The debut solo piano album
OUT NOW on CD, download and stream
An all-original collection of New Orleans piano and songs, from vaudeville to the church, with a sunshine-inspired personal message and some serious piano playing throughout.
Dom Pipkin talks a little about his solo piano 2020 release C'mon Sunshine.
“It all sounds just about perfect...Dom Pipkin has certainly created an album of unique quality here. A stunning release, just soak in its quality and pure pleasure”
Blues In Britain magazine
C’mon Sunshine is the first full solo outing from UK pianist Dom Pipkin. Pipkin has been on the scene for years; originally a member of Errol Linton’s band, then as leader of his own New Orleans influenced outfit The Ikos. He’s also notched up playing credits with a host of international artists, and gained a respected reputation both at home and abroad as a writer and performer. He calls New Orleans his second home, and has performed alongside greats such as Allen Toussaint and Jon Cleary at the city’s famous “Piano Night”.
As well as influenced by the distinctive rhumba blues of Professor Longhair and the down home style of Dr John and Huey Smith, Pipkin is often associated with the late funk- romantic James Booker, with his notable classical influences. “Booker showed that there was room for expansive as well as taut playing in the genre” he says, “and his quirky instrumental compositions always impressed me – at once light yet carrying with them the weight of a true roots piano tradition. I certainly had James Booker in mind in the writing one or two of the instrumental tracks here”.
An all-original collection of New Orleans piano and songs, from vaudeville to the church, with a sunshine-inspired personal message and some serious piano playing throughout.
“The record ultimately conveys a positive message” he adds. The title C’mon Sunshine with its playful double meaning urges us all to move closer to the light. This process begins with the anthemic title track with its stately sense of scale. Your Cooking gives us a little domestically themed Nola rhumba, before moving onto Only Love – a more defiant message of redemption underpinned by pure piano funk. The Filthy Tropics brings the classical influences to the fore in a dreamlike fusion of Chopin and Jelly Roll Morton, with a little Scriabin sprinklings – the imaginarium of some forgotten musical forest.
The straight roller Heading South is a song from Dom’s band The Ikos repertoire worked in solo format, containing some of that New Orleans Indian patois. Magnolifique finds us back in impressionistic territory, invoking slowed down “Bookerism” and evoking a Louisianan evening promenade. The instrumental The Lonely Plains is said by Pipkin to echo the alienation of the mind in it’s most active and misunderstood state, represented in a surprisingly jaunty manner, whilst Just Like Me is blues riff based, and “one of the albums important tracks lyrically”. If some of the earlier tunes pose questions, then Take The Whole is looking to supply the answer. In this slice of piano funk, we are asked to recognise “le bien et le mal.... inside of you”, and how central this dichotomy is to all of our lives.
The unmistakable atmosphere of loss conveyed by the instrumental No Fishing then gives way to a message to Pipkin’s artist wife, Hannah Luxton with I Love You - referencing her painting The Return Of The Blue Mountain in the lyrics, and framing the love letter with stride influenced piano. “A song with whistling” is how Pipkin likes to introduce the track Mi Calle Su Calle – a reflection of the bustle of everyday public spaces with some firey piano soloing. Then comes Love Affair With New Orleans, delivering its message over some Gershwinesque harmony, with an added twist of hurt and bitterness.
The record closes with Ma Grandma, a line from the New Orleans classic ‘Iko Iko’, and a tribute to Pipkin’s ‘Nanna’ who would dream away hours at the family upright. “It’s a musical calling back to life” he says, and a happy benevolent musical prayer to close the collection.
C’mon Sunshine is out now – currently on CD and online formats (from all the usual platforms) – and is the 4th release on Pipkin’s own Hambone Recordings label.
