Roland Celebrates International Piano Day with Live Performances by Kamaal Williams on the brand new 50th Anniversary Concept Piano and GP-9 Digital Grand

For me I love near enough everything about the GP-6 and GP-9 - the outward looks, the touch-sensitivity and dynamics and super expansive and immersive sound / soundstage. In fact everything  is pretty magnificent - apart from the inside 'cavity' (i.e. when you open out the main body lid) - which on fully mechanical acoustic pianos is a thing of wonder - a veritable harp-like string-assembly which very visibly contains the engine of the Piano - as an almost sculptural work to a large degree.

While on the Roland Digital Grands we have a somewhat plain wood panel with somewhat mismatched speaker surrounds and numerous brass-like screws pinning said board in place. It's all a little incongruous for me. I would like to see some sort of pseudo acoustic grand piano ribs within the cavity and have the speakers slightly concealed under a tastefully slatted canopy. 

In the current state - the insides rather shatter the illusion and undo some of the magical work that the digital modelling is doing. Close your eyes and it sounds truly like a fully-fledged magnificent concert grand piano of the highest quality. These Grand Pianos are status symbols for sure too - and many that do not play them still have them occupying a drawing room or front lounge in their spacious abode.

I think Roland has cracked near enough everything else - it needs to put a product designer onto the task of making the interior cavity more appealing - so that when people gather round the Grand for a sing-song - they have something beautiful and sculptural to look at - rather than just 4 speaker grills and a load of stud screws!

Before I touch on this year's new Concept Digital Piano - I feel it's worthwhile glancing back to its 2020 'Facet' Grand Piano predecessor which seemed in part to take some of its design cues from the equally angular Roland AX-Edge Keytar.

I for one feel that Roland should have followed this through with further similar futuristic sharp-angled Grand Pianos which are very much part of Roland's DNA - and avoid the somewhat awkward empty cavity situation on the current Grand Pianos - including of course the new GP-6 and GP-9. The 'Facet' is entirely skeletal in a most aesthetically pleasing sculptural and architectural way - I really do wish Roland would make more of these - or more along these same lines. It's kind of like a piano was cross-bred with a stealth fighter jet!.

You could have all kinds of very clever mechanical folding capabilities too - so that you can compress the Grand into a fairly tiny space when you need to - and then extend its somewhat exoskeleton for performances and special occasions.

I really do feel there is plenty more mileage to the design direction that marked the 'Facet' release!

And so to this year's 50th Anniversary Concept Model - which is a collaboration between Roland and upmarket Japanese furniture designers Karimoku. It uses mostly unwanted scraps of Hokkaido Nara Oak in its construction. And so it marries contemporary ecological concerns with some incredible futuristic engineering - of course using Roland's class-leading PureAcoustic Ambience technology.

The onboard speakers are really cleverly housed within key nodes of the casing design - for fully 360 degree output. And we of course have the 4 hovering drones for even more immersive quadrophonic sound. While that technology is still undergoing development. Contemporary drone engines / blades are still a little too noisy for pianissimo playing - and of course there are challenges with how much charge the drones can hold, and what fail-safes are needed to ensure smooth noiseless operation of a reasonable duration.

The Japanese have been experimenting with 'over-the-air-charging' while the level of current etc. that can be delivered via that method is still not up to the task of maintaining a drone indefinitely. I don't see any inertial dampers or proper landing gear on those drones - what happens in the event of a sudden power failure? I would have thought magnetic levitation / MagLev - as is used by several high speed trains - and will be in place for Elon Musk's Hyperloop - is a better choice. I feel that magnetic technology - with magnetic damping could be another option for levitating those speakers - of course each approach has its challenges - and overall the technology is still not quite yet up there to meet those ambitions - but we will hopefully be there soon enough.

The form of the 50th Anniversary Concept is very much organic, and flowing and ecological - with the piano designed to take pride of place in the centre of a room - rather than shunted away into a corner!

Alas these are like those automotive Prototypes that BMW and Mercedes keep rolling out - which show a direction to the future and showcase modern and futuristic technologies - which will eventually make it into some of the mainstay / mainstream released vehicles.

For now there are only 2 of these in existence as I'm led to believe. Do pop into 10 Denmark Street for a go on this masterpiece - as by the end of next month it will be back in Japan again.

So many people have popped into the Roland Store already - enquiring about this piano - which is obviously not for sale - and Roland really doesn't have anything similar on its books - so a missed opportunity for me. The demand certainly seems to be there for a piano of this nature - while there are none to be had!

And so to the star of the show - Musical Prodigy and Keyboardist Extraordinaire Kamaal Williams - whose prior and alternative persona is Henry Wu. The Henry persona is more about electronic music, DJ'ing and Production, while the Kamaal persona is more a live gigging performer - that typically performs in a trio or quartet of similarly virtuoso musicians. His trio features a Drummer and Saxophonist - while for larger gigs and festival he likes to add a horn section and there can be a veritable football team on stage therefore.

Kamaal has his roots in Hip Hop and Jazz - he cites his favourite recent album as being Jay Electonica's 2020 'A Written Testimony', while his all-time musical heroes are Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones. In terms of his playing style - he has superb dynamics and beautifully delicate feel and touch - and tends to stick to mostly jazz-infused fare - with a blend of influences - sort of Jazz Fusion / Acid Jazz, Nu-Soul and Funk - while a lot of his material is fairly contemplative - so he's definitely eclectic. He's collaborated with all kinds of celebrated musicians including one of my own personal favourites - Fred Again. And he cites influences as broad as the Spice Girls! Where he also particularly rates 2 contemporary UK bands - Sault and Gabriels.

Generally his best received album to date seems to be 2018's 'The Return'. While a new album is due out this year - which I've been unable to find any details for, I did though uncover a live French Gig from earlier this year - which I've aded above. Actually his new album is to be called 'STINGS' - and is due for release in July.

He played three new songs as far as I recall, the second one 'Dreams' an improvisation of his favourite Japanese composer - the recently passed Ryuichi Sakamoto. I particularly enjoyed the first track he played on the GP-9 Grand 'Magnolia' - it was all pretty decent though - and those 2 pianos sounded amazing . So 2 tracks on the GP-9 and one 'Ronan' on the 50th Anniversary Concept Piano.

Then Amy Sheldon conducted a nicely flowing interview and followed that up with a fairly sparse Q&A - where I was only one of just 3 to pose a question - which yielded Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones as answers! (most influential for Kamaal).

These musical performances were what was missing from the original Store Launch I attended - I would gladly attend many more such performances. I keep trying to persuade Roland to get Claudio Passavanti in (Doctor Mix) - he would be superb - and just right for such an occasion! He's such a great Roland Ambassador - I don't know why we don't see more of him at these Roland events. I asked him why he missed the store launch - and he said that he hadn't been invited - which is a mini scandal all of itself!