Rachmaninoff in a different light

I wrote an entry in 2014 about Sergei Rachmaninoff's recitals in Kansas City (he gave six recitals here between 1920 and 1938). Most people, including me, think of and "know" Rachmaninoff primarily for his piano works. That makes sense I think. His symphonies are great too. If you like choral music, you may be surprised to know that Rachmaninoff also wrote several choral works. In 1915, he wrote and premiered The All-Night Vigil, a work for a capella choir. This selection is called Praise the Lord:

The complete work is also very beautiful. And oh, those basses!

Funny story. When I was very little, I had a record called Sparky and the Magic Piano. Did you have this record?

I still have it....very scratched and worn...in my collection. Sparky is a little boy struggling to learn how to play the piano. He has a dream that his piano comes to life and talks to him, and let's him play any piece he wants. He ends up going on tour and amazing the world. But like all dreams, it comes to an abrupt end when suddenly, his piano stops playing for him. He is stranded on stage with a combative piano and faces humiliation. Anyway....one of the pieces he plays is the Prelude in C-sharp minor by Rachmaninoff. (funny side note....Rachmaninoff was known amongst his friends as "C-sharp" due to this composition's immense popularity.) When I heard Sparky announce he was going to play the Prelude in C-sharp minor by Rachmaninoff, I thought this was his first and last name....I had heard of Rock Hudson, and I assumed this was Rock Maninoff. I told my parents that Maninoff was my new favorite composer and they stared at me...."who?"  "Maninoff....Rock Maninoff." The look of their faces was priceless and I endured a fair amount of good-natured ribbing for many years afterwards.

Great Chords: Liszt's Sonata in B minor

"It is impossible to convey the nature of this musical monster in words. Never have I heard a more impudent or brazen concatenation of utterly disparate elements, such savage ravings, so bloody an assault on all that is musical...Anybody who has heard this thing and liked it is beyond hope." - Eduard Hanslick

The "musical monster" Eduard Hanslick is referring to is the Sonata in B minor by Franz Liszt. (Hanslick was a well known German music critic 1825-1904). The Sonata in B minor was published in 1854 and was the only sonata that Liszt ever wrote. Much has been written about this epic work. I came to it very late in my musical exploration...just within the past year or so. To me it is a symphony within a sonata. It is huge in scope and ambition, soaring and boundless, but also at times delicate, measured and contemplative. After listening to it, it leaves you exhausted...but in a good way! I can't imagine what one must go through performing it. 

My "Great Chords" installment is about specific moments in a piece of music that stand out musically...that really grab my ear. In the Sonata in B minor, this moment occurs at bar 307.  Look above at the music at the top of this page. The last 2 notes...or chords...occur about eleven minutes into the piece following a very quiet and beautiful Recitativo phrase marked as ritenuto ed appassionato. They are scary...play them if you have a piano nearby. I know what the notes are...but I was not sure what the chord was called, so I reached out to my friend Dr. Reynold Simpson, Associate Professor of Music at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Dr. Simpson offers this analysis of the chord in question:

"Liszt really pushed to the edge. Functionally this example is pretty straightforward. In the key of B minor the progression is a minor I chord (F minor), a major VI on the lower sixth degree of the key (D flat major), then a D-flat augmented triad (with the A natural) sounds as the dominant substitution as it has two leading tones (F to G-flat and A to B-flat) and this leads to G-flat, which is the Neapolitan of the key (lowered second). The odd thing is that this Neapolitan chord in not just a major chord, but a major seventh chord with the seventh in the bass. The major seventh, with the inversion, the dynamics, and the lower thick voicing is what is producing the harsh sound."

Another fascinating thing about this sonata is the very first measure. This giant work kicks off with two notes..a simple G in the bass register. I can't think of any other work that begins this way. If you are not ready for it, you can actually miss it altogether because it is so quiet and staccato. It seems to me as though he could have started with the second measure...that would have made more sense to the listener...but that is the genius of Liszt.

Another interesting point about this piece; it was the first piano work to be published showing a low B, which is the very last note of the piece, and the only time in the entire work that it appears. Prior to this time, the lowest note written for a piano was C (Chopin and Schumann never wrote a note lower than C).

"

Its fascinates me that what today are considered great compositions were not always received well when they were first published. Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major is a great example of this. How could it not be immediately recognized as perhaps the greatest of all violin concertos? Well, for some reason it was not, and it took decades for it to begin to be recognized as a great work. Such is the case with the Liszt sonata. The quote above is scathing to say the least. Critics can be merciless. And wrong.

I would encourage you to listen to this sonata. Here is a link to YouTube that has the score to follow. You will see the incredible genius of Liszt as you watch and listen. I think Andre Laplante's performance is excellent as well.

Classics in Commercials: Bach and a Triangle Solo

Here is a funny TV commercial that cracked me up. A chamber orchestra begins playing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto number 3. A few bars into the performance, a percussionist playing a triangle surges forward to take a solo...a long solo.....

Of course, Bach did not score the Brandenburg Concertos to include a triangle. But it sure is funny to imagine that he had. Well done GEICO.

Artist's Profile: Imant Raminsh

I remember the moment in 2011 when I heard a piece of music that changed my life. I was surfing through YouTube looking for Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus. This was a period of time when I was exploring scared music, which I have always loved, but admittedly knew less about than other classical music. I saw a video for Ave Verum Corpus and clicked it. A few moments into the video, it was clear this was not Mozart. But who? I read the description and learned that this was Ave Verum Corpus by Imant Raminsh. Who is Imant Raminsh? Before I tried to figure that out, I watched and listened to the video....an absolutely gorgeous, spellbinding work, performed by the University of Utah Singers. I literally sat there frozen by what I had experienced. So I listened to it again....and again....and again. Today, in 2017 as I write this, I still come back to this work frequently. The recording itself is very bright and clear. The performance is exceptional. The voices blend together so beautifully. The human voice is the finest instrument of all...and choral singing of this quality knows no equal.  Anyway, I read all I could about Imant Raminsh and became a big fan of his music. He is a composer, musician, teacher, and conductor from Canada. I decided to see if I could contact him and talk to him about his music. He was very gracious to me and agreed to answer my questions via email and let me share his answers it in this blog. 


TH  I first learned about you when I “stumbled” on a video of Ave Verum Corpus on YouTube…your Ave Verum Corpus…performed by the University of Utah Singers. I was absolutely blown away and transfixed by it. It remains one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard, which is why I have sought you out to talk to. I appreciate your willingness to answer my questions.

Where did your Ave Verum Corpus come from...meaning tell me about when it was composed, your inspiration for it etc….

