Work samples

  • One Minute
    Actually more then two minutes in length. I see this as a tribute to me as a kid - a curious kid with a very active imagination. The fuzzy background image is one I took at Ocean City Maryland, about 2011. The added imagery was obtained via royalty free video downloads. Track #6 on the stream-of-consciousness CD, "A Glassful of Doubt."
  • Redundancy
    I think the imagery itself explains the title. As I've mentioned before, rather then music, I'm using visual imagery to better help explain my work. There are more visual artists then composers, and I noticed years ago that they tend to listen more with their eyes then ears ... Track #9 - "A Glassful of Doubt.
  • Descending
    Title inspired by the science fiction story “Descending,” by Thomas M. Disch (1964). More so then the ending descending melodic lines or phrases, I feel this actually represents my struggle to cope with my psychotic event, and the resulting mental health issues, especially depression.
  • Affectation
    With regard to the "Arts," the subject is ubiquitous.

About George

Baltimore County
I’m a largely self-taught composer, jazz pianist, performer, and visual artist, but I’ve studied with three wonderful masters: Jessica Williams (jazz piano and composition), Marc Copeland (jazz piano), and John Stephens (modern classical composition), who taught me how to learn, explore, and to continually add to my artist’s palette of knowledge. In the process I’ve written over 600 compositions, ranging from jazz and orchestral, to electro-acoustic and experimental.

Though I’d been… more

Keyboard Mania - Music/Video Imagery, part 1

The first sample of  video statements created in 2019, to accompany the thirty-three stream-of-consciousness solo piano improvisations on my 2001 CD, Keyboard Mania.

Royality-free video backgrounds obtained from: Give Me Free Art, Pexels, Pixabay, Videvo.

This could possibly be viewed as an audio component of Surealism:  "a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example, by the irrational juxtaposition of images."

Just as visual art is used to convey emotional angst, I do mine with music, first - though originally I used painting and drawing to express the anguish. It was over time, as my composition and improvisation abilities grew, that music supplanted visual work.

It's all mainly coming to terms with with my reality, after suffering a marijuana-induced psychosis shortly after my 25th birthday.

Not to go into too much detail, but it was like having the Sun burning in my mind, 24/7. I was crushed between unrelenting anxiety and devestating depression to the point that I was practically catonic. 

I attribute two things to my survival and becoming "normal." My loving wife, Jane Lamar-Spicka (1947-2005), and the mantra I kept telling myself, "Things WILL get better."

I turned to visual material once again in the hopes of better explaining what was happening in the music, after coming to the realization that many people "hear" music with their eyes rather then their ears.

Though each piece is distinct and original, to the casual listener, it all sounds the same. The same thing occurs when the unexperienced listens to Bach's Keyboard Works.

Keyboard Mania is a collection of several improvisation projects completed in the late 1990s to early 2000s: Artmobile Challenge, Seven Movements of Hysteria, 

  • Second Dawn
    Track #1 The title refers to an event that takes place early on in the novel, "Alas Babylon," by Pat frank (1959). "It was one of the first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age and has remained popular more than half century after it was first published, consistently ranking in Amazon.com's Top 20 Science Fiction Short Stories list." - Wikipedia
  • Rain
    The world had just started a new millennium, 01/01/01. I'd read where the previous millennium stimulated a period of creativity in Medieval Europe, and I was curious as to if I could influence a similar process on Artmobile.
  • False Hope
    Surely, Hope is the greatest curse ever released from Pandora's Box.
  • Nova
    A visual representation of what one just might possibly see, should they be in the vicinity of one of these cataclysmic stellar events. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova
  • Starting Over
    In the end, at least in part, doesn't it matter just when one start's over? Track #7, Keyboard Mania.
  • Too Green
    I used drugs, mostly marijuana, in my early 20's (1968-1972). There were a couple of times though, when I was living with my wife in Rochester, N.Y., when I tried inorganic mescaline. Why I did it a second time is beyond me, since the first time was a horrid affair. I guess I thought it would be different. "Too Green" is a commentary upon the experience. Eighth track on my initial "steam-of-consciousness" CD, Keyboard Mania.
  • Dark Circles
    But why are they important? Why do they exist? Other then the approximately 1min : 16sec we observe them, are they even there? Keyboard Mania, 9th track.
  • The Blessing
    It is important to remember that a "blessing" often depends on one's perspective. What is a blessing to an echidna, is horror to a colony of ants.
  • Brittle Clay
    In a bit of irony, I recently read a paper concerning the Permian/Triassic Extinction Event, that took place some 250 million years ago. In particular, it focused on the world-wide disappearance of rain forests, and what the implications might be for our time. My video starts with a sun transiting the horizon, apparently shrinking a larger (in terms of perspective) blue hemisphere. Symbolically, this could represent the charge of the Earth as a planet whose land masses during the early Carboniferous Period (Mississippian) were covered with large, inland seas, to a planet where the land masses had merged into the super-continent Pangea.
  • Thrall
    Are we truly ever free? What interests me, is how the pump jacks movement resembles continued nodding, as in: "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes ... in perpetual obedience to its master.

