Ed Bazel Interview With The Final On Vinyl Podcast

It was such a pleasure speaking with Ed Bazel. What a contagious energy he has!

Give it a listen, and I am sure you will agree!

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

Hello everybody, this is Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck with the Final on Vinyl Podcast, and I am with Ed Bazel tonight, uh piano player extraordinaire. And uh we will be talking about his career and his most recent release, uh the London Sessions, New Perspectives from Studio Two. And I had the pleasure of just about um almost two years ago, October uh 2022, to cover his first version of that. And uh welcome aboard, Ed.

Speaker 0:32

Hey Keith, it's a pleasure to be here. It really is. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 0:37

Pleasure to have you. Mm-hmm. So it'd be nice to know uh a little bit about your background. Uh you've been around for a while recording music and maybe talk a little bit about what got your start into music and uh got you to where you are today. That's quite a long story, but you know, we could encapsulate it a little bit, right?

Speaker 1:04

Uh I can make it quick. Okay. I'm gonna blame this all on a stroke of genius by my mother, okay? Uh I had an older sister, three years older than me, Patty, and she started taking piano lessons. So I'd have to go with my mom and drop her off, and then we'd have to kill 30 minutes at the library and then go pick her back up. Well, my mom eventually put two and two together and thought, if I can drop them both off for back-to-back lessons, I'll have an hour of freedom. So that's how it started. And so it started and it lasted. My parents forced me to take lessons for 11 years, and I was not the I I was laughing. I say my mom drove me kicking and screaming to lessons, but I am telling you, uh, Keith, that was absolutely the best gift they ever could have given me in my life. And uh so, you know, I grew up and uh, you know, playing, and that was in, you know, a bunch of different bands in high school and college. And then I went and got a college degree in business administration and also one in computer programming, and I told my parents, Mom, Dad, I'm gonna play the piano for a living. And after after they released me from choking my neck, you know, what were you crazy or something? Yeah, I ended up being a pianist for 20 years, uh, you know, and even in downtown LA, and uh, you know, the Beverly Hills Country Club, the Ritz Carlton, Laguna Nigel, you know, all these places playing uh all these beautiful songs throughout the years. And, you know, it was just a pleasure to make a living with my hands and my soul. And uh so that that was cool. And I even uh the Los Angeles Downtown News made me the uh best pianist in downtown Los Angeles. Now I I I was often wondering, is there anyone else besides me down here, or is that you know, was that uh actually true? But anyways, that was cool. Um, but the more I would go in my agent's office to uh pick up a paycheck, the more they would call me for more jobs. So I put two and two together and I thought, you know, I could write a computer database for this agency, and uh that way I could be in and also, you know, get even better jobs. So that started me in the agency side of things. So fast forward, I became an agent not only in LA, but uh the Asia Pacific market. Uh, we used to send artists to China, you know, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur. It was great. And then I opened up my own company, and uh I started a company that we produced concerts for uh corporations. So here I am on the side of the state with people like Bad Company, Foreign or QB Lewis and the New, Starship, Survivor, all these people, and just loving this. But get this. My mom still said, Eddie, get a real job, please. Please get a real job. But I, you know, Keith, uh, you know, at every corporate event you always have a meet and greet with about attend most VIP guests, and so I would take pictures and all that. And so one time I had a uh a date with uh Frankie Valley in the four seasons. So I said, Frankie, I've taken all the pictures. I need a picture with you to show my mom. So I had a picture with Frankie Valley in me, and I I I uh pulled out a little sign and it said, Irene, you're just too good to be true. And I said it to her. And she finally stopped saying, get a real job.

Speaker 1 4:46

So it's funny you said Frankie Valley, because I just saw him a few weeks ago. Yeah, he's still going. He still can sing. I was absolutely amazed.

Speaker 4:59

Uh and what classic songs. Oh, those songs that Bob Gaudio wrote for him are just amazing. Classic. Yeah, I'm glad you saw him. And it's just cool to work with him. Believe me, I got a thrill with all that. But I'll sum up, uh, sum up this whole thing. The more I would run this agency, the more it's stressful I would get. So I would sit back down at the piano and it would calm me. And I started playing again, and it just grew and grew. And that's how I've come today to have five albums out. The last three recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London. Not just Abbey Road Studios, but Studio Two, where the Beatles recorded. Oh my god, what a thrill.

