ALL KEYED UP by BEN TANKARD
SKU | 112145 |
Artist | BEN TANKARD |
Title | ALL KEYED UP |
Label | TIME CAPSULE |
Catalog # | TIME 005 |
Tag | |
Release | W 08 - 2020 |
Format | Vinyl - UKLP |
EAN Barcode | 304369190991 |
Benelux exclusive, Import | |
€ 19,99 | incl. VAT, excl. shipping |
Tracks
- Eden Celebration
- Melodic Heaven
- All Keyed Up
- All Keyed Up (Time Capsule Seaside mix
Description
4 tracks taken from his 1989 album - instrumentals blurring the lines between jazz, gospel, soul, funk and dance
All Keyed Up demonstrates Tankard’s prowess on the keys. Beginning with spare, pensive piano notes the track opens out into a stellar exercise in funk-laced jazz fusion replete with meaty synth bass guitar lines and some stunning, Don Blackman-esque piano runs. On Melodic Heaven lo-fi synths and boogie-fied bass synths combine with Tankard’s elegant and soulful piano. Book ending the collection, a remix of the title track expands the short-but-sweet piano-based vignette into a Balearic anthem replete with extra drums, synths and guitar.
The son of a minister father and a missionary mother, Tankard grew up playing drums in his local church. Numerous offers of scholarships to music college came his way but his height and youthful speed determined the choice of a scholarship in basketball. Turning pro, he was drafted with NBA team Portland Trailblazers before a knee injury cut his career short and led to a period of homelessness: “I could not pay my rent so for a short time I was living in my car and sleeping on friend’s sofas.”
A church visit proved life-changing: “I heard of a revival service that was going on. I was nearly starving with no job or income so I went only for the free meal. Afterwards the preacher called me up and told me to sit down to the keyboard. I was hesitant but after all I did not have anything to lose. When my hands touched the keys I began to play like George Duke! No lessons - just instant awareness. That is where ‘gospel jazz’ was born. Since it was jazzy in nature, yet inspired in the church, I decided to call it ‘gospel jazz’.”