Ex-Mitglieder zuruck in Yes - welcher am liebsten?

Fragile · Moderator Beiträge: 1649

Zitat: 90125

Patrick Moraz war auch nie mehr im gespräch für yes! warum? warum hat man ihn überhaupt damals wieder gefeuert oder gehen lassen? Relayer war doch erfolgreich? auch die Tour! oder irre ich mich? mochten die anderen Moraz nicht so recht?

Nun ja, Moraz wurde halt engagiert als Ersatz für Rick und gefeuert, als sich Rick wieder anbot, bei Yes mitzuspielen. Dazu kamen noch musikalische Differenzen:
Nach dem anspruchsvollen Tales from Topographic Oceans und dem sehr aggressiven Relayer wollten Yes mit ihrem neuen Album bewußt zu einer zugänglicheren Musik und einer positiveren Grundstimmung zurückkehren. Moraz dagegen bevorzugte den experimentellen, vom Jazz beeinflussten Stil Relayers. Dies sorgte für erste musikalische Probleme in der Band. Während die anderen vier direkt mit den Aufnahmen beginnen wollten, empfand Moraz die Notwendigkeit, viele Punkte in Frage zu stellen. Die daraus entstehenden Diskussionen verlangsamten die Arbeit am neuen Album. Eine weitere Schwierigkeit ergab sich in der Zusammenarbeit mit Gitarrist Steve Howe, die nicht so reibungslos funktionierte wie dieser es mit Rick Wakeman gewohnt gewesen war. Dazu kamen sprachliche Probleme: Moraz sprach zwar englisch, aber mit schwerem Akzent und er selbst hatte Schwierigkeiten, der Kommunikation einer über Jahre hinweg eingespielten Band zu folgen. Moraz' Tage bei Yes waren damit gezählt. Über seinen Ausstieg gibt es bis heute widersprüchliche Aussagen, auch von ihm selbst. Wahrscheinlich ist, dass Moraz als Schweizer bei Yes immer ein Außenseiter geblieben war und ihn die anderen Musiker immer als Ersatz für Rick Wakeman angesehen hatten, der seinen Platz würde räumen müssen, sobald Wakeman wieder zurückkehren wollte. Moraz hat dies gespürt und sich wohl deshalb immer mehr an den Rand gedrängt gefühlt.

Patrick ist übrigens heute noch sauer, da er wohl an den Songs Wonderous Stories und auch an Teilen von Awaken mitgeschrieben hat (die ersten 4 Minuten von Awaken wurden ja schon 1976 auf der Solo Album Tour noch unter dem Titel High Vibration zu Gehör gebracht), aber bis heute dafür keine Tantiemen erhalten hat, da er nach seinem Ausstieg bei den Songwriter-Credits einfach ignoriert wurde. Nichtsdestotrotz hatte sich Patrick, soviel ich weiß, 1997 wieder angeboten, bei Yes zu spielen, nachdem Rick wieder ausgestiegen war. Doch das wollte Anderson nicht.

In diesem Interview von "Notes From The Edge" erzählt Patrick diese Geschichte mal aus seiner eigenen Perspektive:

= NFTE CONVERSATION =

PATRICK MORAZ: RESONANCE
========================
Conducted November 2000 by Tim Morse for NFTE

Visit the web version of this interview, which includes rare photos:
http://nfte.org/interviews/PM241.html

TIM MORSE: What have you been up to for the last five years?

PATRICK MORAZ: After the release of WINDOWS OF TIME and prior to 1998, I
composed hundreds of pieces of music for all instruments, as well as
orchestras and choirs. Since 1998 I've been working almost exclusively on
RESONANCE, my new piano CD which has just been released; E.S.P.--Etudes,
Sonatas and Preludes--for Piano which has been recorded and is now ready for
mastering; and A WAY TO FREEDOM, an electronic CD that has been a work in
progress since 1997, but is now nearing the last stages of development. In
addition to this I am currently producing a couple of artists that I have
also written compositions for. As an official delegate to the Conference on
World Affairs, I have attended two conferences so far and have given several
concerts for the Conference. In 1998 a special performance for me, was at a
benefit concert held in Boston where I was asked to play at the request of
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate of 1996, Jose Ramos Horta. The concert was held
to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.

