NEW RELEASE BY JESSICA WILLIAMS!  Her latest album, "Touch", is personally significant because I had the honor of tuning the 9' Steinway concert grand prior to the performance. This is a live recording at the famous Triple Door Theater in Seattle. If you're looking for something cool to do in downtown Seattle, we highly recommend it! You can have dinner while you watch some top-notch performers. If you listen carefully to the recording you may hear the clink of dinner ware!

This was the second time I've tuned for one of Jessica's recordings. The first was "Songs for a New Century" which received outstanding reviews from jazz critics across the country. 

Being Jessica's piano technician has been both challenging, and educational! And it has been deeply rewarding. In regards to the tuning, she is very sensitive. The first time I tuned her piano, I performed what I would call a "text book" job. While she liked the middle of the piano, the treble and bass sections were too constrained for her taste: She required more "stretch" in the tuning. This means that the octaves are tuned wider than pure, and in the highest and lowest notes of the pianos much wider. 

Jessica's style of playing utilizes the entire range of the piano, with melodic lines sometimes occurring in the low bass or high treble. She also plays "wide", using both the low and high ends simultaneously. Another signature aspect of her playing is her complex arpeggios, that spill and splash across the keyboard. For these reasons, the wide tuning gives her recordings a feeling of expansiveness, perhaps even giving her more room to operate within. When she dives into the bass, she gets deeper, and when she climbs to the highest notes of the piano, she's reaching out beyond the norm. It turns out the tuning fits the music.

I am grateful for what I have learned from this amazing artist. What are the odds of getting to work with someone of her caliber here in little 'ol Olympia, Washington, population 50,000? Being her technician has been like pursuing  a Masters Degree. If this is so, then "Touch" is my thesis! I hope you check it out.

Thank you Jessica!