Archive

Beginning in 1976 and for about the following 25 years I wrote hundreds of songs, over 60 piano solos (or “musical essays” as I like to call them), a couple of musicals, and a batch of other musical pieces that don’t fall in any particular category. I entered my first recording studio in 1979 and in the subsequent years recorded my music with several different groups of musicians, releasing the end results under different group names, depending on the project.

rkjmusic.xyz was created to be a place for everything to do with my music. Through it, I’m re-releasing both my solo and group recordings, the majority long out of print and many never before publicly available, along with new editions of my songs as the transcribing, digitizing and remixing work progresses. I explored a lot of different musical genres throughout my writing and recording years and it’s been wonderful to go back and rediscover things I’d long forgotten.

Wandering through my musical past has also inspired me. I left a lot of songs on the table, as it were, and so I’ve returned to the studio to begin recording anew. Of course, in this day and age the definition of “studio” has changed which has made it a lot easier to creatively explore. I am thrilled that Mark MacLean, my longtime collaborator, is back as my producer and fellow musical traveler.

I hope you enjoy the music as much as I enjoyed writing and playing it and half as much as my fellow musicians and I did recording it – then and now. I thank them – and you – for listening.

Richard Knight, Jr.