Yanni Live! The CD: My Play By Play

Rainmaker

Didgeredoo. River Dance beat. African vocalists. Violins. Lovely celtic lady crooning. Then the Gypsy Kings chime in. Big Brass ending

Keys to Imagination

Wistful. Reminiscent of Starship Titanic music. Smooth strings, driving beat. Flutes. Some syncopation/time signature changes: like 3/4 to 4/4, maybe it's in 7/8 time. Freaky. Now, it's soaring...we are flying over Canada. I don't recommend jogging to this song. Bongo solo! Now it sounds Egyptian, oboe solo?. We are floating over an Egyptian marketplace...now we're in Russia, there is a violin solo straight out of Fiddler. And we're back over Canada. Soaring with the moose.

Enchantment

Lovely piano with gentle oboe. And warm strings. George Winston feel to it, though not as sparse. It's in three quarter time and it's got a very sweet lullaby feel to it, though there is some intensity and drive. Nice flutes, not obtrusive. The saxophone (tenor?) comes in bending notes to add some dissonance. Nice contrast. Nice layers. Piano arpeggio and strings build until, we're back in Canada, swooping again, then landing gently on a moose's antler.

Standing in Motion

Eye of the Tiger intro. With cymbal flourishes. Interesting: orchestra playing in unision across sections. Eye of the Tiger beat continues. Yanni must be doing something interesting; the audience cheers for no reason. And, it's over.

On Sacred Ground

The Celtic lady is back, with friends. Ah-ing. This more of an andante pace. It kind of swings. There's a pan flute solo, reminiscent of Zamfir. Nothing like a pan-flute solo accompanied by a swinging beat. Ah, "Creation song on sacred ground, ancient light shining ahhh!" the Celtic ladies implore. More pan flute. More crooning. More Ah-ing. Female vocal solo reminiscent of Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon, I think). This is kind of a Floyd song. Mandolin solo! Sitar solo! Fabulous vocal solo returns. Annoying violin solo takes over. I'm sorry, my friends, violins don't rock. Fiddles do, but this is no fiddle. It's screachy and repetitive, more appropriate for a lead guitar solo. And it's over, finally. Not a fan of this piece.

Playtime

Funky dance beat. Oh, Jesus, soprano sax and cellos doubled? With a disco beat? Playtime indeed. Who let Kenny G in here? Good lord! 7 minute long song? Next...

Until the Last Moment

Another piano lullaby, this time with the sound of waves. Strings underneath. Three quarter time again. Shimmery cymbals. I like the piano stuff. Oooh...piccolo...violin...oboe/soprano sax (I'm having trouble distinguishing those two, maybe after I watch the DVD). Chimes...Nice. Very romantic. Then, it starts to sound like Iranian music, which I love. Mournful violin solo, sparse piano underneath. Very passionate solo. Lovely, piano and violin pairing. It makes me see Rudolf Valentino.

If I Could Tell You

OK, this is very Vollenweider. And Jimmy Buffet. In fact I recognize the melody, but I can't quite place it. Nice trumpet solo...very Maynard Ferguson. The rest is kind of twinkle-dink. OK, Bruce Hornsby-esque piano solo. Blech. Maybe a little Joe Jackson. OK, piano, enough. Gag.

For All Seasons

Another driving techno beat, something Brittney would use. People singing African-hindi or whatever language world music singers like to sing in. Celtic lady returns crooning and dueting with Celtic lady 2. This one sounds like Hooked on Classics, remember that? When they played classical music over a rock beat? Same feeling. And Maynard Ferguson is back. Nice harmony. Oh, no, another flute solo. Stop it, Jethro. Ah, bongo solo. Sitar solo. Love the sitar solos. Trumpet solo. More Chuck Mangione. Lower ranged. These solos sound ridiculous over the techno beat. Irritating. Cool drum solo, sounds a bit like Stomp...techno stuff seems to have been dropped. And it's back after the solo. Ach! Violin solo...gross...i'm skipping the rest.

The Storm

Dark, cello solo. It's smooth at first, then becomes harried, describing the approaching storm, I guess. Smooth again. Now it's raining...Plink plink. Two minutes of cello, now the other strings join in and pulse the rain out. And the techno beat returns. And the strings are doing some Mozart remix. Sigh. Ah, harp solo...freaky with the techno beat. Trumpet solo. Furious violin solo. Now they are all raining to a Hooked on Classics beat. And they're at the Mozart well again.

Prelude

Why prelude is at the end, I'll never know. But it's lovely Persian music again. Haunting violin. Maybe it's lost, so far from the beginning where it belongs. It's very still. Very Persian. I love this piece. Thank heaven, the techno button on the Casio seems to be broken. The violin has tons of reverb on it though. A bit much. The crowd loves it. Three minutes into it and the violin is joined by the string section underneath. Very fine. Kind of "Bravehart Remembers His Dead Wife" sentiment. Interesting that celtic and middle eastern tones seem to blend so well. Now we have a warm woodwind...not a clarinet. Maybe a bass clarinet? It's nice too. Very warm.

Nostalgia

Here comes the piano and the beat. Sigh. at least it's not techno. Just a really heavy downbeat. And we're soaring over Canada again. There's Sascatchawan! And Alberta! Ooh, look! A moose! I'm so nostalgic for Canada. We're pulsing over Canada. Enjoying the fields of wheat, the frozen tundra, the socialized medicine, and the absence of litter. Look! A Loon! A Francophone! Rush!

My Reactions

Yes, this is New Age. Yes, it's a bit twinkle dink for my taste. But these are seriously talented musicians. Some of the music is pure cheese, but it is executed to perfection. I like the more somber stuff, sans the driving beat. Though, I think Yanni can't resist the beat. He keeps coming after us with it as if we were Linda Evans. I kid. It is soothing. It's nice to have on in the background when I'm writing. I've found myself looking forward to listening to it at work. However, I will not listen to it in my sweet ass car, as Grant Miller has suggested. This music doesn't really touch my heart. It doesn't make me feel like my journey is improved now that I have it in my life.

It's nice music played by extremly talented musicians with an overfondness for reverb. B-