It's party time: Doctor Ryman's "Lean Into The Blast"

Doctor Ryman knows how to throw a party.  He threw a rockin' CD release party in California last October for his release of "Lean Into The Blast."

The good doctor of the "keytar" entertained the crowd at The NeXus in the Ford Building on the Richmond Shoreline along with some good friends -- jazz saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Richard Howell and his son Ele on drums, and Baron Chase hammering away on bass.

How does Ryman tell the story behind the music?  According to the web site top40-charts.com ...

 The intent behind "Lean into the Blast" is the creation of music and film that are equally gritty and sublime, engaging the body, mind, and spirit, and carrying forward the countercultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s style of art and social change through music. Dr Ryman's music calls his listeners to join in the renewal and recommitment to the values and insights that created the Civil Rights movements, the Anti-war movement, and progressive movements since.

"My definition of an 'artist' is one who sees and hears beyond the reach of the ordinary, who takes us into experiences we might never have on our own, who plunges us into darkness and light, into sound and silence -- to wake up our awareness, and call us to a higher consciousness of each other, our world and our being."  His music and films do exactly that, and the technical yet organic nature of his music surprises everyone. Hearing or watching him play, one keeps looking for the 'guitarist'.  His 'instrument' - an Apple laptop, provides stinging guitar leads and sweet powerful rhythms that one would never expect from a virtual instrument.

As for the music of "Lean Into The Blast" ... well, it speaks for itself.  For more on Doctor Ryman, go to http://www.planet606.com/index.html