The Book, ‘A Fool’s Journey’ & The Accompanying Album, ‘Galimatías,’ to Be Released on October 10
Former Beach Boys Keyboardist Carli Muñoz to Release Revealing, Tell-All Memoir of His Musical Exploits Along with Groundbreaking Companion Album Fusing Jazz, Classical & Improvisational Music & Vocals
San Juan, PR – Oct. 2, 2023 – Virtuoso musician Carli Muñoz effortlessly straddles the line between jazz, classical, rock and pop, which is no surprise given his pedigree as the long-time keyboardist for The Beach Boys from 1969-1981 and as an accomplished jazz musician in his own right. Now, the Puerto Rican pianist/composer, who has performed with George Benson, Charles Lloyd, Peter Cetera, Etta James and Chico Hamilton, is releasing a tell-all memoir, A Fool’s Journey: to the Beach Boys and Beyond, accompanied by a groundbreaking and genre-defying new album, Galimatías.
A Fool’s Journey, (published by Interlink Books, Oct. 2023), is Muñoz’s debut memoir and a revealing portrait of his voyage from music-loving teen to key collaborator of acts including The Beach Boys, Wilson Pickett and Rickie Lee Jones. Academy Award-winning actor Adrien Brody says of the book, “Our quest for enlightenment and fulfillment, and the communal search for understanding, is informed through this wondrous, shared experience.”
It all started in San Juan, Puerto Rico when Muñoz received a piano as a gift from his father. He went on to play in Puerto Rico’s jazz clubs throughout the 1960s before becoming an in-demand professional musician in New York and Los Angeles, but his career got temporarily derailed with forays into partying and drugs. Muñoz shares his exploits in chapters named after tarot cards (“The Fool,” “The Magician” “The Hanged Man,” etc.) and previously untold stories about his experiences touring with The Beach Boys in the 1970s, including Brian Wilson’s declining mental health and Dennis Wilson’s addictions.
A Fool’s Journey: To the Beach Boys & Beyond Can Be Ordered Here
Muñoz’s eighth album, Galimatías, is a companion-piece to the book and is essentially an abstract version of The Fool’s Journey. Music is the unifying link that ties together the seven decades of Muñoz’s story, so it seems only fitting that the prolific artist would create such an ambitious album that combines elements of jazz, classical and improvisational music and vocals that defies genre categorization.
“I'm often asked about the inspiration for creating Galimatías,” Muñoz says. “Although there aren't any specific answers, I believe that, in part, I got some inspiration from a poem by the English Victorian poet Matthew Arnold called ‘In Utrumque Paratus,’ which means ‘prepared for either possibility.’ The poem also embraces the idea that everything has significance. Music, passion and self-expression are the things that are most significant to me. It’s the same freedom I talk about in the book, A Fool’s Journey.”
Muñoz, who owns his own jazz club in San Juan, Carli’s Fine Bistro & Piano, describes Galimatías as an “asemic rhapsody.” “Asemic” essentially refers to lines and symbols that look like writing but don’t have any real meaning and is an English translation of the word “galimatías." Galimatias is a word of French origin, commonly used to describe a “confused” or “nondescript” language, most commonly used in written form. Muñoz’s Galimatías ispossibly the first time this form of free expression has ever been performed vocally, combined with contemporary avant-garde piano improvisation––a historic first by all standards.\
Now, with an upcoming book and concert tour, Muñoz shows no signs of slowing down, finding pure joy in playing music and in creative self-expression. AllMusic describes Muñoz’s playing as “always suffused with joy. Not the fierce, manic joy of a Bud Powell or the serene joy of Bill Evans on a good night, but just plain joy -- with every note he plays you get the impression that he's thrilled to be playing and feels blessed to be where he is.”
Billboard says of Muñoz’s music, “It overflows with unique sounds, mixing worldly elements and blending it with ethereal, transcendental melodies.”
Muñoz will embark on a book and musical tour of the East Coast in Fall 2023.
Carli’s Book Tour Schedule
Sunday, October 1st:
Book signing at the Interlink booth # 304 at the Brooklyn Book Festival, Cadman Plaza West/Court Street/Boro Hall, Brooklyn, New York
Monday, October 2nd:
1:00 pm Visit to Booklink at Thornes to sign copies
6:00 pm Book talk and mini-concert at Wellesley Books, 82 Central Street, Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Thursday, October 5th:
7:00 pm Book launch and concert, Sage Hall/Sweeney Auditorium, Smith College, 144 Green Street, Northampton, MA
Reception/After Party at 9:30 Pm
Friday, October 6th:
6:00 pm Book reading/conversation with + mini concert at Northampton Community Music Center at 139 South Street, Northampton, MA 01060.
Saturday, October 7th:
Reading/conversation and mini-concert at BarnArts Center for the Arts, Woodstock, Vermont
Wednesday, October 11th:
7:00 pm Reading and mini concert in the bar/lounge area at Kramer Books, 1517 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036
Thursday, October 12th:
6:00 pm Book launch and mini-concert at National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, 3015 W Division St., Chicago, IL 60622-2739
Friday, October 13th:
Performance and book talk at Chicago’s Grapes and Grains, 858 W Lake St, Chicago, IL 60607
Saturday, October 14th-15th:
NYC, pending CORE Club, Manhattan, NY Yale Club, Manhattan, NY
Galimatías Track List
1. “Codex Praeludium”
2. “Orphicus Passus”
3. “Wistfully Yours”
4. “Selcouth Paracosm”
5. “Cosmogyral Ataraxia”
6. “Hiraeth”
7. “Eulogy to John Coltrane”