What a performance!

How  often do you get to hear live music which brings you to tears?   If you lucky it happens a few times in your life.    And usually in a very unlikely setting.

Yesterday I went to my brother Terry's DDSO residence for their Christmas party.   For those of you unacquainted with my family, Terry is 55, blind and retarded since being an incubator baby back in the 50's.   He is also a unique musical talent, as is his fellow resident, Billy Roberts.    Both play keyboards, and Terry sings.  (Terry can play keys too, but it usually takes a few beers to get him in the mood to play - kinda like some of my other music buddies)   Billy plays, and doesn't just pound the keys.   Neither has ever seen a sheet of music or what a piano looks like.  

Here is a picture of us - Terry front left and Billy front right.

Anyway, after the festivities in the main room, Billy went into his room and begain playing his keyboard.    Christmas music, but not a single finger tapping a melody - no a very tasty melody line with unusual syncopation, and accompained by left hand bass and some pretty neat chords in between.   His piano rocked.  

We could see Terry wanted to join in so we walked him into Billys room and he began to sing a few carols.    He's got a heck of a voice and pushes out a strong baritone melody.   (BTW - if you asked him to sing a harmony part he would fall right into it!)

He sang and Billy accompanied a version of "Santa Claus is coming to Town"  with verses I'd never heard!   I sang along when I could, but let me tell you, those boys could hold there own with the best.   Swept us all away.   It brought tears to my eyes, not to mention most of the rest of the people in the room.    A few more Christmas delights and the boys got tired and gave it a rest.   Here was a concert I wish I had recorded to share with you, but was so caught in the moment my Iphone stayed in my pocket.

The staff at the DDSO home had never heard the two of them go at it like this, and frankly neither had I.   Terry and I have played and sung together many times over the years, and I always enjoy our music sessions on his visits.   But it was truly a pleasure to hear him sing with his long time housemate and friend Billy, and also for me to really hear Billy play.   There are not a lot of keyboard players in Utica Rome in his class!!!!

What a great start to the Christmas season......

The Best Music of 2011 - huh???

This morning the Sunday OD did not get delivered, as usual, so I ate my cereal this morning reading Time Magazine.  (I always have to read something at breakfast - a habit I picked up from my dad, when we would have our breakfast and share the Utica Daily Press).    This month they had a feature on the best of 2011, so I went right to the best of 2011 for Music.    Wondered if they would have Emy Lou Harris's new CD on there - pretty close to one of her best ever, or perhaps another of may favorites.   How about Lucinda Williams Blessed - her best stuff ever.   ( I love the kitchen table CD they included in the package which has her with just her guitar playing the songs)

No, it was all Tripe.    Homogenized Pop Crap.   I did not recognize too many names on the list, and none of the songs.   Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but I'm not a fan of Kayne West and Jay-Z, or even have a clue who Adele is.   The Beastie Boys?  Thought they had OD'd years ago.   The Black Keys - OK I do recall them producing some listenable music at the Super Bowl back in 2005.   Baron Hollow - is that more of the Nashville Pop that really isn't country music?   

It's pretty clear to me that Time did not do a deep dive into to the Music world.  There is so much goin on out there that does not get noticed by big media!!   Sally Rose?  Great Rock.   The Avett Brothers?   Not much better if you like country.   And overlooking Emy Lou for Caitlin Rose?  Give me a break.....   

No, it appears Time has decided to pander to the pop machine instead of providing a real look at what's going on the in world of music!!

Maybe later I'll digest all that I've listened to in 2011, but I have to give my #1 song to the band Dawes and the song "A little bit of Everything"   Bernie Taupin has written a few songs in his day, and on his "American Roots Radio" show on Sirius he said he wished he had written that song.   High praise indeed, but well deserved.   Where were you for this one Time Magazine.  

Here is a live stripped down version from Youtube that I love - enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcaJsUNA_ww

A life of their own?

I'm convinced that acoustic instruments are alive.   I own a few instruments and each has its own personality beyond just appearance, sound, and playablity.  Some are very warm and welcoming, some cold and unapproachable at times, some just like an old friend you haven't seen in a long time - you are instantly connected whenever you get together.   For those of you who play a lot this may make sense.