Keyboard Mania - Music/Video Imagery, part 2

The second sample of  video statements created in 2019, to accompany the thirty-three stream-of-consciousness solo piano improvisations on my 2001 CD, Keyboard Mania.

For more detail, visit "Keyboard Mania - Music/Video Imagery, part 1."
  • Jan 5th 01
    Another video from my "ArtMobile Challenge." The world had just started a new millennium, 01/01/01. I'd read where the previous millennium stimulated a period of creativity in Medieval Europe, and I was curious as to if I could influence a similar process on Artmobile.
  • Portent
    Another creation inspire by the "ArtMobile Challenge." The inspiration for the title was that after I joined the ArtMobile forum in 1996, I couldn't help but notice the various statements about conservative policies being "Orwellian" in nature. My curiosity being piqued, I decided to read what Orwell wrote about. The problems began when I started to share what he'd said. As a democratic socialist, Orwell was certainly no friend to conservatives.
  • Noah's 2nd Ark
    From "The ArtMobile Challenge." Even most biblical historians aren't aware that Noah built a second Ark, a privilege reserved for a select few. Perhaps some things were overlooked during the first roundup. I'd image microscopic beings might easily be missed in this largely pr-scientific era.
  • Red House
    Just like our fourth planet, Red House represents War, possibly even the ultimate, Final War. Heralded by ash laden skies that block the Sun, the Forever Winter begins.
  • Jan 22nd 01 part 1
    I usually don't compose unless inspired by an idea, though I can. This inspiration came the 22nd day of the new millennium, not a specific idea, but just the urge to improvise using the methods I was working on. The start resembles something like a reel-to-reel tape recorder, which morphs into something that could be interpreted as a Twilight Zone TV program inspired Rorschach. It finishes with horizontal lines accelertaing to the right and left, but where to?
  • Jan 22nd '01 - part 2
    Created later the same day, "Jan 22nd '01 - part 2" is based on a similar motif that is reflective, but not quite identical to "Jan 22nd '01 - part 2" in reverse. I like the way it starts off with racing lines that coalesce into something representing Jupiter's red spot. It is undoubtably the red coloration that vlends this effect.
  • Night Voices
    Perhaps "Nightmare Voices" would be a better title, but to relate that experience and imagery would take more then a couple minutes of music. Most of my childhood nightmares were a resemblance of my abusive father, as an evil force that had to be desperately fled from. After my psychotic breakdown, the imagery over the years became more complicated, took on more levels. With running, or perhaps searching always being at the core, the scenarios tended to blend from one residence to another, to places having fantastic, complicated add-ons.
  • The Character of Weeds
    When you come down to it, some are downright beautiful ... I feel this serves two purposes, the first being my love of nature, the second being a reflection of how I see myself in relation to the world, at least as a composer and artist, possibility as a thinker. Weeds are fascinating and a part of our existence, yet how often we assume them to be "ugly" and of no use, and summarily cut them down. At the very least, they're a nuisance to be ignored.
  • Ooblagato #1
    Again, not a typo. I got the idea from a Frank Zappa album insert I saw sometime in the late 60s - early 70s. In definition, an Obbligato is "integral to a piece of music and should not be omitted in performance." With the overt typo, how can it not ;)
  • Warm Seeds
    As the video suggests, they come in many forms, and serve multiple purposes. Track #25 on Keyboard Mania.

