Axel's MIDI Music Pages (MIDI Coops)

Contents:

I met Bill in the CompuServe MIDI forum in February 1996 in search of someone to musically interact with on the Net. Bill and I musically complement each other very well. We both are hobby musicians and can't read sheet music, but Bill has an excellent ear, a good feel for Jazz and theoretical knowledge of building melodies and harmonies. My strong points are rhythm and percussion. He is a retired chairman and CEO of a company, born in 1928, living in Laguna Beach, California, USA. Meanwhile we even had a come-together for a day here in Germany on September 30th, 2000. He likes those four note chord sounds of strings and horns as much as I do, and he is also very open to the new sounds of Pop, Soul and New Age. Let's describe the music we compose and arrange as a light and melodic Jazz.

Enjoy some of our cooperative works here.

	Our new song has just been finished, and here it is: Broadway-2AM (size: 25.165 bytes). It's an easy, funky tune, enjoy!
	Here is a piece in two versions: Moon Magic (Bill's version) (size: 15.292 bytes) and Moon Magic (my version) (size: 14.139 bytes). We felt quite different about the theme and decided to make two versions of it. Compare and enjoy!
	Imagine to meet the girl of your dreams in your favorite cocktail bar while listening to Girl, You Here? (size: 34.185 bytes). It is a fresh and cheeky Rhythm'n Blues tune with a cool piano solo by Bill.
	A show-off-piece of Bills musical talent, skill and humor is his interpretation of Misty (size: 23.762 bytes), originating from Erroll Garner. I was really amused about Bills extraordinary playstyle here. But listen yourself and become musically acquainted with my MIDI friend Bill!
	The following opus is named Lost At Sea (size: 30.948 bytes), an exception compared to our other tunes, with touches of classical impressionistic music. It is 8:54min long and tells a story about a boy in a boat at sea, the different weathers he has to survive and his emotions, until he finally finds his way back into the safe homey harbor. Enjoy our impressionistic symphony!
	This tune, A Weekend In Paris (size: 17.289 bytes). is the first 3/4 beat Jazz tune together with Bill. It has one theme and six variations of it. Bon voyage!
	And now to Vee Band (size: 17.188 bytes). The challenge here was to compose and arrange a tune for a given cast - guitar, flute, bass and drums. This composition ought to be a contribution to a MIDI tune collection used by a Virtual Orchestra software from Finnland, which was presented at the SIGGRAPH'97 computer graphics convention in L.A. (Hi Rami!), but unfortunately it didn't work out all right. Nevertheless, enjoy our virtual quartet!
	An eventful and bluesy theme with clarinet and piano solos is Sky Play (size: 23.218 bytes). Listen and relax!
	Summer Trip (size: 33.644 bytes) is supposed to be a jazzy summer song. Listen and enjoy your next bike tour with friends!
	And now... sit down on these wooden chairs at your favorite blues cafe while we are playing Fly Away (size: 20.703 bytes) for you, a Blues song. Bill created those excellent harmonies and voices, I was mostly working on the percussion track. Enjoy the output!
	The next creation, Harbor Lights (size: 21.358 bytes), is supposed to be a musical picture series of the "Hamburger Hafen" in the night. I think it is New Age music enriched with many Jazz and audiovisual elements. But listen and take your own view of it!
	The following tune is our MIDI reproduction of Wave (size: 29.022 bytes), by Antonio Carlos Jobim, one of the fathers of the Bossa Nova. Have a nice trip back to the 60's in Brazil! His music is subtle and sophisticated, and it was a real challenge to us to reproduce this song. Listen to the result!
	The next step after "Wave" was to create an own Jobim-like composition. Here it is, El Lagos (size: 24.034 bytes). We set great store by being authentic and tried to keep at Jobim's composing technique and Claus Ogerman's orchestral instrumentation.
	The following tune is simply called Desert (size: 19.409 bytes), created in August 1996. It's an idea of a Western theme, with guitar and harmonica lead. So get off the horse, press Play and relax, amigo!
	Bill had the idea of a song with some latin and spanish feel, let's call it Spanish Something (size: 27.549 bytes), with Mambo rhythm. Close your eyes and make a ride to the sea at sunset.
	A powerful Soul ballade with a Saxy melody, that is Nights (size: 23.200 bytes). Turn off the light, take your honey and dance slowly!
	A rhythmic, rich chorded Samba song with some spanish music influences, that hides behind Coop4 (size: 30.408 bytes). Rio comes to you. Enjoy!
	The following song is our arrangement of an Erroll Garner song, You Stepped Out Of A Dream (size: 29.270 bytes). Bill made the instrumentation, I sign responsible for the percussion. Enjoy!
	And now, just order one more Gin Tonic at the hotel bar and pay attention to Bills excellent Garner-like piano play at I Remember You (size: 38.188 bytes). Have fun!
	A quiet, romantic tune by Bill himself is A Stroll At Sunset (size: 16.692 bytes). He reproduced the very impressive intro of Robert Farnon's recording "Heather On The Hill" (Telarc CD "How Beautiful Is Night" featuring George Shearing on Piano), and he took it as an intro for his own song. Out came a beautiful and romantic tune, you'll be enchanted!

There are some more coop tunes waiting to be finished and coming soon. Stay tuned!

last revision: 2007/02/10