It's funny how I can pick up one of my instruments and it feels great just to hold. plays like butter, and sounds great.   Then a few days later something between us just isn't right - it seems to be fighting me - not wanting to be played and not sounding the way it's supposed to.   

My main mandloin is a nice old Gibson - and it is also the most fickle of all of them.   Right now we have a great relationship going - every time I pick it up it plays and sounds great, and is just so easy to get along with.   The response is there for most anything I want to do, and the sound - wow!!! 

Just a few months ago I had to stop playing it for a while.   It was damn frustrating every time I picked it up.   The fretboard was uncomfortable, strings kept getting in the way of my fingers, and the sound was full of muted sting noise, clicks, and buzzes.  I don't believe I was doing anything different - must be the mandolin.    Anyway I didn't touch it for about two months, and when I tried playing it again, I first gave it a nice cleaning and a fresh set of heavier strings.   What changed I really don't know, but now I can put it down..........  

I have to say mandolins are the most fickle - my black Gibson also acts the same way - I went a long time playing it with no problems then it seemed like every time I touched it the sound was awful, and it was not fun to play.   I wish the two would be in sync so when one was mis-behaving the other would be good, but that's usually not the case.  It's almost like they are a couple of sisters - when one is mad at me the other is two.  

It's a darn good thing my main guitar doesn't act that way  - it's always ready, reliable, most playable, and always responsive.

An Evening with Groucho

I was surprised to see a few weeks back that the Capitol Theatre was hosting an "Evening with Groucho" - a one man show by Frank Ferrante who has made a living impersonating Groucho Marx.    Groucho has been at the top of my list since about 1971 when I first saw "Night at the Opera" on the big screen my freshman year at the University of Buffalo.    Over the last 40 years I've seem all the Marx Brothers movies many times and most of them on the big screen as well as on the tube.    There are many imitators (most notably Alan Alda doing Groucho for years on MASH), but only one original, so I wasn't expecting much, but even bad Marx Brothers (At the Circus, Love Happy, The Big Store)  is better than no Marx Brothers so I wasn't going to miss this one.

First, Ferrante nails it!!!!    Second, the music was excellent - yes, excellent.   In fact the music really made the show.   Not that the one liners and ad libs were bad (I haven't laughed that much in a long time)) but more that the music was performed much like it must have been on stage back in the Vaudeville days.    Live music and dance - what a novelty in these times.

We got there about 40 minutes before the start of the show, so I could get the best seat in the house (think front row aisle) and it was not taken.   Clarie couldn't see over the front of the stage so we moved back one row, but still right on top of the action.   Ferrante actually sat a few rows behind us while Art Pierce was doing the into.   Then Ferrante starts yelling to the crowd to move down front -  interrupting Art.   I knew this was gonna be different - and good.   He then comes out of the crowd, goes on stage, and puts on the Groucho grease paint -  back to the audience - way cool to see the transformation!!!!   Then,  piano player Jim Furmston starts playing an overture of many of  the Marx Brothers tunes I was familiar with from the movies - had my foot tappin right at the start.    Right into "Captain Spaulding" which Ferrante went into with the pith helmet and did the dance routine (which was way more physical than I remember for the movie) all over the stage.    I was hooked - he was Groucho!!

Ferrante also spent a lot of time in the audience.   He came down several times to ad lib with folks, made passes at several ladies, and the poor guy in front of me was the butt of a lot of jokes (like calling for an usher to bring him coffee to keep him awake) He landed in our laps while he was harassing the spotlight crew for not keeping the light on him.    He even used Stittville, Boonville, and Marcy in his ad-libs, and had some good ones about the Rome crowd on a Sunday night.   All night long it was like that - you felt like you were part of the show with him.   It's a rare gift.

The jokes were perfect, many of the classics from the movies, and  the ad libs spot on Groucho, and the songs - wow!!!   Spaulding was good, but "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" was a show stopper.   The energy he puts out is amazing, and his eyes always seemed focus on the audience.   He dances all over the stage - hopping on and off the couch that was there as a prop.   

