Work o’ the Weavers at St. Pete Palladium Side Door

 
A few nights ago, a friend called and said, “We’re going to the [Work o' the] Weaver’s concert Thursday night at the Palladium. I know you like that kind of music. Do you want to come, too.” I said yes immediately.

Although I’m not quite old enough to remember The Weavers themselves (that’s more my sister’s generation who lived through all that in California, San Francisco, North Beach, the hungry i, etc.), but I am old enough to remember all the groups the Weaver’s spawned (The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and others of the American Folk Music Revival).

And…I am old enough to remember seeing Joseph McCarthy on someone’s television (we didn’t have one then). I mention that because the Weavers and other folk singers of that time, as well the classical composer and American legend, Aaron Copland, were all hauled before McCarthy’s committee and interrogated. And, yes, they were definitely left-leaning sympathizers and supporters of Henry Wallace for president.

Thursday night’s concert by the contemporary tribute group, Work o’ the Weavers (see workotheweavers.com), was one of the most enjoyable musical evenings I’ve had in a long time. If you ever get a chance to hear the group, go. Their appeal is not limited to folks my age; I saw a number of teens and young adults there who were bobbing and swaying and singing “Good Night Irene” along with us of the blue-rinse set.

My guess is the only demographic group not represented–or if they were there, they kept on the down low–were Tea Party members, because the tradition of the Weavers, which the Work o’ the Weavers is all about, is definitely tied to the Progressive movement during the Great Depression and World War II. So many of the songs that were sung then, and last night, are unfortunately still appropriate now during the Great Recession, especially the pro-labor and pro-peace songs.

The concert was in two parts. In the first part, every song was woven into a detailed narrative of the history of the (original) Weavers. It really was a complete history of the group, the music, its composers and lyricists, and the times. It was not just a series of songs by the Weavers. It was educational in a very real sense.

The second part of the concert followed the dictum of Pete Seeger, who is close to the members of the group and endorses it, to not just look backward, but to sing also what the Weavers would sing now if they still existed today. What a wonderful idea. Three songs from that second half were my personal favorites for the night: Red Goes the Vine/In Dead Earnest, We’re Still Here, and My Peace. They’re all on a CD called We’re Still Here. That’s a link to the MP3 “album” which just costs a hair over 1/2 what the actual CD sold at the concert cost. I recommend it, highly.

The Work o’ the Weavers website has plenty of information and videos. Here’s one, Work o’ the Weavers – Distilled, that gives you a good feel for the group.

The lyrics of the aforementioned song, “My Peace,” was written by Woodie Guthrie just after he was hospitalized with Huntington’s Disease and set to music by his son, Arlo Guthrie. Here it is being sung by the Guthrie Family – My Peace:

If you’d like to see some video of the original Weavers, here’s The Weavers – Around The World:

Here’s a Youtube presentation of them singing the first song the Weavers ever recorded, The banks of Marble – The Weavers (that’s Pete Seeger singing solo on first verse):

The words of that song are so appropriate today, maybe more than ever before. Here’s a more recent recording just by Pete Seeger and with a more meaningful video — Banks of Marble:

And…thrown in for good measure and having almost nothing to do with The Weavers or Pete Seeger or The Work o’ the Weavers other than it’s authentic, old-timey American folk music is this video I stumbled upon while looking up the other videos — the Best Bluegrass Clog Dancing Video Ever Made. Unfortunately, that has to be watched on Youtube, itself and can’t be embedded. So, please click on the link. That’s old style clogging. I promise you will not be able to hold your body still. I just LOVE that music!!!!!
 
 
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Tomorrow is the Super Bowl. Therein lies a tale:

Back in 1991, as usual, I was supplementing my income as a college prof by moonlighting as a church musician, playing organ and conducting a volunteer choir. That particular year, I happened to put on a variety show with the choir, doing a number of sets of pop tunes from different decades and different styles, ending with a political set that concluded with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” complete with the church’s Boy Scout troop marching in with the American flag, which of course got the audience on its feet and insured a huge round of applause. Pure cornball!

Well, as chance would have it, the Executive Producer of the Super Bowl Pregame Show was in the audience because he was, completely unbeknownst to me, a member of that parish. Following the concert, he came up to me and said words to the effect of, “I’ve got a proposition for you…”

It seemed that the coming year’s Pregame Show (Super Bowl XXVI Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1992) showcased local Minnesota youth including the Metropolitan Boys Choir, the Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, and four local marching bands. He needed a musical arrangement that accommodated all of them at one time! He asked if I’d be the Music Director for that show, writing that arrangement as well as writing and recording the arrangements for the other acts in the show and supervising a bunch of production details associated with the game.

I said, “Sure!” Now, please understand. Although I have done a lot of commercial writing and arranging, I consider myself primarily a classical musician, with a special emphasis in church music, since most of my publications are in that area and my major instrument was pipe organ.

