What a fantastic musical happening! What a celebration of musical styles of play! Definitely an evening to put into ones annuls of musical highlights. First half saw our talented members play and then our special guest artist, Dave Hallam, dazzled us with his playing in the second half. 
A near full house of members and visitors were entertained firstly with the arrival music kindly provided by new member, Peter Jackson, who purred through a variety of light contemporary music on his Korg Pa1X keyboard. Peter is also the Vice-President of the Hibiscus Organ and Keyboard Club.
Dave Hallam our guest artist
Photo courtesy of Colleen Kerr, Club Secretary
For the first half of the evening our Club members entertained us with some wonderful music both on keyboards, Clavinova and the mighty Technics GA3 organ. Four of the six players in the first half were new members thrilling us with their debut performances and adding richness with their respective styles of play. 
First off the block we had 'young at heart' new member, Adrian Blok, give the GA3 organ a 'dusting down' with some lovely smooth easy listening melodies. Adrian tells me that he has a numerical system that he has devised for his chord progressions - whatever, his system certainly delivers with slick play - well done and 88 years young to boot!
Next to play for us was Jim Nicholson, the Club Treasurer, and talented pianist as well. Jim chose the Clubs CVP-305 Clavinova to entertain us with - very nice as usual Jim. 
Jim has the model above the Clubs Clavinova at home and this certainly helps to select terrific styles to match the mood of the music.
Next off the block, our very latest member, Takashi Iida, stepped-up to the Technics GA3 and played a lovely piece of music with expression and passion - there was a sting in the tail too when half way through the number Taka burst into a Rumba rhythm. 
Taka is unfamiliar with the Technics organs but he didn't let that stop him getting some great sounds and expression going. I understand that Taka has a magnificent Yamaha Electone ELX-1M organ at home so he knew how to work the pedals! Well done Taka on your Club debut and we look forward to future renditions.
Next member to play for us was our long-time member, Pam Rea, who had brought her great Korg Pa80 keyboard along and didn't Pam make that instrument 'talk' to us.
Lovely choice of pieces Pam and delivered in your usual smooth style of play - well done and thank you. Pam is the President of the Hibiscus Organ and Keyboard Club. It is wonderful that around Auckland we have such enthusiastic people that both organize Clubs for our pleasure and also share their music amongst the several Clubs in the Auckland region.
Next 'off the block', Alan Wilkins made his Club Debut on the Clavinova. Alan was the first to admit to a lot of nerves before playing! But hey, Alan, we all suffer that to a certain degree, but we all love music enough not to let a little thing like that stop us expressing ourselves through our music.
Alan has a Clavinova CVP-401 at home and so he was a little nervous about the different set-ups and styles etc. He needn't have worried though because Rob Powell, who is very knowledgeable about the functionality of the Yamaha Clavinovas and Yamaha PSR keyboard range, stepped-up to the front and helped Alan set the instrument up. Alan plays by ear (quite a feat really most of us play by fingers!) and demonstrated his great jazz feel of play very well indeed - see Alan you needn't have worried, we all enjoyed your music very much - very well done!
Last but certainly not least, to finish off the first half of the evening, is was a delight for the Club to welcome back to playing and indeed membership of the Club, Doug Farr. Doug was very pro-active in the Club in the early days and so it was a touching moment for some of the longer-term members to see and hear Doug play again for us. 
Doug tells me that he has a variety of musical keyboards including: the Technics KN5000 which he played this evening; a magnificent Technics KN7000; an Ensemble Technics digital piano; and if my memory serves me correctly Doug also has a Baldwin organ and the revolutionary (at the time) Lowrey MX-1 electronic theatre organ. Now that's enthusiasm! On the evening Doug played his Technics KN5000 arranger keyboard for us but with a 'twist' - for my first time anyway, I got to hear a proper organ-type pedal board that was interfaced through the midi port of the KN5000 and together with the expression volume pedal wow what a magnificent sound and wonderful rich rhythmic effect that gave to Doug's playing which was absolutely terrific demonstrating both sensitivity of touch and fluidity of play with pieces such as Tico Tico - the smoke was pouring off the pedal board and keys! 
Thanks very much Doug for a wonderful debut for the Club. Doug has promised to bring his superb Technics KN7000 arranger keyboard next time with his own sub-woofer gear to enhance the bass pedal part even more. We can't wait Doug!
Photo:
Doug Farr featuring his midi interfaced pedal board ---------------->
After all that great musical excitement, it was time to sojourn downstairs for a nice cuppa and biscuits together with a good chin-wag to catch-up on the happenings over the last month as well as what we had just heard upstairs! We didn't need to ring the bell to get the audience back upstairs for the second part of the evening though as they were chomping at the bit to hear our special guest artist - professional musician and well respected music tutor here on the North Shore - Dave Hallam, give a mini-concert for us. 
Dave brought along his super Yamaha PSR S900 arranger keyboard (like a pocket battleship Tyros2) to thrill us with his play and the magic sounds and full orchestration that this mighty instrument is capable of emulating (with a little skill from the player of course!). We were not disappointed!
Dave playing the Club's Clavinova
Photo courtesy of Colleen Kerr, Club Secretary
Dave held the audience transfixed as he slid through a variety of contemporary music (including some not so recent stuff like "Sympathy" from circa 1913). Gorgeous Dave, it is a delight to watch and hear a master keyboardist demonstrate how to play the instrument with such realism - like the art of playing the keys to emulate the nylon guitar so true to life. But wait... Dave didn't stop there. He then switched to the Club's Clavinova and enthralled us with the sound of the piano but with a rhythmic background - something the digital ensemble pianos can do so well. Dave gave us some J S Bach also Prelude #1 if I recall correctly - stunning!
But wait... there's more! Dave then invited our member, John Stent, to join him in an impromptu jam session. 
John is a very talented keyboardist and one of the foremost intuitive experts on chords in New Zealand, I would be so bold as to say. So with Dave's controlled and polished expertise to drive the next few songs and the explosive improvisation of John's jazz style chord playing as lead, the audience was mesmerized for about 20 minutes.
Photo:
John searching for the G Chord?
I don't think so, just putting his 'heart and soul' into his wonderfully dynamic style of playing.
Absolutely a unique experience that would not be repeated in New Zealand that often - we all felt very privileged to enjoy the unleashing of so much talent. Thank you Dave for a wonderful mini-concert and thank you John Stent for helping to embellish the musical proceedings to even greater heights. What is amazing is that this was unrehearsed and completely improvized on the evening - amazing.
Who's gonna pull the trigger first?
Dave Hallam on the left waiting for John Stent's lead as
they amazed us with their impromptu jam session.
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