Speaker 1 5:43

So how how did that all begin? How did you end up going to Abbey Road Studio?

Speaker 5:49

Um, I I I you know that's a good question. Uh it it first off, it wasn't easy. I just thought that would be an amazing thing to do. I I I want to live life to the fullest while I can. And I thought, you know, Abbey Road, that is just a holy grail, you know, uh of studios. And it took me about a year of contacting their booking people and talking, talking to them, getting to know them, you know, and I finally one day they said they had two dates in June available. I said, I don't care what they are, I'll take them. And so uh then our you know they set up a piano in the back left corner of studio two, and that's the left corner where the Beatles recorded all of their songs. And uh boy, it was goosebump inducing stuff to say the least.

Speaker 1 6:46

Yeah.

Speaker 6:47

Yeah. So that's my the long and short of how I started the piano and got to today. Yeah.

Speaker 1 6:54

Well, I never realized you did all that and you worked with all those people. That's that's really cool how your your career progressed. And you you heard that that voice, the inner voice calling you to the piano to start playing again. Which is really a magical thing, you know.

Speaker 7:14

I I appreciate you saying that. You know, I as I said that the lessons were the best gift my ever parents ever gave me because it gave me uh a career in the music business and not only playing the piano for a living, being on the side of the stage, and there, you know, the horn sec 10-piece horn sections blasting, the temptations are high stepping it with their classic hits, and the corporate audience is going crazy. I'm like, thank God I didn't get a real job, and I had a link in the chain to make this happen. So, anyways, but you mentioned going back to the piano. I I am stunned to have gone back to the piano, and uh I'm uh beyond surprised to get the response I had gotten uh from this original music that I've been recording.

Speaker 1 8:04

I'm not surprised. Uh it's just beautiful music. And uh I was just talking to my wife this evening and you know, talking about you and how um your album and you know other albums that I hear um when they're unaccompanied, it's just the piano. It's like most people probably think, well, geez, how come there's not, you know, a bass, drums, guitar, and all that? Well, the piano doesn't need that. It's such a fine instrument and and it just it resonates so well. And with somebody like you plays a it's just amazing.

Speaker 8:39

Oh, thanks. You're right. It it it is the entire orchestra on the keyboard. And I tell you, I had my moments of am I worthy? I'm not good enough to be in Abby Road. You know, here I am in that big size. It was the size of the gym of a gymnasium, this studio too is. It's dark. I had that these nine-foot concert grand there, just me in the studio, everyone else is at the far end, up in the control room, and I'm thinking, how did I get here? And is my music worthy enough? But I started recording, you know, one of my pieces, which are melodic, thoughtful, romantic, you know, and sometimes haunting, and just to hear the notes lift off the key off the soundboard and float up into the air of Studio 2, and it's almost like they just dissolved into the walls. It was a profound experience for me. And uh and one other thing, and I know I probably had too much coffee to talk so much, but but you know, there's no running or hiding behind solo piano, you know, it's out in the open. And I often, well, I used to spend my living imitating other players, you know, uh and and their styles, but to come down to my own style, which is uh it's not overblown. I I find the joy and beauty and sometimes the silence between the notes. And uh it's not for everyone, but I am telling you the response I'm getting from this, that people are just saying it's healing, they you know, it's calming, it's you know, it it I'm just I'm totally surprised by this.

Speaker 1 10:20

I can imagine what that must feel like. And I I know what it's like to do things during the course of your life and question yourself, doubt yourself, and wonder if you're good enough. When you hear it from other people and you get that validation, it gives you the energy to to keep keep on and and uh and to keep doing it. Even if that stuff creeps in again, it's like you dismiss it quicker as you get on in years, and you just do your thing, and before you know it, you've done another one. And it's out there and people are enjoying it, right?

Speaker 10:56

Amen. Yeah, and I do have that other one out now, the second album from Abbey Road, which is the one that you just uh reviewed graciously, and it's called The London Sessions New Perspectives from Studio Two.

Speaker 1 11:12

So what would you do uh how would you describe new perspectives uh from the last album to years before that?

