Prince: Piano And A Microphone

[Rabs]

"Is that my echo? Can you turn the lights down? Good God!"

 

It's January 1983 and Prince is sitting at the piano in his home studio in Minneapolis. He has a cassette recorder, some spare time and a bunch of songs in his head.

 

Over the next 35 minutes, he stomps his feet and stretches his muscles, careering through gospel, jazz, funk and - for 88 tantalising seconds - a nascent version of Purple Rain.

 

Then he gets up, chucks the tape in his vault and goes off to become a megastar.

 

By highlighting this intimate, insightful performance, the star's estate is making a statement about how it intends to treat his archive - not as a cash cow, but as a way to explore and illuminate Prince's extraordinary creativity.

 

Ahead of the album's release, we spoke to archivist Michael Howe and musician Lisa Coleman - who played keyboards in Prince's band, The Revolution - about the new album, and what else we might hear from the vault.

 

For years, the cassette languished in Prince's cavernous archive, identified only by a hand-written label reading "Cold Coffee & Cocaine" - a song he'd seemingly made up on the spot.

 

But now the tape is being released as Prince: Piano And A Microphone 1983; the first in what will presumably be a stream of posthumous records.

 

[Cougar]

...For years, the cassette languished in Prince's cavernous archive, identified only by a hand-written label....

 

Ha. Likely many of us have deep archive tapes. Not many of us made it like Prince though.

[Big Bill]

I remember that. I sat in with him on that take, I played the bass drum.

[brad1]

I remember that. I sat in with him on that take, I played the bass drum.

Masterful

[kidblast]

I remember that. I sat in with him on that take, I played the bass drum.

 

did not...

 

:)