Rick Wakeman brings ‘A Gallery of the Imagination’ to New Jersey

Have you ever painted a musical picture in your mind? Rick Wakeman does it all the time. The former Yes keyboardist will be flying solo to New Jersey with his new album, "A Gallery Of The Imagination", on March 31 at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, the Welmont Theatre in Montclair on April 1st, and the Vogel in Red Bank on April 3.

Wakeman explained the concept of his new album when he called into my New Jersey 101.5 show.

It sort of stems very much from my first one. My only music teacher, Mrs. Symes where I went from 1950- 54 said to me: You're a painter, a musical painter; that's what you're going to be. She said, 'When you learn a piece, I want you to close your eyes and paint pictures to the music.'

And I've always done that. A lot of people ask why I play 90% of the time with my eyes closed, it's because I'm still painting pictures to this day. And I thought it'd take a long time to get around to this.

But I thought, wouldn't it be nice if I did an album where it encouraged people, if they want to, to close their eyes and paint their own picture to the music; or indeed even paint pictures or sculptures or anything that they want to do?

And it's interesting; already, I've had literally hundreds of emails come through to the website. People say, 'We've painted a picture to this track or done something to that track' or 'we've built something or made something.' And it does seem to have captured people's imaginations, which is really nice.

In fact, one of the things that I wanted to do which was started in the UK is I want to rent sort of theatres or whatever, and turn them into galleries. Invite people to bring stuff along, you know, to hang out whilst the music's playing. I'd like to do that everywhere. Really, that'd be a fun thing to do. It seems to be something that's captured people's imaginations, which is nice because it captures mine.

For an evening with Rick Wakeman telling the stories of him and his music, click here.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise only. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.

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