Patrick Moraz

Patrick Philippe Moraz (born June 24, 1948 in Morges on Lake Geneva , Switzerland ) is a progressive rock musician. As a keyboard player he plays all keyboard instruments.

Youth (1948–1965)

Patrick Moraz comes from a French-Swiss middle class family. His father was the road manager of the pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski and a tap dancer , he had danced with Fred Astaire and Maurice Chevalier . Patrick received a musical education very early on . At the age of five he learned violin , piano and percussion , and at the age of five he was already composing his own small piano pieces. His interests included jazz and classical music .

At the age of 13, he broke four fingers on his right hand while roller skating . He was told he would never be able to play classical music again. But good therapy and tenacious practice helped him to achieve even better technique and fluency, especially of the left hand, with which he tried to compensate for any deficits in his right. He later attended several seminars at the Lausanne Conservatory , but his passion was jazz from an early age . Moraz played in local jazz bands and learned to play the church organ . At the age of 17 he won a prize as a young jazz soloist, which gave him a few hours with the jazz violinist and keyboardist Stéphane Grappelli . To this day, clear influences from Bill Evans , Jan Hammer and Maurice Ravel can be heard at Moraz .

Travel (1965–1969)

Patrick Moraz traveled a lot in his youth. With his own jazz trio / quartet he toured in the 1960s through Europe , often as the opening act for more famous jazz musicians, including the saxophonist John Coltrane .

At the age of 17 he worked for some time as a diving instructor on the Spanish Mediterranean coast , in 1964 he went to Bournemouth on his own , learned English and made a living as a school cook and as a language teacher for Latin and French . Above all, however, he began to establish himself in the local music scene. He played briefly with the Night People, but had to leave the country again after six months.

Back in Switzerland, he sold carpets and encyclopedias so that he could afford to study at Geneva University, where he studied economics and politics. He then moved to Columbia University in New York City , only to move to an African import / export company shortly thereafter, in 1966 . He worked there during the week and earned enough to return to Switzerland on the weekends and play concerts with his Patrick Moraz trio / quartet. In 1968, after two years in Africa, he finally decided on a career as a musician.

During these years, Moraz met the bands Yes and The Nice several times when they happened to be giving concerts in the same place, for example in 1969 in Montreux (either on April 24/25 or December 2), where Moraz had parties for the performed at the annual Jazz Festival , and in Basel , where he even played in a jam session with Lee Jackson and Brian Davison (October 29, 1969). This later earned him a recommendation from The Nice keyboardist Keith Emerson , who suggested Moraz as a replacement for himself after leaving The Nice some time later. Moraz was very impressed by both bands.

With Mainhorse & first film scores (1969–1973)

After a trip to the USA he formed his own group Mainhorse in Switzerland in 1969 with Jean Ristori ( electric bass ) and the two Englishmen Bryson Graham ( drums ) and Peter Cockett ( guitar ), with whom he went to England to establish oneself there. In 1971 an album was released by Polydor : Mainhorse . The album was recorded in the Deep Purple studios in Kingsway and was successful enough that the band was able to give some concerts with it in Germany . However, it was not enough for a breakthrough, and since the band could not afford a manager, it disintegrated in 1972. Moraz remained in close contact with Jean Ristori throughout his career.

Between 1969 and 1974, Moraz wrote music for seven films , including L'Invitation by Claude Goretta (1973), which won the Cannes Grand Prix and an Oscar nomination.

With Refugee: The Breakthrough (1973–1974)

In 1973, Moraz was the musical director of an eighteen-member Brazilian ballet company , including in Japan , Thailand and Hong Kong . During this time, Moraz lived in Hong Kong for a few months, where he formed a band with the 6 percussionists of the ballet troupe and appeared on television a few times . After returning to Switzerland, Lee Jackson called him. After the breakup of The Nice by Keith Emerson , the latter formed the little successful band Jackson Heights . Because of the lack of success, he turned to Moraz to ask for support for another Jackson Heights album project. It quickly became apparent that Moraz's ideas were unsuitable for the band, and the two formed the progressive rock group Refugee together with Nice drummer Brian Davison , which produced a successful album in 1973 and completed a no less successful tour of England.

At Yes (1974–1976)

Moraz celebrated his commercial breakthrough as a rock musician as the keyboardist of the British progressive rock band Yes , whose keyboardist Rick Wakeman he initially reluctantly replaced in August 1974. He didn't really want to offend Jackson and Davison, who had just started over. However, the further development of the electronic keyboard instruments at the time and the financial situation of an international top band enabled him to play completely new ways, which Moraz introduced in a unique way on the 1974 album Relayer . After completing the work, the band went on tour (Relayer Tour, November 8, 1974 to August 23, 1975, 89 shows).

In 1976 all members of the group recorded solo albums. Moraz contributed his keyboard playing on the albums of Steve Howe and Chris Squire . His own solo album , partly in South America , partly in Switzerland (including with bassist Jeff Berlin ), recorded with the help of Jean Ristori, a concept album that was largely produced in Brazilian rhythms and with appropriate instruments, he titled The story of I . It contains a successful fusion of pop , progressive rock , neoclassical music influenced by romanticism , musical and jazz , and was known as the first album of world music due to this stylistic breadth and received great applause from fellow musicians. Peter Gabriel asked Moraz for the phone number of his Brazilian rhythm section .