TM: People don't hear from you for awhile and they wonder what you've been up
to, and in the meantime you've been doing all these things.

PM: I've also been writing and researching some stories. I'd like to do a
movie of THE STORY OF I either in 3-D computer graphics, an animated version,
or the real thing. I have also written a couple of other movie scripts; one
is a science fiction story and the other is about the life and times of a
composer who lived three hundred years ago. Also, next year I would like to
record a Christmas album. I have already composed a couple of pieces for
that. It's the only seasonal project that I'm interested in doing and I
would do it out of love, rather than commerce, the proceeds--after recording
and production expenses--going to charity.

TM: It's nice to have the right intention! With all of the music you've
written how do you choose what you release?

PM: It does become difficult to choose and select which pieces I will record
and release. I have potential commissions for some of the symphonic pieces
that I've written.

TM: I'm glad to hear that, because when I hear your piano music I think that
you should have commissions for orchestral works.

PM: I wanted to establish a solid base with the piano music, first and
foremost with the trilogy of albums: WINDOWS OF TIME, RESONANCE and E.S.P.
E.S.P. is more classically influenced; it's going to surprise some listeners,
because I've gone back to my very early classical influences. For example,
I've composed one of the sonatas according to the rules of a Mozart sonata.
I've always loved and adored that kind of music.

TM: There is a beauty to that kind of structure.

PM: I love Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, all of their music. I love early music
like Vivaldi as well. I love all music from Chopin to Stravinsky to
Sibelius. When I was in Yes, Jon had turned me on to the "Fifth Symphony" by
Sibelius; that was so beautiful!

TM: I wanted to talk a bit about the compositional process for RESONANCE. The
complex counterpoint that opens the album in "Vortex of Life" - with an
arrangement like that, do you hear it in your head first? Or do you have a
melody and compose the individual lines to fit it?

PM: In "Vortex of Life", I had previously recorded the third movement of that
suite. Outside of a couple of loud clusters which are deliberate, I wanted
the whole piece to be one note at a time. Very rapid with dynamics, that
would really jump at your ears. I wasn't thinking about it being a movement
in a suite when I did it but I was thinking about a seamless, flowing kind of
piece and eventually the thing developed in my mind as I was playing it. The
more I was doing it, the more I was thinking about this seamless flow to
finish the piece. To make a dialectical antithesis to what came before,
that's why I chose to finish it with that kind of hymnal and simple chords
and to get away from the rapid succession of those single notes to the major
key although 5/6th of the piece is in no key per se. That gave me the idea a
few months later to go back to it and take some other roots and development
of those roots to create what I called, eventually "Vortex of Life".

When I finished the three other movements of the suite, I was still calling
it the "Seamless Flow", but during that time I was reading a very interesting
book called "The Secrets of the Soil", it talks all about the earth, not
necessarily in ecological terms, but also about the water and the beauty of
the water as an element and the essentiality of that element. There is a
chapter called "Vortex of Life", and I thought that is the way I'm going to
take that music and I did it in that respect.

TM: When I listen to the album I feel it is a great balance of contemporary
jazz and classical, improvisation and structure, harmony and dissonance. All
of these things are in a wonderful balance.

PM: Thank you. I always have that in mind. I always have this kind of motto
in my mind: "The epitome of creativity is the state of dynamic tension
between extreme forces in opposition". Not only the state of dynamic
tension, but also the state of dynamic balance. Maybe I've given this very
fortunate way of expressing myself to my style and art. I really appreciate
your comment, by the way because it means you've listened to it with a state
of alertness. Even if only a few people do that, it means that my expression
has reached them. It makes me very happy that one understands that and
that's great!

