Tom Johnson, Music For 88

Tom Johnson is a pianist and composer, but for many, he will forever be known as an early and influential music critic for The Village Voice — one of the first to seriously cover the first rumbles of what would become New York's “downtown” scene and according to some, the man who coined the term Minimalism to describe the early music of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and similar composers. Ironically, the term Minimalism could perhaps more fairly be attached to Johnson's own music, which does indeed restrict itself to minimal means. One work consisted of Johnson walking in various patterns among 9 bells, striking them as he passed. The rhythm track consisted of the composer's sneakered feet moving among the bells, and the “composition” consisted of the patterns he was walking, since the 9 notes of the bells remained the same.

There is a certain element of whimsy to this sort of music-making which has saved Tom Johnson's work from avant-garde navel-gazing and instead made it some of the most appealing, and often genuinely funny, new music around. This album consists of a single instrument, the piano and its 88 keys. Oh, and Tom Johnson's voice. No, he's not singing; instead, he starts each piece by explaining a different mathematical theorem, problem, or numbers series. He then transfers the numbers to the keyboard. Keeping to steady rhythms and strong tonal centers, these abstract mathematical patterns become engaging musical ones. Perhaps the best example to start with is “Mersenne Numbers,” which refers to a series of numbers that are one less than the exponents of 2 (so 1, 3, 7, 15, 63, etc.). Get it? Don't worry, you will, as Johnson starts a simple left hand vamp, and then announces each number's appearance on the keyboard in the right hand “melody.” 1 and 3 and even 7 are simple enough, but as he gets up to 511, the melody becomes impossibly long and florid. It's all done with an absolutely straight face, so you can't always tell whether he's joking or actually trying to teach you something. And if you're not careful, he'll do both.