retreat, disappearing entirely from New York for the last time around 11,000 years ago. . ."

There MUST be music involved here somewhere. Yes, Keuka Lake is one of the finger lakes. . . and yet another iteration of my composition 'Keuka' demanded my attention this weekend. . .


Keuka
©2013 Raymond M. Jozwiak 





What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Knot . . .

. . . a day goes by . . .


. . . Not a day of my life goes by without music.  Music, an integral part of my world, is  (paraphrasing Zappa) food.

My piano must be played daily, though there are unfortunately some exceptions, for my digital therapy as well as to keep my musical imagination healthy. Music is always audible during the evening meal at our house, exceptions to this being even MORE rare than above, be it jazz, classical, modern rock, (sorry, the available wealth of genre names are beyond me) country, R&B/soul, vocal, instrumental, experimental and traditional.  Some personal musical assignment, be it practicing my part in a song for Oho, revisiting an old composition of my own or working on a new idea, is always high on my agenda.  And I am always, after many years of conditioning, aware of music around me whether it be a song someone was humming in the office, a new song on the radio, incidental music between news stories on NPR or reference to a song during a conversation- it's there.

It is ever-present and just as much a part of me as. . . my right hand.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

More Hero. . .

(. . . further refinement of 'A Hero'. . . )



I know you heard some talk today
It wasn't right but now
She won't be gettin' in my way
'Cause she was telling lies they say
It wasn't right but now
I can look the other way
And do as I please
I'm down on my knees
I'm begging you please

Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again

With thousands of adoring fans
I tripped the light fantastic
Was nothing more than sleight of hand
Don't underestimate my worth
I tripped the light fantastic
I'm just an ordinary man
I worked very hard
For all that I've got
A killer I'm not

Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again

Heroes run so slow
Just like the tide
Heroes want to take you
They want to take you for a
They want to take you for a
They want to take you for a ride

They're waiting here with baited breath
What is the actual story
They'll love him or they'll give him death
The verdict seems so clear to some
What is the actual story
He's dead before he's lost or won
The worst of his fears
A jury of peers
Can't turn back the years

Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again


A Hero
©1994 Raymond M. Jozwiak




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

A Hero. . .

. . . ???

(An old composition, old story, new recording,  still a work in progress . . . )


I know you heard some talk today
It wasn't right but now
She won't be gettin' in my way
'Cause she was telling lies they say
It wasn't right but now
I can look the other way
And do as I please
I'm down on my knees
I'm begging you please

Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again

With thousands of adoring fans
I tripped the light fantastic
Was nothing more than sleight of hand
Don't underestimate my worth
I tripped the light fantastic
I'm just an ordinary man
I worked very hard
For all that I've got
A killer I'm not

Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again

Heros run so slow
Just like the tide
Heros want to take you
They want to take you for a
They want to take you for a
They want to take you for a ride

They're waiting here with baited breath
What is the actual story
They'll love him or they'll give him death
The verdict seems so clear to some
What is the actual story
He's dead before he's lost or won
The worst of his fears
A jury of peers
Can't turn back the years

Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again


A Hero
©1994 Raymond M. Jozwiak








What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

So much music. . .

. . . so little time. . . 

Here's an instrumental performance of an older, never recorded composition, rife with imperfections.  (You sing it.)


Words are all that I have to express all the things I would
Like to be able to tell you  but don't quite know how
Couldn't before and still can't do it now
During all of this time that's transpired little's changed but
A lot has occurred in my thoughts and my feelings for you
Countless superior intellects have searched for answers
I never gave it a whole lot of thought

Until I tried to let you know how much I feel inside
Until I tried to let you know how much I feel inside
for you

I have always believed that it's true very few things I'll
Ever encounter will be quite as precious as you
The magic between us so rare and so new
Though I'm not one of those that you find who has always the
Need to express to so many  exactly what he has in mind
I find I have this burning that's deep down inside me
For words I never needed before

Until I tried to let you know how much I feel  inside
Until I tried to let you know how much I feel  inside
for you

I can't imagine ever having my life depend upon eloquence
And maybe it doesn't
But after all this time together it seems long overdue
And in the end it probably doesn't make a difference in how you feel
If I never say it

Now I'm daily rehearsing the way to articulate
Every syllable nuance and stress when I say
How much I need to have you here today
And I won't give it up easily I suspect that it's
Just as important to you as it is now to me
The words we use themselves have no meaning
So all the more must I make them right

Now that I try to let you know how much I feel  inside
Until I tried to let you know how much I feel inside
for you


Until I Tried
©2007 Raymond M. Jozwiak





What do you think? 
Tell me at  
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet