Summertime

Robert Palomo

And now for something completely different…

Well, friends, I think I may have over-banjo’d myself the past 3 years. It’s not abandoned totally or permanently, but since the weather turned I’ve been feeling the need to turn to something else. Although my piano skills never got past conservatory piano class, I’ve always said that if I was going to be exiled to a remote island and could only have one instrument, the piano would be it.

In returning to the ivories, I found I was pretty sick of the sound of my Korg SP3 - now approaching antique status. Replacing it didn’t really make sense financially. Then I stumbled across some of the virtual instruments out there. The one I’m using here from Pianoteq has some nice pricing options… a WHOLE lot cheaper than a new digital piano.

So here’s an admittedly stumbling and not too polished rendition of Gershwin’s “Summertime” - a tune, by the way, that is widely known and quite popular in my adopted home country, Russia. Gershwin was one western composer deemed not too decadent to be allowed in the former USSR… one reason it being so widely known here.

The only reason I have ever coveted a big house and lots of moohlah had to do with the ability to house a full-size grand piano. Today, for 99 Euro, I can get as close to that as the likes of me will ever need.