...A Hymn of Devotion’
James Young's Joanna was made on the battered upright piano in his house -
an instrument most pianists would reject without a moment's hesitation. Bad
pianos - in pubs, bars, clubs, cafes and the parental home - are the bane of
musicians and music teachers: the sustain ... Read review
Advantages: incredibly underrated music very well produced and presented Disadvantages: none
.../> James Young's Joanna was made on the battered upright piano in his house - an instrument most pianists would reject without a moment's hesitation. Bad pianos - in pubs, bars, clubs, cafes and the parental home - are the bane of musicians and music teachers: the sustain pedal doesn't work; the felts are worn; mezzopiano is indistinguishable from fortissimo. And that's before you get on to the problem of ... ...on its head. Joanna is a hymn of devotion that both dignifies and delights in his old piano's imperfections. As Billy Jenkins wrote in Notes on Crap Pianos: "Years of warp and deterioration have ripened each mechanical artefact into its own unique sound. Do not attempt music scored for a good piano." Young describes his piano as "a ready-made that needed to be celebrated for its intrinsic peculiarities". more
‘JOANNA...A Hymn of Devotion’
James Young's Joanna was made on the battered upright piano in his house - an instrument most pianists would reject without a moment's hesitation. Bad pianos - in pubs, bars, clubs, cafes and the parental home - are the bane of musicians and music teachers: the sustain pedal doesn't work; the felts are worn; mezzopiano is indistinguishable from fortissimo. And that's before you get on to the problem of keeping it in tune. Players develop a complex relationship with their domestic piano: be it ever so humble or flawed, it's the one they come home to. Young was the keyboard man in Nico's 1980s band - an experience he turned into a fine book called Songs They Never Play on the Radio. With Joanna, a labour of love, he's turned conventional recording wisdom on its head. Joanna is a hymn of devotion that both dignifies and delights in his old piano's imperfections. As Billy Jenkins wrote in Notes on Crap Pianos: "Years of warp and deterioration have ripened each mechanical artefact into its own unique sound. Do not attempt music scored for a good piano." Young describes his piano as "a ready-made that needed to be celebrated for its intrinsic peculiarities". There are antecedents: Virginia Astley's From Gardens Where We Feel Secure (Rough Trade) mixes pastoral, domestic music, with a garden ambience of birds and squeaky gates, though in contemporary music it's one of the least "squeaky gate" suites of the 1980s. And there's Jungle Book, Joe Zawinul's home recording from Weather Report's Mysterious Traveller, an airy domestic audioscape, with kids playing close by. It would be difficult for Young to perform Joanna live: the work is the recording. Like Satie's theatrical underscoring (Le Fils des Etoiles) and Astley's mood music, Joanna's eight sections are constructed from small repetitive cells, with a gleeful delight in the way the motifs become entangled, and in the attractive jumble of unorthodox piano timbres.