IR  In 1972/73, I took a trip around the world that included trekking into Everest Base Camp and some small climbs in that area, exploring Sarawak (north Borneo) and crisscrossing Australia where I had lots of relatives. It was while I was in Adelaide staying with my aunt and uncle that the urge came upon me to write a short motet. In the botanical gardens that were close to where I was staying there was an immense Araucaria tree at the base of which I would often sit and contemplate. It was there that the Ave Verum Corpus came to be written in a couple of days. The choice of text was out of homage to Mozart and there are a couple of hidden references to Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus in mine.

TH  Where did you grow up?

IR  I was born in Latvia in 1943 but our family fled westward in July 1944 with the approach of Russian tanks, and we spent the end of the war years and the first post-war years as refugees and later, transit camps in Germany. We came to Canada in the Summer of 1948 and settled in northern Ontario where my father was employed as a forester and my mother supplemented the family income by teaching piano (she had finished a piano performance course at the Riga Conservatory before the war.) Later, I moved to Toronto to pursue violin studies at the Royal Conservatory while finishing high school.

TH   Did you hear classical music in your home during childhood?

IR  Yes, of course. All of my siblings (3 sisters one younger brother) took piano lessons. I also took  up violin. We did have a record player.

TH  Are there any composers who you would list as your primary influences or favorites?

 IR  Initially the Romantics, later the Classicists, and Baroque masters. Even later, some of the   Moderns such as Bartok and Kodaly and Poulenc. I hate to be more specific because I respond to 

 the works rather than the composers. I remember being completely stunned the first time I listened   all the way through Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

 TH  One of my standard questions for musicians and composers is: do you actually listen to much   music in your free time? I find that many say they don’t because they play music for a living and   therefore want to get away from it when they are not working, which I think is sad, What about you?

 IR Who has free time? Mostly I listen when I am driving but hardly ever at home. My composition takes place away from any instruments and my wife says you would never know there was a musician living here considering how quiet the house normally is.

TH   What instruments do you play?

 IR  My primary instrument has always been violin and I was for many years one of the principle violinists in the Okanagan Symphony (British Columbia), but I play viola as well and my piano skills are generally good enough for accompanying students.

TH  Where do you live?

 IR  My wife Becky and I and our golden retriever Jaspor live in Coldstream B.C. (adjacent to Vernon, B.C.) in the Okanagan Valley. The north Okanagan is a transition zone between the dry, arid bunchgrass-Sonoran desert to the south and the interior Montana Douglas Fir/hemlock/cedar rain forest to the north and east.

TH   I write a lot about classical music in our culture. I’m not sure about Canada, but here in the US, it has a very small audience. Are you optimistic about the future of classical music?

 IR Classical music requires time and effort to listen to-also an extended attention span and ability to focus. Audiences will always be smaller than for big pop events, but they will always be there.

TH  If you had to name your top 5 composers, who would they be?

 IR This list will always change from day to day, but J.S. Bach, will always be there.

 TH    This may seem like a stupid question, but as amazing as you are, why haven’t more people heard of you?....and I mean this in the nicest possible way because you are an amazing composer!!!

 IR  I don’t know why more people haven’t heard of me. Maybe it’s enough that you have. How many do I need?

 TH   Are you a baseball fan?

 IR  Not particularly. My sports are hiking, cross country skiing, canoeing, and such.

 TH   Do you like coffee?

 IR  Yes!!! Dark roast-maybe Sumatra-black if its good coffee-often with cream, but no fancy other flavors. Coffee is one of the food groups (also chocolate).

 TH Thank you so much for your time and help with this. If you are ever in the Kansas City area, please give me a call and we can meet for coffee.

Here is Ave Verun Corpus by Imant Raminsh, performed by the University of Utah Singers.

Discovering Nick Drake

More than twenty years ago now, my good friend Jerry, whom I have known since high school, and who has a wide range of musical tastes, shared a CD with me called Pink Moon by a British artist named Nick Drake. When I listened to it, I was instantly hypnotized by his haunting voice and amazing guitar playing. The songs were stark, simple, somewhat dark....very much "not" like anyone else I had ever heard. He only made 3 albums in his short career, so I quickly bought them all. Pink Moon was his last album. Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter were his first two, and have a much different sound then Pink Moon, but are equally as interesting. These first two albums incorporate a variety of interesting styles and instrumentation, and have some very "classical" sounding arrangements. Here are a couple of examples:

Fly. This song was used in the soundtrack to the "quirky" 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums. It uses the very unusual combination of acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, viola, and harpsichord. The lyrics are simple and the tone of his voice combines with the instruments in a very elegant way.

Another song with a classical music infusion is "Cello Song." Once again, a simple, sparse sound with some percussion, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, vocal, and cello.

The last song I will share is a short instrumental piece called Introduction...the first cut from the Bryter Layter album. It features an acoustic guitar backed by a string ensemble. Very beautiful. Very "classical."

It is hard to describe Nick Drake's music, and I am not going to try and compare it to anyone else. You can do that for yourself. But I love his music and wish that he had lived longer to continue to write and record. He died in 1974 from an overdose of medication he was taking for depression, a condition he battled his entire life. His music has gained recognition and appreciation in the years since his death. It is sad he was not appreciated during his lifetime.
I hope you find his music as fascinating and fulfilling as I do.

Kansas City Symphony Concert 9.17.17

The Kansas City Symphony kicked-off another season this past weekend at Helzberg Hall. I decided to go to the Sunday performance. "Kick-off" is an apt term for this weekend because the Kansas City Chiefs also had their home opener this afternoon as well. I wondered if that would have any effect on the size of the audience for the Symphony. To my eye, it did not. The hall was very full. I admit that as a classical music geek, every time I go to a concert, it's a big deal for me. But the opening weekend of a new season has a special energy to it...kind of like "back to school" or Opening Day for baseball.
The program got underway with Mr. Frank Byrne, the Executive Director of the KC Symphony, taking the stage to welcome us to the concert. Mr. Byrne always brings an air of class, dignity, enthusiasm, and positive energy to these concerts...as well as delivering the all too necessary "turn off your cell phones and don't take photos during the concert" reminders. But on this day, the first Sunday concert of the season, he also invited us to stand and take part in what has become a marvelous tradition at the Symphony...a rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Maestro Stern led the occasion facing the audience and flag from the podium...and he is singing with true gusto and vigor. I have a lot to tell you about the rest of this amazing program, but honestly, this moment each year has become very special to me. Everyone sings and fills this incredible hall with such energy and emotion. It is quite special. Bravo.
The program this weekend featured pianist Natasha Paremski playing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto no 3 in D minor, so we can start there. It was composed in 1909 to be played on his upcoming tour of the United States. It premiered on November 28, 1909. Here is the headline from the New York Sun the following day, and the review in the New York Sun when it was played by the New York Philharmonic on January 16, 1910, conducted by Gustav Mahler.

