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Steven Hale
Jun 24, 2021

Songs for Insomniacs 66: The Paul Bley Synthesizer Show, “Mr. Joy”

In 1971, the brilliant pianist Paul Bley took one of his earlier works, “Mr. Joy” (written by his partner at the time Annette Peacock) and performed it on one of the first Moog synthesizers. Jazz traditionalists were peeved. But the result is one of the happiest songs I know. Bley’s synthesizer sounds more like a super saxophone, bounding from soprano to alto to tenor without skipping a beat.

Steven Hale
Steven Hale

Written by Steven Hale

Music: Discovering the lost and forgotten. Politics: Exposing injustice. Screenwriting: Emotional storytelling.

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