And that’s the point of the whole story: not in a million, million years would I ever have even considered that–starting with the 1992 game and continuing through Super Bowl XXXVI Pregame Show, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2002, for a total of 10 shows–I would be involved in pro athletic entertainment. Never! But, it happened, completely out of the blue.

But, when I look back, I realize that almost everything that has happened to me, good and bad, but especially good, was a surprise. Not just the Super Bowl gig, but new friends, new opportunities, new insights, new jobs…all surprises, all unsought.

Of course, I had to have done the work to have created the conditions that made those surprises even possible. For instance, it’s unlikely that I’ll be “surprised” to be asked to be a ballet dancer for a dance troop…unless they need someone in an elephant costume! My dietary habits and lack of exercise pretty well preclude that possibility.

And, once the opportunity arose, and I said Yes to the opportunity, I needed to have busted butt to earn being asked back year after year. (Every year that I was rehired, I was always, truthfully, surprised; every year I figured that that was the last time.)

A friend has pointed out that Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, German field marshal at the start of the First World War, said, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” You have to plan, you have to prepare, but when you make contact with life, it all changes and it’s all a surprise.

And, as another general, Dwight D. Eisenhower, said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

This is not just true in warfare, it’s also true in music: you practice, practice, practice…but, then you go out on stage and forget about all that. You just play.

Regardless what you think is going to happen, what happens and how it happens and when it happens, is always a surprise and different than you’d ever anticipated.

That’s a relief isn’t it? No amount of straining is going to “make” things happen. What happens is what happens and past a certain point, it’s out of your hands.

Relax and enjoy life’s surprises.

Hilton’s first “song”–age 3

For young (and old) composers, there are no books that really help you understand the process of composing music. I mean that word, “no,” quite literally. There’s not a single book that I know of that really deals with the process.

The books that purport to be about composition are really about music theory, which is the study of the nuts and bolts description of different composers’ music. They are to music composition as a grammar book would be to creative writing. It’s stuff you need to know but it’s definitely stuff to put out of your mind when you’re composing.

Instead of books about composing–since there are none–I’ve found much inspiration and guidance in books about creative writing. There, too, of course, there are books which are more about form than the process, but it seems that some creative writing author/teachers understand well the notion of process.

This post doesn’t really concern the lack of books about the process of composing and it definitely does not concern creative writing. (My only talent, if any, for putting words in a row is simple expository writing such as this blog.) It’s about my hobby: photography.

In middle school, I was in the photography club. I loved all the smells and the darkroom ambiance and the magic of watching a picture come into being in the developing solution (this was way back in Brownie camera days). But, one thing and another and I didn’t keep up with it. Instead I devoted more and more time to music. All my life, I didn’t really have a hobby. Music eclipsed everything.

That was a good thing because it enabled me to have a career in music, something many people would love to have. But now, retired from being a college prof, I’ve had the time to indulge myself in photography, to rediscover the joy of having a hobby! Thankfully, digital photography makes practicing the act a lot less expensive than film days.

(FINALLY…here’s the point of the whole post!) So it was that recently, I asked some friends who are experts in the commercial and academic aspects of Art (note the upper case “A”) for advise about a specific aspect of pictures I’ve taken, what would probably correspond to “voice” in literature or “style” in composition. Well, the answers I got back weren’t answers to my question (except for one gallery owner, whose comments I do appreciate), but were rather dedicated to how bad my photography was. Sort of along the lines of “who do you think you are?”

Well, I pretty much put the camera away for quite a while. Couldn’t even work up the spit to post anything here.

I’m a silent processor; I don’t easily share what’s going through my head with others. But, I finally worked up the courage to discuss what I was experiencing with a good friend and working artist (not an academician) who designs theater and opera sets. I told him what I’d asked the experts and what their answers were. He said, “Hilton, you should have known better!” I don’t know why I hadn’t asked him for an opinion about my photography, but I hadn’t. I guess because he’s not an “authority”–he’s “just” a working artist.

He was absolutely right. I should have known better. Probably the two most lethal fields when it comes to anything creative are the commercial and the academic fields. (And I say that, as a life-long college professor.) “Experts” have probably stifled more creativity than they have ever fostered.

So, I’ve been repairing my enthusiasm for taking pictures and posting them on this blog by composing. I know how composing works. I know that each time you write a piece you have to remember how to compose all over again. Each piece is as hard to write as the first one you ever finished. And, finishing a piece is just the beginning…you have to plunge back in and take it all apart and make it all over again at least once, maybe more than once…it’s as if you don’t know what the first note should have been until you have written the last one.

I’ve also been reading creative writing books again to help in rekindling my creative muse, professionally as a composer and, as an amateur, as a photographer.