Keyboard Mania - Music/Video Imagery, part 3

The third sample of  video statements created in 2019, to accompany the thirty-three stream-of-consciousness solo piano improvisations on my 2001 CD, Keyboard Mania.

For more detail, visit "Keyboard Mania - Music/Video Imagery, part 1."
  • Pisces Ball
    Sounds fishy to me ... What could be more appropriate for today's political climate then a party of fish? The Fish Party, that is. All the deals and maneuvering done below surface, and out of view of us mere mortals. Besides, as the first major group of vertebrates, I would think there'd be plenty of reasons to celebrate ...
  • Storm
    This storm is more then your typical Earth storm. It's a fanciful storm of cosmic proportions. Plus there's the added bonus of a worm hole ... Twenty-seventh track / Keyboard Mania
  • Man's Best Friend
    Keyboard Mania, track #25. Conceivable, and potentially, there are as many as there are people ...
  • Longing
    Personally, I feel that longing may be the worst affliction. Desperately wishing and waiting for something that may not even exist, must be one of fate's crueler hoaxes ...
  • Fault
    It's always someone else's fault, isn't it? It is one of the darker aspects of human nature. Think of all the problems and animosity that could be avoided if people were honest both with themselves and others. But then again, psychologists would be hard put to find work.
  • Winter
    This is the improvised solo from a longer piece of the same name. I later dedicated the piece to jazz pianist Art Monroe, after his passing.
  • Mornng's Eve
    Morning's Eve is a seldom realized phenomena, for the simple fact that so very few people understand what they are seeing the times it does occur. Second track on my initial "steam-of-consciousness" CD, Keyboard Mania.
  • Harmonic Sketch #2
    Fractal madness? Or perhaps a sub-atomic microscope in another part of the universe.
  • Harmonic Sketch #6
    35th and final track on my first stream-of-consciousness solo piano CD, "Keyboard Mania." Goucher College has this wonderful Bosendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, the model with the extra keys in the bass clef.

A Glassful of Doubt - Music/Video Imagery, part 1

First and foremost, I am a composer. With the advent of YouTube, it became apparent that adding visual imagery would garner more interest in my work then a static audio presentation. I’d already created a body of photography and visual art that I could draw on for this purpose. To this I added video clips, the purpose of which was to help listeners better understand the context of my vision.

"It is pianist and composer in unison. A combination of Liszt and Monk at work. What Mr. Spicka gives us in A Glassful of Doubt, is a self-contained, bold declaration of belief in the creative spirit." - Mark Yacovone, Program Director, WDUQ-FM - Pittsburgh
  • French Kiss
    Track #1 - Nobody said this was taking place on the Earth, or any other part of the known universe for that matter. And speaking of things that "matter," perhaps this is a view of theorized "Dark Matter."
  • Blue Aeons
    Blue Aeons is quite appropriate as jellyfish and the coral counterparts (Cnidarians), are now thought to have appeared on our planet some 580 million years ago, which is before the Cambrian. Perhaps the start of the Cambrian will have to be moved further back in geologic time, which is not all that unusual - because as more research goes on, new discoveries are continually being found. What's interesting is that "corals" have gone extinct several times in our planet's history, most noteably the "Great Dying" some 250 million years ago, in which more species then the extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs. Track #2: Recorded via midi from a Korg SG-1 digital piano, PreSonus interface, using Cubase software.
  • Wrong Direction
    In a way this symbolizes my life, especially after I went away to college. I attribute this mainly to gross naivety, and not being properly educated as to the properties of the "real" world.
  • Unecessary Flowers
    An anti-war statement. If the dead who lie beneath these gravestones could speak, what would they say? That they gladly gave their lives as heroes? Or would it be of how terrified they were?
  • One Minute
    Actually more then two minutes in length. I see this as a tribute to me as a kid - a curious kid with a very active imagination. The fuzzy background image is one I took at Ocean City Maryland, about 2011. The added imagery was obtained via royalty free video downloads. Track #6 on the stream-of-consciousness CD, "A Glassful of Doubt."
  • Affectation
    With regard to the "Arts," the subject is ubiquitous.
  • Way Off Track
    Personally, I don't think the music is as "way off" as the visual artwork, which is based on my 1981 pen & ink drawing, "Tometha." During the 1980s, a newsletter editor would on occasion publish some of these quick sketches, having dubbed them, "Planetscapes." Track #8, "A Glassful of Doubt."
  • Redundancy
    I think the imagery itself explains the title. As I've mentioned before, rather then music, I'm using visual imagery to better help explain my work. There are more visual artists then composers, and I noticed years ago that they tend to listen more with their eyes then ears ... Track #9 - "A Glassful of Doubt.
  • The Number Five
    This clip is inspired by the 1986 comic, science-fiction film, "Shirt Circuit." Number 5 is an experimental military robot that is struck by lightning and gains a humanlike intelligence. I wonder if something sort of like this happened to me. Of course with me, I was struck by psychosis ...
  • Allusion
    What's interesting about this, is that it's your brain that's moving, and not the imagery. Track #10, "A Glassful of Doubt."

