amaha artist Joe Sample has been a force in the evolution of jazz since he burst onto the scene with the Jazz Crusaders in the 50's. Now, it seems, the Yamaha Disklavier® is becoming a force in the evolution of Joe Sample.

The talent behind albums such as Rainbow Seeker, Carmel, and Did You Feel That? recently talked about how much he enjoys using the Disklavier Mark III piano in the studio. In fact, he is planning to build a room in his new home around a Disklavier piano.

"As a working tool for a composer, the Disklavier is a godsend," Sample reports. "It's incredible to sit there and see what you are doing —not only to decipher what notes I actually played, but also to remember what I just played."

Sample, heard most recently sweetening the B. B. King/Eric Clapton blues collaboration Riding with the King, says the Disklavier's accurate reproduction of performances is warmer, more true to life than piano rolls and richer than tape—a boon when he's working on arrangements using previously stored tracks.

"It gives me the opportunity," he says, "to create an instant arrangement of any particular piece of music - which I can also do with audio tape, but it is more inspiring to me, or to anyone who is a piano student or simply a lover of piano music, to sit and hear it being played live."

Sample is familiar with historical piano recreations produced from paper piano rolls, and he says the quality of a Disklavier performance stands in sharp contrast.

"I have the Jelly Roll Morton CD that was produced from his piano roll recording, and suddenly when compared to the Disklavier performance, I noticed that the CD feels icy cold to me," explains Sample." I don't feel the Jelly Roll touch, because it stops being the Jelly Roll touch - it becomes a piano roll.

What we didn't get with piano rolls is the direct touch of the artist, and I think that it is so important to really understand and interpret music. It is a wonderful thing to know how the composer or artist actually touches the instrument. Capturing the precise interaction with artist and piano is what makes the Disklavier so amazing."

To help Yamaha debut its groundbreaking new state of the art Disklavier Pro 2000 piano, Sample laid down Morton's Shreveport Stomp and other signature tunes at the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles which became a Quicktime video synched to Sample's MIDI keystrokes. The Disklavier Pro 2000, which offers a glimpse into the future of piano design and technology, retained every nuance of his performance, while cameras made a video record of the session. The result is a "virtual performance" on the Disklavier Pro 2000; music lovers can watch the video on the Pro 2000's color LCD screen as the piano's keys and pedals recreate the tunes, synchronized with the video, note for note. This technological marvel is being featured across the country as part of the Disklavier Pro 2000's nationwide tour of music, design, and science centers as well as prominent museums.