KA BAIRD
THINKING MUSIC (FOR JUST INTONATION RHODES PIANO)

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Ka Baird, known for their expressive, dynamic, and urgent performances, shows up here in remarkably still form. But listen closely and you hear the movement so often associated with Ka's work. Prompted by an invitation by Ian Douglas-Moore to perform on a specially tuned Fender Rhodes piano for the Queens concert series “Fire Over Heaven”, these recordings capture Ka's exploration of the Rhodes mechanism's closeness to bells (the instrument being full of metal rods that get struck by felt hammers) as well as emphasizing the variety of consonances and dissonances that don't exist on a standard keyboard. The round notes of the Rhodes flit in the air, meeting their counterparts, forming beating phrases, running parallel to preceding notes. The two become one, back to two and so forth. Much like a thought, shifting over time, congealing, hardening, loosening, moving onto the next. Ka guides us empathetically through these moments with a delicate, but still somehow urgent touch.