A Glassful of Doubt - Music/Video Imagery, part 2

A Glassful of Doubt - Music/Video Imagery, part 3

The third sample of  video statements created from 2018-2019, to help explain the twenty-nine stream-of-consciousness solo piano improvisations on my 2002 CD, "A Glassful of Doubt."

​First and foremost, I am a composer. With the advent of YouTube, it became apparent that adding visual imagery would garner more interest in my work then a static audio presentation. I’d already created a body of photography and visual art that I could draw on for this purpose. To this I added video clips, the purpose of which was to help listeners better understand the context of my vision.

"It is pianist and composer in unison. A combination of Liszt and Monk at work. What Mr. Spicka gives us in A Glassful of Doubt, is a self-contained, bold declaration of belief in the creative spirit." - Mark Yacovone, Program Director, WDUQ-FM - Pittsburgh
  • Not Now
    "Not Now! I'm Busy." I imagine this is what I will say to the Grim Reaper when it shows up. There's just too many things to learn about and experience. Come back in another 100 years or so.
  • Someday
    The promise of hope: Things will get better - Don't give up - You can do it - etc. ... A Glassful of Doubt - #24
  • Wasteland
    There are so many of them, especially when you consider our planet's ongoing geology and climate variations. Volcanos, floods, tsunami, earthquakes, deserts Of course, that opinion depends on who's doing the observing.
  • A Glassful of Doubt
    Title Track (#26) for this particular group of stream-of-consciousness piano improvisations. This was a particularly difficult time with the depression. If one were to compare my drawings at this time with what I had been doing previously, they were mainly a bunch of meaningless scribbles .. In a way, it was a precognition of what lie over the horizon ...
  • Denial
    One of any number of means we use to hide from reality, collectively gathered under psychological defense mechanisms. Those calls for "Change" are generally meaningless, because it is often the one calling for "Change" that needs it most.
  • Yellow Thoughts
    Besides being track #28 on my stream-of-consciousness CD, "A Glassful of Doubt," what are yellow thoughts? When I lived in Fork Maryland, yellow was my favorite color because it reminded me of the morning Sun shining in through my bedroom window. As the improv suggests, over the years yellow took on a sinister aspect. The optimism, hope, and naivety of youth crushed in a cold, non-caring world. And yet idealism persists in the stories we read, the movies we see. Grabbing for the brass ring cannot remain elusive through all eternity ... or can it.
  • Glimmer
    Yes there is always that, as untenable as that may be. Things will get better, the grass is always greening. A carrot dangling from the end of the stick, Hope.
  • Unclaimed Melody
    The detritus of composition? A theme so awful as to be intolerable? Or perhaps a motif ahead of its time. #21 - "A Glassful of Doubt."

CD Cover Art: Scanned

While my Music/Art videos don't use my paintings and drawings, I have used a number in my CD cover art.

These are drawn from 1973 to about 2000.

While I progressed as a composer, I found that my visual art had become obsessed with depression, becoming ever more futile.