The Relayer album, mixed by Jean Ristori, was the only Yes album on which Moraz played. After the Relayer tour and the solo album tour (May 28, 1976 to August 22, 1976, 53 shows), he was replaced by his predecessor Wakeman in November 1976 in the middle of working on Relayer's follow-up album , Going for the One when Yes saw the opportunity to bring him back into the band.

With the Moody Blues & Solo (1977 to today)

After his second, stylistically similar, solo album, Out in the Sun (1977), Moraz, now living in Brazil (1978), replaced Michael Pinder in the reformed band The Moody Blues , initially as a session musician. He had financed the trip to the prelude to England through a few concerts in Switzerland, including at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1978. The first album together, Long Distance Voyager 1981, became the second and last of the Moody Blues to top the charts in the US . Moraz stayed with the band until 1991, since 1979 as a full member (after the separation, however, the other band members took the position in court that Moraz was merely “a hired keyboard player” - these disagreements were mainly due to financial reasons).

In addition, he continued to work on various projects, mainly solo recordings, sometimes with a band, and since the 1990s mainly solo on the piano. Moraz's stylistic spectrum ranges from Brazilian music to classical and jazz to New Age (the latter mainly on Human Interface , 1987), styles that he mostly uses in playful motifs and phrases that can be described as "poppy" in the best sense of the word knows how to combine a very uniform, independent style. The two Future Memories albums also contain largely improvised music (Moraz calls it “instant composition”), which was created on the occasion of a live television broadcast in the studio and, in the case of Future Memories Live On TV (1979), only a few days after it was recorded in the store was standing.

After leaving the Moody Blues and releasing his first solo piano album Windows of Time (1994), Patrick Moraz went on a small tour of churches and small concert halls in the USA. On this Coming Home America Tour ( CHAT , 'chatter') he played selected pieces and reported on some experiences from his career. One of these concerts was released on CD in 1995 under the title PM in Princeton . Since then, Moraz's concerts have become rare.

Cooperations

Collaborations with other musicians include albums with Chick Corea , pan flutist Syrinx and Bill Bruford . The duo Moraz / Syrinx released an album in 1980 called Coexistence , which was re-released in 1989 under the title Libertate (Romanian for “freedom”) to raise funds for a children's aid project in Romania . The duo Moraz / Bruford, which lived only half a mile apart in Surrey in 1983, released two jazz albums in 1983 and 1985 , Music for Piano and Drums , an acoustic album that consisted mainly of Moraz compositions and was created in just three days, and Flags , an album with a wider range of sounds, which was mostly written by both musicians together.

Current

The British record company Voiceprint released a number of Moraz's solo albums in 2006/2007, supplemented by bonus tracks. Moraz's friend Jean Ristori, with whom Moraz had never lost contact since the days of Mainhorse, also helped with the remastering. Two DVDs , Future Memories I & II and PM in Princeton , were also released in 2007. Currently Patrick Moraz can be heard with a new arrangement of his title Cachaca on the solo album of the drummer Jacob Armen , concerts of the two (and possibly a bassist), maybe also in Europe , are at least envisaged. It is planned to play large parts of The Story of i (especially page 1), Patrick Moraz III and the Moraz / Bruford albums.

Moraz is currently working on the music for an independent short film. In 2015 he released an album together with drummer Greg Alban.

Discography

Solo albums

• Story of I , 1976, re-released in 2006 by Voiceprint with two bonus tracks
• Out in the Sun , 1977, re-released in 2006 by Voiceprint with a bonus track
• Patrick Moraz III , 1978, re-released in 2006 by Voiceprint with a bonus track
• Future Memories Live On TV , 1979, re-released in 2006 by Voiceprint with a bonus track
• Timecode , re-released in 1984, 2006 by Voiceprint with two bonus tracks
• Future Memories II , 1984, re-released in 2006 by Voiceprint with two bonus tracks
• Future Memories I & II , 1985, re-released in 2007 by Voiceprint with a bonus track
• Human Interface , 1987
• Windows of Time , 1994
• Princeton PM , 1995
• Resonance , 2000
• ESP , 2003
• Change of Space , 2009

Film music

• Vive la mort (1969)
• Supergirl (1971) (TV)
• Le Salamandre ( The Salamander ) (1971)
• Les Vilaines manières (1973)
• L'Invitation ( The Invitation ) (1973)
• Pas si méchant que ça (It's not that bad either ) (1974)
• Le Milieu du monde ( Middle of the World ) (1974)
• Le Chemin perdu (1980)
• The Stepfather (1987)
• In the Eye of the Snake ( Wake of the Serpent ) (1994)

More solo activities

• Various Artists - A Tribute To Genesis / The Fox Lies Down (1998)
  • Los Endos (with Ronnie Ciago)

Moraz / Bruford

• Music for Piano and Drums , 1983, re-released in 2004 by Voiceprint with bonus tracks
• Flags , re-released in 1985, 2004 by Voiceprint with bonus tracks
• In Tokyo , Live 1985, released by Winterfold Records in 2009

With the pan flutist Syrinx

• Coexistence , 1980, re-released in 1989 under the title Libertate (as a charity project for Romanian children), re-released in 2006 by Voiceprint with 2 bonus tracks

With drummer Greg Alban

• MAP (Moraz Alban Project) , 2015

With Mainhorse

see Mainhorse

With refugee

see Refugee

With yes

• Relayer (1974)
• Yesshows (1980)

With The Moody Blues

see The Moody Blues

Web links

• http://patrickmoraz.com/ Patrick Moraz Official Website
• http://www.yesworld.com/ Yes World
• http://www.moodyblues.co.uk/ Moody Blues Official Website