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It is quite impressive to see the packed concerts by literally thousands of Yanni's fans when he does a tour. He hires the finest dancers, vocalists, that incredible foxy gal (forget her name) that plays burning violin solos, the orchestra, Yanni's battery of keyboards. The guy can not only sell out a concert at the Acropolis in Greece, the guy can sell out the whole world, more than the Rolling Stones when they are on tour. Plus he has dated some the most beautiful dames on the planet, actress Linda Evans, who was one, and some other noted well known celebs.
Yanni is an interesting phenomenon. Basically a self taught pianist/writer, gifted with perfect/absolute pitch, doesn't read notation, the look, the long flowing dark haircut he had in the beginning, the white, silk outfits, his charisma, the confidence, smile, presence, the list is endless.
But I am interested in anyone here, fan or not of what you think of his music. Does the writing connect, have substance, theme and development, what? A concert is almost a "musical 3 ring circus" and I don't mean that in a derogatory way. I mean he is unique, one of a kind. He can sell tickets by the thousands, platinum CD's, win Grammys, certificates, you name, he wins, get on Larry King, the works.
I have listened and analyzed "mechanically" some of the music and I have my own opinions and thoughts about it, but what I think doesn't really matter. In a way, I'm a fan, in a way I'm not. But I'm not sure why. We either connect with an artist or don't. But I have to acknowledge that Yanni seems to have a formula that works. I just wish I would have thought it up first, hehe.
katt
What do you guys think about Yanni and his music?
Last edited by nitekatt2008z; 07/29/09 01:02 AM.
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I personally don't care for his music but I guess if other people are truly moved by his music, than its good for them. His music serve a different purpose and it serves different kind of people. I just tell myself that if everyone played like keith jarrett the world would be a boring place.. haha
It's also important to set my personal opinion aside, because unless you are musician you probably arn't going to care whether someone is playing in 7 or "playing out". Listening to Glenn Gould, Bill Evans or keith Jarrett may be very intense spiritual experience, but then again not everyone is into that kind of stuff.. for many people listening to music is more of an entertainment than art and there's nothing wrong with that.
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When I hear Yanni (and many other new agers) at first I hear a nice sound and a good mood being set. But then, the music goes nowhere, for me. A piece sounds like an introduction played over and over. I just like more depth and complexity, but that's just me. People love him and that's great.
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I feel similar to the last post. At first I hear a good idea and
then it seems to go nowhere for me. This comment is not meant in the negative to the specific artist mentioned. I happen to have a book of his but have only played through it once. So for me, the music would have to have more substance. Just compare a piece of his to something of Chopin's and you'll see.
rada
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Hey guys. Someone is thinking like I am about Yanni's music. Sounds good at the beginning, but how does it develop. Of course many of his fans love whatever he comes up with. If you took all of the production and other players out of the mix, is there enough left over to really support the music and its result to present a well composed work? It gets up to what listeners are expecting and how they accept the effort.
Yanni's show is entertainment and I was impressed by the Acropolis concert.
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Not immensely fond -- but then I'm not immensely fond of jazz, either. I say about both of them what most people say about the opera that makes me swoon: "It all sounds the same to me." Like a lot of jazz, his music strikes me as a bunch of extended riffs, solos, and cadenzas to songs that never got written.
But people love it, and it's refreshing to see at least one very popular musician get on stage and play an instrument for real without editing and ProTools to sew together a Frankensong that he then fakes playing. (At least I hope he doesn't.)
The flash and dazzle doesn't move me ... but then I should talk given that I think the 1998 Glyndebourne "Rodelinda" is the best operatic production I've ever seen, with the Patrice Cauchetier gown designs. :-)
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Not immensely fond -- but then I'm not immensely fond of jazz, either. I say about both of them what most people say about the opera that makes me swoon: "It all sounds the same to me." Like a lot of jazz, his music strikes me as a bunch of extended riffs, solos, and cadenzas to songs that never got written.
But people love it, and it's refreshing to see at least one very popular musician get on stage and play an instrument for real without editing and ProTools to sew together a Frankensong that he then fakes playing. (At least I hope he doesn't.)
