not the future of jazz, but the past

This day has found me an hour late since I first got out of bed.

Sure, part of that was the "Spring Forward" thing, part of it was the on-again, off-again rain that started last night and has continued, still.

However, my missing the first half of the "Jewish Jazz" concert by Amici Music is the fault of the SJCAF and/or the Savannah JEA.

Set a month ago to begin at 2 PM, the time was recently changed to 1 PM, but no one sent the memo to me.

Ah, well, that meant I arrived right on time for the noshes and intermission.

The auditorium was filled with artwork, so I took my time and explored the pieces.

My favorite was this one.

The highlight, for me, is that blue, tiled roof.

I had to look at it from several different angles to make sure it wasn't a multi-media item!

It definitely struck me as three-dimensional on this two-dimensional work.

The two people on the porch are a bit crudely drawn, but that was in keeping with most of the characters in the other paintings lining the walls and mounted on easels.

I later found out that all the artwork had been painted by the father of Daniel Weiser, the pianist in today's concert.

 

He was also the straight man, giving us all the facts about each piece of music.

The man in the pork pie hat, Seth Kibel, was most definitely the funny guy, providing little anecdotes about the song composers.

Here's one of the jokes.

'A young man asked if there was money to be made playing jazz. "Sure, but Benny Goodman has already made all of it," he was told.'

Here they are with the Blues number at the start of "An American In Paris".

That's when I knew: right place, right time.

I'd watched that musical last year right after the "Future of Jazz" concert for SBHF35.

(I missed that annual on February 18 due to extreme cold and the parking issue at SavCultArtsCenter.)

So, what's up with the screen?

Daniel Weiser wanted folks to watch his hands on the piano.

I found that quite interesting, too.

When they did Benny Goodman's "Grand Slam" (hooray for baseball fans!), his hands stayed near the middle of the keyboard for the majority of the time.

That had not been the case for the song just before.

"Klezmusik" was written by Simon Sargon, a man raised in Bombay, and it had a definite Indian flavor.

Weiser's hands spent much of the time on the right end of the piano keyboard for that one!

In fact, that Sargon number was the only one in the second half of today's program that was played on that right end of the piano; all the others were in the middle of the keyboard.

Yes, quite interesting!

Still, I think I liked the last piece best, though for unconventional reasons.

First, notice the keyboard on film; there's a pair of bongos resting on the floor over on the right end of the keyboard.

Weiser would play those twice during the "Concerto For Clarinet" (which is the instrument played by Kibel for all the tunes).

Second, the first part of the piece sounded quite a bit like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", which made me smile, as I was sure Sheldon Cooper would have approved.

Third, Weiser and Kibel had quite a few stories to tell about the composer, Artie Shaw.

Apparently, the 8-times wed Shaw was known for being quite a jerk in the jazz world, much like Bob Dylan has been in the folk world.

Artie Shaw didn't like people dancing to his music; as he said, " it was good enough to just sit and listen to it".

Artie Shaw once left during intermission and went to Acapulco, Mexico, where he remained for two months, just because he got tired of playing the same music over and over.

Artie Shaw stopped playing music completely when he was 43 years old, saying his talent was like " a gangrenous arm that had to be cut off to keep from killing him".

That was in 1954, and he lived until 2004.

Yikes... what a putz.

(smile!)

All in all, that was an entertaining, and an educational, way to spend part of a chilly and drizzly Sunday afternoon.

Thanks, y'all!