It was around this time that I began to gradually change to photography - not so much as art, even though that did happen, but more to capture the world around me.
  • UFO and Other Oddities.jpg
    UFO and Other Oddities.jpg
    The title of this acrylic painting was inspired by my jazz composition, "U..F..O.." The music itself is a series of recordings I made in the basement of the group home Jane and I lived in in Colesville (Silver Spring), MD, from the late 1970s - 80s.
  • Keyboard Mania.jpg
    Keyboard Mania.jpg
    This color enhanced version (Steve Estes) is of a 1973 watercolor by the same name. It's the first of three solo-piano, stream-of-consciousness improvisation CDs, that I produced in the early 2000s. The other two CDs are: "A Glassful of Doubt" and "Taunting World."
  • Keyboard Mania - revised.jpg
    Keyboard Mania - revised.jpg
    This is a later rendition, where I took and inverted the original color, then used both to achieve a "quad" effect. Digital editing.
  • A Glassful of Doubt.jpg
    A Glassful of Doubt.jpg
    "A Glassful of Doubt" is the second of three stream-of-consciousness, improvised solo-piano CDs. The title of the artwork itself is "Penalty." Colored Markers on Paper.
  • Taunting World.jpg
    Taunting World.jpg
    "The Taunting World" is the third of three stream-of-consciousness, improvised solo piano CDs. The drawing itself, colored markers on paper, is titled "Oit." Most of the selections have not as yet been enhance with video imagery.
  • Famous Lost Words.jpg
    Famous Lost Words.jpg
    "Famous Lost Words" is a collection of music I created in the early through mid 1990s. "Moonstrocity" is the name of the original artwork, whose colors were digitally enhanced by Steve Estes. Colored markers on paper.
  • Shiftsense.jpg
    Shiftsense.jpg
    "Shiftsense" is my second collection of "synth and sound works" from this period. "Shiftsence" is also the title of the piece of art, which is a collage.
  • Rhythm Machine.jpg
    Rhythm Machine.jpg
    I created "Rhythm Machine" for submission to a project that would involve dancers interacting with recorded original music. I do have an acrylic painting titled "Rhythm Machine" but this isn't it. This particular piece, digitally enhanced colored markers on paper, is called "Untitled 27x."
  • Cat's Eye Pub.jpg
    Cat's Eye Pub.jpg
    "Jazz Street Station - Live at the Cat's Eye Pub" features a mix of modern jazz and original tunes. The painting itself, "Sunrise of Eternity" is acrylic on construction paper.
  • Standards #1.jpg
    Standards #1.jpg
    "Standards #1" is exactly, a collection of jazz standards. The original watercolor painting is titled, "Pink Tree."

