Blues, Preludes & Feuds is a hybrid album-eBook by noted composer/pianist/songwriter Peter Saltzman. In BP&F, Saltzman, whose work has been called “Brilliant” by the Chicago Tribune, “ambitious, richly layered, wonderfully accessible” by the Chicago Sun-Times, and “powerful stuff” by the Dallas Morning News, has created an original format that brings the concept album into the mobile age. It combines music, text, and images in a seamless way that would have been impossible with the traditional LP and CD formats.
The app is built around a provocative set of original virtuosic piano solos that draw deeply on jazz, blues, classical and pop traditions. While highly complex and contrapuntal, with cutting edge approaches to both improvisation and composition, the music, with its lyrical sense of melody and deep connection to the blues, is also accessible. Around these piano solos Saltzman builds a story that is part autobiographical, part fictional, part philosophical, and almost always wistful and whimsical. It is, as he calls it, a musical memory.
The music and stories literally unfold in a dynamic manner: sections, each containing 5-12 tracks and chapters, will be released over a period time. In addition to the primary tracks. there are connected tracks (alternate takes, related tracks, live video performances) that are released on a weekly basis and add to the richness of the format. Each section will contain two or more free track/stories, while the remaining content of each section is made available as in-app purchase.