TM: Why is RESONANCE and WINDOWS OF TIME exactly one hour?

PM: (Laughs) You know why? Because with WINDOWS OF TIME I wanted to bring 14
hours (of recorded material) down to one hour. Now I never planned to do that
again, but with RESONANCE why not carry on the process? Once we had the
material selected and balanced and so on and then let's add a little
difficulty to the process.

TM: There's the challenge!

PM: Yeah, and see if I can make it sixty minutes, why not? To give the
listener the same kind of time to perceive a different work, that's another
aspect to it. I have to tell you that E.S.P. is going to be the same,
length-wise! Then that will be it, because of course then it becomes a
"process".

TM: I wanted to tell you that one of my favorite tracks on the record is
"Sundance". There's a joyfulness when you play that brings a smile to my
face. I really love that kind of improvisation and I was wondering if when
you are improvising over that ostinato, are you visualizing anything or do
you empty your head and just go with the flow?

PM: It's just a theme, a little melody over a couple of chords. I love
changes, but I thought after "Vortex of Life" which could be complex for the
listener--even for the progressive listener, because we are talking to an
audience of progressive listeners who love complex musical ideas, that it
would be a little "recreation".

TM: It comes back to the idea of balance again.

PM: And for me it was a good place to put that piece, because it just goes,
it's happy.

TM: But are your picturing anything in your head as you play?

PM: Sometimes, of course I do. Not necessarily all the time though. Now if
you ask me what I was picturing when I played that piece, I could imagine
"Sundance" being played with percussionists from all over the world. What I
did when I started the whole "World Music" movement in a way, back in the
sixties and seventies. That kind of joy and communicating with the people,
enveloped me. TM: I saw the last show of CHAT II in the bay area and you
talked at that time about studying a few classical pieces and getting back to
your roots a bit. Did this have any impact on the writing or performing of
RESONANCE?

PM: Not really. RESONANCE is a blend of different influences that I've
always had, but developed further. However for E.S.P. I have prepared myself
by studying and playing some Mozart and Beethoven sonatas. I've put that
music in my soul and made it second nature and have even recorded those
pieces. At some point I will make an album of my interpretation of those
classical
pieces.

TM: With the title track "Resonance", there's such a beautiful melancholy
running through it - I was wondering what inspired it?

PM: When I first thought about it - which I'm very happy to say I improvised,
played and recorded it in the first take - I was thinking about(jazz pianist)
Keith Jarrett and how much he, amongst other pianists, has influenced my life
as a musician. And in my mind, in my soul, in my heart when I sat down and
played, I thought that's my homage to Keith Jarrett and that's what it is.
He's such a wonderful musician, he's a giant. That piece is dedicated to
Keith, absolutely. I do believe the spirit is there, the resonant part of
what I would call "Telepathic Synchronicity"(c)--that's one of my personal
inventions--with a Higher Power and the way we understand what we call God.
I think I've been really inspired and that is what I've been fortunate enough
to give.

TM: It's funny, I wasn't going to mention this, because I didn't want you to
think that I'm comparing you to other artists, but I heard a Jarrett vibe to
the song, that feel was there to me.

Let's revisit some ancient history. Who originally contacted you about
joining Yes?

PM: Before we go any further, I have to say that I've been very, very
fortunate, because I'm the only musician in the history of Rock and Roll to
have been a member of both groups, Yes and the Moody Blues. It's a part of
music history. Relatively speaking, I've spent as much energy, time and love
with the guys in Yes as I did with the Moody Blues, although with the Moody
Blues I was with them for more than 12 years. I was with Yes for two and a
half years, and more than three major tours. Don't forget also that I was
coming from another kind of a mini-dynasty in a way, because I was coming
from Refugee.

TM: Which was an extension of the Nice.