Videos - Live Piano Performance

These are Art Videos, all using audio recordings of my piano performances. Again, the purpose of visuals are to help listeners better understand the context of my work. "… And I am agog at your improvisational skills on Keyboard Mania. I can only imagine all the hours & sweaty practice that you've logged to be able to shift gears in tempo & mood so effortlessly." – Craig Hankins, Hopkins University
  • Before and / or After
    "Before and/or After" is the 1st Movement from the work, "The Apostate and the Apprentice." This rendition is a live recording from a Baltimore Composers Forum concert at the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore on May 2, 2004. Video backgrounds obtained from GiveMeFreeArt.com.
  • A-j-U-i-T
    Melancholy stream-of-consciousness solo piano improvisation on my Falcone grand / Zoom q3 and Kodak Easy Share cameras / Shure vp88 stereo mic / iMac with Cubase 4.
  • Phantasy
    Jazz Waltz composed in 1980. For this 2011 solo performance, the theme is performed rhythmically open. The improvisation gradually turns into swing rhythm.
  • Twin Worlds
    "Twin Worlds "- is a solo piano interlude performance that was listed on the November 18th 2011, Baltimore Composers Forum concert program as "Two Worlds." I felt that this rendition was different enough from the original concept.to give it a new title. The stage lighting was dim, and I had to tweak the video a lot to make it visible. That and the fact that I wore black gave the effect that ghostly hands were playing an equally ghostly piano. The new title pays homage to science fiction writer Neil R. Jones (1909-1988), especially his series about the last surviving earthman, Professor Jameson, and his interstellar adventures with the Zorome machine-men (i.e. cyborgs). Isaac Asimov credits Jones' stories as one of the inspirations behind the robots of his Robot series.
  • Gold
    "Blue", "Red", & "Gold" (Three Etudes for Tomorrow) were performed at a Baltimore Composers Forum concert at Goucher College, Towson MD, in November of 2002. As “stream-of-consciousness” improvisations, the music requirement was simply a sheet of blue paper, a sheet of red, and one goldenrod page. The somewhat more elaborate video backgrounds are intended to convey the same spirit as the original sheets.
  • Halcyon Summers
    This is a 2011 solo piano rendition of a tune I wrote and originally recorded in 1980. This rubato introduction and coda of this video rendition contain images of beautiful paintings by Impressionistic painter, Claude Monet (1840-1926). These are absent from the beginning and concluding theme, and the solos have a bit of digital unrest to add to the flavor of the performance. As some have observed, the minor harmonies suggest that not everything is truly serene - My summers growing up were truly halcyon, as I was able to spend long hours away from abusive atmosphere of my home.
  • Red - 2nd Movement, Three Etudes for Tomorrow
    "Blue", "Red", & "Gold" (Three Etudes for Tomorrow) were performed at a Baltimore Composers Forum concert at Goucher College, Towson MD, in November of 2002. As “stream-of-consciousness” improvisations, the music requirement was simply a sheet of blue paper, a sheet of red, and one goldenrod page. The somewhat more elaborate video backgrounds are intended to convey the same spirit as the original sheets.
  • Two Worlds
    Interlude Music - First of two submissions for the Baltimore Composers Forum concert at Theatre Project on November 18, 2011.
  • Blue - 1st Movement, Three Etudes for Tomorrow
    "Blue", "Red", & "Gold" (Three Etudes for Tomorrow) were performed at a Baltimore Composers Forum concert at Goucher College, Towson MD, in November of 2002. As “stream-of-consciousness” improvisations, the music requirement was simply a sheet of blue paper, a sheet of red, and one goldenrod page. The somewhat more elaborate video backgrounds are intended to convey the same spirit as the original sheets.
  • Gibson Island - Maryland Suite #1
    Part one of the "Maryland Suite," this is a harmonic sketch, inspired by photos I took a number of years back while doing a gig at a private home, located on Gibson Island, Maryland. Typically, I arrived and set up with time to spare. The house overlooked Sillary Bay, where I took these shots as the sun was setting. The theme is played through once, and then improvised over.

Visual Art

Before I began to use music as my primary means of expressing emotion, I used various sorts of painting and drawing.

I did a few oil and watercolors, but it was mainly acrylic and colored markers.

By the time 2000 had rolled around, I was reduced to just pen & ink scribblings, a sign of my mental state.
  • City.jpg
    City.jpg
    "City" captures the sense of isolation even though surrounded by people. Before I used music to convey my struggles with mental illness, I used visual art. This is what I felt like after the psychotic breakdown. In the late 2010s, Mental Health America used this image in their "Mental Health Month" campaign. I also received an award from Yumi Hogan, Maryland's First Lady, for participating and performing in a "Mental Health Awareness" art show in Annapolis.
  • Departure.jpg
    Departure.jpg
    I feel this represents what it would be like if I could ever escape the shackles that held me back. Digitally enhanced color markers.
  • Escape.jpg
    Escape.jpg
    "Escape" is a rather accurate expression of my mood at the time: me as the orb, desperately trying to escape the clutches of an all consuming, evil force. The problem here is, no words or images can truly explain the the hell I was going through, 24/7. Acrylic
  • Eyato Onh.jpg
    Eyato Onh.jpg
    Another visualization of escape, of flight, of potential freedom. Like a mantra, I kept telling myself again and again, "Hang On. Things Will Get Better!"
  • Flight.jpg
    Flight.jpg
    To me, "Flight" signifies the desperate frustration of wanting to flee the mental agony. The being has been at it so hard and long, that its arms and body are distorted. Still it tries ... and tries ...
  • Jimi H.jpg
    Jimi H.jpg
    A tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Opening for him at DC's Ambassador Theatre in 1967 had a profound effect on my music direction. The only other time this happened to me was I when I heard jazz pianist/composer Bill Evans in an intimate motel setting in Rochester NY (1972). I just had to learn how to do that!!!
  • Multilayer Technological Dream.jpg
    Multilayer Technological Dream.jpg
    In the 1980s, a number of my pen and ink drawing became newsletter covers. This was one of them.
  • Outworld.jpg
    Outworld.jpg
    Title inspired in part, by Berkeley Breathed cartoon "Outland." I suspect M. C. Escher had a hand in this too. The original pen and ink rendition was later digitally enhanced. The overlapping landscapes are a reflection of my inner world.
  • OzzO8.jpg
    OzzO8.jpg
    I did this on paper that was larger in size then what I particularly used, not that it mattered. Of special interest are the two beings and what they represent. One thought is that they're highly stylized prehistoric beasts, or maybe it's a glimpse into the future.
  • Rhythm Machine.jpg
    Rhythm Machine.jpg
    What we see here of course, is only a segment of a vast celestial Rhythm Machine.

