A quick summary of my listening experience thus far with the new ZKG: From the first moments I find myself sitting alongside Deckard gazing at a picture of Rachel, chasing a stormcloud and wondering who put this band together. Then I remember it's all Tommy and a few choice nuggets from friends. And I crack a smile. This is a worthy piece for the collection of any aficianado of the keyboard artform, and a fine demonstration of what can be achieved in this day and age by a motivated artist with diverse and interesting influences, many of which I'm still teasing out listen by listen. It's worth the effort. The various comparisons I've read thus far, invoking Vangelis and other names of great repute, are spot on. All melded and welded together in full Zvoncheck style. Specifics to come in the days ahead. In the meantime, bloody get a copy mates. The links are just up there.

This is a 2008 re-release of a 2001 album. Added to the original release are a “Piano Improvisation” and “The Rain in Florida”, which is actually a commentary on the 2001 voting scandal in that state. It features Jon Anderson on vocals and it sounds like the opening to “Without Hope You Cannot Start the Day” from Yes’s Union album. The feeling one gets from listening to the twelve tracks on this re-release, with a total time of 50 minutes, is that, most of them are played by a band consisting of Eddie Jobson on keyboards, Joe Satriani on guitar, Roger Glover on bass, and Stewart Copeland on drums, with Vangelis as guest on keyboards on a couple of tracks. In fact, it’s multi-instrumentalist Tommy Zvoncheck on keyboards, guitars, bass, and drum programming. Guest musicians include Kevin Crane on drums. Stan “Steele” Jankowski does the guitar solo on “Daddy You’re the Bomb”. Blue Oyster Cult’s Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser gets the guitar solo on “Storm Chaser”, a track that almost quotes from the opening of Frank Zappa’s “Peaches En Regalia”. There are also almost quotes from Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s “Karn Evil 9” (especially the guitar solo) and Van der Graaf Generator’s “Killer”, in other tracks of this album. Tommy Zvoncheck is from Long Island. He lived in Illinois during his high-school years, then he moved to New Jersey. Currently, he is based in Florida. He played with, among others, Blue Oyster Cult, Johnny Rotten’s Public Image Limited (P.I.L.), Spencer Davis, and Kasim Sulton.

Here's a masterpiece, and a lost album if there ever was one. Everyone knows of Blue Öyster Cult, but not for being one of the best ever rock, and later metal bands, but instead for their one-hit wonder. Now The Reaper's good, but there's so much more to them. For example, they had 2 albums out in the mid-80's, which everyone has forgotten about, and are currently out of print. The most important thing is that they lost their keyboardist Allen Lanier, and while he's a great player in his own right, he never really wrote anything outside of the odd terrible song, so his replacement was a huge gain. For these 2 albums, the band hired the ultra-virtuoso Tommy Zvoncheck, the single best person to ever grace a keyboard with his fingers' presence. After I heard these albums, I was astonished by the keyboard playing. There's a 2-minute piano solo at the end of Madness To The Method on Club Ninja that absolutely spectacular. After endeavoring to find out more about him, I discovered he had a solo album out. Now, Club Ninja and Imaginos were amazing just with his playing, but after hearing his album, if he had contributed some of his songwriting skills, they sure as hell wouldn't have been forgotten! I guess you'd call it a mixture of progressive shred/fusion. Not as heavy as you'd think, but the songs are so damn good it doesn't really matter. The solo tradeoff in the midsection of the title track is absolutely mind blowing.

Tommy Zvoncheck's career is nothing if not variety. From jazzer Fernando Saunders to punker John Lydon's Public Image Limited, Zvoncheck is an in-demand touring musician.Zvoncheck is active in many musical projects in the New York area, and recently released his first solo album, "ZKG." This new album brings his unmistakable talent to the forefront, getting the spotlight it deserves. The album was three years in the making, all songs composed by Zvoncheck, who also self-produced and engineered the project. "ZKG" is a powerful album of instrumentals in a progressive, rock-fusion vein....heavy but evoking a wide range of moods and emotions. Although the album is mainly keyboard-driven, Zvoncheck also performs guitar and bass. There is also a guest appearance by Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser who performed the guitar solo on "Storm Chaser". For more information on "ZKG" please visit zkgmusic.com