Pianist and composer Kory Caudill remembers being terrified when, as a young college freshman, he first stepped onto the Belmont University campus.
"When you're from rural Eastern Kentucky, people are always telling you about all the things you can't do," Caudill tells the Scene. "I didn't know how I'd do in college and was basically scared to death."
Caudill was feeling a bit more confident last week, when he celebrated the release of his new solo album at The Basement East. His recording, Tree of Life, is the first album released on Suite 28 Records, a new independent label that's part of the Franklin-based Naxos group.
The 11 original instrumental songs on Tree of Life are an improbable blend of classical, jazz and country-pop-rock that Caudill describes as "Yanni meets Eastern Kentucky." The tunes seem tailor-made for Suite 28's mission.
"We're looking for artists who transcend genre, but whose music still has a connection to classical, jazz and world music," says Jeff Van Driel, Suite 28's executive producer. "We decided to launch the new label with Kory's music because we were amazed by his talent."
Caudill is indeed a prodigious talent, albeit one in a decidedly homespun package. A native of Floyd County, Ky., Caudill grew up deep in the heart of Appalachian coal country, not far from the childhood home of Loretta Lynn. Not surprisingly, the pianist still speaks with an Appalachian accent, and he wears his rural upbringing like a comfortable plaid shirt.
"Kory is a bit of a hillbilly," says Bruce Dudley, a noted Nashville-based jazz pianist who taught Caudill at Belmont. "But he grew up in a musical family and had a lot of practical performing experience before he even came to Nashville."
Caudill was just a toddler when he first walked to the piano and picked out John Williams' Superman theme after hearing it just once on television. By the time he was 4, he was already involved with the Kentucky Opry at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonburg, Ky., and over the years he became one of that venue's most popular performers. In high school, he was admitted to Kentucky's prestigious Governor's School for the Arts.
"One of the things the piano students had to do to get into the Governor's School was sight-read something they'd never seen," says Dudley. "Kory wasn't a great sight reader at the time, but he was always a phenomenal ear player. So at the audition he kept his ear to the door and listened to the student before him sight-read the piece. Then he went in and played the same piece perfectly by ear, note-for-note. It was amazing."
Caudill arrived at Belmont with a mean set of piano chops, which allowed him to play all manner of musical filigree at blistering speeds. "He still had a bit of tension in his playing, and I was worried that if he played fast and loud like that all day he'd hurt himself," says Dudley. "So we eliminated the tension and worked on developing ideas, and he quickly evolved into a fine player."
YouTube clips of Caudill's playing make one think that Dwight Yoakam must have suddenly morphed into Oscar Peterson. His performances of gospel piano pieces are filled with rich, thick jazz chords, played with foot-stomping syncopations and decorated with quicksilver scales and glistening glissando octaves.
Caudill's technical brilliance is evident throughout his new album. In the opening tunes, "Beginnings" and "Around the World," his fingers dash up and down the full length of the keyboard, producing the sort of sparkle one hears in Chopin etudes.
Technical razzle-dazzle, however, is clearly not the main point of Tree of Life. Caudill is focused instead on timbre, on creating an atmospheric, synthesized sound reminiscent of Yanni — though from a technical point of view, Caudill would have little trouble kicking Yanni's ass up one end of the Acropolis and down the other. Mostly, Caudill is intent on writing memorable melodies.
"I want to write music that makes people feel the way I do when I'm performing," says Caudill. "I want them to feel inspired."
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