Goat rodeo and a banjo player

While Mrs. S has had multiple opportunities to see the cellist Yo Yo Ma perform, until recently, I had not. But for our season ending concert at the Nashville Symphony, we were second row front and center for Yo Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer (second time to see him in two months), and Chris Thile, that is, three quarters of the Goat Rodeo, perform some Bach pieces. This was interesting and unusual for a couple of reasons.

Yo Yo Ma always looks like he is having a good time. Probably, because he is.

One was that performing in Nashville, they could have easily found a “fiddler” to fill out the quartet and perform the goat rodeo pieces. Another is, the pieces they performed were mostly not necessarily composed for trios. In fact, most of them that were announced were organ pieces that had been adapted for a trio. This of course glosses over the fact how you make a fugue work for a trio consisting of a cello, double bass, and mandolin. Second of all, I think Edgar Meyer is the only local, so even getting three fourths of the band there was no small feat. But it gets better.

This is about as casual as Edgar Meyer gets.

During the encore, they were actually joined by Stuart Duncan, who was either in the audience or was there to perform the encore. In the end, I felt a little cheated that we could have been listening to classical bluegrass and instead had to listen to Bach trios. Then again, I had a certain familiarity with the Bach pieces, so I appreciated them enough as it was.

The Goat Rodeo Team

But the real highlight might have been something else.

At intermission, we followed our customary “beer first, bathroom later” plan. As often happens, for some reason, the men’s seems to take a little longer, so even though Mrs. S was waiting for me when the five minute bell rang, I didn’t know she was already out. As I’m standing there waiting, Bela Fleck walked right by me and into the men’s room. So I’m waiting for Mrs. S and she finally shouts at me from upstairs, and I say, “It’s Bela Fleck!” and she goes, “That’s what I thought!” Just then Bela comes out, so we started to chat. We were dressed like brothers, and he seemed impressed that I even knew who he was. When I rattled off some concerts of his I’d been to while Mrs. S took pictures, he was kind of like, “Shouldn’t we be getting back to our seats?” and I was like, let’s walk and talk, and we did. Very personable friendly guy.

Brothers from other mothers: Bela Fleck in black T with jacket, me in black tee with jacket.

When we were leaving at the end of the concert, we walked right by him and the people he was there with, as he was waiting by the stage door to (I think) go backstage and hang with his musician friends. He greeted us again, and my brain fleetingly thought about pulling out one of my “Late to Jazz” business cards (which I always have with me for just such these purposes) and asking if he could get me backstage. But, I felt I’d imposed enough on the guy, so I merely bid him good night and we left.

I told the story to quite a few people, but unfortunately, Mr. Fleck is not as well known in my circle of acquaintances to make a decent impression, so I just have to share the story, and pictures, here with my late-to-jazzers.

I don't know, but they seem to be having a good time. I want to be a professional musician 

So there you go. Not a bad conclusion to another eventful concert season.

Are you inspired?

It’s a simple question, but presented to someone who is aspiring to become something they are not, (jazz musician, sports star, Hollywood actor, etc.) asking if they are inspired is a question that is riddled with thorns of interpretation. Let me try to explain.

The set up: Yamaha C-7X, top removed (looks smaller that way)

Last night Mrs. S and I went down to Birmingham for the first time in well over a year to attend a concert and hear banjo player Bela Fleck perform a duet with pianist Chick Corea. It’s a wonderful combination of consummate performers, who we have seen perform together in Nashville. Besides a number of works that they have performed together, such as Bela’s Waltse for Abby, Mountain, and Children’s Song #6, they stretched out a little bit playing some pieces by French classical composers (Dutilleux), and Italian Baroque composers (Scarlatti). There was also a new Fleck composition that Chick said helped him with his “bluegrass piano chops”. It was all quite captivating, interesting, and revealing.

Toward the end of the performance. Two observations: Jazz musicians are lucky to not have to spend a lot on clothes. And it's hard to focus a camera while taking surreptitious photos from the second row.

A little more than halfway through the last set, I was thinking to myself, well, I guess this is where I’m supposed to make up my mind to work harder, set myself to the task, and draw some motivation, if not inspiration, from the concert in order to up my playing, learn more about jazz and piano playing, and become a better pianist. The thought sat there at the top my spinal cord, sort of looking for a gap to slip through to get to my consciousness, but my consciousness just went, you know, you’re 50-something, Chick’s 70-something, and even if you live that long, you’re never going to play like him, so, just put that thought away and enjoy the music.

Which I did.

