PIANO MUSIC ‘CAN STILL TAKE MY BREATH AWAY’ ROGER LEVESQUE
Homecoming concert lets Martin Mayer explore his 88-key passion
In an age when electronic instruments have taken over so much of the musical landscape it’s unusual to find someone devoted to the piano like Martin Mayer.
“There are so many emotions that you can evoke from the piano,” he asserts. “Each one of these 88 keys has its own special melody, and when you’re able to weave them together into something exciting it can still take my breath away.”
Despite the fact that he spent much of his upbringing and early career in Edmonton, Mayer is better known abroad in places like China or Europe. He moved to Vancouver in 2004, but he’s back Friday in a long-awaited homecoming concert dubbed The Grande Piano Show.
He calls his sound an instrumental fusion of smooth jazz, classical, pop and rock styles, and the keyboardist’s recent fifth independent album release Unbreakable certainly runs the gamut, including two tracks with a full orchestral backing, two covers,
and a love ballad with guest vocals. For his date Friday he will be joined by old friends, saxophonist Jeff Hendrick and singer Natalie Bryson.
Unbreakable draws from Mayer’s 20 years of composing. He feels the writing and performances are his most sophisticated work to date, including the title track, inspired by a challenging family tragedy that left him temporarily unable to play, but there’s an element of personal triumph in the end.
“I had a falling out with my love of the piano during a period when I was so sad and depressed over my mom’s deteriorating health from an incurable illness. I couldn’t find solace and comfort from the piano any more so I had to focus on personal stuff and come back to it. When I was able to, I was reminded of everything I had been through since I was a kid and I felt unbreakable again.”
The album cover has an illustration of what Mayer calls a “scorched earth” keyboard that has fallen apart. Now when he plays the tune it’s laden with personal significance.
“I feel like, yeah, I conquered this, I’ve risen above this. I’m not going to feel broken any more.”
His fully orchestrated rocking number Whistler was inspired by his love for the resort. Summon The Heroes was written on a concert stage in China just after a sound check, part of a tour that began just after 9/11, so it balances his thoughts of what was happening half a world away and the turmoil he and his band encountered just to get there.
Mayer was born in the Czech Republic, where his father was a famous pop singer and musician from the 1960s onward. Despite that example he wasn’t really drawn to music until after his family immigrated to Canada and Edmonton in 1989. He started piano relatively late at age 11 but caught up quickly, doing his first four grades of conservatory training in one year, completing studies to grade 9.
By then Mayer was searching out unusual influences for his age, pianists like John Williams, David Foster, Bob James, John Tesh, Elton John and Yanni. He realized he wanted to make his own music and enrolled in MacEwan, which “opened up my ears a bit” but he was already in love with the feel of classical, jazz and pop-instrumentals that he has pursued ever since. Following his debut album release Destinations in 1998 he hatched even bigger ambitions.
“I read an article that said if you want people to pay attention, you have to make a big splash.”
After seeing shows by Tesh and Yanni on television he knew what he had to do. Six months and a $35,000 (co-signed) bank loan later Mayer led a 20-piece orchestra for a live-in-concert recording. And it did have repercussions for his career when news of the 2000 release made it all the way to China.
“A year later I got an email from a Chinese performing arts agency that was looking for a Canadian pianist to bring over. I considered deleting it because it sounded too good to be true but my manager told me to reply. Six months later me and 10 other people were on a six-month concert tour across China, which at the time was the largest tour of any foreign artist in recent history.”
Mayer had never performed outside Edmonton and now, barely 20, he was jetting around China playing huge theatres, facing new fans for autographs, getting reviews as “Canada’s prince of the piano.” Before long there were more invitations from Taiwan, the Czech Republic and China again.
“It’s been great but did I ever think that would happen? Not at all.”
Similar opportunities in Asia and eastern Europe have kept him busy ever since, though he hasn’t yet found wider fame at home, calling Canada, “somewhere I can relax.”
Stars like John Tesh and Yanni have done well, but compared to most of the pop music universe all-instrumental music is a relative niche market.
Mayer has added guest vocalists to recordings here and there but he’s happy to argue the virtues of contemporary pop-instrumental music.
“When you have lyrics you have somebody telling you the story, but the great part about instrumental music is that you have the story behind the writing of the tune, and what you as a listener choose to interpret either from that recording or concert.”
Of the album’s two covers, L’Aquila is his cover of a favourite John Tesh tune, while Corazon De Nino is another orchestrated piece by Argentine composer Raul Di Blasio.
But regardless of the arrangements, Mayer’s Unbreakable is about letting the piano stand out.
“It’s called the Grande Piano Show because I want all these sonic parts, and the stories behind the songs and my guests and the visuals to work together so that you feel like you’ve really seen a show and not just a concert with a few tunes.”
Mayer promises original work from across his career, some covers from favourite movie scores and a few classical Chinese compositions that he’s picked up in the course of his travels there.