The critics and the audience responded favorably, but the initial consensus was, "The concerto was too long and it lacked rhythmic and harmonic contrast between the first movement and the rest of the concerto." I don't think so. I lose all track of time when I hear this Concerto.
As I watched and listened, I was in awe of what was taking place in front of me. The sound was clear...warm and balanced. I know the Hall has something to do with this, but the soloist and the orchestra get my credit. One of my friends told me, after attending the Friday night performance, he thought the Rach 3 was OK, but the pianist beat the hell out of the piano and it didn't capture his heart like he thought it would. Another friend of mine also attended one of the earlier performances and said he burst into tears because it moved him so much. They both agreed that Ms. Paremski played flawlessly. I agree. And I would score it a TKO, Paremski over Steinway. That piano absorbed a healthy dose of abuse but never backed down. When she touched the keys to make it sing, it sang.
Stern and the orchestra were perfectly in sync with her. I think Rachmaninoff's orchestration deserves almost as much credit or discussion as his piano composition. And an orchestra has to be able to weave in and out...above and below...the piano. KCS did this perfectly. One thing to note; as powerful as this orchestra is, the KCS plays SO well at pianissimo...and with equal intensity as at forte....not many orchestras can do that.
Anyway...I kept asking myself...where did Rachmaninoff come up with this Concerto? What's behind it? Where did it come from? Others have asked the same thing. I found a quote from Rachmaninoff when he was asked if the Concerto has roots in Russian folk music or liturgical influences?
He spoke to this: "The first theme of my Concerto is borrowed neither from folk song sources nor from church sources. It simply wrote itself." Hmmm...wrote itself. That does not compute for me. A mortal human sat down and wrote this music.....no way. Humans can't do this, right? Well...that human did. This Concerto is in a class by itself. Don't get me wrong, his other Concertos, especially no 2, are also wonderful. But this one is different. It challenges the musicians and the listener on a higher level than does no 2....listen to them both and tell me if you agree.
Ms. Paremski showed that she possessed the full range of technique and expression necessary to frighten you with the Concerto's ferocity, and then immediately melt your heart and bring you to tears with its passion. Her tenderness was my favorite aspect of her playing.
After the Concerto was over, the Hall erupted in applause..a standing ovation. Ms. Paremski, Maestro Stern and the musicians took their bows repeatedly. It seemed from my vantage point that they all felt good about what had just happened...and they should.
After intermission, Maestro Stern introduced the newest members of the orchestra. He then talked about the next piece, Odna Zhizn, by Christopher Rouse. This contemporary work may seem out of place on a program of Russian giants such as Rachmaninoff and Rimsky-Korsakov and Stern admitted as much. But Rouse's wife is named Natasha, just as our piano soloist....nope, that's not going to correlate. And I am not sure if it matters....I liked this piece. It tells a shocking story of a horrible act...a woman, the composer's wife, brutally assaulted. Homeless. Lost. Hopeless. But then it becomes a story of triumph over adversity. Of forgiveness. Musically speaking, it is rich and powerful. Sixteen minutes of music that wrings your heart. Erie glissando, prominent use of a celeste, which was made most famous in the Romantic tradition by Tchaikovsky...a Russian.... marimba, rhythmic intensity. It worked for me. One of my friends I mentioned earlier said he thought this piece sounded like a horror movie soundtrack. Maybe. But I would also say it is the music to a love story.
Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol is a brilliant work..a crowd pleaser...a classical "rock show." Infectious melodies and rhythms dominate. "According to my plans, it was to glitter with dazzling orchestral color." -RK. It does just that. He dedicated this piece to the St. Petersburg Opera Orchestra, with whom Capriccio Espagnol was first performed on October 31, 1887.
And all of this happened on the first weekend of the 2017-18  Kansas City Symphony Season!! When it starts this good, one can only fantasize about how great the rest of the season will be!

Artist's Profile: Chef Michael Smith

When thinking about the "Arts" in our communities, our thoughts of course turn to music, dance, theater, and the artwork you find in museums. But we should not forget about the "Culinary Arts." Great food and drink also help define a city's status and prestige. My Kansas City friends might remember many years ago when the KC Chiefs quarterback, Steve Bono, made a comment that "the worst restaurant in San Francisco was better than the best restaurant in Kansas City." Ouch! That rubbed a lot of people here the wrong way and it showed how even our culinary reputation is important to the fabric of our community. Cooking is an art. And one of the great artists in the culinary world is Chef Michael Smith. (He won the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Midwest 1999) Mr. Smith's restaurant at the corner of 19th and Main in Kansas City is called...Michael Smith. He also owns Extra Virgin, which is next door to Michael Smith. I recently paid Mr. Smith a visit at his restaurant to talk to him about cooking, music and Kansas City...and much more.

TH)    I believe my Mom interviewed you many years ago when she worked at the Sun Newspapers.

MS)   I don’t know if I remember her, but I remember being interviewed for that publication, so it was her!

TH)   Tell me about your exposure to classical music. Did you hear it growing up?

MS)   Never. I grew up on Patsy Cline and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. We lived in Amarillo, Texas, Lubbock, Texas, and Plainview, Texas.

TH)   Were you born in Texas?

MS)   I was born in South Dakota. And we moved eleven times to get through twelve years of school. My mother was in the restaurant business. It’s not like I didn’t know it existed, but I was a rock n’ roller for a long time, and I still like rock ‘n roll. I just don’t understand….I don’t have the depth of knowledge about opera or classical music to really get it. So I don’t get it. But I listen to it because if I’m driving home from work and it’s playing, I can finish my day and think about whatever and it’s mellow and enjoyable. And working for the Kauffman Foundation…we feed the symphony after the performances so we get Joshua Bell in here, and Yo Yo Ma.

TH)   Wow!

MS)   Yo-Yo Ma came in a few years ago and he hugs me like he’s my friend and I’m thinking “You don’t know me!”  And that’s cool because there aren’t very many “God like” professionals like that…some can be very standoffish, …very awesome and cool.  Emmanuel Ax was here not too long ago and we fed him and he remembered a previous meal after the Kauffman had just opened…he was one of the opening performers that weekend. We went to one of his performances and then he was having dinner up here and he asked me (very sheepishly) “Can I ask you a stupid question about braising some meat?” And I go “It’s not a stupid question.” So this last time he said “I remember I asked you this really bad question!” (Laughing)  And I said “Never stupid…are you kidding me?”  But I listen to it (classical music) and I cook with Michael Stern and I understand…the similarities between our businesses…all the moving parts. I’m like an orchestra leader moving people around.

TH)   Like the conductor….

MS)   Yes. I am conducting. So our business is similar...a lot of businesses are similar when you really get down to the nuts and bolts and skeletons. I respect the talent.

