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Review:
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Danny his musical story starts while growing up in
the suburbs of Cleveland USA), he was exposed to a lot of
music at an early age by his parents. Although not musicians
themselves, they were great music lovers and this inspired
Danny, at the age of 6 he started piano lessons at the Cleveland
Institute of Music. After 6 years of formal classical trainin,
he continued studying classical piano through high school
where he also started playing electric organ. During this
same time Danny had a parallel interest in popular music,
in May of 1971 he saw a mind-blowing ELP show that changed
the course of his life and in fact Danny has dedicated his
first solo CD, Better Late Than Never, to Keith Emerson
for being such a huge musical influence as a keyboard player.
He now knew what he wanted to do professionally and musically
he had been shown how to combine classical elements and
compositional techniques with rock to make what would become
later known as 'progressive rock', from Yes, Genesis and
King Crimson to Pink Floyd and Gentle Giant. After college
he spent several years playing in bands professionally but
none got as far as a record deal. After the last of these
groups, (Liquide Lighte), broke up in 1976 Danny moved to
New York City working at various dead end jobs and playing
briefly in several ill-fated bands before finally deciding
that he'd had enough of the of the starving artist existence.
It had been fun, but it was time to establish something
a bit more secure so he founded Keyboard Instrument in New
York City, which he still owns and operates. For many years
Danny had all but given up playing, but had never quite
completely given up on the dream of a career as a recording
artist. Finally, in 2004, he began playing a bit and writing
some new material, just for his own enjoymenty. But about
this same time he got together with his friend, the drummer
Michael Sciotto, and played him some of his new material.
Mike was so enthused, he convinced Danny to embark on recording
a CD, which they co-produced together. Figuring that he
wasn't getting any younger, he thought if he was ever going
to do anything again with his music, this was the time for
a second attempt at a musical career. His resulting debut
solo CD is aptly titled Better Late Than Never. In a way
it was over 30 years in the making, because a few of the
songs have their beginnings that long ago. But most of the
material is new or updated, and the result is a contemporary
progressive rock sound (abridged version of the biography
on Danny Brill’s excellent website).
Listening to the 10 compositions on Better Late Than
Never means making an entertaining musical journey with
lots of changing landscapes and unexpected views. Every
song has its own atmosphere and own tasteful colouring with
a wide range of instruments but the roots are obviously
the Classic Seventies Prog. I am blow away by the creative
and adventurous way Danny has blended elements from ELP
and King Crimson with his own ideas and the variety he has
delivered on this album, for example: a slow rhythm with
a catchy beat as the foundation for work on Hammond, Fripperish
sounding guitar, xylophone, fat synthesizers and fiery guitar
in th einstrumental opener Bakers Dozen, a dreamy climate
featuring warm Grand piano, flute and mandolin in Double
Feature, Part 2 –David, a swinging rhythm with spoken words,
jazzy piano, distorted Fripperish guitar and bombastic keyboards
in Prelude/Demented, beautiful Grand piano arpeggio’s blended
with classical orechestrations in the compelling instrumental
Images In The Rain, a catchy beat with cynical vocals, a
saxophone solo and Honky Tonk piano in the funny Fantasyland
and sitar and tablas in the sultry, Ravi Shankar inspired
Indjia. But the most original and alternating track is the
final one: first a spacey atmosphere with synthesizer beeps
and bleeps, then acoustic rhythm guitar and warm vocals,
a slow rhythm with strong interplay, a short part with powerful
Hammond work, a swinging piano with soft cello and delicate
flute and finally bluesrock with a heavy guitar solo, accompanied
by a mellow violin-Mellotron sound, unique progrock!
This album needs a few listenings sessions but if you
are up to a musical adventure, Danny Brill his debut CD
is worth to discover!
www.progwalhalla.com
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