Montage — “The Grand Pianist”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 25, 2024

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

1,091) Montage — “The Grand Pianist”

After walking away from the Left Banke, Michael Brown ,”who had been the group’s chief artistic force as principal songwriter, arranger, and keyboardist — worked with Montage [see #252] to continue in [a] splendid Baroque pop/rock vein” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/montage-mn0001206263), “mastermind[ing] an entire LP of material that was both similar to, and nearly on par with the Left Banke’s unsurpassed fusion of pop-rock and classical music. . . . [T]he graceful baroque-tinged melodies could have been no one else’s.” (Richie Unterberger, liner notes to the CD reissue of Montage)

“The Grand Pianist” shows that “Michael Brown is not only a grand pianist but also a genius composer.” (5215kerstin, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcpztS6xyuk) Brown wrote it with his sometimes collaborator (and Woodstock performer) Bert Sommer.

Jack Rabid tells us more:

Montage sounds far more like the real follow-up to the Left Banke’s first LP, Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina, than the actual one, The Left Banke, Too. This is because after the first LP the band’s three singers had sadly parted ways with keyboardist and prime songwriter Michel Brown, who instead became Montage’s mentor/mastermind. (It’s a long story: Brown’s dad was managing the band to the distrust of the other members and Brown, like Brian Wilson, similarly disdained touring in favor of staying home to write and record.) And though Brown was not technically a Montage member, he not only wrote all the music and produced this LP, but he also played all the trademark piano and organ and charted the vocal arrangements. Yet the four New Jersey no-names he found clearly translated his vision of extraordinarily lush, unspeakably beautiful orchestral chart pop. . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/montage-mw0000017255

Here is Bert Sommer’s version:

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