defend the indefensible => yanni

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc800/c851/c851572sp9n.jpg

* Note = Don't think he's all that famous? Quick! ...name another pan-pipe player whose more famous!

He's a punchline for so many people...surely someone has actually gone to a show at some point. Will the line outside smell like weed or like perfume appropriate for the office? Will there be screaming teenaged girls? Will I overhear earnest conversations about "Yanni: pick your desert island tracks." Does he have interesting merchandise? Does he do cover versions? Will he ask for requests, and will someone shout out "Free Bird!" I have so many questions.

It was mostly couples in the 30-60 range, with a few younger folks. What really united them was a palpable self-satisfaction: "Isn't he good? Yes, he's so talented. And we are so noble for liking his real, real music rather than that crap that's on the radio. Well, Yanni's on the radio, but you know what I mean. And you can tell that his music is real, because of the highly emotional look he gets on his face when he plays. He's really feeling it, so that means there is real feeling there. And we should pat ourselves on the back for being open-minded enough to like this real, real music, rather than that manufactured stuff all those inferior people like. We don't submit to a cult of personality - oh no, not us!"

Actually, with the exception of one or two solo piano pieces, Yanni himself played very little. Mainly he held down some sustained synthesizer chord while "conducting" the huge band, which was done only for show: they weren't actually looking at him. This gave the impression of spontaneous creation, at least.

Most of his band got solos and vocal spotlights, which was nicely democratic, and he had a decent sense of humor about himself. And there were a lot of different instruments, providing a lot of different colors. And his drummer was pretty good.

If I dare quote my own review (I do this not because I think my words are golden, but because cutting and pasting is faster than thinking and writing):

"Yanni spoke briefly of his battle with depression. He also spoke warmly of his old friendship with drummer Adams. Actually, he seemed like a good-humored-enough guy, and his songs, as he described them, come from some pretty interesting places and experiences. But listening to them, there's not much to latch onto to tell the depression song from the China-is-beautiful song.

The whole thing was stately - literally. That is, with a certain grace, but also with about as much frisky fun as the federal government."

It was one of those shows where, without the help of alcohol, I woke up the next morning and took a while to remember what I had done the previous night.

This is pretty OTM from what I saw of a taped live concert on TV. Even when he sat at the piano, I think he was putting more effort into his facial expressions than into the simple monotonous key patterns he played.

Great review though.

yanni is dope imo

yanni's dope

he seems like the type of dude that used to be in some weird prog band in like 1973 or something y/n?

In yr dreams prog-boy.

I used to be in love with someone who was crazy about Yanni. Yanni's okay, I guess. I wouldn't play his music of my own accord, though.

water fountains set to music = vacation = yanni = cooler than my fuckign collection

i actually heard a yanni cd a few months ago! some best-of disc. one song at a time isn't that bad.

wtf i guess he used to be in a band called chameleon from my hometown! woah.

here:

http://www.geocities.com/chameleeon.geo/chameleon.htm

the first song "one more time" kinda reminds me of a bad dexy's midnight runners or something

i don't know. geir. tell us about his harmonic limitationals shit

are you calling me geir?

no m@tt. calling geir here.

haha i'm kinda in the tank

my dad knows yanni from the wayback days. might have a tape of chameleon around somewhere, will check.

hahah hello m@tt

grumpy's downtown....so much to answer for

does this motherfucker have a private jet?

pic.twitter.com/kRGBixcBTg

— Yanni (@Yanni) May 16, 2018

I doubt it. Maybe a co-owner or something.

doesn't he sell out the Acropolis every other night or something?

TS: Yanni vs. Laurel Halo

the hellenic people are the most culturally appropriated in human history so gtfo with bitching about yanni, xenakis, vangelis, and kapranos

and the friedbergers, too

really happy for this guy right now