He also did a number I'd never seen or even heard of "A Doctor is a Mans Best Friend" that was cut from A Day at the Races.   Good, but I can see why it hit the cutting floor - it really did not fit the examination scene with Margaret Dumont.    

My favorite song from all the Marx movies is "Everyone Says I Love You" from Horse Feathers, and that came later in the first set.   He was perfect on that, and flirted with several ladies he had met in the audience while performing it.   

He and Furmston ended the first set with Furmston playing Chico's endless piano riff from  Horsefeathers, and they traded the one liners almost exactly like the movie scene. 

In the second set, Ferrante told some of the stories behind the Marx brothers - how they got their names, a little personal stuff on each, Margart Dumont, and some musical stuff - like how Harpo started playing the harp.   They were mixed in between the songs, gags, and ad-libs and the timing was perfect.  Laughed my ass off.  

Yeah, for one night I really felt like I had spent and evening with Groucho - and hated to see it end - thanks Frank!!!

Christmas Music

In about a week it will hit - non stop Christmas everywhere you turn.   Claire tells me that the stores are already decked out, so I plan not to go into any until I have no alternative.   Can't stand the Christmas commercialization.   So I won't rant about that, but instead, the good part - the music.

Yes - I like Christmas music a lot.   There is such a rich tradition of songs and tunes that is so ingrained that has come from years of listening.   Growing up in Oriskany NY, we lived right behind a restaurant, Trinkaus Manor.  The manor was a beautiful old mansion that operated as a restaurant and for years had the best Christmas light display in Upstate NY.   It was so bright my bedroom was never dark in the season.   What the Manor also did was play loud Christmas Music non-stop from dusk till about 11PM.   We had no choice but to listen in when it was lights out.    So for many of my formative years I listened to an aural barrage of Christmas songs and tunes for several hours a day from Thanksgiving until about mid-January.   At the time I hated it.

When I started playing seriously all those tunes remained in my head.   Some of the first stuff I played by ear was Christmas tunes - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, First Noel, Jolly Old St Nicholas, Joy to the World, and What Child is This.   Since I've been playing I've also been drawn into listening to acoustic covers, and Christmas music in Celtic, Old Time, Finger picking, and Cajun styling.   Can't get enough of it this time of year.   But most of all I just enjoy the heck out of playing the tunes on the mandolin and having a good time arranging them my own way.   I've done some performing of Christmas stuff and it is a blast.   People aren't used to hearing it in an acoustic setting with mandolin, bouzouki, mandola, and other acoustic instruments. 

Last year I performed accompanying a reading of the Christmas Carol and had a hand in arranging the music - one of the most enjoyable gigs I've done in a long time.  Not only was the music a blast, but my daughter Kelly did the singing and I played with three good music friends Mike Hoke, Skip Mansur, and Mike Carroll.   The recordings of our practice session were good enough to make my Ipod.

So for the next month or so I'll be driving Claire crazy playing my Christmas stuff in the music room for my own amusement.  Fun - you bet. 

Come to think of it I may have to start a Christmas Band one of these days!

Playing well with others

Just finished reading a biography of Jerry Garcia, which was pretty interesting as it was focused on the music.   One of the themes that parallels my musical experience was how certain players can give or create energy for the other players and make a group sound better.   The book gave examples of how Bruce Hornsby joined the Dead in the 90's and how his stage presence and attitude pushed the band to higher levels of play, during a period when the band was particularly flat musically.   

What did Bruce do that was so magic?   In the descriptions, it was all about in the moment communication - eye contact, smiling, being aware of the other players space, listening, and playing to compliment as well as lift the other players.  

That description woke me up a bit as it reminded me of so many musicians I have had the privilege of playing with over the years.   Its also  how I try to be when I play in any group setting.    It is such a kick to play with folks who give back and also such a lift to my playing when it comes my way.   Even better, I enjoy the giving aspect, and seeing how it affects others I play with.   I always try to compliment the folks around me, and to do what I can to make them sound better.   (Perhaps because most of my musical life has been as a bass and rhythm guitar player? - naw its deeper than that)   Even when playing the lead stuff on mandolin or banjo I find it more fun when my part is pushed a bit by a solid rhythm player who communicates and has the ability to listen and pick the spots.   

