The Deep Suite - Part 4 Improvised Acoustic Piano by Steve O'Keefe is copyright-free, royalty-free music you may use without permission. Thank you to the many friends who have used my music in your videos!

The Deep Suite is my first release in a long time. It's the first thing I've done since Drum Piano that has me excited. I have been trying to work up a reliable 45-minute set or suite of continuous improvisation. My early efforts usually included a raga, a walking blues, a fast blues, and an exuberant ending. But even that structure felt too restrictive. I wanted to be able to start and not stop and not necessarily have sections and have it be continuously fresh, beginning to end.

Then I got a Keith Jarrett recording that was recommended to me which was not in my enormous Keith Jarrett collection. It's called "Radiance," and it is a solo performance in its entirety in Osaka, Japan, recorded Oct. 27, 2002, with a piece of a second performance in Tokyo recorded three days later. I love that, in the liner notes, Keith Jarrett basically says, "If it sounds awful, that's because I intended it to not be melodic." And I thought, I can use that. If you find my music to be awful, that's because I intended it to be so.

In any case, Radiance is at times radiant. It is not entirely improvisational, and that is a good thing. I hear some of the same riffs used in Koln Concert and it is fascinating to hear how Jarrett works them out again. He is always working himself into corners and then forcing himself to find a way out and it is marvelous to hear.

The Deep Suite has three other parts, and I may upload them sometime. They all come from a 38-minute session. Part 4 is the most Keith Jarrett like material I've ever done. It opens with a drone-like sound which is the piano wide open and resonating from the last chord of part 3. Then the melody is stated at 1:00 and re-stated in chords and as a solo. We get McCoy Rolls about 30 seconds in and again at 2:20 -- rolling the right hand McCoy Tyner style.

At 3:00 I put some Jarrett learning to use. He is not afraid to stay in one spot maybe too long, or to repeat maybe too much, so I tried to not be so jumpy and stay in one place a little longer. At 3:30 a lovely call & response develops in my right hand, and that resolves at 4:20 to preachy chords, McCoy rolls, and tolling bass. The preachy chords keep going, and become a little bluesy preachy chords, and then it starts to fade out at 8:00 and closes with the tolling of the bass in the left hand.

I hope you like it. Deep Suite - Part 4 is copyright free by me, Steve O'Keefe, and has wonderful potential for video music. Enjoy!

Photo of Steve O'Keefe by Chelsea K. Vance  https://www.instagram.com/chelseakvance/ used with permission.

The Deep Suite - Improvised Acoustic Piano by Steve O'Keefe

The Deep Suite - Part 4 - Improvised Acoustic Piano by Steve O'Keefe

I play improvised acoustic piano, usually recorded live in one take. I often play public pianos. My music on Soundcloud is copyright free; if you like something, take it, because I remove things often. Thanks for listening!

"hilariously awful" -- The Unz Review

The Deep Suite - Part 4 - Improvised Acoustic Piano by Steve O'Keefe

STEVE-OKEEFE