Creole Rhythm

How does one categorize a musician immersed in European Classical traditions from the time of Bach to the 20th Century, but also intensely responsive to the music of New Orelans, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Brazil? Frank French answers the riddle by synthesizing all these various styles into his own formulation as a pianist and composer. The use of the pianoforte in the way espoused by French implies a distinctive musical territory placing the sound of the Western Hemisphere properly in the larg...

How does one categorize a musician immersed in European Classical traditions from the time of Bach to the 20th Century, but also intensely responsive to the music of New Orelans, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Brazil? Frank French answers the riddle by synthesizing all these various styles into his own formulation as a pianist and composer. The use of the pianoforte in the way espoused by French implies a distinctive musical territory placing the sound of the Western Hemisphere properly in the larger context of World Music. In this realm the musical imagination revolves round the piano which may be coaxed like a harp in one moment, and beaten like a drum in the next. Here is expressed the contrast of genteel Romanticism and the savage emotive power evoked in a more rugged way of life. Thus is the artistic sentiment now projected onto a landscape of rough and ready ways and means. Manifest in this is the dynamic attraction of spirit to earth. Over the past 20 years Frank French has performed and recorded this music in community concerts, educational venues, on radio and television. He has criss-crossed the globe from Europe to North America, to Australia, performing at numerous international music festivals in France, Finland, Germany and throughout North America and Oceana, from the Maine coast to the Gold Coast, from Toronto to Santiago de Cuba. His music speaks a language larger than life though his many performances and recordings.