One excellent book on creative writing is the old The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It is 100% process oriented. The author’s advise applies equally to writing, composing, photographing, cooking, embroidering, dancing, singing, and weaving or whatever else is someone’s personal medium of expression.

Right now, I’m reading an even more helpful book, one that is helping me in my composition and photography, immensely. It’s Writing Alone and with Others by Pat Schneider. Here’s a couple sample quotes from it. I think you can see how relevant they are.

“Some critics claim that all truly great works of literature are already recognized. What a cynical and small-minded view of the human spirit! In other times and other cultures, art was made for the family: quilts, hand-carved pieces, lullabies, ballads. The audience of that art was intimate…Writing is making art, and the test of its value cannot be given into the hands of either the commercial world or the academy.”

“[quoting Dorothea Brande] ‘It is well to understand as early as possible in one’s writing life that there is just one contribution which every one of us can make: we can give into the common pool of experience some comprehension of the world as it looks to each of us…If you can tell a story as it can appear only to you of all the people on earth, you will inevitably have a piece of work which is original.’”

“[quoting William Stafford] He said the writer’s job is to abandon his or her work, to allow others to make judgment of its worth, and to go on the the next poem, the next story.”

“If you are to write, you must move out of ‘rented rooms’ in your mind, rooms that you have allowed to belong to someone else.”

“It is more important to ask: Have I gone all the way? Have I told all of the truth that my inner eye sees?”

“…fear had frozen her into a habitual rejection of her own work.”

I should have known better. As a composer, most publishers and almost all my academic colleagues hated my music. But, oddly, the musicians who performed it liked it. Even more important, the people who heard it liked it. Perhaps, most important, I liked it and I definitely enjoyed writing it. So, I should have known better than to worry about what the experts say about anything.

One should just do one’s thing, do it the best one can, keep trying to get better, keep doing it and doing it every day, and trust one’s own judgment more than the judgment of others. And–enjoy the doing of it.

Gary Baldassari, Incorporated Magi audio engineer, instructing Full Sail interns on microphones

Teachers and students

 
The tagline for Inkwatu is “Delights, near and far.” Less poetically put, that simply means that this blog is about things that I find delightful: people, places, things, food…and also the good I see some people do. One such instance is the training of young engineers in acoustic jazz since 1989 by the seasoned professionals of Incorporated Magi. This training is a free benefit that these pros offer at any festival where they have been engaged to provide sound. They’ve been doing this in places such as Pori, Finland; Japan, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina; and, of course, the USA. They do it to keep intact the knowledge of how to provide audio for acoustic jazz.
 
Last year was the First Annual Arbors Records Invitational Jazz Party and it was covered by Inkwatu: see Arbors Records. That post covered the event itself with a few asides about jazz in Florida and different kinds of jazz record labels and musicians that part part of the local scene. But, this year, for an Inkwatu post on the Second Annual Arbors Records Invitational Jazz Party, the post theme is a little different. It’s a look behind the scenes of the event, especially the teaching by a group of dedicated professionals of hands-on skills to the “next generation” of audio pros.

Gary Faller, audio engineer, with Full Sail intern

Audio engineer, Mike Morgan, instructing Full Sail intern

Dan Czernecki, audio engineer and an alumnus of Full Sail, instructing Full Sail interns

Microphones

At the heart of any sound installation are the microphones. It is through that point in a long chain of electronic processes that the sound becomes an electronic signal. If the microphone is bad (or even inappropriate for the situation), the entire rest of the chain (amplification, recording, etc.) will be bad. The art of the microphone is a skill acquired from long experience and knowledge.

Gary Baldassari with two revolutionary microphones: Grado Holographic Recording Instrument (the sphere on the left) and the HMP-1 Scalar microphone (the stick mike on the right)

Baldassari showing different microphone heads	Baldassari installing piano microphone
DPA 4041 Tube microphone inside piano	close-up of HMP-1 Scalar microphone

The recording room

What the audience heard at the Arbors event was a mix that’s done in the actual hall, intended for the audience in the hall (as well as a subordinate mix that’s onstage, just for the benefit of the musicians). That mix was engineered this year by Gary Faller (pictured above) with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working a number of sessions in the old Roy Disney Post Group studios on the back lot of Disney in Orlando.

In addition to the mixing of the sounds from the stage for the audience at the Arbors event, a documentary recording is made, backstage, in a recording room well isolated from the sounds in the performance room. The Full Sail interns learned what goes into that step as well. An important aspect of this craft is the extensive documentation which must be made at every moment of the recording. The producer, faced with countless hours of recordings, relies upon this documentation. (Think of all those unlabeled cassettes in your junk drawer at home–imagine that times 100!) Engineer, Dan Czernecki (owner of Classical Recording Service, 96 N Lake Ave., Troy, NY 12180-6704 — serving the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Metro Area), with whom I’ve produced at least one recording, is a master of documentation and a producer’s delight. Mike Morgan, who also worked the recording room, is an outstanding opera tenor as well as an audio engineer.