Miscellaneous Music Videos - art, live, piano

An assortment of left-over videos from the first three video projects listed above.
  • Wants of a Diatom - 2019
    Performed for the Composers Society of Montgomery County. A diatom is tiny bit of alga living within a silica castle. In a way, Star Trek's Mr. Spock's quip, "It's not life as we know it" would seem to apply. One algae species, Bangiomorpha pubescens, dates back to 1.25 billion years ago, and hints at when photosynthesis began. Had that not occurred, we'd be breathing an atmosphere of ammonia and methane, rather then one of oxygen, if we were even here at all. The irony of it all, when you get down to it, is that we owe our existence to plant poop ;)
  • Ashen Rainbows - 2019
    Live recording for the monthly Peabody Jazz Composers Forum. 10-23-2019 / Andie Musik, Baltimore Maryland.
  • My Cha - 2019
    A live, solo-piano performance. I usually play this with a piano trio or larger ensemble, so covering the left-hand bass part is a challenge. Peabody Jazz Composers Forum, November 2019 / An die Musik
  • Two Worlds (another rendition)
    A second recording with video/audio from a Zoom Q3 recorder only. Created September 15, 2011.
  • Gamesters
    "Gamesters" (1980) Composed as an up-temp Latin piece, in this rendition I play it more as a ballad. The title is inspired by the original Star Trek episode, "Gamesters of Tryskelion." This was broadcast on January 5, 1968, my 21st birthday :)
  • Western Avenue
    Originally written in 1980, this version is a rather free-flowing jazz ballad in 4/4. The title is for a road that separates Washington DC from Prince George's County, MD. Recorded February 2011
  • Two Reservations
    Created September 11, 2011. In this usage, "reservations" means doubt. Two back-to-back stream-of-consciousness improvisations.
  • Beethoven's Cat
    (2015) For French horn and Marimba. The challenge was to create a situation that would combine two seeming disparate instruments: one known for its subdued tones, the other for its percussive qualities, into one seemingly coherent work. Representations of life or conditions in other parts of the universe were considered, along with conversations between sub-atomic particles like the quark, or maybe even idle chit-chat between a trilobite and an asteroid (starfish). Then I thought, why not a cat? Not just any cat, but Beethoven’s cat! I’ve found no reference to there ever being one, but imagine if there were. Lying and sleeping there by the master, it would experience both the genius and the frustration first hand. And who knows, in the dark night, maybe, just maybe, Beethoven’s cat would hop to the bench, then piano, and try to replicate what it’s keen ears had absorbed earlier in the day. Beethoven’s Cat represents the thoughts and actions of this most remarkable creature.
  • Two More Worlds
    "Two More Worlds" is an electro-acoustic piece for improvised piano and pre-recorded music/sounds. The second of two compositions submitted for a Baltimore Composers Forum concert at Theatre Project, November 18, 2011.
  • Searching the Empty Room
    From the 2000 CD, "Keyboard Mania" (Seven Movements of Hysteria). Solo piano with video background. Video from GiveMeFreeArt.com. Empty Room image by jjsunshyne @ Photobucket.com. Video created 2010.