TH)   Most of the time the conductor is directing from the podium, but sometimes he/she conducts while playing an instrument as the soloist. Are you a conductor from the podium in your kitchen or are you working a station and conducting from there?

MS)   Sometimes I’m doing both. Sometimes if it’s a pretty smooth night I’m conducting from the podium. And then when I have to step in to play the music I go and play an instrument…get on the stove and cook. I do both and I love both and I think my cooks want to see me do both. They want to be next to me cooking.

TH)   Is there a certain composer or classical piece you like?

MS)   I can’t really say which is which, but I love it when I hear certain violin parts or such. I got a Psych degree in Colorado and I had a professor who was a classical pianist and he was very good. But he was so critical of his own work…he just gave it up. The trials and tribulations of getting to the top of your profession…we look at these guys and we think they are amazing and yet they’re not good enough to be the elite. Or I’ll go to the American Royal to watch the barbecue competition and some of my chef friends from around the country come to town to compete every year and their stuff is incredible and they’ll get 102^nd place! (laughing). I’m like ...WHOA…Or athletes who are not elite…but are still incredible.

TH)   Is it hard to be elite in Kansas City?

MS)   Certain cities force you into mediocrity. If you’re in Chicago, you have every resource to be great. If you are in LA or San Francisco….if you are by the incredible food sources, then you have every single opportunity. Here, you’re not quite connected to every food source or talent source so there’s slim pickens and you’ve really got to work harder or really maneuver to get to the elite level because it’s just not as easy and it’s easier to say “Oh, Kansas City’s not sophisticated enough so I’m OK with being mediocre.” You would never say that about yourself, but you might be OK just “settling” here. You can still make money here and you don’t have to be great to do so. But if you want to be great…you have to work to be great.

TH)   Baseball is the same way...not everyone is going to be Hosmer or Moustakas. There are plenty of guys who find their niche and carve out a decent career even though they never make it to the big leagues.

MS)   Yeah, you need those other players. Sometimes you think about the guys who played 17-18 years and had kind of a so-so career, but he still played 18 years! And he was doing what he loved.

TH)   Back to your youth. Who were your favorite bands or artists outside of the classical world other than Patsy Cline or Herb Albert?

MS)   We went to Coldplay last night. I don’t love them but they were really good professional musicians. I used to listen to Al DiMeola a lot as a teenager because a friend of mine would listen to him. Jean Luc Ponty and some jazz stuff. I like Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple…Canned Heat and some of those old bands like Grand Funk Railroad.

I have this young kid who works for us and he makes all of our pastas downstairs. He started as a dishwasher. He didn’t know anything when he started…practically homeless. He’s just this good kid and we’ve kinda moved him. He played in this heavy death metal band, but now he doesn’t play that much. I 

would hear a song by Traffic or Grand Funk and would tell him “Google these guys…check them out. Or “Check this song by Montrose out.” Everyone knows Sammy Hagar because he was either on his own or in Van Halen, but he was in a band before all of that. So this kid is 23 and he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. I’ve got cooks who don’t know who Jim Morrison is (laughing). Are you kidding me????

TH)   The older we get, there are so many people or things that several generations after us have never heard of.

MS)   But that’s what our parents dealt with too…..

TH)   I saw your picture with Mick Jagger on Facebook.

MS)   Yeah we were just talking about that last night coming back from the concert. He was sitting right over there (points to a table in the corner).

TH)   Was he friendly?

MS)   Yeah he was cool. He was with four other people…kinda like his handlers…his personal assistant, his dresser, and a really tall dude who played the sax on stage. But Mick was very cool, very nice. We didn’t bother him too much. He had two handlers protecting him the whole time. I let him eat and only towards the end did I go talk to him.

TH)   How did he know to come here to eat?

MS)   His assistant called and said “Hey we’re bringing somebody in but we need to come scope out the place. They came a couple hours early and looked at things and said this is OK. But we’ll have to close off the bathrooms. They wanted everything really controlled.

TH)    Sounds like the Secret Service coming in.

MS)   Yeah. He said “We’re looking at the American (Restaurant) and at you.” They came here.

TH)   Speaking of music, do you allow music to be played in the kitchen during production or service?

MS)   During production, yeah. Not during service.

TH)   Who gets to pick the music?

MS)   Everyone gets to pick. I just tell them no Bee Gees.

TH)   Country?

MS)   There are not a lot of people who listen to country. I do like some country. I like the writing more than the music. They are the freest writers…they just say whatever they want. I used to say (about country) … “that music sucks. That’s terrible music.” But after a while, I would say…”No, it’s not terrible music…I just don’t like it. It’s good music…it’s just not my style.”

TH)   How do you get your music? Digital, CD, Spotify, Vinyl etc…..?

MS)   I used to have a ton of vinyl. But I moved to Europe in the ‘80s and worked in France for close to five years. So I sold…and bought...everything twice. Had I kept them, some of them would be worth tons of money. But I do use Spotify and Pandora.

TH)   Let’s talk about the renaissance going on in Kansas City. You’re right here at 19^thand Main so you’ve had a front row seat to all of the changes.

MS)   It’s almost like that movie…was it Get Shorty?  It had Harvey Keitel who owned that little convenience story in New York….

TH)   Smoke (1995).

MS)   Right…and he took a picture everyday outside of his store from the same spot at the exact same time.

TH)   That’s a great movie. I actually wrote a piece about that movie for this blog. There is a wonderful scene when Harvey Keitel shares his photo albums with William Hurt and he (Hurt) eventually sees that his wife, who recently passed away, was in some of the pictures. A very touching scene that used some beautiful music by Shostakovich.

MS)   Sometimes I think I should have done that! This is my corner.

TH)   How long have you been in this space?

MS)   Ten years.

TH)   What was here before you?

MS)   Zin. Alex Pryor opened it. We used to see each other at the gym.  I was opening 40 Sardines out South. Alex was the pioneer. He was here from ’99 through ’07. And it was tough for him. Three things can happen when you open any business. Two are good and one is bad. You can be successful immediately...that’s great. You can fail immediately…that’s great. Or you can fail slowly and it sucks everything out of you. Your energy, your money, your passion...it sucks everything... and that’s the worst. And that’s what it did to Alex.  I had a good following when we opened those first couple of years…it was great. But little by little it just wears down because whatever was happening down here, maybe it was construction…it was just not enough. Now there’s enough. It’s still not enough, but it’s really good and it’s going to get better.

TH)   Sustainable?

MS)   Yeah it’s been sustainable because of our model and you either run your business or you don’t.

TH)   You’re here every day?

MS)   Oh yeah. I don’t have a choice and I love it. I went on vacation a few weeks ago to the beach with my kids and after a few days I was ready to go back to work!