Mike Morgan & Dan Czernecki instructing interns in recording room

A very special piano

A real treat for me, as a pianist, was getting to meet the creator, Justin Elliot (www.classicpianoshoppe.com), of very special piano accessories. Mr. Elliot originally intended his unique piano legs and music rack (see photo) as mere decorative touches. He soon discovered, as did the artists who now demand his piano, that these touches very positively affect the actual sound of the piano. The Yamaha pianos for the event were provided by Steve Trawford of Piano Distributors of Sarasota, but Mr. Elliot fitted one of the pianos for the event with his special accessories. I really like the way it makes the piano sound. He was also the piano technician for the event, carefully shading the quality of sound to work properly with the acoustics of the room, the performance style of the artist, and the kind of music being played. There’s a lot more to being a piano technician than just tuning the piano!

Justin Elliot with Yamaha piano fitted with his accessories

Musicians relaxing

 
It was a personal treat to get to see the great musicians backstage relaxing, practicing, and trading stories. Just the pianists at the event were an impressive list: Dick Hyman, Bernd Lhotzky, Louis Mazetier, Rossano Sportiello, Jeff Barnhart, Chris Hopkins, Norm Kubrin, Ehud Asherie, Tom McDermott, and Mike Lipskin. There were musicians from Israel, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada, and Holland. If you’ve not been to an Arbors event, and you like classic jazz, visit the Arbors Records website (www.arborsrecords.com/) and get ticket for next year’s event when they’re available and/or buy some recordings.

pianists Mike Lipskin, left; Louis Mazetier seated; Ehud Asherie, right

Hanging theater lights

The Full Sail students also learned about and assisted with the hanging of lights. Lights and sound are often part of the same production company and they affect each other electronically. The lighting system for the Arbors event was provided by Atlas Production. The folks who hang lights are a lot braver than I am. Not only do they work with real, dangerous electricity (not just electronics), but they do it up in the air!

It’s a joy to see pros teaching the youngsters who will be the pros in the days to come. The apprentice concept is time honored. I’m glad to see the tradition so enthusiastically continued by Incorporated Magi.

Bruce Blackman of Atlas Production finding a hang point for the light bar

My sister and I were fortunate as kids because our parents were good amateur musicians who, in the days before TV, would often play together as a way to end the evening: our mother on violin, our dad on piano. I have multiple memories of falling asleep on the couch as a child listening to them play the song pictured above. That copy of the sheet music is the actual music they played from: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. It’s one of my favorite covers, not just because of the personal memories, but also its beautiful, period style of graphic design.

St. Petersburg seems to be a hotbed of vintage and antique shows and shops…I guess that’s because there’s so many antiques living here (such as myself)! One of my friends haunts these shows even more than I do and she’s kindly picked up copies of vintage sheet music she knew I’d love. The four covers above, There Are Fairies at the Bottom of our Garden, Way Down in Florida – That’s the Place To Be!, Buddha, and Nola were gifts from her. The first one was an amusing favorite of a dear friend; the second has value simply for its appalling lyrics; the third was an acknowledgment of my having taken lay vows as a Buddhist several years ago; and, the last was a piece I’d been looking for for years, a piece that I played constantly as a kid, driving my parents nuts.

The group pictured below, Galway Bay, The Last Round-up, San Antonio Rose, and Mexicali Rose, are more pieces our folks used to play in the evenings. Easy to see where I developed my eclectic musical tastes (or some might say, lack of taste!). I’m sure at least some of these are “collectibles,” but their value to me is entirely personal significance. It is fun, however, to rummage through the bins of vintage music to see how much some copies bring.

As we prepare to say goodbye to 2009 and welcome in 2010, here’s the cover of one of my favorite songs when I was a kid (a song that I sang over and over and over, maybe even more times than I sang Fuzzy Wuzzy Wuz a Bear), So Long It’s Been Good To Know Yuh.

If you are looking for something fun to do tonight—especially if you’re a family—go to the final night of the German American Society of Pinellas County OKTOBERFEST! (8098 66th St. N., Pinellas Park, FL 33781). They serve food from 6 pm-8:30 pm and the event (and beer!) continues until 11:30 pm. Admission is $6, food and drinks you pay for what you order, cash.

They have many of the traditional Oktoberfest meals and pastries. I had the weisswurst (a white sausage) and sauerkraut, plus reiberdatschi (potato pancakes) and then käsekuchen (cheesecake). There are plenty of other German foods at the fest, some of which are pictured here. For example, they had freshly made schnitzel, deep fried on the spot (one of my friends was the schnitzel maker the night I was there) and something I’ve never seen before: thick slices of German bologna, fried. I was too stuffed to try that, but I will remember it for next year.

