Bob Culbertson

Solo Flight 1999 VHS video $28, PAL format $36.


This solo Stick video displays Bob's newest advances in music theory, tapping sub-techniques, composition and improvisation, all layered onto the solid fundamentals of his earlier work. Lead melody comes from either hand in any register, often from the left hand while the right plays motor rhythm patterns on the melody strings. Then there are some startling moments when true improvised counterpoint is achieved with independent hands, a musical state of being rarely attained by jazz and classical pianists.

His one hour performance at The Music Warehouse in San Jose was recorded without effects straight into computer including ambient sounds of the concert hall and audience. It was videotaped with three digital cameras. Bob plays with much animation and movement from a sitting position with The Stick on a crossbar type leg-rest. The Block pickup module brings out some new timbers from his twelve string Grand Stick, sounding at times like blues guitar, like a harp, and like a sonorous orchestra where every note of the complex chordal voicings are distinctly heard.