TH)   I heard an interview on NPR awhile back with Anthony Bourdain. He was talking about his new documentary about Jeremiah Tower (Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent)…whom I had not heard of, but apparently was quite famous in the culinary world back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Anthony asked him if the same opportunity presented itself to him today…these many years later…would he do another restaurant? And he said fuck no!

MS)  I just watched that movie last week. He was a different kind of chef. I knew Jeremiah Tower. He disappeared off the face of planet for years. Even some of his best friends didn’t know where the hell he was. In our second year here, in ’09, we go to New York for the Beard Awards (James Beard Foundation Award) I took my chef at the time and we are on our way to the airport and we stop off at Marea which is this great Italian seafood restaurant in Columbus Circle and we’re sitting at the bar and he’s right there. He’s sitting right at the end of the bar, like three seats away. Nancy said “Isn’t that guy a famous chef?”  She didn’t know who he really was but she kind of recognized him because I talk about everybody and everything. I said “That’s Jeremiah Tower!” She said something to him and he said “I know Michael.” When his book came out, that was the food that Charlie (Trotter) wanted to do. Jeramiah Tower was the guy you’d love to interview. He’s the one that’s more like a symphony. He IS the symphony. He’s hearing the symphony in his head. He’s the composer. He got burned at Chez Panisse and he became very jaded and bitter.

But he was never the guy who was going to do all the physical work. He was going to be there and do work but he became the guy who was just all over it and everything he did, you just learned this other sensory sort of idea of cooking. It was passionate. We have recipes on the other side (Extra Virgin) because that’s a bigger animal and I’ve got younger people that train and they need to know certain things…certain recipes. But here we don’t have recipes. I want them to feel it. “I need two tablespoons of this” etc…that’s not how you cook. You have to get it…feel it….it comes from the gut and your passion and the heart. He (Tower) did that more than me even…

TH)   I saw Bradley Cooper’s movie recently (Burnt 2015) and I wondered how accurate or realistic it was in its depiction of what it’s like to be a great chef.

MS)   It was good….you never get your stars right away. Nobody comes in the next day…its months. It could be six months before they come. Some of the restaurants were a little too antiseptic. The Italian restaurant that had nothing in it???  No, that doesn’t exist. But generally, the passion and pressure is the same. You perform every night. I’m UP every night.

TH)   How do you have children and a family life in the restaurant world?

MS)   I’ve been married three times (laughs). From the time I was 12 years old...I started in a restaurant with my mom and sister…so 45 years now…I’ve been going home a woman who is somehow connected to me. There are no men in my life. My first wife and her daughter... I adopted her when she was one…she worked for me at 40 Sardines. Both worked for me. My second wife was Debbie Gold, and our two girls are both working for me... and my current wife is the GM here. I need that.  If you are in our business, you have to be with someone who understands the business. If I’m married to a doctor, we’re probably divorced a hundred times!

TH)   The contact with customers…do you still enjoy that part of the job?

MS)   I visit almost every table all the time. You’ve got to have thick skin because just like musicians or artists, you throw your stuff out there. And there’s usually that one table that you know (wincing)…As a chef, I’m probably the preeminent guy who visits tables. Nobody visits tables like I do. There are just not very many that do it, and it’s hard. And as I go around the world and eat, there are so many chefs that have so many restaurants they CAN’T do it anymore. Mario Batali can’t. Kansas City needs nurturing. Sure, I get the “How do I cook the swordfish Michael?” (laughs) But I’m trying to build relationships. I care. I’m not faking it. I actually CARE. I welcome them and show them hospitality. I’m GIVING…hopefully. (Smiles)

TH)   I feel like KC has taken a huge leap here musically. Just up the street we have a world class symphony orchestra, playing in a world-class hall. The Royals and Chiefs are relevant and competitive. The arts community is thriving. Downtown KC, and the Crossroads District are thriving.

MS)   You only need that ONE space to be unparalleled in the world. I tell people that all the time...my young cooks and staff… there is NOTHING better in the world than the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. There might be the same, but there’s nothing better because they built the top of the top.

We don’t need eight restaurants doing what we do here in town, we need forty. And we can’t really even have forty because we would never make it. But the number of restaurants you need to make your city THAT kind of city for food. ….there’s a threshold and I don’t really know what that number is. It may not be a number…there are two Cheesecake Factory’s in town and they both do $13 million dollars a year.  If you were to just distribute $26 million dollars to twenty (originals)….(shakes head).

TH)   Do you ever go to corporate chain restaurants?

MS)  We went to Eddie V’s when it opened because it’s Eddie V’s. We go because we know the GM or the chef or people there. I have to be very aware when new restaurants or bars open. And I need to be seen there. I need to go because of my standing in the chef community. I should visit there and eat so they can say that I came in. I’m not trying to pat myself on the back.  I’m very humble about what we do in the industry and what my stature is. I have to accept the fact that I am the “guy in town”.  Whether we execute or not, whether we’re good or not, you can’t get a bigger name in this town than me…there are a couple of others too…we I have to be conscious of that. I saw some people at the concert last night who said “Hey! We ate at your restaurant last night”…then I’m nervous…”Was it good?” (laughs) So I’m not a superstar but I’m always just a little “on” because people might watch me shop at Costco and say “What are you getting?”  I’m not saying it’s a burden and they don’t need me to be successful, but they want to know I came in to sample their product. And so I do that.

TH)   I will admit that I do eat at some chains…I like Chipotle for example….

MS)   Yeah. My kids like Chipotle so we’ll go there. I go to Starbucks in other towns, but I can drink espresso in my own restaurant. Oh, do you want some coffee?

TH)   Sure! (Michael gets up to go get me a cup of coffee…and it is delicious)

MS)   Nancy likes to go to Capital Grille…they execute well. We’ll try some different things but for the most part we don’t eat at chains.

TH)   What kind of coffee is this?

MS)   The Roasterie. We design our own blend. I work with Danny and he’ll set us up with a tasting and then we’ll pick four or five coffees we like and they’ll do the blend.

TH)   What’s your favorite sport?

MS)   Probably football. I’m a Broncos fan. I finished growing up in Colorado so I was there when they drafted John Elway. Carl Peterson was always telling me “Michael, you’ve got to become a Chiefs fan. What’s your problem?” He was always mad about that (laughs). And remember, it’s not like it’s rosy (being a Broncos fan) We’ve lost more Super Bowls than we‘ve won.

TH)   Are you a baseball fan?

MS)   Yeah. We grew up with baseball in Denver although at the time they didn’t have the Rockies, but the Denver Bears were there…the Triple A team. And they were connected with the Montreal Expos, so Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter…Warren Cromartie...some legends in the fricking baseball world came through Denver.

TH)   Do any of the Chiefs or Royals come in to eat?