The best features of the evening for me, though, were the music and dancing. The night I was there, the band was one of the best German bands I’ve ever heard (and I’ve heard a bunch). Not all German bands are created equal. This one grooved! Very tight, very “long” rhythms that made you want to dance. There was no way to sit still.

The dancing highlight of the evening–in fact the reason I went–was performed by friends who are the Gulf Coast Enzianer Schuhplattler Verein which is “a nonprofit, cultural preservation society that is dedicated to upholding the traditions of Bavarian culture through dancing Schuhplattler and wearing Tracht.” Tracht is traditional Bavarian clothes; for instance, lederhosen for men. Schuhplattler is the style of Bavarian dancing that involves stamping and slapping. Unfortunately, too many people only recognize it from Chevy Chase’s lampooning of it in his “European Vacation” movie. In reality, it is a beautiful folk dance form that has many proponents, world-wide. It is excellent for family group participation.

For my friends, Wednesday night (their Schuhplattler rehearsal night) is family night. It is an ideal family activity with a focus on lighthearted fun and sociability. In fact, most German folk music (I confess to being a lifelong fan of German yodels and polkas) have words that are about family life and the home. If this idea intrigues you for your own family, check out their website and their photo page. For sure, try to make it to the German-American Club’s Oktoberfest tonight to watch them dance. Immediately below is a slideshow of my friends’ group dancing last weekend at the Pinellas German-American Club Oktoberfest.

If you can’t make the final night of the German American Club’s Oktoberfest tonight, then make plans to attend the Oldsmar Oktoberfest, October 23-25, held at Tampa Bay Downs (11225 Racetrack Rd., Tampa, FL 33626). This is a mammoth event with rides and music and lots of food. See this Oldsmar Chamber of Commerce page for complete details on that event.

If big crowds aren’t your thing, then try something smaller: area German restaurants are offering special menus during this time, some even having their own mini-Oktoberfests. Be sure to make reservations for these since seating is at a premium during this season. A few examples are the Schnitzelhaus in Tampa, Cafe Vienna in St. Petersburg, Bavarian House on St. Pete Beach, and Cafe Berlin on Treasure Island. I’m sure that even the German bakeries will be having special featured items this time of year, such as the Cafe Mozart German Bakery in St. Pete.

Prost!

Long ago, big downtown department stores would let you take a record (these big old things) into one of a number of small soundproof rooms. In there would be a record player and a set of headphones. Those devices were nothing like the sophisticated gadgets we have today. There was no foam on the headphones, just brutal plastic discs that sat outside your ears with a hole to the metal speaker diaphragm inside. The record player had a steel needle, not even a diamond needle. At that time, steel was an advance over cactus needles that you had to sharpen.

The Stix, Baer, and Fuller record department in St. Louis was indulgent in letting a little kid (me) pretend he was going to buy records. My parents would drop me off in the record department (or book department…both are still my obsessions) and I would immediately go looking for my sure-fire favorites to take into a booth and listen to: Igor Stravinsky‘s The Rite of Spring, Oskar Sala‘s Space Opera, and Dmitri Shostakovich‘s Symphony #1.

If you’re thinking those are weird records for a 12 year old kid in 1957 to be listening to, you’re probably right. Let’s just say it explains a lot, including the fact that just 10 years later, one of the composers I habitually listened to in those days, Vladimir Ussachevsky, wrote the liner notes for my own first album of electronic music released by ESM Records.

It wasn’t only record departments that had listening booths in those days. The St. Louis library had them too, and there, I could also get the musical score for the piece so I could watch the score and listen to the recording at the same time. Often, I’d get dreadfully lost in the score, but I eventually got better at keeping up.

I’d head into the booths with excitement because I knew that my favorite pieces would transport me to worlds beyond the humdrum existence of a kid’s world. My test to know if I really liked a piece or not was that if it made me “float” when I closed my eyes, it was a “good piece.” To my 12 year old mind this was an inviolate rule. Oskar Sala’s music is totally and utterly forgotten today by almost everyone, but I can still hear it in my memory, because his music relied very heavily on an electro-acoustical echo and that audio effect was always guaranteed to make me tumble slowly, head over heels in the space inside my mind.

We all know that echo sound from our youth in the (pre-Sputnik) top-40 instrumentals with guitar sounds like in Rumble by Wray, Link, And His Ray Men or Apache by Jorgen Ingmann & His Guitar, or Out of Limits by the Marketts, or Rebel Rouser by Duane Eddy, or Wipe Out by the Surfaris…on and on. At first the effect could only be created in recording studios or electronic music studios. Then by the 60s/70s there were electro-mechanical device available for the individual musician. One was called the Roland Space Echo. Eventually the delay effect was simulated digitally and now it’s so old hat that it’s invisible.