I have so many "favorite" people that I play with that to name folks would probably cause some sins of omission.    But one gal stands out because it was from playing and jamming with her that I first became aware that doing this stuff was important to my development as a musician.  That's my friend Rachel Eddy.  BTW - if you haven't heard the CD she and her husband Kristian Herner   recently finished  - "Chilly Winds" do yourself a favor and pick it up at CD Baby.  Rachel is a great singer, fiddler, and all around performer.   Kristian is one heck of an OT banjo player and also a great person to play music with.

                                  Me and Rachel summer 2010 at the Dinosaur BBQ

I can't say I've ever seen any musician who blends so well with so many different players of all levels, and who has the ability to make the players around her sound better.   She is always passing smiles and nods when she plays and lets you know when its working.  Her eye contact speaks volumes.    It's a true talent that she has, and one that I continually aspire to.

The return of a good old habit

One of my old habits (one of the few good ones anyway) was going to the library with the kids every other saturday morning and spending an hour or so letting them hang out in the stacks, while I went off and browsed.   Then we'd all bring home arms full of books - I like to borrow the limit - to keep us in good reading till the next visit.

When I was in college I used to get lost in the University Library just bopping from stack to stack and pulling books on topics that interested me.    I found great stuff that had no relation to my formal education, but some of those books played a big part in my ongoing education.   Anyway, I wanted my kids to grow up and hopefully love the library as much as I do.  I always told them that the place was ours, and we could take any book home we wanted anytime.    

When they finally got to the teenage years, this stopped, and unfortunatly I stopped too.   Habits are easy to form, and some easy to break.   Seems like its been 10 years or more since my regular Saturday visits, though I did occasionaly stop by and pick up a few books now and then.    I still read a lot, but it had shifted from books to magazines - Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek, Time, Wine Spectator, Kiplingers - and my reading became more directed not by my choice, but by the stuff that showed up in the mailbox.  

I started back a few months  ago, and have had several stacks of books visit the house.   Since I'm inclined musically,  since I started back I've read a Woody Guthrie Autobiography, a new book on the Beatles finacial situation "You Never Give me Your Money",   Townes Van Vandt's biography (what could have been),  a bio of AP Carter and Family,  a really great Louis Armstrong bio, and a whole lot of stuff that I looked at and didn't finish.   Currently, I'm plowing through a biography of Jerry Garcia "Garcia" that is interesting in that it is focused more on his musical life and not on the mess he made of himself and his friends.

One of lifes pleasures is a good book - forgot how much I missed it.   Can't wait to finish this one and see what is up there in the stacks waiting to come home next week.

Election Day

It always feels good to get out and vote on a sunny November afternoon, though the local town ballot had very few contested elections - darn shame - hate to see imcumbents so entrenched that they don't even have to put on a campaign.    The good news is that the TV ads will be gone for a short while until the 2012 cycle hits.   Not that I saw a lot, but I usually watch the AM news before starting my day, and all that was on was those darn ads.

What caught my attention this morning regarding  the TV ads was the lack of music.   In my mind, pairing an effective ad with good music is a double whammy - the connection between the song/tune and the canidate is heightend in the brain.   Good music would have made those crappy commericals a lot better.   A good tune, and there are 1000's in the public domain would have made some of those ads a lot more interesting and maybe effective.   Who knows.  But is sure feels good to vote!!

The Bride of Frankenstein

Okay, so I am a old black and white movie freak.   And it is Halloween weekend and last nite Claire and I went to a great Halloween party hosted by Kelly and Justin (daughter and son in law) that had all the trappings.   TCM is usually the only thing I can stand to watch on TV (well maybe the Buffalo Bills when they are winning) these days, and I do enjoy a lot of the music in the old classics.