MS)   Occasionally. Danny Duff and Moustakas have been in a few times. Alcides Escobar will come in…he’ll reserve late...maybe 10 pm on a Wednesday night or something…and be here with his family, friends, and agent. Trent Green used to eat here. Alex Smith will occasionally come in. Tony Gonzales did a couple of parties downstairs on New Year’s Eve.

TH)   Tell me about Guido.

MS)   We were eating in this restaurant called Guido, named after their cookbook...it’s a very famous restaurant in Piedmont (Italy). Tony Bommarito from St. Louis…his family has a wine distributorship and one part of the family has a restaurant called Tony’s…a wonderful restaurant that’s been there forever.

TH)   Let me interrupt you for a second. I got to eat at Tony’s about 25 years ago. My dad’s college roommate knew someone in the family and arranged for us to take a tour of the kitchen. There’s no speaking in the kitchen and the waiter has to stand at a podium to address the cooking staff to tell them what the order is. It was very interesting.

MS)   I’ve never seen that anywhere else. That kitchen is the cleanest kitchen I’ve ever seen in my life. He took us into the walk-in freezer…every drain is stainless steel…scrubbed…Wow.

So his son is part of the wine business and he comes here occasionally and he was just back from Italy and he brought this book for his mom. And he’s standing here and we’re talking about it and we’re getting ready to go to Italy and I didn’t have a reservation for a restaurant but we’re getting ready to go to Piedmont and we’re talking and he calls his Mom in St. Louis and asks “Mom, can I give your book to Michael Smith?” And she’s like” Yeah!” so boom…he gives me the book. I didn’t really connect that to the restaurant yet and I don’t know why. So then about a year later we’re going to Piedmont, and I’m not one of those guys that respects books enough...I use them so they get kind of (shows me a book that’s all wrinkled, creased, mangled etc). People will say “My God, you’ve desecrated the book!” Anyway, a couple of nights before we leave, I’m finalizing restaurants for the last night there and I need to pick one restaurant and I’ve narrowed it down to two. Doug Frost, the big wine dude here in town…he’s a Master Sommelier…master of wine...there’s only three in the world and he’s one of them and he’s sacrificed his entire career in terms of making big money to stay in Kansas City and raise his kids and be normal. Anyway, he’s awesome...a world renowned expert and I said “Hey Doug, we’re going to Italy in a couple of days and we’re thinking about going to either this place (I can’t remember now which one it was ) and Guido and he said “Oh my God, you have to go to Guido. That’s my most favorite restaurant in the world. It’s unbelievable.” So boom, we go to Guido. But as were arriving at this restaurant, it is on the campus of the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Piedmont, outside of Alba. It’s surrounded by these frickin’ gates, and so we finally find this place, pull up to the gate and we park. And each gate has an intercom to connect you to the host and they are buzzing you in and we’re like playing this game where we can’t quite connect and were not syncing up and we can’t get in the gates and it’s drizzling… We finally get inside and sit down and the server comes over and says, “Mr. Smith, you’re parked in the wrong place. You can’t park there. So my buddy and I go back out, and we can’t get out, just like we couldn’t get in…and we park two blocks away and it’s still raining and we’re doing the same thing again with the gates and finally they send a hostess out to guide us in. And we get back in and we sit down again and all of a sudden there’s three glasses of champagne and three bottles of scotch for him…so from then on everything else was great and we had an incredible time. And I had been trending towards this moment of this restaurant for a long time, but it’s not easy to turn this big boat and all of a sudden go “We’re not Michael Smith anymore! We’re an Italian restaurant.”  What’s the name of that Italian restaurant and why are we trashing the name Michael Smith and just getting rid of it because you want to change course? All of this is happening. The friends we were hanging out with were asking...Michael Smith ______ what? Michael Smith’s Italian Restaurant? Then one of them said “Guido…Finding Guido.” We rolled it all around. It wasn’t “Finding Guido” right away. It was “Who’s Guido?” “Searching for Guido” or “Looking for Guido.” Then back to “Finding Guido” …   what do they call that three dot thing? (Ellipsis) meaning continuation of a thought … Michael Smith, continuation of the journey. Guido is a book, a wine. Guido can be a lot of things. It can be derogatory. We’ve gotten a few Facebook hits about that.

“Finding Guido” lets me turn the ship. I’m 57. I’ve got maybe 13 to 15 years left. That puts me at 70. What do I want to cook? What do I want to do? I want to cook what I want to cook! It’s my restaurant. So Italian is it. Most of our food has been Mediterranean anyway so we’ve kind of just made it more Italian in terms of the appetizers. But really it was an excuse to put eight or nine pastas on the menu. We hand make all of that. We hand make the gnocchi. We have an extruder downstairs and a table top miller so we can mill specialty flours to mix with. You have to mix the flour with other stuff that already exists. We’re adding our own flavors to the pasta and were extruding some, rolling some. Making ravioli…making gnocchi.

TH)   I think it’s brilliant.

MS)   I tell my cooks, “You need to cook this dish long enough so that you are inside it. You are inside that dish. That dish is becoming you. That piece, that thing, that steak, that tomato.” That’s becoming a chef, but you have to do that with a lot of ingredients and a lot of techniques. It’s a long road. That’s my job in this town. My job isn’t to run this restaurant. My job is to mentor these young cooks.

Here is a link to Michael Smith:http://www.michaelsmithkc.com/

Norine in a Dream

My wife came downstairs this morning to join me for coffee on the patio and tell me about her dream. She had dreamt about her piano teacher, Ms. Beckner. 1972. Hobart, Indiana. Cheryl began taking piano lessons. Every Monday evening, Cheryl's mom, Peggy, would drive her to Ms. Beckner's house for a 5:30 pm lesson. One-half hour. The lesson cost $4.50. Peggy would give Cheryl a $5.00 bill, and she got to keep the change. Peggy would wait in the car and read during the lesson. This routine lasted for 10 years. From a seven year-old little girl to a seventeen-year-old young woman, Cheryl and Ms. Beckner shared a half an hour each week studying the piano. Mozart, Mendelssohn, Chopin...and countless others. The great composers. 88 keys. A foundation of music that shaped a lifetime. A woman who dedicated her life to teaching music.
The dream was so real, she said. Ms. Beckner appeared as a young woman. The house was the same. Everything was just as she remembered it. That was long ago now.
Just a few years ago, we went back to Indiana to spend Christmas with Cheryl's family. It's a long drive, and along the way our conversation turned to childhood memories. We drove by the exit Cheryl's mom used to take from the highway to get to Ms. Beckner's house. "I wonder how she is doing?" The next day, Cheryl and her mom talked about her piano lessons and Ms. Beckner and Cheryl decided to call her. Peggy still had the number...it was the same number as it had been in 1972. She was in her nineties now. She remembered Cheryl. She put Cheryl on speaker so both she and her husband could talk. It all came back. She loved hearing that music was still a big part of Cheryl's life. The piano that Cheryl's dad bought for her in 1978 is in our living room. Merry Christmas they said. It is so nice to hear from you.
Upon awakening, Cheryl reached for her phone and Googled Ms. Beckner. An obituary. Sadly, she had passed away this past October. She was ninety-four years old. A lifetime of music...seventy years of teaching. Over six hundred students. She had studied at the Cosmopolitan School of Music of Chicago and the Chicago Conservatory of Music.
The dream....what did it mean? We talked about that. Ms. Beckner wanted Cheryl to know she had left us. And that she was OK. That the music they shared was still alive within both of them. The piano had brought them together...the music had cemented their bond. Teacher and student. Mozart, Mendelssohn, Chopin...and many others. Great music. Here and beyond.

