House Piano

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Where did that bouncy house piano pattern originate? Examples of what I'm talking about are in Donovan by Happy Mondays or World Clique by Deee-Lite. Was it a salsa influence or was it made up out of whole cloth by someone and stolen? It's always been such a fun sound when combined with that early-90's piano synth patch and it seemed to be everywhere for a while.

― Colleen Hanlon-Smith (C. Hanlon-Smith), Monday, 22 May 2006 21:12 (nineteen years ago)

"Strings of Life"?

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 22 May 2006 22:07 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, "Strings of Life" is the first example of the piano I can think of too. But didn't Derrick May sample it from somewhere, or was that just the strings?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 22 May 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

The answer might possibly be found somewhere in 100 (or as many as possible) piano house classics, starting with... or Is there anything better than europhoric piano house?

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 22 May 2006 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

Apparently Mike James played that piano part, strings sampled from Detroit Philharmonic Orchestra. Or so says the internets.

― JoB (JoB), Monday, 22 May 2006 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

"Move Your Body" by Marshall Jefferson was one year before Strings of Life and was just as huge.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 22 May 2006 22:30 (nineteen years ago)

I think it must come from salsa originally, since a very similar piano can be found on, for example, some sixties Ray Barretto tune (the name of which escapes me right now).

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 22 May 2006 22:31 (nineteen years ago)

And I think "Move Your Body" has a different sort of piano pattern than the one we're talking about.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 22 May 2006 22:41 (nineteen years ago)

Definitely comes straight of disco. However, I'm a bit out of it at the moment and the only title coming to mind is "Journey" by Powerline and while that's got the chords, it's a little more stripped down than the bounciness you might be thinking about.

― William Selman (William Selman), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 00:41 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, that's a good point. The Piano break in Dee Dee Bridgewater "Bad For Me" (its on the new levan comp I believe) would be another example of disco as proto-piano house. There are probably many others...

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 01:35 (nineteen years ago)

What percentage of piano house uses the Korg M-1?

― naus (Robert T), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 02:03 (nineteen years ago)

But disco piano is different from house piano. I think the salsa thing is probably right, but maybe I'm just associating it with the latin influence in NYC house specifically.

― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 02:24 (nineteen years ago)

the ray barretto tune is "mercy mercy baby." altho there may be plenty of others from the same period, i'm not that familiar with the scene. but that's a great song.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 07:10 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I was listening to the "Acid/Hard Hands" double disc I have, and several tracks had kinda similar piano patterns to the house ones. So maybe it's specifically boogaloo piano that influenced house. Someone more familiar with Latin music (Rockist Scientist?) could probably provide us with a better answer.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 07:19 (nineteen years ago)

Don't forget that there was a clear Latin influence on disco in the throughout 70s and early 80s (when disco morphed into house music). While looking for a dance sound, many producers turned to Latin music which was synonymous with dance music at the time. How else to explain all those congas and cowbells? While not all the music exactly fit the name, the fact that one of the most successful disco labels was Salsoul should be a giveaway.

― William Selman (William Selman), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:21 (nineteen years ago)

But disco piano is different from house piano. I think the salsa thing is probably right, but maybe I'm just associating it with the latin influence in NYC house specifically.

the piano in Andrea True Connection's 'More More More' and later house piano seem similar enough.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

What percentage of piano house uses the Korg M-1?

up to 1996, probably about 75%!

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:32 (nineteen years ago)

I think it's just a jazz + gospel influence thing really.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:33 (nineteen years ago)

Someone more familiar with Latin music (Rockist Scientist?) could probably provide us with a better answer.

Thanks, but I'm not familiar enough with disco (let alone house), and I don't know too much about Latin music from before the 60s. (If this piano thing is coming from Latin music, it could easily go much further back than that.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:33 (nineteen years ago)

I was going to say jazz+gospel.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:35 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I think in general lot of the stuff in this type of house came from jazz and gospel (and blues), but I think we're talking about a specific piano pattern (exemplified, if not started, by "Strings of Life"), which does (to my limited knowledge) sound more like salsa or boogaloo than basic blues piano.

Where are the musicologists of ILM when we need them?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:41 (nineteen years ago)

My conception of early house is filtered through early 90s UK hardcore, stuff like this:

http://mp3.juno.co.uk/MP3/SF157643-01-01-01.mp3

which is generally quite gospelly.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:44 (nineteen years ago)

the Salsa influence may be true re 'Strings Of Life' esp. when you consider it's similarity to the sound on Richie Rich's 'Salsa House' a few years later (tho Rich wasn't using chords so much).

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

Let Me Down Easy?

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

i love this "house piano". especially the italian house piano. search:
nightflowers 'i know'
fpi project 'everybody all over the world'
johnny parker 'love it forever'
don carlos 'alone'
data bass 'piano in the night'

― michael wells (michael w.), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 20:05 (nineteen years ago)

"K-Jee" by MFSB on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was a bit of a revelation for me - sounded like the propulsive salsa blueprint for much italo-house. It's a bit of a lost gem, even on such a popular record.

― i'm from hollywood, Tuesday, 23 May 2006 20:21 (nineteen years ago)

also on hollywood's tip is powerline's 'double journey' and candido's 'thousand finger man'.

― michael wells (michael w.), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 20:32 (nineteen years ago)

eight years pass...

I've always wondered if Richie Haven's version of "Going Back to My Roots" is record zero for house piano (i'm sure it's not, but the tempo, 'bounciness', foregrounding etc seems like a direct influence)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puDtxG9FBLQ

― Spencer Chow, Friday, 13 March 2015 18:28 (eleven years ago)

Its a great record regardless

― saer, Friday, 13 March 2015 18:31 (eleven years ago)

it was mentioned above but let me down easy for sure was sampled a lot, the rare pleasure vers rather than first choice i guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_U3LL7HaT0

― grant holt (prettylikealaindelon), Friday, 13 March 2015 21:02 (eleven years ago)

Youtube wasn't around when I made my posts upthread, but this is the sort of stuff I meant when I said house piano might be tracked back to 60s boogaloo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O3F-QwqfFo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guqlhpKgxFs#t=43

― Tuomas, Friday, 13 March 2015 23:11 (eleven years ago)

sympathy for the devil

― brimstead, Friday, 13 March 2015 23:18 (eleven years ago)

five years pass...

Love this South African amapiano (!) example from the here and now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHZp0VfOhFo
DJ Stokie ft. Loxion Deep • Trip to Soweto

(the piano break from 5'30 onwards)

― No mean feat. DaBaby (breastcrawl), Sunday, 5 April 2020 16:30 (six years ago)

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