People sometimes ask where they can find my 1990 disc of piano music by Billy Mayerl, and I haven’t been able to tell them. Since Virgin Classics was bought by EMI, and after parts of EMI were moved to Paris, it’s become very hard to follow the fate of a record which has seemed to go in and out of print.
Anyway, my ‘Loose Elbows’ disc is now available to order through Arkiv Music. You won’t find it in the shops, but you can order a copy of the disc here. If you don’t know Billy Mayerl’s music, I highly recommend it. Billy Mayerl was the wonderful pianist at London’s Savoy Hotel in the 1920s and 30s. His virtuosic light music was famous in its day.
Next week my album will also become available as a digital download and from iTunes. I’ll give the links when I receive them from EMI.
Hello Susan,
I heard ‘Wedding of an Ant’ on the radio a couple of months ago, found your Loose Elbows tracks on Spotify and eventually managed to track down your CD. Wonderfully light and entertaining music! I can imagine the amount of practice required to make some of these pieces sound so easy – they are anything but. They’ve encouraged me to start practising again after a gap of 27 years (I reached ARCM standard when I was 19, but then developed other interests).
Thanks,
Paul
I’m currently learning some Mayerl and looking around for inspiration and other performances of his music I came across this Blog. Good to hear Loose Elbows disc is still available. I think it’s the best I’ve heard, often exceeding the the composers own performances to my mind. They ought to featured more often and more widely perhaps on the internet.
Thank you Steve for your kind comments about the CD. I’d certainly like to be able to make the disc more widely available on the internet, but copyright rules have made it impossible so far. I’ll keep exploring.