54 Facts About Patrick Moraz

Patrick Philippe Moraz was born on 24 June 1948 and is a Swiss musician, film composer and songwriter, best known for his tenures as keyboardist in the rock bands Yes and the Moody Blues.

Patrick Moraz began a music career in the 1960s as a jazz musician, performing with his quartet and quintet, groups that performed across Europe and won several awards.

Patrick Moraz formed the short-lived progressive rock group Mainhorse in 1969, and began work scoring films.

Patrick Moraz was a member of Yes until 1976, and during this time he started a solo career.

Patrick Moraz was a member of the Moody Blues from 1978 to 1991.

Patrick Moraz was born on 24 June 1948 on an aeroplane, though Morges, Switzerland, has been cited as his hometown.

Patrick Moraz studied jazz and classical music until his development came to an abrupt halt at thirteen after he broke four fingers in a roller skating accident.

Patrick Moraz recalled, "I was told I could never play classical music again".

At sixteen, Patrick Moraz became the youngest person to receive the Best Soloist award at the Zurich jazz festival.

Patrick Moraz went on to win awards at the festival, as a solo artist or in his jazz groups, for five consecutive years.

In 1964, Patrick Moraz spent his summer in Cadaques, Spain as a scuba diving instructor and spent time with Salvador Dali at his property in Portlligat where he organised and performed at several gatherings for his guests.

At seventeen, Patrick Moraz's playing as a jazz soloist at a music festival earned him a prize of a collection of albums and some lessons with French jazz soloist Stephane Grappelli who taught him "all I needed to know about jazz and rock".

In November 1964, Patrick Moraz left Switzerland for England, a place he always wanted to visit and perform.

Patrick Moraz played the piano in a local pub and tea room for more money.

The director of the union then spotted him playing in a restaurant, causing Patrick Moraz to leave the country and cancel proposals to jam with a Bournemouth group, the Night People.

In 1965, Patrick Moraz's quartet won an award at the Zurich jazz festival, and was invited to be the opening act for a European tour headlined by American saxophonist John Coltrane.

Patrick Moraz returned to England in 1969 when he auditioned potential players for a new progressive rock band, Mainhorse.

Patrick Moraz wished for a drummer who could play like John Bonham, Buddy Rich, odd time signatures and the blues, and tried out "like 250 drummers" in the process.

Patrick Moraz settled with a line-up of Jean Ristori on vocals and bass, Bryson Graham on drums, and Peter Lockett on vocals and guitar.

Patrick Moraz took up further work as a film composer on The Salamander.

Patrick Moraz recorded further film music for The Invitation and The Middle of the World.

Patrick Moraz had jammed with Jackson's previous band, The Nice, in 1969 when they played in Switzerland.

Patrick Moraz refused, and counter-offered that they form a new band with former Nice member Brian Davison on drums.

Patrick Moraz had seen the band perform during their tour of Switzerland in 1969.

Patrick Moraz's audition occurred in the first week of August 1974 with Vangelis's keyboards, which were still set up in the rehearsal room.

Patrick Moraz was then asked to come up with an opening to it, and what he played ended up on the album.

Patrick Moraz invited synthesizer inventor Bob Moog to contribute sounds on the album; Moog accepted the task, and worked with him for several weeks.

Patrick Moraz travelled to Brazil and incorporated Brazilian rhythms and musicians on The Story of I, giving it a world music flavour.

However, during the early sessions, Patrick Moraz was told to leave in order to allow Wakeman to return to the band.

Patrick Moraz continued with his solo career and Charisma released his second album, Out in the Sun, which he wanted to sound "completely different and more liberated".

Patrick Moraz then moved to Brazil for a year and a half, and prepared material for his third album.

Patrick Moraz wanted to title the album "Primitivization", but the record company chose to release it as Patrick Moraz.

Patrick Moraz recorded the keyboards in one of the most iconic songs of Brazilian music, "Avohai" by Ze Ramalho.

In May 1978, Patrick Moraz visited a convention held by the Audio Engineering Society in Los Angeles, where Herbie Hancock taught him vocoder, and agreed to represent Aphex Systems in Brazil.

On his way back to Brazil, Patrick Moraz stopped in Miami as he had some free time.

Patrick Moraz proceeded to sing "Nights in White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon" on the phone, and accepted an audition in London in July 1978.

The audition with the Moody Blues was successful, and Patrick Moraz "Got the gig that very afternoon".

Patrick Moraz toured with the Moody Blues in support of their ninth album, Octave, which began in late 1978.

Patrick Moraz toured with his group from Brazil, recorded with Chick Corea, and released two albums with drummer Bill Bruford as Moraz-Bruford.

Patrick Moraz expressed a feeling that The Moody Blues' music had become too confined and that the group had become stagnant, offering "no musical challenge".

In September 1991, Patrick Moraz sued the group for $500,000 as well as wrongful dismissal, claiming the group decided to split their profits four ways instead of five, and wished to be paid royalties he felt were owed to him as a full-time member of the band for almost 15 years.

However, the group maintained Patrick Moraz was only a hired musician, despite his name being listed as a member on their albums and promotional materials and his appearing in official band photographs.

Patrick Moraz then spent the next four years developing "hundreds of pieces of music for all instruments, as well as orchestras and choirs", producing several artists, and completed work for the Conference on World Affairs, of which he is an official delegate.

Patrick Moraz wished to tour Windows of Time, but thought the style of the music would suffer in a traditional concert setting.

In late 1994, Patrick Moraz began a piano tour of the US and Europe with his Coming Home, America Tour, which saw him perform at private or semi-private venues for an $800 flat fee, booked entirely by fans through the Internet.

In 1997, Patrick Moraz started work on a new album, A Way to Freedom, featuring arrangements for a symphony orchestra, percussionists, and a jazz brass band.

From 1998 to 2000, Patrick Moraz worked almost exclusively on his second piano album Resonance, which, like Windows of Time, was cut to exactly one hour of music.

Patrick Moraz performed at a benefit concert at the request of poet Jose Ramos-Horta.

In 2011, Patrick Moraz guested on an album by Panorama Syndicate entitled Skyline, playing piano on the title track.

The project was an Alban solo endeavour at first, with Patrick Moraz contributing to the music, but it grew to feature numerous other musicians with the music written around the drums and keyboards.

In November 2015, Patrick Moraz released a limited edition 19-CD box set of his 18 albums, including Mainhorse, The Story of I and the live album Music for Piano and Drums: Live in Maryland.

Patrick Moraz took part in his second Cruise to the Edge voyage in February 2017.

At each show, Patrick Moraz played keys during the band's performance of "Soon".

Patrick Moraz has one son, David, and a daughter, Rana, with first wife Diane.