So this morning I tuned in and saw that  the Bride of Frankenstien was on AMC (ugh commercials!) - now the first Frankenstien was brilliant, but as the Irish might say, this was genius.  Not going to review the movie, cause we all know it.   Today I couldn't help but  tune into the music.  Franz Waxmans score is so imaginative, always in sync with the scene, and has many really creative uses of music to coreograph some of  the action scequences.   It kept getting better and better as the movie rolled along.



My favorite scene in the whole movie is when the blind man picks up his fiddle to play a tune for Frankenstein and the monster starts doin some foot tappin - too cool.   How Mel Brooks let that get away from young Frankenstein is beyond me.   But I couldn't get Peter Boyle and Gene Hackman out of my head watching this scene.   When will some around here put these two films togehter on the same bill??

But throughout the movie I kept noticing the music - how good it was and how well it fit the scene, so I had to do a bit of research.

From Gary S Dalkin, who says it way better than I could

" A graceful minuet, pastoral music, a melancholic ‘Processional March’ (with the Ondes Martinot, here, suggesting the diabolical reason for its progress), storm music (a mix of Beethoven and Dukas), marvellous headlong excitement in ‘Village Chase’ and comical/lugubrious material – the quirky, inebriated ‘Bottle Sequence’ with organ gravitas and bugle calls - provide contrast to the monster music. And in the early cues like ‘Monster Entrance’, Waxman draws attention to the loneliness and isolation of Frankenstein’s creation in music that speaks of pathos as well as the grotesque and the horrific. Adding further characterisation, Waxman leaves us in no doubt how derisive are the female monster’s feelings for her supposed mate (‘Female Monster’). "

If you want to give it a listen here is a link to a youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzJqNUOm030

Now I gotta check this out on a big screen with surround sound!!!

Old Friends

So I got home from work today and had about 1/2 hour to kill till Claire had supper on the table.   The day had sapped my energy and I was drained.    Walked by the TV and paused - then decided to hit the music room.   You really can't get much done in a 1/2 hour practice, so I decided to pull my Mandola down from the wall and see how it sounded.  Hadn't touched her in about 6 months??  Maybe longer...   Anyway, after I tuned er up I picked out on of my favorite tunes (John Stinsons #2) and it sounded great.   Felt pretty good too.   The heavier woodier tone was so different than the  mandolin, guitar, or banjo.   Started to feel pretty good, and playing the tune in a different position made it all seem new.    The chords are voiced differently too and they sounded real good.   Funny how easy it is to get together with an old friend and things are just as good as last time!

So I played for what seemed 30 seconds and it was time for dinner.   How fast time passes when you are getting re-aquinted with your old friends.    It'll be continuing my reunion tommorw!

How much is enough

Musicans - I'm sure we all deal with this one - a significant other says to you that you play music all the time.    You think about it for  a few minutes and it seems like you hardly play at all.   After all, you only practiced for a few hours on Sunday, had a 3 hour band rehearsal, gave a 90 minute lesson monday, picked for fun for about an hour on tuesday, went to a jam session for the evening on wedensday, learned a new tune on Thursday that took about an hour and a half and spent another hour working up some musical ideas for a gig, only played for fun for about 1/2 hour on Friday, and then Saturday got up early and played for about 2 hours before you started your day.  This doesn't count the listening time - having music on all day at the office, always in the car, and listening on the weekends to some of the great music shows we are blessed to have around here. 

Now does that seem like too much?   Acutally, as I pondered the question, it seemed more like not enough.   12-15 hours a week does have it's benefits, but it's hardly enough to satisfy - right?? 

You never know

Last night I played at the friday nite Celi Craobh Dugan hosts in Utica.  Small group of good musicans, nice sounding room, and enthusitac dancers.   Made for a fun evening all around.   I almost didn't go because the last few times I picked up my banjo nothing worked.   Tunes that I knew seemed unfamiliar, the pick kept slipping out of my hand, and I was muting strings.  To my ear, my playing didn't sound good, and it was like swimming against the tide - the harder I tried the harder it got.   Getting very frustrated.   (note to self: even with these feelings playing is way better that not playing, so I went anyway)

It was different last night.   The banjo felt light in my hands, and every time I touched it I loved the way it was sounding.   Most of the playing was effortless, and when I was thinking of a varation on a tune, or a new ornament, I could play it as the thought came to me.   I have yet to figure out what goes on when that happens and why just days apart the playing can be so effortless one day and a struggle the next.    When I figure it out I'll let you know. 