PM: Great guys! Lee Jackson and Brian Davison, very good and dedicated
musicians with whom I'd had a fantastic time. So in 1974 after our album and
the tour supporting Refugee, Yes contacted me in the early part of August--I
think it was between the 5th and 8th of August, 1974. I was just back from
Geneva, finishing my 25th movie score, with my very good friend, Gérard
Depardieu. So that Monday I came back to London and I got a call from Brian
Lane, although I had already been somewhat in touch with Jon Anderson a few
days or a week or so before, from Switzerland. Anyway, Brian Lane called to
arrange for me to go to a rehearsal and I went to the rehearsal on a
Wednesday, following that Monday. The rehearsal was in Rickmansworth, in a
barn, that's where they were preparing for RELAYER and auditioning other
keyboardists, like Vangelis. Quite a few keyboardists, actually. Anyway, I
knew the call was not only for me to audition for them, but also to assist at
one of their rehearsals and so we got acquainted and tuned-up and so on.

They started to play whatever they had composed of "Sound Chaser" at the
time, which was the song part of it and I was absolutely knocked out! I was
sitting in the middle of the four of them and even though I had seen quite a
few of their shows, being a couple of yards from them was an unbelievable
experience, which I will always cherish. I was so impressed and maybe I
wasn't sure if I wanted to play with them after all! It was extremely
vibrant. Steve explained a few things and I played a bit on Vangelis'
keyboards. Of course any keyboard at that time would be out of tune, except
the electric piano or the organ, so I was tuning the Moogs and I took my time
while Steve was explaining the few chords and structure of that part of
"Sound Chaser".

TM: The quite a few chords of "Sound Chaser"!

PM: I played a few bars on the electric piano, I played for a few minutes And
they all came around. I felt immediately a vivid kind of energy coming
towards to me. I'm very emotional and sensitive to everybody, to musicians,
listeners and so on. I played for them for a few minutes and the rest is
history. I do believe that a couple of licks I did over "Sound Chaser" that
day stayed on the record and then we carried on.

TM: What were your initial thoughts about that idea of joining the band?

PM: That afternoon I was, if not electrified, somewhat shaken; at that very
moment I didn't think I wanted to be in Yes. As much as I liked the music
and so on, there were many reservations. I was doing film music and I was
really getting into that, Refugee was doing well, but we had thought that we
might split-up. I was doing my own music (a big consideration) and even
though I speak seven languages, my English at the time was a little more
difficult to filter. But in my conscience that turmoil was not easy to deal
with. Of course Brian Lane had talked to me about playing in front of
hundreds of thousands of people, selling millions of albums, having more
instruments and roadies, traveling in private jets, etc. The next day I was
practicing on my own, the phone rang; it was Brian Lane and he said, "You're
in the band! We want you immediately, make yourself available at once." I
said, "What about the guys in Refugee?" He told me not to worry, that he
had already taken care of everything, that he'd made a new contract with the
record company. So we came to an arrangement and he assured me he would take
care of Brian and Lee, as I had asked him to do. But that whole decision
didn't come easily for me and there was a lot of pressure. There was
pressure from the press and I had to learn all this material--what is
RELAYER, the seventh or eighth album?

TM: TALES was the seventh, so RELAYER was the eighth.

PM: Then technically it would be the ninth, because TALES is a double album.
There was a lot of material to learn including whatever had been established
for RELAYER, which was very complex music. There were also more keyboards,
expand, expand, expand! This was all done in a very short space of time.
There were quite a few interviews with the papers of the time, photo
sessions, rehearsals and so on. Everybody was extremely helpful. I went with
Jon to his house and we played music, we jammed and he explained a lot of the
conceptualization of what was to become "Gates of Delirium". That was very
helpful. Some of the arrangement of RELAYER wasn't quite completed, far from
it, especially "Gates of Delirium". Jon had some of the themes, but nothing
was written down. To all the pieces I added whatever was required: melodic
lines, orchestral passages and colors, introductions like the front of "Sound
Chaser". The guitar solo was written by Steve, who wanted to break away from
the song and then there was the collage at the end which features the
acceleration and deceleration - a very interesting thing that very few
groups, or even orchestras do. I was always very fond of that. The latter
part of "Sound Chaser" was developed by all of us. I played and wrote the
front of the song and Chris came up with this riff that he loved so much. He
would play it every night before going onstage. It was very much a
collective work, although the song part was written probably by Jon and
Steve.