The flash and dazzle doesn't move me ... but then I should talk given that I think the 1998 Glyndebourne "Rodelinda" is the best operatic production I've ever seen, with the Patrice Cauchetier gown designs. :-) J, interesting point about fragments of ideas that don't develop into much anything of substance. Of course with Yanni's success, fan base, big bucks, he probably doesn't think about that. But I've talked to other people and we have discussed and debated the same subject. There is no question the guy has natural talent and was able to avoid getting a day gig by putting it to work for him. Let's see what others have to say about it. katt
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Not immensely fond -- but then I'm not immensely fond of jazz, either. I say about both of them what most people say about the opera that makes me swoon: "It all sounds the same to me." Like a lot of jazz, his music strikes me as a bunch of extended riffs, solos, and cadenzas to songs that never got written. J, interesting point about fragments of ideas that don't develop into much anything of substance. Of course with Yanni's success, fan base, big bucks, he probably doesn't think about that. But I've talked to other people and we have discussed and debated the same subject. It's not uncommon; one of my favorite bands (Journey) did much the same thing for three albums. Four absolute virtuoso musicians who made magnificent music that never actually got up and went anywhere -- it was like bolt after bolt of the most gorgeous fabric you could imagine, but they never cut it up and made anything out of it. My roommate called it the sort of music that you play when you want to sit in a beanbag chair, smoke something of shady legal provenance, and watch the walls wobble. Difference being that they got told to get a hit, get a singer, or get off their label. Rock is expected to be less of a "background music" sort of thing than new-age piano, though. (If that's the right genre to use for this.)
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A lot of his songs sound very similar to each other, and I find a lot of them very reminiscent to the theme for Chariots of Fire.
It is not music I listen to very often, but in small dosages from time to time I can enjoy it. A good melody does not necessarily require much sophistication, and he has come up with some nice ones. I think he does have some creativity.
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Total sellout/wanker. What irony that he would stage a concert at Akropolis, a symbol for the start of western civiliazation as we know it, just to cover it in cheap kitschy add9 sirup.
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It is quite impressive to see the packed concerts by literally thousands of Yanni's fans when he does a tour. He hires the finest dancers, vocalists, that incredible foxy gal (forget her name) that plays burning violin solos, the orchestra, Yanni's battery of keyboards. The guy can not only sell out a concert at the Acropolis in Greece, the guy can sell out the whole world, more than the Rolling Stones when they are on tour. Plus he has dated some the most beautiful dames on the planet, actress Linda Evans, who was one, and some other noted well known celebs.
Yanni is an interesting phenomenon. Basically a self taught pianist/writer, gifted with perfect/absolute pitch, doesn't read notation, the look, the long flowing dark haircut he had in the beginning, the white, silk outfits, his charisma, the confidence, smile, presence, the list is endless.
But I am interested in anyone here, fan or not of what you think of his music. Does the writing connect, have substance, theme and development, what? A concert is almost a "musical 3 ring circus" and I don't mean that in a derogatory way. I mean he is unique, one of a kind. He can sell tickets by the thousands, platinum CD's, win Grammys, certificates, you name, he wins, get on Larry King, the works.
I have listened and analyzed "mechanically" some of the music and I have my own opinions and thoughts about it, but what I think doesn't really matter. In a way, I'm a fan, in a way I'm not. But I'm not sure why. We either connect with an artist or don't. But I have to acknowledge that Yanni seems to have a formula that works. I just wish I would have thought it up first, hehe.
katt
What do you guys think about Yanni and his music? Wasn't his girlfriend Linda Evans? But I digress.... He reminds me of John Tesh, and the iconoclast in me just doesn't like, no, make that can't tolerate, that tooth-whitened phony stage presence. I can't comment on his music, because when I switched a channel on with him and his entourage, while channel-surfing, I could only take it for a few seconds. It was biased and wrong of me, perhaps, but he just seemed so phony. Just like Celine Dion and her Cirque de Soleil Las Vegas Act, or even her regular act. Sure, she's got a great voice, but there's nothing authentic there. Maybe there once was, but no longer. I have already confessed that I went to the American Idol summer tour, and some of that was really phony, but oddly compelling. Some of those singers have some raw talent...anyway, I was with my 15 year old daughter and had the anaesthetizing influence of 2 mugs of draft beer ($8.50 each) to help me through it.
