Customer Reviews

GENESIS (David Myers Plays)

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David Myers was for many years the keyboard player for The Musical Box, the Canadian world-class Genesis tribute band, a band so good that Phil Collins and Steve Hackett have performed with them on stage.

On this CD, he sensitively and brilliantly transcribes some of the best Genesis compositions to piano and he plays them beautifully and lovingly. They shine as the idea-rich compositions they are. Although I love the "Genesis for Two Grand Pianos" album by the Norwegian pianists Guddal and Matte, Myers has perhaps outdone them by adding creative touches, intelligently slowing down the rhythm here, increasing or decreasing the volume there, and making the songs into true classical or jazz compositions. In contrast, Guddal and Matte were so precise in recreating every note of even the vocals with piano notes at precisely the same rhythm and relative loudness, that their pieces have a bit less creative panache and sound a bit less like classical music and slightly more like silent movie scores or player piano rolls. Still, I love listening to both albums (Myers and Guddal) and never tire of either. A Genesis purist may even prefer the Guddal and Matte interpretation! But I think a classical music listener may appreciate Myers' work more.

If you love the 1970s music of Genesis and want to hear a refined version of their best work, you will be thrilled with "David Myers Plays Genesis" and if you still want more, pick up the Guddal and Matte CD.

David Myers Plays Genesis is a must have for Genesis fans. Myers's transcription and performance is dynamic, elegant and evocative; he gracefully taps into those emotions that made you fall in love with these pieces over 30 years ago. The album is a collection of hidden, and sometimes forgotten Genesis gems like "Time Table" and "For Absent Friends" plus classics like "Cinema Show" and "One for the Vine;" all of which are illuminated through Myers's honest interpretation and appreciation of the music.

David Myers has done the seemingly impossible task: transcribe the rich, complex and technically challenging music of Genesis for solo piano. As The Musical Box's keyboard player, no one is better suited to this daunting task. It's all there: ensemble, mellotron, solo and vocal parts, reproduced fathfully on the keyboard. Myers gives it a rich Romantic treatment, full of melodrama and pathos. He takes occasional liberties with certain passages, accentuating the typical Genesis bitter-sweetness and opaque coloration, using incredibly rich chord voicings. The only surprise for me is the omission of the repetitive coda in Firth Of Fifth. I stongly recommend any serious Genesis fan to get this wonderful collection, it is indispensable since it will give you a different perspective on your favorite band's best pieces, and it will illuminate dark corners which you may not be hearing because you are so used to them.

Also be sure to get the follow up CD, "David Myers plays more Genesis". On the first listen, it seems to be even better than this CD, if that is possible.

* David plays the best song from that period.

* Blood on the rooftops and Horizons are the top tracks for me, they have the best pieces with the guitar and now You can here them played very well with piano.

*Firth of Fifth,the piano intro is one of the best pieces played by Tony Banks ever, I still think the original is the best.

*One suprise for me, the composers of the track "Horizons" is Banks,Gabriel,Rutherford. I though it was Hackett.

I saw this on sale at the latest Musical Box show. So I decided to try it. I wasn't sure how the music would hold up being stripped down to nothing more than a single piano, but all the songs make the transition to solo piano arrangements so well that, in some respects, I think these versions are better than the originals from whence they came. The complexity, the emotional impact, the sheer pleasure that you get from listening to a Genesis song are in no way diminished. This is quite a testament to Mr. Myers' musical talents. I also applaud the song selections because they range from early to middle Genesis (and though purist will decry this, I tend to prefer that latter era). I especially love the way he captures the stretched, rolling notes at the beginning of One for the Vine. The Cinema Show and One for the Vine are my favorites on the album, but all are spectacular. I have not stopped listening to it since I bought this. Listening to this wonderful album makes me want to hunt down a ticket for the next Musical Box show!

Oh joy! Mr Myers has added an exquisite dimension to the early Genesis lexicon; faithful yet original, reverend homage not simply caricature or mere mimicry. One area of his musical prowess I could cite are the stabbing contrapuntal rhythms expressed in Cinema Show in particular which are a sheer delight but throughout these works, Myers' beautifully articulate fingerwork compliments a fabulous wealth of timeless source material bringing novel lyricism, grandiloquence and a rippling, deeply anglicised wistfulness to these complex multi-layered pieces. To improve upon and dare I say it, enhance the work of Banks and Co is truly an achievement so, Bravo Mr Myers!

Pour les amateurs de Genesis, je vous recommande fortement ce CD, surtout que c'est un ancien membre de Musical Box qui fait l'interprétation des pièces.

This, along with David Myers' other volumes, is, in my opinion, the best set of Genesis covers ever made, even though they are just one guy playing the piano on one track!

Genesis music played on a piano? To perhaps even the most basic of Genesis fans, that job is best left to Genesis band member Tony Banks. And David Myers is not Tony Banks!

At first, I really didn't know what to make of Mr. Myers or this CD. Genesis music is something I have lived with and loved for well over 20 years. Furthermore, my experience with various artists covering Genesis songs over the years has been somewhat of a mixed bag affair. To my ears at least, not just anyone can play this music, let alone play it well.

However, David Myers does the latter, and does it remarkably well, with nothing more than a piano. He brings some dazzling piano skill and, most importantly, an ear for music interpretation that shows real imagination and care. The artistry he shows off in playing "Cinema Show" (particularly the last half) will leave the listener as stunned as audiences who first heard the song live in the 1970s probably were. One wonders if two hands can really make all those sounds!

Yet Myers does not stick just to reinterpreting keyboard and piano parts notable in many Genesis songs. Myers also shows a stunning flair for recalculating to piano some of the band's stellar guitar work. This is most evident by Myers' brilliant reworking of "Blood On The Rooftops." His performance might even improve upon the original. It is an adventurous interpretation suffused with delicate piano playing that still manages to capture all the nuances of Steve Hackett's guitar and Tony Banks' mellotron from the original recording.

The only minor drawback to this collection was that Myers limited himself to the band's work from the 1970s. It would have been interesting to see how Genesis staples of the 1980s and `90s would have faired under Myers' musicianship. Surely "Driving The Last Spike," "In The Glow of The Night," or "Behind The Lines" would be just as entertaining to Genesis fans as any these works.

Nevertheless, Myers has put together collection all Genesis fans should give a listen to. These performances are nothing like the contrite and poorly executed piano music you sometimes hear in restaurants or doctor's offices; they are brilliant and engaging, showing real skill in both performance and interpretation. All taken, this may very well be the best album of Genesis covers to date.

So, no, David Myers is not Tony Banks - he actually might be better.