TM: Do you have some wild on the road experiences with the band that you'd
like to share? I understand you have a story about yourself, Chris Squire
and a jump jet Harrier.

PM: Yes, that was much later. That was in June of '76 in Chicago in the
midst of the tour. Chicago was a huge show, there were 85,000 people at the
racetrack. Anyway Chris and I were sharing a suite in this tower and we were
waiting for the transportation to the gig to arrive. What we didn't know was
there was a big aerial meeting going on in Chicago. Suddenly I hear a loud
racket, an unbelievable sound! We went to the window and what do we see,
right before our eyes, maybe a hundred yards away, but a Harrier jump jet
directly in front of us simply hovering there like a spaceship. I said to
Chris, "Let's go, our limo's here!" It was unbelievable; the kind of vision
one very rarely ever experiences. There were a lot great adventures with Yes
on the road.

TM: Let's talk a bit about your experience with GOING FOR THE ONE. What was
your contribution to the writing and rehearsals for the album?

PM: I was a member of the band and as such, was constantly touring and
writing and then we made our solo albums. I was on FISH OUT OF WATER and I
wrote the arrangement and orchestration and conducted the orchestra for
[Steve Howe's] "Beginnings". In '76 we did quite a lot of rehearsals, even
without Jon, because he was finishing OLIAS. We were not only rehearsing for
the show, but trying out a lot of [new] material as well. Eventually we came
to Montreux in October and ELP were there, they were supposed to be finished
and out of Mountain Studio, but they were not! They kept us hanging around--
with all respect, because I think Keith did an unbelievable Piano Concerto on
WORKS, a very interesting album.

We were staying in one of the hotels near the casino in Montreux and
preparing for the recording in another building close to the hotel. For
about two or three weeks, before even going in the studio, that's what we
did, that's where all the arrangements and the riffs for the middle of
"Awaken" came from and actually most of that song came in some shape or form
after those times and other pieces as well, like "Wonderous Stories",
"Parallels", etc. Not so much GOING FOR THE ONE itself, maybe that came
later.

TM: Was "Turn of The Century" another song you'd worked up with the band?

PM: Absolutely, I think I even have some of my notes for that on manuscript
paper somewhere, every note of it.

TM: So how long was this period, about a month or so?

PM: I was there until late November, early December [1976].

TM: Your tenure with Yes was a very important period in the band's history.

PM: Very, very important period of Yes and I'm extremely proud of having been
a part of that history.

TM: What do you think of Yes' music today?

PM: I like it. It's great music, it's happy. THE LADDER goes back to their
original roots, but it has some new flavors as well. Jon's always melodic
and his voice is very good, Chris and Alan as a rhythm section are unbeatable
for that kind of rock and Steve always does interesting guitar work. They're
quite fantastic, you know!

TM: How do you feel about Igor Khoroshev's performances?

PM: I've heard what he did on the HOUSE OF BLUES and it's very good. He's
had a lot to learn and he's done a great job. I saw the band live two years
ago in Tampa and I really enjoyed the show. I haven't seen them since that
time. Did you see the Masterworks tour?

TM: Yes, I did and it was one of the most enjoyable concerts I've been to in
a long time. It was great hearing "Gates of Delirium" and "Ritual" again.