After the concert, walking back to the car, Mrs. S and I were chatting and she goes, so, are you inspired. I just said, no, it’s too hard to be inspired knowing that Chick Corea was way beyond my current capabilities at my age, and that if I live to be 100, I’m never going to have anything more than a shadow of his musicality. So, no, I’m not really inspired. Would I like to play better? Sure. Do I realize the only way to play better is to study and practice? Yes. Am I probably going to play the piano two or three times longer today and tomorrow and next week than a typical Saturday, Sunday and work week? Yes, probably.

Here's a shot of the back of a guy's head. Oh, and me shaking Chick Corea's hand. (Did I look that pathetically desperate to touch a star? I guess I did.)

If one of the thorns of interpretation of the word “inspiration” is: doing things differently from before to try to get better than you are, then yes, I guess I am inspired. But my aspiration is not to be like Chick. It’s to be a better version of me.

I printed out a score of the Scarlatti piece they played last night. That’s real inspiration in my book. We’ll see how far it gets me.

At least I got to shake the hand of one of my heroes. And so, we move on.

Stars align, again

 I've come to the conclusion that I just can’t have too much Chick Corea in my life. With Mrs. S and I celebrating our 18^th wedding anniversary last Friday, we made our way through iffy weather and traffic conditions to Nashville, to fight Eric Clapton’s fans for parking spaces, enjoy a good meal, and hear Bela Fleck and Chick Corea play together for the first time in something like four years. Parking ended up being $25, but we were right in front of the concert hall and outside, so we could make a (relatively) quick and clean getaway. Dinner was up the street at Prime 108 inside the Union Station Hotel. We couldn't get the tasting menu because of time constraints, but we had nice seafood (scallops for her, lobster ravioli for me) with a nice Chilean sauvignon blanc. And from there, to the concert.

Well, at least it not crowded.

We saw Bela Fleck last year with the Alabama Symphony and were sort of wondering what he could do together with Chick Corea. Having seen Chick with Gary Burton just two months ago, we were more than excited to see him again. (The Corea/Burton concert was one of my top three all time.) Turns out that Chick is an inspiration and influence on Bela from many years ago, and they actually did a recording together a couple of years back. Since most of the music was off that recording and I don’t own it, I was unfamiliar with most of the songs.

Two man set up. Of course, you can face a lid-less piano in any direction you want, so our strategy to get  left of center seats so we could see Chick's hands did NOT pay off.

Honestly, Bela is really, really good, and it was fascinating to watch him pull off the notes and riffs, and lead the piano riffs in call and answer fashion. Quite impressive and extremely melodic. What I did notice, however, is that Fleck lacks a bit of jazz sensibility about him. He’s not very bluesy sounding, and the parts that I recognized as solos seemed more taken out of bluegrass than blues. There’s nothing wrong with that, mind you, it just wasn't what I was expecting or hoping for. As a composer, however, I was really impressed. Fleck’s “Waltse for Abbey” turned out to be a show stealer, and it was no wonder Corea said “Waltse” was one of his favorites. It showed.

Joban Dna Nopia to you!

Still, Chick’s playing made it for me. I loved what he did with their co-written (I think) tune, “Joban Dna Nopia”, and he really jazzed up Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed”. They did an older Fleck composition that was clever, called “Bicyclops”. (Chick: “What’s that mean?” Bela: “Same as Joban Dna Nopia.”) They closed with “Children’s Song #6” and “Spectacle”. Children’s song was a curious fantasy of a song, woven over a blues riff, with standard jazz progressions interlaying with rivulets of high note arpeggios and streams of cascading bass notes really booming out of the lid-less 9-foot Steinway. Spectacle was just nifty with the banjo sounding like a piano and the piano sounding like a banjo, and back and forth like that. It’s hard to explain.

Although I really feel it for two days afterward, driving to and from Nashville just for concerts does have its upside. Big name players like Bela and Chick don’t come around very often, so when they come around together, it’s worth making a special effort to see them and to secure those front row seats. Doesn’t make for a bad anniversary celebration, either.

How things happen…sometimes

As part-time subscribers to several symphonies within driving distance of our home, we often get notifications (emails) about upcoming events before they've been announced to the general public, and usually these are accompanied by offers (opportunities) to purchase advance tickets ahead of the crowd. Not all of these concerts and events have appeal for us, but for the ones that do, we are usually pretty quick on the uptake when it seems our calendar is open on a given date.

This past week, the Nashville Symphony hit Mrs. S’s inbox with a Chick Corea/Bela Fleck concert next March. She comes in the room, tells me about it, and I’m like, Hell yeah! After she called me over to pick out tickets, we were $165 lighter and booked for a March 22 trip to Nashville.

