“Eric is a musical chameleon, able to take his classical musical background and infuse his music with a wonderful kaleidoscope of fascinating tints and shades, moods and melodies, his fingers running up and down the keyboard with rollicking enthusiasm . Watching Eric perform fascinates you with his dizzying displays of improvisation , taking notes and using them to paint remarkable musical landscapes . He can make you feel the music, letting an emotional high flow through his playing . Pick up “Blues Phantasia” and get to know Eric Heilner , one of New Jersey’s busiest musicians . His irresistible spirit is joyfully contagious! Outstanding release from another exciting talent courtesy of the “Garden State”!”
Blue Notes and Conversations
What it Is (written June 2024)
Honky Tonk Train Blues
It was the late summer of 1965 and I was about to enter my senior year of high school. Earlier that summer I had taken a course in computer programming at Stevens Institute of Technology (sponsored by the National Science Foundation) – setting the course for my later career as a computer programmer and branding me for life as a computer nerd. However, on this particular day I found myself at home alone and, having nothing better to do, I started rummaging in my father’s record collection – my dad had very eclectic tastes in music ranging from Bach to folk music. My eye was caught by an album “Boogie Woogie, Jump and Kansas City” distributed by the Library of Congress. I put it on the turntable and this strange haunting music came on. It sounded sort of like rock & roll, but my teenage mind detected something deeper (earthier?) happening. There was Tampa Red and Speckled Red and some guy was singing about a Monday gal and a Tuesday gal, etc – my naïve 16 year old mind couldn’t quite wrap my head around this – “How does this guy do it?”
And then a piano instrumental started – Honky Tonk Train Blues – recorded by Meade “Lux” Lewis in 1927 – and I fell into a trance. Each time the music finished the 12 bar cycle and started the next verse, it felt like Lewis was talking directly to me – “Hey Eric, you think that was cool, now check out what I’m gonna do next“. I listened to it over and over, and then sat down at the piano and worked out the basics of what Lewis was playing. Late in the afternoon my father got home from his job at the public library in Passaic, NJ – and was startled to see/hear his gawky, nerdy, pimply-faced teenage son playing the piano and somehow channeling a long dead black blues player.
I am now much more acquainted with all the blues & boogie greats, but Honky Tonk Train Blues is still my “heart beat”. While I pride myself on having my own style of playing and avoid doing note for note copies of the originals, this is the one exception – The album finishes with a fairly accurate replica of the original 1927 Meade “Lux” Lewis version.
Chains
Chains is a pop tune written by Carole King & Gerry Goffin; it was a hit single for an all girl group The Cookies in 1962 and was covered by the Beatles on their first album (George sang lead!). Now fast forward. In the late 1970s I played with a central NJ based band Heavy Trucking. Heavy Trucking was very popular in the area and even opened up for the soon to be world famous Bruce Springsteen (this was after his first album). Heavy Trucking did a blues/rock version Chains which I really enjoyed. playing. That arrangement has stuck with me through the years.
Blues Phantasia, Hills & Valleys, In A Mist, and RumBoogie
The original tunes are the musical core of the album. I could give detailed descriptions of the origins and creation of these original tunes but rather I’ll let them speak for themselves.