In the time I’m talking about, however, the electronic echo hadn’t really found its way into pop music but was reserved for “experimental music” like Skala’s or like Karlheinz Stockhausen‘s Kontakte. It was a powerful music effect, rhythmic as well as dynamic. Stravinsky and Shostakovich didn’t need to resort to those electronic gimmicks, though, because their novel acoustic orchestrations, primal rhythms, dissonant harmonies, and peculiar melodies excited me in a way that music of the Pat Boone ilk never could (that was “pop” music at that time).

That echo effect (DONG, Dong, dong, dong) gave rise to a whole sensibility of music that coupled with the esthetic of an earlier, non-electronic composer, Erik Satie, gave rise to an entire genre of music now known, variously, as New Age, soundscapes, trance music, electronica, electronic-music, musique concrète, etc. Those are all different kinds of music of course, but they share a common ancestory whether their composers are aware of the fact or not.

I know today there must be kids doing the 21st century equivalent of sneaking into record store listening booths for a free listen to music that makes them float. That thought makes me very happy.

In case you can’t tell, I’ve been listening to Rockin’ Instrumentals, one of those wonderfully cheesy as-seen-on-TV K-Tel collections. Sometimes when you hear certain music you can’t help but write a post about it!

This past weekend, March 27-29, was the St. Petersburg International Folk Fair Society (SPIFFS) 34th annual International Folk Fair at the Vinoy Park on the waterfront. The weather was beautiful but very breezy, but that just made for great surf to watch when taking a break and feasting on some of the spectacular food. The theme of this year’s Folk Fair was the “Wonders of the World” with ethnic villages capturing the flavor of each country, costumed villagers demonstrating artisanship and the preparation of ethnic foods (which were also available to eat).

Throughout the weekend, there was folk dancing and music onstage. The program highlighted performances by Colin Grant-Adams, a Scottish Balladeer, the Russian Folk Group Barynya, and American country music and line dancing. Saturday’s offering also included Chinese dancers and acrobats. Some of the other groups onstage were the German Schuplattlers Dancers, the Italian Tarantella Dancers, the Polish Gorale Ensemble, the African Urban Ballet Dundu-dole, exotic Asian dancers and musicians, and dancers from the South Seas Islands. Sunday was Hispanic Day featuring Latin bands and performers such as Gumbi Ortiz, Tampa Tango Argentino, The Latin League, and Larry Duran. If you check out the Inkwatu post on last year’s Folk Fair, you’ll see photos of typical performers and villages from the different countries.

This year, I concentrated on taking pictures of the the Parade of Nations at 3:00 pm on Saturday, leading into the Grand Opening Ceremonies. It’s a particularly colorful display including dancers and musicians, all in ethnic costumes, culminating in a giant Chinese festival dragon at the end of the parade.

SPIFFS sponsors a number of different activities and events. One such event I especially enjoy is the Asian Fest (Inkwatu post on last year’s Asian Fest) which is held in the fall. As soon as the date of this year’s Asian Fest is announced, I’ll alert you so you can make plans to attend.

When you visit the SPIFFS website be sure to check out two of its pages in particular: a photo gallery of past fairs and an About Us page that has some very interesting information about its Speaker’s Bureau, its Language Bank, its performing groups, and its honors (SPIFFS is one of the Library of Congress “Living Legacies”).

click here for larger image
FIRST ANNUAL ARBORS RECORDS INVITATIONAL JAZZ PARTY

Recently, I had the opportunity to photograph backstage at the Arbors Records First Annual Arbors Records Invitational Piano Jazz Party at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort on Clearwater Beach. There’s a lot of jazz in Florida and a lot here in the Tampa Bay Area. One of the biggest supporters of jazz in the area is a niche recording label, Arbors Records.

Arbors Records specializes in classic jazz. So, what is “classic jazz”? That’s tough to answer because it’s not even possible to define “jazz.” But, everyone knows it when they hear it. I would suggest that a workable definition of classic jazz is jazz up until the early 1940s, or pre-bebop (pre-Charlie Parker, pre-John Coltrane, pre-Miles Davis, pre-Ornet Coleman, pre-Dizzy Gillespie). You might also use this more descriptive definition of “classic jazz” from the Classic Jazz Society of Toronto.

The opportunity to shoot backstage at First Annual Arbors Records Invitational Piano Jazz Party was made possible by the invitation of a good friend and professional colleague of many years, Gary Baldassari. I first made Gary’s acquaintance when working the NFL Super Bowl pregame show as its music director during the 1990s. Gary was the audio specialist and audio engineer for Best Productions, for whom we both worked, that produced the shows. Baldassari worked for many years for Walt Disney productions and is the author of numerous technical articles on recording techniques. He is a frequent audio engineer for the Pori Jazz Festival in Pori, Finland, and has long been associated with Arbors Records, recording many of their albums and running sound for their various events such as their famous jazz cruises and their classic jazz festivals.