Last edited by Nikalette; 07/31/09 07:39 PM.
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I've talked to friends and people who are part of the pop music scene, and my impression is that these people get the gigs not because they are capable of making great music, but because they are capable of making music that sells. If you think of music as a product, you can say someone like Yanni or Tesh have uncanny ability to produce a product that they can sell to their target audience. And it's not just the music, its the whole package, the way they dress.. etc. I guess those people think of music in a very different way than most of us here do.
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I've talked to friends and people who are part of the pop music scene, and my impression is that these people get the gigs not because they are capable of making great music, but because they are capable of making music that sells. If you think of music as a product, you can say someone like Yanni or Tesh have uncanny ability to produce a product that they can sell to their target audience. And it's not just the music, its the whole package, the way they dress.. etc. I guess those people think of music in a very different way than most of us here do.
Exactly. I only play music I am very passionate about, and cannot imagine playing anything else. I have no idea if Yanni or anyone else for that matter is passionate about their music; I just know that if I don't absolutely adore the music I am playing, then I will stay home.
Last edited by rocket88; 08/01/09 12:04 AM.
Blues and Boogie-Woogie piano teacher.
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It's a very different mentality.. I have a singer songwriter friend who hired a well known producer to produce his CD... but the producer butchered his songs and made him sound like a Justin Timberlake. He couldn't understand why my friend was so upset over that, because he was doing what he is good at, make songs that sells.
For us it's bad music, for them it's highly profitable product.
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I've talked to friends and people who are part of the pop music scene, and my impression is that these people get the gigs not because they are capable of making great music, but because they are capable of making music that sells. If you think of music as a product, you can say someone like Yanni or Tesh have uncanny ability to produce a product that they can sell to their target audience. And it's not just the music, its the whole package, the way they dress.. etc. I guess those people think of music in a very different way than most of us here do.
John Tesh started his public career on Entertainment Tonight didn't he? As a personality...He also has a radio show that plays on one of our local stations a LOT at night...with his "intelligent living" approach, lots of psycho-babble and advice, and life-changing lists....what kind of musician does stuff like that? He's an industry, no doubt, but who would buy his records? He used to hawk them on QVC, a sure sign of being a sell-out. Some musicians who are actually talented become huge money makers though. There's no question Christina Aguilar is an amazing singer with an incredible voice (anyone see her version of "It's a Man's World" on the Grammy's, with a movie of James Brown running in the background and her doing some of his characteristic moves...it was to die for). Then you have her contemporary, Brittany Spears...enough said. And what about Aretha Franklin, not only a great singer, but a killer piano player, who with few exceptions, has really botched her potential in terms of song choices, crappy albums, selling out...those few exceptions have been doozies tho' and made her very rich and very famous.
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I'll take the music of David Lanz any day over Yanni. He's not a *huge* name because he is shy in his concerts (although personable) and doesn't have "the look."
~Jennifer
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I'll take the music of David Lanz any day over Yanni. He's not a *huge* name because he is shy in his concerts (although personable) and doesn't have "the look."
~Jennifer I'll second that!
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His music is good, and he is obviously gifted musically, but I'm sorry to say Yanni's music makes me yaaaaaaaawn. 
Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.
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I have 2 of his DVD's .....
Live at the Acropolis and the newer Live at Mandalay Bay.
IMO the newer Mandaly Bay DVD is much better, sound and clarity of the instruments is awesome.
I enjoy watching and listening to all the top notch musicians.
Play thru a good stereo system or surround sound, crank it up a bit, I think you would enjoy it too.
Watching the whole performance, by all musicians, makes it enjoyable for me ....
in that sense, I do like Yanni's music.
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If you have the ability to make music, and it makes people happy, its all good.
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