Terry and Gyan Riley at Mameromantic, November 11th 2017

Earlier this year, last January, I went to Disk Union Kichijoji to get me a birthday present. I got a Ravi Shankar CD that didn’t know I already had in its entirety in a compilation, a Butthole Suffers CD and a CD by Pandit Pran Nath. Two things convinced me to get the Pran Nath record; one that it was sealed and at a great price, the other that it had La Monte Young and Terry Riley in the credits. I always wanted to get into La Monte Young’s music. I’ve heard stuff here and there on YouTube, but the records are almost impossible to find and when you find them they are extremely expensive.

The other credited musician, Terry Riley, has a more accessible discography in the sense that his records are more affordable and available at stores. For some reason I haven’t explored his discography as I have with the other two major minimalist composers: Reich and Glass. I’ve been lucky enough to even seen them perform. I remember seeing Philip Glass at the Royce Hall in UCLA performing his -at the time- recently commissioned Dracula soundtrack, the 1930 Dracula directed by Todd Browning, which apparently lacked an original score until Glass wrote it. It was my first Halloween in the US and people wearing costumes at a Classical music concert was quite a sight. Years later I saw a performance of Steve Reich’s Different Trains at a small concert hall in the University of Miami with Reich in attendance. Lots of people were moved to tears, I’ve never seen something like it. It was a powerful performance that I remember to this day.

Like that performance, the Pran Nath record was sublime. I heard some of his other ragas on YouTube and decided to check the works of his disciple Terry Riley. I started with his two most famous ones: the Columbia versions of In C and A Rainbow In Curved Air. The concept of In C, a piece that could mold from a single sheet of music notation to many types of ensembles and lengths, it’s to me a perfect example of modern art, blending the experimentation of academic music of the time with non-western sounds and the freedom and improvisation of jazz. A Rainbow In Curved Air blew me away. The title track is not less experimental than the music of its colleagues, but it’s also music aim to please. I’d say it comes from a place of good, just google the album cover and you’ll know what I’m talking about. The track Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band is drone at its finest and balances the light with darkness. To use a cliche, this album is way ahead of its time. 

I started to collect his records and got a bunch of them. In each, one aspect that I find fascinating is the sound. I read reviews calling it dated and I’m surprised to hear that. I think that the sound of the electric organs that Riley plays provides an original voice that transcends the influences. Minimalism, Eastern music and jazz become ‘Terry Riley’ through the unique sounds of his keyboards.

After collecting his music I wandered if I could ever see him perform and was surprised and excited when I found out, a couple of months ago, that he will come to Japan. I got my ticket and soon after that the show was sold out. It was the only solo show on this tour. He also played as a guest with Juana Molina and Jeff Mills at the WWW X in Shibuya, which is a great venue.

I went to the last performance, the second of two shows he played that night. It was my first time at the venue: Mameromantic. Going to concerts in Tokyo for non-Japanese speakers could be somewhat intimidating, there are lots of instructions before the doors are opened and today was no exception. For people who are not familiar with concert going in Japan I’ll explain briefly how the system of getting into the venue works. Each ticket has a number printed on it and people are allowed to get in following their order. The lower the number the earlier you get in. Mine was 26 but I think at this show the promoter got a lot of guests in before the count began, because when it was my turn the place was already halfway full. Another detail that escaped me, and probably was mentioned during the instructions part, was the fact that this was a tatami mat venue, which means no shoes were allowed. I spend plenty of precious time at the door trying to untie my Chuck Taylors and then not knowing where to put them. I was supposed to put them in a plastic bag that was handed in at the entrance. Me walking while carrying my shoes in a state of confusion was a true display of gaijinness.

I finally got to my seat and waited for about half an hour until Terry, joined by his son Gyan, came out to the stage. They locked into a groove that lasted for about half an hour and you could tell that there was a father-son dynamic going on. They riffed back and forth to each other, piano, synthesizer and electric guitar, smooth as it could be. He then used programmed background music that included cellos and other lower tones and played a melodica that reminded me of the saxophone he used in his records. The Rileys played over the sequence to the point of making the audience unaware of it until it reappeared as they were fading out; this was one of my favorite moments of the show. Mr. Riley made use of his voice, singing what I think might have been an Indian raga and later a song with heavy old timey Latin influences, like a bolero from the thirties that included some words sung in Spanish. They closed the show with an energetic piece and then returned for an encore, and what an encore it was.

Mr. Riley sat on the piano and told us that it’ll be a short one. Then the notes from a section of A Rainbow in Curved Air started playing. His son next to him smiled and didn’t join him until much later. As the rest of us, he was mesmerized but his expression also contained pride. Is it hyperbole to say that it might have been like the children of Michelangelo watching him carving the David from marble? Maybe, but I’m sure he felt great at that moment.

And then the sound came. Mr. Riley switched to the keyboard but his side and the exact same tones from the 1969 recording made an appearance. It was unequivocally a Terry Riley show and what a show it was.