Album Notes

Bill Cornish has balanced years of performing in rock bands with composing jazz and new age music. In addition to his Internet-based solo project, he can most recently be seen as the keyboardist for the rock group The Thomas Connor Band and the jazz group Will Sumner's Tropic Zone. His personal style is frequently described as harkening back to the classic Windham Hill sound of the 80s.

Most recently, his work appears on the The Thomas Connor Band album, Teach Peace (featuring guest appearances by jazz fusion violinist Jerry Goodman of the Dixie Dregs and Mahavishnu Orchestra).

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REVIEWS:

Raw42.com
Review by fourier
Date:2001-04-12

The accomplished San Diego keyboardist Bill Cornish makes what my dad would call "proper music". There are no overdriven resonant filters, no up-to-the-minute stuttering beats, no subwoofer-destroying deep bass - just great musicianship, pure and simple. The two tunes submitted, probably best categorized as "new age", strictly speaking reside outside raw42's purely electronic/industrial domain. However, their quality is such that I'm going to say a few words anyway.

Shinto's lead melodies are carried by an assortment of "ethnic" instruments - there are plucked strings, percussion, and first and foremost a nicely recorded reverberating flute line. The gentle tension, building gradually throughout the piece, is underpinned by a subdued drum track and augmented by airy synthesizer pads. The tune proceeds without any significant structural detours to a slightly abrupt ending at 4:26. An enjoyable listen.

Leap of Faith is a grander, more progressive effort. the underlying melodic structure is provided by Bill's rhythmical rock-style piano and the lead instrument is a violin sample (at least, I think that's a sample - Bill's mastery of the pitch bend and modulation wheels is such that it could just be the real thing!) It's clear that a lot of thought and preparation went into the composition & arrangement of this one - every constituent part knows exactly what it's doing and where it's going. A touch of synthesizer nostalgia is provided by the appearance of some old-fashioned presets, the like of which Joe Zawinul would be proud. Thumbs up again.

It's a little unfortunate that in the last few years even highly competent new age music has acquired something of a bad name - doomed to sit quietly in that science store in the mall, lodged between the plasma ball and the glow-in-the-dark planet stickers. This is quality work, beautifully executed and produced, and should be recognized as such. A glance at Bill Cornish's mp3.com earnings suggests that I am not alone in this opinion.