Speaker 11:21

Uh a life-changing news. I had when I was recording the first album, I noticed some weakness in my left hand, and uh and I just uh motored through it because I was recording that first album at Abbey Road, and I finally got it checked out, and I went to a doctor at Vanderbilt, and the bottom line is they said, Well, we're 80 to 90 percent sure you have ALS. I was like, Oh no. What? What? I I keep I'm on uh healthiest guys I know. Five marathons, you know, tour de France, vacation in the Alps, the Pyrenees, my hike Mount Kilimanjaro. Uh I once rode a bicycle from Los Angeles to St. Augustine, Florida to raise money for the City of Hope. So I'm not a slack you know, a slacker by any means. But to to hear that ALS, uh it was uh mind-altering. Uh fast forward seven months later, they said, well, now we're 99% sure you don't have it because the symptoms haven't progressed. But I'm telling you, that was a wake-up call for life. Uh so that's why you know I went back to that there they are total pros there. You know, it's just a wonderful experience. And I'm uh literally uh on track to record another CD. Uh this time it'll be at Skywalker Sound up in the Northern California uh with uh grand award-winning producer Leslie Ann Jones. That's another story. But I I'm trying to leave it, I'm trying to leave as much beautiful music to the world while I can. That's that's where I'm that's that's my motive behind me.

Speaker 1 13:11

Yeah, you already have a legacy behind you, and um that was always something that I wondered if I could do that for my children was to leave something behind for them. And I found it in music, uh, you know, while I'm still here and have influenced them with the way they listen to music. And you know, I have all these things that I wrote about over the years that'll always be there for them to read if they want to too. Because that's yeah, that's who that's who I am, right? Exactly.

Speaker 13:43

It's a very cool thing. You know, some men are and women have you know tons of money and can leave their name on a building, but you know, I don't have those funds. Uh you you might be a billionaire, I don't know, but you're leaving pal palpable evidence of your existence and your soul out there. So good job for you and your kids. Well, I was wondering about Abby Road.

Speaker 1 14:08

Was that really expensive to book that?

Speaker 14:11

Not not much more expensive than anything else. It's just a matter of getting the time to get in there. Uh yeah, so you know, but that's that's it because it's so booked up, it's incredible. But it's not only the quality of the studio, and they had, by the way, a solo piano. I normally record with two mics in the body and maybe one underneath. They had 13 microphones around this piano. Wow. I was like, nowhere to run and hide on that one. And not only that, they had four Dolby Atmos mics up in the air, too. So we ended up mixing this new CD uh with Herbert Waddle Waddle and Eric Schilling at Media Hyperion down in uh in uh Palos Furtas, the Grammy Award-winning mixers, and then we had it mastered by Michael Romanowski of Coach Mastery. He even won the Grammy this past year for his uh project mastering Alicia Keys in Atmos. So, anyways, so again, this has been such a thrill. I feel like a kid in a candy store.

Speaker 1 15:23

What do you think of the Atmos? It's fairly new. Um what's your opinion on that?

Speaker 15:29

Uh it it does take us into a different dimension. Uh now, mixing, you know, mastering solo piano with just uh violin and cello, there's there's some limitation there. By the way, this past time, uh this past uh June when I recorded at Abbey Road Studio 2, I also recorded a Christmas album, which we're orchestrating now that'll come out this fall. And uh we'll have more, you know, more instruments to deal with and to play with in the in the field of sound. Um there is a definite definite difference. I uh I'm I'm telling you, Keith, I don't have the ears that these wonderful engineering guys do. So I hear I do hear a difference, but I can't tell you what it is.

Speaker 1 16:16

So this does Jeffrey give any thought when you were at Abbey Road that yeah, I wonder if Alan Parsons or George Martin would show up, you know, have thoughts like that.

Speaker 16:29

Oh, I wish, you know, the first time I was recording, you know, I'm in studio two recording away, uh, and I noticed a couple of uh guys hanging around the hallway, and that's kind of unusual. Well, it turns out in studio three, when I was recording, Taylor Swift was recording her vocals on there in studio three.

Speaker 1 16:47

Oh wow, I didn't know she recorded there.