18th and Vine

There was an editorial in the Kansas City Star on August 12, 2017 about the poor turnout at the Jazz and Heritage Festival over Memorial Day weekend here in KC this year.
http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article166839917.html

The festival took place in the historic 18th & Vine district of KC. Kansas City has a rich history of jazz. I read somewhere that KC was one of the "cradles of Jazz." One of the most iconic and influential jazz musicians of all time, Charlie Parker, was born in KC and created bebop here before moving on to New York. Many years ago, my friend Joe, a jazz bassist, and I made a trek to his grave site here in KC. Count Basie played here in KC too. Jazz is part of this great city's fabric.
I have written about my love pf jazz in this blog many times...most recently telling about the first time I heard Miles Davis...who also played in KC....
Kansas City has been plagued and paralyzed by the scourge of racism throughout it's history, as have many cities. Several attempts have been made, and are still underway, to redevelop and return this "cradle of jazz history' to its former glory. I frequently run through and around the 18th and Vine area and have never felt unsafe. Some people assert that many in the white community view this area of KC as unsafe and dangerous. That may be true, sadly. But I don't feel that way. And I don't think the Jazz Festival failed to live up to expectations because of race or geography. I think it failed because of Jazz.

If anyone can relate to loving a fading or dying form of music in our popular culture, its a classical music aficionado such as myself. Classical music has been at the bottom of the heap longer than I have been alive in terms of sales and market share. That's one of the reasons I started writing this journal...to fight back...to try and open peoples ears and hearts to the vast beauty and exhilaration classical music offers.  But believe it or not, jazz recently surpassed classical as the least popular music-genre:
https://news.jazzline.com/news/jazz-least-popular-music-genre/

The failure of this year's Jazz and Heritage Festival in the 18th and Vine District is based on this sad fact in my opinion. People just don't know or care enough about jazz enough to turn out in the numbers necessary to generate a profit for such an event. If Garth Brooks, Jay-Z, Adele, Drake, or Beyonce were performing at the Gem Theater in the Jazz District, I believe they would sell-out. People from all over the KC-metro area would go there without batting an eye.

The District is pinning its hopes on a dying art. Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole and hundreds more are not known or appreciated by today's America in enough of a meaningful way to support a major music festival. Chick Corea, one of this year's headliners, is an amazing pianist. His album "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs" (1968) is a true masterpiece.I just texted both of my kids and asked them if they had ever heard of Chick Corea....and no surprise, neither of them had. But when I asked them if Drake was going to be performing at 18th and Vine if they would be afraid to go there, they said "hell no."

The Kansas City Airport has pictures of Kansas City Jazz history throughout the terminal. Black and white photos. Old. These are days gone by. And for most Americans (not me) this is a musical form gone by too. That's the problem.

KC VITAs 2017 Summer Series

I had the great privilege of meeting Jackson Thomas, Director and Founder of KC VITAs, last year for an interview in advance of their Summer Series performances. So here we are a year later, and KC VITAs is still going strong under Jackson's leadership. I checked in with him this week to see what he's been up to and to find out more about the 2017 Summer Series performances next weekend.
________________________________________________________________________________

 I can’t believe it’s been a year since we’ve talked! Where does the time go?  But I am so happy that it’s just about time for the next KC VITAs Summer Series performances. What have you been up to during the past year when we spoke?

Thanks so much for speaking with me again, Tim! We’ve been incredibly busy trying to reach more people and become more present in the community. This past year, we held a December Gala event where we featured small ensemble and solo works by a couple of regional and international composers. We also have improved our submission process to streamline how composers can submit their works to us, as well as reach more composers. Since then, we have been going full steam on making this the best Summer Series yet!

Tell me about this year’s KC VITAs program.

We received 150 blind submissions of art song, small ensemble, and choral works by composers from all around the world. Ten were picked from that, five of which are world premieres and five are regional premieres. These compositions make up our most diverse program to date by far. We have two performances this year, one on Aug. 4th at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church at 7:00, and another on Aug. 6th at Country Club Christian Church at 3:00. We are continuing to follow our mission and offer these concerts for free!

Did this program come together easily or were there any challenges of note?

Because of the sheer amount of submissions we received, it was an even greater puzzle to finalize this year’s program. Each composition must be considered (sometimes several times) which, as you can imagine is incredibly time consuming. Then, when trying to pick from such high quality pieces and figure out the best way to make them work together, the final decisions are very hard to make. There could have been several programs made from the compositions that made it to the final round.

 If I’m not mistaken, all of the music is original, correct?

We do have a couple compositions this year that are based on preexisting music. One is based on chant, while the other is based on a hymn. The ending product, however, is incredibly original as the compositions have deconstructed and revitalized the original material into something totally new.

Will any of the composers be attending this year’s performances?

As many of the composers live quite a large distance away from Kansas City (several of whom live across the pond) the amount of composers able to attend this year is still unknown. We will be taping this year’s performances, though, and have been skyping in with composers to collaborate on bringing their piece to life.

How many new singers do you have this year? How many are returning from last year?

29 total, 18 are returning from previous years. Many of the returning members have been with us since the beginning.

What is the thought or reason for having two different venues for each performance? Why not have both at the same place?

We’d  like to have the opportunity to reach as many people in the city as possible. By offering locations downtown and one further south, we are hoping to provide a place convenient to reach from anywhere in the area. We also want to bring our music to the many wonderful venues that Kansas City has to offer. Although they each present their challenges, we are able to discover new things about each piece whenever we sing in a new space.

 Where did you have the recording session I saw posted on the Facebook Page?

We took a huge step for our organization this year and recorded all of our music beforehand. This way, we are able to provide composers with a much higher quality recording in addition to the live recording from our concerts. We were lucky enough to record at Swarthout Recital Hall on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, KS and had a great experience!

 Tell us a bit about what was recorded and when it will be available?

