Richard Kaczynski began playing piano at age 4; by age 12, he realized
his classical training gave him the chops to play in any style he chose. Thus
he embraced progressive rock, the virtuoso-driven art rock style launched in
the 1970s by bands like King Crimson, Yes, and Emerson Lake and Palmer. By age
18, he sold his comic book collection for a Hammond B3, Rhodes piano, ARP Odyssey
and Solina string synthesizer. He hasn't looked back since. In the 1990s he
played in the groups Gentle Fish and Ghosts of Avalon before founding House
of Usher, a band whose debut AMG
has called "one of the best prog rock records of the decade." Their
debut CD, Body of Mind, enjoyed worldwide acclaim and a place in Jerry
Lucky's history of the progressive rock movement,
The Progressive
Rock Files. The band's live performances were captured in the first
Save the Music telethon, the cable television music program Venue,
and the retrospective CD box set Live
Encore? from North Carolina's annual progressive rock festival Progday.
Richard's side-project Page freed him to pursue side-interests, including
playing on tribute CDs to some of his heroes like Gentle Giant (Giant
for a Life), ELP (Fanfare
for the Pirates) and PFM (Zarathustra's
Revenge). Richard currently has a number of projects in the works, ranging
from progressive rock to electronica.
(Mark Evans, drums; Mark Jardine, bass; Richard Kaczynski, keyboards; Aaron Letrick, vocals; Michael Moore, guitars)
Body of
Mind
Fanfare for the
Pirates (cover of ELP's "Knife Edge")
Live Encore? (40
minutes live from Progday 1999)
Giant for a Life (cover
of Gentle Giant's "Aspirations")
Zarathustra's Revenge
(medley of PFM's Four Holes in the Ground/Mr. 9 til 5/Dove Quando)
Fanfare for the
Pirates (cover of ELP's "Love at First Sight")
