As Billboard magazine noted recently, Richard Warner was making New Age music before the genre existed. He is perhaps best known for his two classic New Age albums, Quiet Heart and Spirit Wind. These recordings, which feature Richard on bamboo and alto flutes, have just been remastered are now available in a double CD set (with 15 minutes of new material!). On his latest release, Spirit of the Tao Te Ching, Richard continues to create music which is melodic and uplifting, yet wonderfully calming and centering. This latest recording is receiving enthusiastic airplay on hundreds of stations around the country. Many of you may also have heard of Richard through his performances (live and on albums) over the past 10 years with David Lanz, Michael Tomlinson, Michael Gettel, Eric Tingstad, Nancy Rumble and many others. Richard played flute and soprano sax on Lanz's gold recording, Christofori's Dream. Tomlinson's hit single, Dawning on a New Day, featured Richard on soprano sax.

Richard grew up in San Diego, where he and his two brothers listened to a wide range of music - folk music, bluegrass, classical and jazz. He took piano and flute lessons and continued playing flute (and guitar and banjo!) into high school. In college (Pomona College) he studied mathematics and philosophy. Upon graduating, he spent a year at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and six months on a Kibbutz in Israel. Richard returned to the L.A. area and worked as a house parent for two years in a home for emotionally disturbed children. But he continued his flute studies, picked p saxophone along the way, and eventually decided to embark upon a music career. He spent a year at Boston's Berklee College and then returned to the L.A. area, where he continued his jazz studies and played in a variety of groups. In 1978 Richard was given a bamboo flute by a friend. At the time he was living near Los Angeles and just beginning a career as a jazz musician (flute, alto and soprano saxes). The term "New Age music" was virtually unheard of. But several people suggested that he record the music he was creating on the bamboo flute. In 1980 he moved to Seattle and two years later his solo bamboo flute album, Quiet Heart , was recorded. The follow-up album, Spirit Wind, was released in 1984 and featured Richard on bamboo flute and alto flute. Tuned glass crystals provided the harmonic background on one of the pieces. They were played and recorded "live" (by Richard and six friends) in the same hallway in which Quiet Heart had been recorded in 1982. He performs with several groups in the Seattle area (including with guitarist Phil Sheeran - catch him on Phil's new Christmas CD), playing Brazilian, Calypso and jazz, and is in demand as a studio musician. His latest album, Spirit of the Tao Te Ching, on the Narada label, marks his debut as a Narada artist.

The Tao Te Ching, a mystical but pragmatic work of philosophy, has been translated more often than any other book except the Bible. According to legend, its author, Lao Tzu, sick at heart at the ways of men. disappeared into the wilderness, stopping long enough to write down his teachings for future generations. For Lao Tzu, the Tao, or the "Way" was the ultimate source of the physical universe, the Mother of Heaven and Earth; Te represented the "natural essence" or "inner power" of things. Tao Te Ching: "The Classic Book of the Way and its Power." The music in this album is based on the Tao Te Ching in the same way that flower is a translation of the soil and the seed, and the ocean waves interpret the moon. It is inspired by Lao Tzu's profound understanding of the spiritual essence of life. It is an offering to a teacher, a gift inspired by what he held dear, the symbols of the I Ching -- the elements of nature. The Tao has been compared to a field from which there grows an infinite variety of wildflowers. SPIRIT OF THE Tao Te Ching captures the moods and colors of this field -- sometimes dancing, sometimes serene, but always moving with a quieting and upliftinginner spirit. Richard Warner

Both Quiet Heart and Spirit Wind have a timeless quality whichmakes them as popular today as they were 10 years ago. They are available now in a double CDset and are being "discovered" again for the inner peace they bring to the listener. Four new pieces(two solo bamboo flute "dances", a meditative alto flute improvisation, and a work for bamboo flute,tuned glass crystals and piano) are included. QUIET HEART Instrumentation: solo bamboo flute Quiet Heart was created late one night in a cavernous hallway at Holy Names Academy, a wonderful old (1908) building in Seattle. Two microphones were set up, the tape rolled, and the sound of a bamboo flute floated in the hallway between the wood floor and the giant vaulted ceilings. The flute had been given to me in 1978 by my friend, Ted Bowes. Visually it was unremarkable but it had a wonderful sound which was centered, spacious and pure. It seemed to contain melodies from a distant time just waiting for a breath to release them. The symbol on the cover is the I Ching character Ken, which expresses the idea of keeping still or attaining a "quiet heart." Thus the title, which in two simple words expresses perfectly the spirit and essence of the music. As one reviewer said, "Everything about this album is clear, calm, restrained, spacious ... Quiet Heart is deliberately unexciting, yet absorbing and ultimately deeply satisfying music."

J.A.

C.M.

Y.N.

David Lanz

Nancy Rumbel

Phil Sheeran

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