Occupy Wall Street - The Unwelcome guest

OK - so we can't avoid this anywhere anymore.   Occcupy Wall Street.   It's a healthy reminder that we live in a free country!   Note - my political views are irrelevant here, as this blog is about the music.

This hooply reminds me of my first protest back at UB (University of Buffalo) during the dark days of September 71 - remeber the Attica Riots.   A lot of people marched around campus.   We had better villians back then - Rocky, Tricky Dick, and J Edgar.......    But then UB was a pretty radical place, and had been through the student uprising just a year earlier so it was easy to get swept up in the movment.  But the music - oh we had one hell of a soundtrack to it all - who can forget Country Joe ....but that's for another blog.

What has all this got to do with music?    Well it has a lot.   There is no soundtrack this time.   The movements are calling out for songs and songwriters and musicans to inspire and activate.   

So where have you gone Woody Guthrie?  No one to take your place.  Woody would be down there in the park holdin that guitar with the "this machine forces fascits to surrender" painted on it, writing and singin songs to inspire. 

Woody wrote some great stuff for a lot of good causes and does have a song that sure fits Occupy Wall Street - and has been playing in my head for a few weeks now - "The Unwelcome Guest"   He  never sang it though - he wrote it and it sat in a drawer for 40 years, till Norah Guthrie invited Billy Bragg to go through Woodys unfinished songs and have at it.  Billy grabbed Jeff Tweedy and Wilco and  they took the writings and put music to them togther put out a great CD "Mermaid Ave"  where you can find the song - or you can check it out right here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEnSO2apfG8

Hurts so good

Went to the monthly Craobh Dugan  Irish session at the Mill last nite - usually don't miss that one - for me the smaller groups where you can hear are a lot more fun.    I was going to skip the session because I've been having pain in my wrist for a few months now that started when I crashed my bike.   It seems that playing music aggrivates this and I actually thought I'd give it a rest.   But the lure of sitting around a table with good friends passing tunes around (one of lifes true pleasures) was too strong so I went down.    Funny thing - as soon as I started playing the pain seemed to go away.   We were doing mostly tunes new to me, and it was challanging to keep up and play along.   20 more tunes to learn - and good ones at that.   The wrist held up (it was my pickin hand) but by the end of the nite I noticed my playing was loose and the wrist hurt in a good way - like the feeling you get at the end of a good workout.  Hurts so good......

Visitors from Ireland

You know things are good in your life when you get to share your world and the things you enjoy most with people who share your passions.   Time goes away, and your energy level goes off the charts.   It doesn't happen often, but I bet most of my music friends know what I'm talkin about.

Well, it happend to me this last weekend when the "Echos of Erin" tour came to Rome - Clarie and I were lucky enough to have two of the musicans stay at our house Saturday - Conor Moriarity and Paul McMahon.   We emjoyed their company and both are really neat people.   When they got to our house we went down to my music room and started playing tunes and jamming and didn't stop for nearly two hours.   Not only were we playing, but we were really communiciating musically as well.   Gave me chills.   We played some Irish, but they wanted to play some other stuff too.  Paul grabbed my bass (he never played one) and in short order was showing that his rythym guitar skills were transferrable.  Conor is one of the worlds best acoridan players, and showed that he can improvise anything.   We made stuff up in different keys and had a ball.   Is anything more fun?   Well, yes - it got better!!!!

After their outstanding concert, we went to the Mill.   The session was Brilliant, Legendary, Genius - all those terms those Irishmen like to use.  Most of the Echos folks, plus the core players from Craobh Dugan went at it for almost two hours.   And I got to sit in the middle near Paul, Conor, Maura Walsh and hear em all while I plunked away on my mandolin.  Felt good to keep up on some of the tunes, and I was glad to play rythym on some of the real fast ones.

I hope they come back this way again......