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GARY BALDASSARI MIXING AT ARBORS RECORDS JAZZ PARTY

According to the Arbors Records website:

“Arbors Records was founded by Rachel and Mat Domber in 1989 to record and preserve the classic styles of jazz. It originated because of their desire to record their friend, the outstanding reedman, singer and composer, Rick Fay, who had been in the music business for over 40 years mostly as a performer at the Disney parks in California and Florida, but had never previously recorded.”

I’d had the good fortune working with Rick Fay on one of the NFL Super Bowl pregame shows I was the music director for. It was for one of the New Orleans shows and Mr. Fay did played our soulful clarinet intro of “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” leading into “The Saints Go Marching In” for a beautiful, archetypical classic jazz recording I still cherish. It was Mr. Baldassari who introduced me to Mr. Fay and secured his services for this recording.

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OVERHEAD CLOSEUP PROJECTIONS AT ARBORS FESTIVAL

Continuing from their About Us page:

“Since the release of their first recording, Rick Fay’s Hot Five: Live at Lone Pine, in 1990, Arbors Records through the summer of 2002, has put out almost 160 CDs…Another 30 to 40 CDs have been recorded but are still in production…Arbors Records is also the producer of the acclaimed March of Jazz weekend jazz parties, held in Florida the third weekend in March…Arbors Records is also a sponsor of the Suncoast Dixieland Jazz Classic, in Clearwater Beach, Florida. In addition, Mat Domber is a board member of the American Federation of Jazz Societies and a co-founder of the Statesmen of Jazz, a touring ensemble group of senior musicians who perform at jazz events and give clinics in the schools…Starting with the original dixieland recordings by various Rick Fay groups, the label now embraces traditional jazz and contemporary classic jazz and the swing styles of the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and beyond. But regardless of style, all of the recordings have in common a love of melody, improvisation and swing.”

This event–The First Annual Arbors Records Invitational Piano Jazz Party–was beautiful music. I got to hear the most astounding two-piano performance by a pair of European artists, Louis Mazetier (Paris) and Bernd Lhotzky (Munich). I adore good two-piano classic jazz work. Many a night have I listened to the Marian McPartland show on NPR. What was always so unbelievable to me was that her wonderful series of guest and she would, completely extemporaneously, perform together on two pianos. It’s much easier to imagine one piano and a single line instrument, such as saxophone or clarinet, doing this successfully…but two-pianos!? There are so many notes on a piano and it is so easy to get in each other’s way, to step on each other’s musical toes. The challenge is to not create acoustic mayhem.

Mazetier and Lhotzky are even all the more amazing because they are both premier “stride piano” experts. “Stride piano” is early classic jazz in which the left hand of the piano player is constantly jumping huge distances to play, with just that one hand, a very melodic bass part as well as an inner chordal accompaniment. Add to that a florid melodic invention on top with the other hand and one pianist manages to sound like three musicians! So, put together two famous stride piano musicians and you’ve got the effect of six musicians with just two people. Exciting barely covers it. One’s body twitches and bobs continuously. It’s impossible to hold still.

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LOUIS MAZETIER and BERND LHOTZKY

According to Hot House Florida, the Arbors Records Second Annual Invitational International Piano Party will be January 15th, 16th and 17th, 2010. They say:

“The all event price is $250.00 per person. (No individual event tickets will be sold) Seating is limited to 200 people at 20 tables of ten. A 10% discount will be given for 10 reserving together. Seating will be arranged in order of reservations.

“The Sheraton Sand Key Resort is located at 1160 Gulf Boulevard, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767. Telephone: 1-727-595-1611, FAX; 1-727-563-6004: TOLL FREE: 1-800-456-7263. A limited number of hotel rooms are available at the special rate of $199.00 per night, single or double occupancy, plus tax. Please make your hotel reservations directly with the hotel and mention Arbors Records Invitational.

“Arbors Records is located at 2189 Cleveland Street, Suite 225, Clearwater, FL 33765. Phone: 1-727-466-0432; FAX: 1-272-466-0432; TOLL FREE: 1-800-299-1930. Visa, Mastercard, American Express and personal checks accepted.”

You can order CDs directly from Arbors Records or from a variety of their distributors such as Webster Records Jazz by Mail. An excellent article on Arbors Records is this all about jazz article from 2004. The Arbors Records website has an excellent page of jazz links that is very informative.

Hot House Florida, out of Palm Beach Florida, is a blog associated with Hot House Artists that “provides insight into select local and national jazz, Latin and blues artists that will be performing in our area.”

