I enjoyed your new piece, Peter! The piano has excellent tone and interacted nicely with the strings. Keep up the good work! Tom

Eddie Jobson, yes. But who are those other guys?

You're right, Vanishing Parade. You could also add artists such as The Gap Band, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Patrick Moraz, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman.....the list goes on.

Gary Wright was the first artist in the first concert I ever went to. It was 1975 at Hawthorne Park racetrack, the lineup was Gary Wright/Lynard Skynard/Peter Frampton/Yes. Frampton was promoting "Frampton Comes Alive", and Yes had "Relayer" with Patrick Moraz on keyboards. Gary was well-known for using the Moog bass, although both Stevie Wonder and Billy Preston had done it earlier. The connection to Indian religious themes ran deep; Gary's uncle Richard Wright was Paramahansa Yogananda's driver and right hand man when he returned to India from Encinatas, CA in 1952. Yogananda had just completed his book "Autobiography of a Yogi", living in a houseboat on the lake shrine in Encinatas. A life-changing book for me. Gary's music lives on.

No. Very complex program to explain, but it calculates sound based on the color and position of each pixel on the screen; you can also draw in sustained sounds with the mouse, or individual notes as dots on the screen. I've imported graphic files from an old program called MacThuga and obtained some interesting sound files...

I use a program called MetaSynth which works on similar principles; it might have grown out of the UPIC concepts, not sure. But the idea is the same, to be able to create sound from graphics, lines, or pictures. Tom

Fritz the cat on LSD blotter paper, 4-way hit?

Big fan of Mad Magazine!

I have been enjoying listening to Neo Geo and Beauty on the CD player, and I recently saw his Coda DVD.which was excellent. A brilliant composer whose music will live on! Tom

Thanks for posting this, Alec. A very nice article with some great pictures and insights. Tom

A giant in the jazz world, from his work with Miles Davis, Weather Report, and Joni Mitchell. He had the musical chops to play with anyone, and a tone to die for! RIP Wayne, your music lives on. Tom

Looks like Bowie's keyboard setup when he played keys for Iggy Pop? I'm guessing here...

I was lucky to score tickets to the Wired tour at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago in 1976. The interplay between Jeff and Jan Hammer was amazing. Hammer played a Keytar type strap on keyboard patched into a MiniMoog, which gave it a full (88-key) range. Beck got more tones out of his white Strat than I've ever heard before, finger picking and using the whammy bar and volume controls to great effect. I saw JB on a twin bill with Santana years later. My favorite releases are Wired and There & Back. His musicianship will be missed - a true player! Tom

Really cool!

I've been playing my Specials and More Specials albums in tribute. Terry had a unique voice that was instantly recognizable. 2 Tone was a very cool label back in the day too....

I saw The Tubes & Oingo Boingo at the Holiday Star Theater in Merrillville IN and also at Great America on the "Inside/Outside" tour. A solid band who put on one hell of a show, and these guys are true musicians: they can really play their instruments! Rick Anderson was a great foundation of the rhythm section with Prairie Prince on drums. And did I mention the show? You got Re Styles on backup vocals, cheerleaders in cute outfits, Velcro suits ("Out of the Business, In To Rock & Roll"), and always Quay Lude singing "White Punks on Dope" on his 3 foot stack shoes at the end. I must tip my hat to David Foster for The Completion Backward Principle album, and Todd Rundgren for Remote Control and Love Bomb. We'll miss ya' Rick, but your music lives on. Tom

Hope you have a great day Bill! A Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year. Tom & Judy

Or, see if you can find a copy of "Pictures Of An Exhibitionist" by Keith Emerson himself. An excellent read!

Keith suffered from Focal Dystonia, which caused him to lose control and dexterity in the 4th and 5th fingers of his right hand. And this happened a few years after he had surgery to relieve pressure on the Ulnar nerve at the elbow. I read that he was afraid of disappointing his fans on his scheduled tour of Japan after reading some negative comments on Facebook. I don't have an account, so I'm not sure what was said or written there. Greg Lake mentioned that Keith had suffered from depression as well. I wish he had talked to someone about his fears instead of taking his own life.

92 here today with 100 heat index. I'm headed to the pool.....