PM: It's not easy to do that. Mind you, these days with the current
technology, keyboards are much easier and are more stable and powerful. But I
think the band puts out great energy. I was listening to YESSHOWS and of
course I played on "Gates of Delirium" and "Ritual". On "Gates" there's That
bass part that Chris plays [sings a portion from the battle section], that's
amazing and intense. On the YESSHOWS version, there's a lot of bass in the
mix, but it's good though. Maybe there's a bit too much in YESSHOWS, but not
quite enough on the HOUSE OF BLUES.

TM: Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?

PM: Well, I'm going to be doing more music. Most probably I'll be taking on
some big commissions, which I'm starting now; they're starting to come to me.
Symphonic commissions for specific events, works of importance. But also,
whenever I have the opportunity, I like to go around to places and play some
music just for free, at hospitals and schools and so forth. I enjoy playing
for elderly people, for children, for people who are sick. I'll just do it
for the pleasure of performing and for that really good feeling you get when
you know you've been able to help someone feel better if even for just a
little while. I just keep it very low key. It's not that I don't want to
invite anyone but it's not a rock thing, you know!

TM: That's not the intent, it's not for a commercial purpose.

PM: The music goes straight to the heart of people to touch them directly
like the light that we all receive when we're born. We all receive the light
in its purity and integrity as a waveform and that waveform translates into
particles of light or sound or whatever. When we are being told we are all
created equal, that's the equality that has to be understood--you receive the
waveform of the light in its purity and integrity. All of us and then what
we do with it, that's our growth and how we conduct our lives and so
on.

TM: That's a very beautiful way of expressing that idea.

PM: There's as much beauty in simplicity as there is in any complexity of
life, any digital complexity, there's as much beauty in analog simplicity.
When I say analog, I'm talking about acoustic vibration and the light as a
waveform. I chose the title RESONANCE for my new CD because I wanted to talk
about the several levels of coming into that RESONANCE, which implies the
notion of synchronicity, and simplicity, but in a telepathic way. it implies
the notion of harmony and it implies the notion of receiving the light at the
level of RESONANCE. When I wrote "The Light", which is so simple, it was
completely improvised in one take, nothing has been touched; that's the way
it is. Even the piece previous to that, called "Standing in the Light" which
prepares the listener for the longest piece on the album ["The Light"], was
with the intention and understanding that I did it and that's why I called it
"The Light", because it's simple and it reaches a new "plateau". I kept it
very simple, it's just two chords. It's in D major and then it goes to F#
major and then I stay on that F# for the rest of the piece. I didn't want to
explain this in the liner notes, either, because everybody has a different
receivership and interpretation, but that's why I called it "The Light". If
we can understand that, from any angle, at any level, everything comes from
above, even if we are turned upside down, that's the way I understand it!

TM: Let's wrap this up by talking a bit about the CHAT tours. On reflection
how would you characterize the CHAT tours as an experience?

PM: It was such a wonderful experience! And I would like to take this
opportunity to thank everybody, who has been a part of it either as a
listener, helper, or promoter, it's been wonderful. I can't name anybody,
because if I start naming well...

TM: You'd be there for hours, there'd be hundreds of people.

PM: I'm not ruling one person out of this experience. It is still a
continuous source of joy. I enjoyed every concert so much. I was telling
the people that I was really their instrument. The piano was my instrument,
it was my tool, but I was the instrument of the collective consciousness, the
collective soul there. They made me feel very good! Also to know those
people, to shake their hands, sign autographs, to talk to them all and to
make some wonderful new friends, it was great!

"Wir sind von der Sonne!" (Jon Anderson, 1973)

"Ich bin eine Kamera!" (Trevor Horn, 1980)

____________________
SCHINDLERIA PRAEMATURUS

Ricarda · Mitglied Beiträge: 565 Ort: Rendsburg

Wer soll zurück kommen?
Ich wäre für Rabin, Moraz und Bruford. Meine Stimme ging an Rabin (das wird wieder kontrovers).