Speaker 16:52

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But I tell you what, if there's anything, if nobody stopped by, that's okay, because when you come out of that upstairs control room, which you'll see on any type of Abbey Road thing, open the door to the main studio, there is a rush of air, there is a smell, and there is a vibe, no kidding, a vibe. I could sense the energy that's you know gone into those walls from Ella Fitzgerald, you know, uh Tony Bennett, Adele, you know, Amy Winehouse, uh, you know, Ed Sheeran, Pink Floyd, it goes on and on. And I'm thinking, I am so beyond lucky to be here. Hey, one thing there you go. And just because of my parents, I made sure to wear my dad's cufflinks when I recorded. So it's a way to say, thank you so much. I mean, so yeah, so it was a great experience, and I highly recommend it. I'm gonna go back once again or uh after I go to Skywalker. I've had some great luck uh covering a couple of the Beatles songs. Uh The Long and Winding Road, Imagine on this one, and yesterday and in my life, and and I'm getting uh some really wonderful response from that. So I'm gonna go back to Abbey Road and finish with about six other covers and and do a complete Beatles cover uh album. Really? And uh cool. Yeah. So what are you doing? You can come on over.

Speaker 1 18:28

Okay. Well, any any idea of what songs you want to cover?

Speaker 18:33

I was working on something just today. Some and then the way she moved, you know. Oh yeah. Obviously, I'm not I'm not a vocalist as I stick to piano. Uh I was trying to figure out how Blackbird would play on that too.

Speaker 1 18:48

Um Blackbird. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, so I tell you. I was just thinking of some of the really upbeat songs like um Hello Goodbye, um Oh, um Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. That'd be a cool one.

Speaker 19:07

There you go. Yeah, no kidding. No kidding. Yeah, so it's the it's it's so wide open. And again, when I do this, come over, join me. It'll be cool to just be in that vibe. And uh there is something beyond haunting when I've recorded like uh Imagine or the Long and Winding Road, and I'm in the exact footprint on the exact floor where they recorded it. And it's just like, wow.

Speaker 1 19:37

That's pretty cool. Yeah. You know, I'm I'm sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 19:43

Oh no, go ahead. I don't want to hear this.

Speaker 1 19:46

Well when I was finishing up the review, um next to last paragraph, I put and the world will live as one, and I was thinking, geez, I wonder if everybody's gonna get that. Oh, I did, sure. You know, I'm sure you did. Well I I almost took it out, you know. Some people probably never even heard the song, imagine. And there's some young children that probably don't even know who John Lennon was, but I just had to do it.

Speaker 20:13

I'm glad you did. I'm in my experience, I run into musicians or people, and I say yeah, and the conversation comes up. Yes, I I recorded at Abbey Road, and they're like, Where? Yeah, it's like, oh my God. Wow. Yeah. Oh well. Oh man. Hey, I have to mention one really cool thing that my parents, again, did for me the piano lessons driving me, you know, and all and making me practice every day. And again, I'm out on the streets playing football with my buddies, and my mom opens up the door and yells, Eddie, time to practice piano. So I lost all street credibility there. But fast forward to today, just it's going to be announced today. There is a line of pianos from the largest manufacturer of pianos. They're called Pearl River Piano Company out of China. They have an artist line of pianos called Kaiserberg Pianos. And they have named me Go Figure, worldwide brand ambassador for the Kaiserberg artist series of pianos.

Speaker 1 21:22

Oh, wow. So that was the big announcement that Beth was talking about.

Speaker 21:27

Wow.

Speaker 1 21:28

Congratulations.

Speaker 21:28

Yeah. Thanks. It shocked me. Uh I but I I played it, you know, uh I played a nine foot, they're nine foot national, and they're supplying me that nine foot KA uh Kaiserberg for uh my uh Skywalker sound recordings in October. So up in Northern California. But yeah, go go yeah, I never thought I'd be the worldwide brand ambassador for an artist series. Geez. Yeah. So I'm really Thrilled with that.

Speaker 1 22:01

Yeah. Well, I've really uh really enjoyed this talk with you, Ed, and uh nice to learn about your your career and all these exciting things that are happening with you. I'm glad you're busy, and I hope that um you keep me in mind for the next releases coming out so we can do this again.

Speaker 22:21

We absolutely will, and then we will see you in London at Abbey Road Studios in studio two, okay?

Speaker 1 22:28

Oh my god, that that would be amazing.

Speaker 22:31

All right, I'll work.

Speaker 1 22:33

I could actually actually do, but we'll see.

Speaker 22:36

Well well the answer is always no unless we try. So let's let's try, okay? All right, thank you. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure talking with you.

Speaker 1 22:46

You too, uh, take care. Thanks.

Speaker 22:50

Bye.