We recorded our entire program and our CD will be available for purchase at both of our concerts! It’s been a busy few weeks, to say the least!Thanks so much for your help in promoting our concerts and organization as a whole! Just a reminder, KC VITAs is a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations made in support of our organization are tax-deductible and help to continue our mission to promote the continued creation and performance of contemporary-classical vocal music. We will be working on becoming even more present during the year in the time to come with many exciting ideas in the works!

Excellent. Thank you Jackson! I am really looking forward to the concert. And thank you for your commitment to bringing great music to our community!

http://kcvitas.org/index.html

Miles, Kronos and Monk

On a rainy Spring afternoon in 1984, I had a life altering musical experience. I was a music major in my first year of college at Indiana State University. I know I've explained in this journal many times that I am a violinist, but I should also remind you that I also play the bass and the guitar. During my Junior year of high school, I started playing the acoustic bass in the jazz band which coincided with my exploration of the jazz repertoire. During college, I continued to play jazz while pursuing my classical violin studies. Most of my playing consisted of small jazz ensembles at school and outside gigs with local musicians at coffee shops etc.
Anyway, music students have to listen (or "get to" listen to I should say) music as part of the curriculum, and the University maintained a listening lab with a pretty extensive library of albums (yes, vinyl albums). Students would go the the lab, show their student ID and check out a record to take to one of the listening stations that were lined up in a room with small desks with partitions. Each station had a set of headphones. You get the picture......
So on this Spring day, I was looking through the jazz collection and saw this record (See above). Wow....so cool. I mean...WAY cool, this dude with the trumpet and shades. I will confess that in hindsight, I am embarrassed that I had no idea who this dude was. I had only really started listening to jazz the year before during my Senior year of high school. During my Junior year, I only played the sheet music that the band director chose for the jazz band, and what little jazz I heard at that time was big band jazz. I had not yet been exposed to bebop or any other jazz. And still at the time, 99% of my music listening was devoted to classical music.
So I take this record with the cool trumpet player on the cover and go to the listening stall at the end of the row which happens to be the one I like the most, and I cue up this album. For some reason, I am the only student in the listening lab at that moment.
I lower the arm and the stylus makes contact with the vinyl.
From the silence, a pop as the stylus finds the groove. Then I hear a piano playing A and G, followed by a saxophone playing a G, and then Miles on trumpet hitting a high D...muted and very close to the microphone. I had never heard anything like it. Sublime. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I listened to this track over and over. It took me to a place I had never been before. I stared at the cover and wondered who this musical wizard was.

Miles didn't write Round Midnight....Thelonious Monk did in 1938. Many artists have recorded it. I think Miles' 1957 recording is the best. The Miles Davis Quintet consisted of Red Garland on piano, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Paul Chambers on bass and John Coltrane on tenor saxophone.
From that moment forward, I listened to every Miles Davis record I could get a hold of. A new world had been opened up to me and I enjoyed exploring it.
The following year, the Kronos Quartet came to the University to give a concert. Kronos is a string quartet that is best known for playing new and contemporary classical music. They were somewhat avant garde at the time and there was a big buzz surrounding their appearance on campus. I went to the concert and really enjoyed it. But it was their final number that stood out....Round Midnight.
I have written fairly often in this journal about the fusion of musical styles and genres...the crossing of musical lines and such. This recording by Kronos certainly falls into that discussion. A truly classical ensemble playing a jazz standard. I think it works very well. The voices of violins, viola and cello offer a wonderful tone and flavor to this tried and true melody.

P.S. As good as the Miles Davis album Round Midnight is, I did come to believe that the BEST Miles Davis album is in fact Kind of Blue from (1959). Check that out too.

1830

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In just about every way, this album changed everything in popular music. It was the first "concept album." It was the first psychedelic album. It showed that rock music could be "serious." The Beatles gave up touring, and the craziness that followed them on the road, and locked themselves in a studio and began experimenting with sounds and new ideas. A masterpiece emerged. It didn't sound like the Beatles....it didn't sound like anything else up to that time....it was music from a different planet. And 50 years later, it still sounds that way.
One hundred and thirty-seven years earlier, in 1830, a similar event occurred. A French composer named Hector Berlioz wrote a piece of music that changed everything too. Only this time, the stakes were much different...even higher. Whereas the Beatles were measured against their previous music, which was certainly wonderful (Rubber Soul, Revolver) and all other rock music made before 1967, Berlioz was composing in a world that had just been seismically transformed by a certain Ludwig Van Beethoven. Just as the Rolling Stones or the Beach Boys were left open mouthed and spellbound trying to figure out how they could possibly top Sgt. Pepper, every composer after Beethoven had his endless musical shadow with which to contend. A great quote from Johannes Brahms to this end: "You have no idea how it is for the likes of us to feel the tread of a giant like him behind us." Brahms waited many years before he published his first symphony (1876). But young Hector leaped into the post-Beethoven abyss and composed a work that sounds every bit as timeless and fresh today as it did in 1830; the Symphonie Fantastique. It was the first "programmatic" work ever published...essentially a concept album as was Sgt. Pepper. The five movements of SF tell an incredible story of love, opium induced obsession, wild fantasy, madness, and death.
Tom Service said it so well in his article in the Guardian from August 19, 2014:
 "Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, a piece that lays legitimate claim to adjectives such as “revolutionary”, “radical” and “unprecedented” perhaps as much as, or even more than any other piece in this series so far. This jaw-dropping work was made by a 26-year-old composer who had already become a famous, indeed notorious, figure in Parisian musical life. But Hector Berlioz also happened to be one of the most brilliant writers on music; and in his letters he reveals the genesis of this diabolically and passionately inspired work." 
And Leonard Bernstein described the SF this way in 1969:

"The Symphonie Fantastique is ‘the first psychedelic symphony in history, the first musical description ever made of a trip, written one hundred thirty odd years before the Beatles’. Berlioz’s programme notes for the symphony confirm this, as he describes the opening of the fourth movement as the representation of the following episode:

Convinced that his love is spurned, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts.

There is an interesting article entitled "How Beethoven Ruined Classical Music" by Dylan Evans published June 12, 2005 in the Telegraph that makes the case that Beethoven did just that....he created music that did not leave the door open for those who followed him. It was almost like...."OK, so now what? What the hell do you expect us to do now Beethoven? How can we possibly top that?" Berlioz is the one who answered that question in 1830. The Symphonie Fantastique still sounds fresh in 2017. A mere 2 1/2 years separate Beethoven's death and the SF's premiere. Two tectonic forces grinding against each other like continents. And because of Berlioz, the void between Beethoven and all others was bridged so that everyone else could follow the master. Pardon me here but I can't help myself: "It was 187 years ago today, Hector Berlioz taught the band to play." 

I listened to Sgt Pepper and Symphonie Fantastique this week...back-to-back. I recommend it.