Mrs. S kind of started wondering about why I was so anxious to try and see Chick Corea, especially with Bela Fleck, who we've already seen once. I showed her my chunk of Chick CD’s and she wiki’ed and Googled him, and was just as excited as I that we are going to see him. Still, I told her, if you ever see we have a chance to see him with Gary Burton, you don’t even have to ask me – just book it and I’ll cancel everything to go to the concert.

The next day, the Alys Stephens Center magazine,The Center, containing an article that Mrs. S and I agreed to appear in, arrived in the mail. One of the first concerts of the new season is, believe it or not, ChickCorea and Gary Burton. I was all over the email the next day, and managed to secure (I think, maybe, no confirmation yet) our usual contributing members’ seats in the front row. I am needless to say, ecstatic. Mrs. S asked if we wanted to sell out Nashville tickets, but I kind of don’t think so. We’ll see how we feel after the Birmingham concert.

And that’s how things happen…sometimes.

Another all-around musical genius, unfortunately largely ignored by the good people of Alabama

Mrs. S and I drove through the rain (why does it always rain when we have a concert out of town to go to?) last night to see Edgar Meyer and the world premiere of his third concerto for double bass and orchestra. It was doubly challenging because I was still feeling the effects of a delayed return flight from Mexico that left me with an eight-hour, beer-laden layover, but I was feeling okay after dinner. (Turtle soup and straight rum to the rescue – try that next time your hangover threatens to turn into a cold.)

For those of you who don’t know Edgar Meyer, go ahead and google him now (then come back and finish reading).

Edgar Meyer, in concert (not the concert described)

 The guy’s famous. Played with all the big names: Joshua Bell, Bela Fleck, Yo Yo Ma, etc. His third concerto, commissioned by the Alabama Symphony, was for some reason performed by a stripped down version of the orchestra. And, the hall was less than half full. The people who were there looked even more tired than I felt.

But Mr. Meyer’s piece was fascinating. He introduced it by saying, “It’s 22 minutes long. There’s a 7-minute first section...a 7-minute second section...a 7-minute third section, and somewhere there’s another minute in there.” He also said he wrote his first concerto 20 years ago, his second ten years ago, and he hopes this, his third, is his last (!). His bass playing was flawless. The performance was captivating, and I was happy to have been privileged to be among the first to hear it performed. The audience clapped, he took a bow, and that was it. Then the orchestra hacked their way through a sullen Shostakovich piece (well, Shostakovich’s pieces are all sullen, aren’t they?), the first time I can honestly say they did not sound very good at all, and then we drove home.

I saw and heard history, and hardly anyone knows it. Now that all the readers of my blog know it, oh, never mind.

(sigh)

When jazz isn’t enough

Last week, I had the privilege to hear Bela Fleck perform his Concerto for Banjo with Orchestra, only the second performance ever of this piece which debuted last year. Now, banjo is certainly not my favorite instrument in the whole world. In fact, if not for the steel guitar, it might well be my least favorite instrument. But Fleck is a blues-minded bluegrass guy with a decided bent toward and numerous accomplishments in the world of jazz, so I figured, why not go and listen to him play with an orchestra?

This turned out to be quite fortuitous, as I also got to hear a piece by Puts that was reminiscent of Smetana and a strings only piece that was so highly original, ethereal, and charming, it wasn’t reminiscent of any other piece I’ve ever heard. Then came the concerto. I really enjoyed it. I won’t bother to describe the piece (such things never quite doing justice to a piece of music you know probably 98% of your readers have never heard – and besides, one can Google it and get a rundown on it elsewhere), but I will say this: for something that was only performed once before, and to play it without sheet music (as Fleck did), even given the fact that as the writer of the piece you expect him to know it as well or better than anyone, Fleck’s mastery of the concerto and his instrument was beyond phenomenal. Even Mrs. S felt that last Thursday’s concert was probably the best concert we’ve been to this season, with the only possible exception being the New York Phil’s concerts.

Which makes me thankful that for a guy like Fleck: jazz, or bluegrass, or whatever he’s considered mainstream in, isn’t enough. It brings me opportunities to experience music I would otherwise never have experienced. Heck, I might even buy one of his creepy jazz banjo CD’s. (Maybe, someday.)

And for those of you tuning in to learn about my antique piano restoration project, I wish to formally announce that I have abandoned said project, as I have become convinced that piano will never be playable as it sits in my dining room today. I’m in the process of trying to sell the beast and am hopeful to have it gone soon. Should I be unable to sell it, I fully intent to gut it and make a bar out of it. (Yes, a piano bar.) Hopefully, a motivated buyer will save me from the ignominy of that arduosity. We’ll see.