Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

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Matthew Fisher / David Lanz

A Bach collaboration one day?


 

Joan May writes: in April, 1999, a new interview with David Lanz was posted at his Web Site, from the November-December 1998 issue of Wind and Wire Magazine, in which he acknowledged the role of A Whiter Shade of Pale in making the Cristofori's Dream CD such a success, and he also had this to say:

"... Matthew Fisher, the organist from Procol Harum, has become a good friend of mine, and wants me to collaborate with him on arranging a couple of Each's pieces, so we'll see what happens with that. I'm sure it's not a great commercial idea, but it really feeds the musical soul to be able to tap into classical composers' music ..."

As an e-mail address for him had also been added to his Site, I wrote to thank him for his comments about AWSoP and Matthew; here's a part of my e-mail:

... that "Each's" puzzled me a bit – I wondered if you meant that you and Matthew were going to arrange a couple of Each Other's pieces? And were you expressing the fact that Matthew really is a Great classical composer – his organ lines in all the Procol material being truly beautiful classical music as well as rock? BUT – I think I just sussed the thing out – your meaning probably wasn't that deep after all – I bet the word "Each's" is a misprint for "Bach's!"

Am I right? If so, I hope you'll get that error corrected so everyone can find out about this great new project. I can just hear you and Matthew playing Bach – your lovely piano and his "magic touch" (your apt words) on Hammond organ.

A few days later, "Each's" was changed to "Bach's" at his Website, and he kindly replied to my note; here are excerpts from his e-mail, reprinted with his permission:

".... Yes, it was JS Bach I was referring to..... Matthew played Hammond on two new tracks of mine which will be out in September [or] it may possibly be later, even early 2000. ... East Of The Moon is the name of my new CD. We chatted again about doing the Bach pieces, but it is not anything we're rushing into. Matthew has let the music take a back seat to his current vocation in the computer world / office-worker realm. I share your feeling about his great gift and I sure wish he would jump back into his music full-time ..."

Thanks, David!


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