Another classic jazz local classic jazz resource is Puppy Jazz Distribution, out of Sarasota. One of the distributors who carries Arbors Records, Puppy Jazz specializes in classic jazz and hard to find labels. They have a free newsletter available by email or online.

For more information on coming Arbors Records events, such as the 2009 Jazz Cruise and The Second Annual Arbors Records Invitational Jazz Party, be sure to visit the Arbors Records website or contact them by email, snail-mail, or phone.

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ARBORS JAZZ PARTY at the SHERATON SAND KEY

Please see definitions for Yule and Saturnalia. Two brief quotes: “Yule is a winter festival identified with Christmas in modern times. The pagan Germanic peoples celebrated Yule from late December to early January on a date determined by the lunar Germanic calendar. When the Julian calendar was adopted in northern Europe, Yule was placed on December 25 to correspond with the date of Christmas, but was originally on December 21. The word “Yule” come from the same root as the word “jolly.” Modern Yule traditions include decorating a fir or spruce tree, burning a Yule log, hanging mistletoe and holly branches, giving gifts, and general celebration and merriment.” and “Saturnalia is the feast with which the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of the god Saturn, which was on 17 December. Over the years, it expanded to a whole week, to 23 December. Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals. It was marked by tomfoolery and reversal of social roles, in which slaves and masters ostensibly switched places.”

(I love that word, “tomfoolery.”)

traditional; see The Boar’s Head

The boar’s head in hand bring I, (Or: The boar’s head in hand bear I,)
Bedeck’d with bays and rosemary.
I pray you, my masters, be merry (Or: And I pray you, my masters, merry be)
Quot estis in convivio (Translation: As many as are in the feast)

CHORUS: Caput apri defero (Translation: The boar’s head I offer)
Reddens laudes Domino (Translation: Giving praises to the Lord)

The boar’s head, as I understand,
Is the rarest dish in all this land,
Which thus bedeck’d with a gay garland
Let us servire cantico. (Translation: Let us serve with a song)

(CHORUS)

Our steward hath provided this
In honour of the King of Bliss;
Which, on this day to be served is
In Reginensi atrio. (Translation: In the Queen’s hall)

traditional; see Here We Come a Wassailing

Here we come a wassailing
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come a wandering
So fair to be seen.

CHORUS: Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail too,
And God bless you and send you a happy New Year.
And God send you a happy New Year.

Our wassail cup is made
Of the rosemary tree,
And so is your beer
Of the best barley.

(CHORUS)

We are not daily beggars
That beg from door to door,
But we are neighbours’ children
Whom you have seen before.

(CHORUS)

Good Master and good Mistress,
As you sit by the fire,
Pray think of us poor children
Are wandering in the mire.

(CHORUS)

We have a little purse
Made of ratching leather skin;
We want some of your small change
To line it well within.

(CHORUS)

Call up the Butler of this house,
Put on his golden ring;
Let him bring us a glass of beer,
And the better we shall sing.

(CHORUS)

Bring us out a table,
And spread it with a cloth;
Bring us out a mouldy cheese,
And some of your Christmas loaf.

(CHORUS)

God bless the Master of this house,
Likewise the Mistress too;
And all the little children
That round the table go.

(CHORUS)

traditional; see Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly

Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
‘Tis the season to be jolly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Don we now our gay apparel,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
Toll the ancient Yule tide carol,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

See the blazing Yule before us,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Strike the harp and join the chorus.
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Follow me in merry measure,
Fa la la, la gay la, la la la.
While I tell of Yule tide treasure,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Fast away the old year passes,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Sing we joyous, all together,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
Heedless of the wind and weather,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

traditional; see We Wish You A Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

CHORUS: Good tidings we bring to you and your kin;
Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding; (recipe for figgy pudding)
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer

(CHORUS)

We won’t go until we get some;
We won’t go until we get some;
We won’t go until we get some, so bring some out here

(CHORUS)

(Repeat Verse 1)

traditional; see An English Drinking Song from Henry VIII’s Songbook

Tyme to pas with goodly sport
Our spryts to revyve and comfort;
To pype, to synge,
To daunce, to spryng,
With pleasure and delyte
Following sensual appetyte.

Note: All the pictures in this post were taken in Rome.

One more free selection from my pipe organ mp3 album on Amazon of one of the carol arrangements of mine published by Concordia, the rousing good tune, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” Hope you enjoy it. Just click on the rightward-pointing triangle in the icon below and it should play automatically. It’s free and there’s nothing to download.

IF PLAYER DOESN’T WORK, PLAY OR DOWNLOAD MP3 FOR FREE HERE
to play, left click; to download, right click on link and select “Save link as…” or “Save target as…”

This is a lower resolution mp3. If you’re interested in the highest resolution recording, that’s available on the Inkwatu store.