Technically we are still in summer here as of September 15th but it sure feels different around here after Labor Day…the same feeling you get on any college campus in the northeast, or at any farmstand where you might go apple picking– the air has a different quality now, even if the temperature is still in the 70’s or 80’s. I am writing this on the eve of the New Moon, which heralds a telling transition to fall. We still have one more SPAC concert ahead of us, tomorrow night– FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE– which will be the latest I’ve seen any large-scale musical event booked at Saratoga’s Performing Arts Center amphitheater– so I guess global warming is good for something.
Looking back: Since I skipped the perennial DMB concert this summer, in favor of one of my son’s friends needing my ticket, the early high point for me was seeing Trombone Shorty at the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival on July 1st, late Sunday. Though my son Daryn had attended Saturday’s event and come away impressed with Michel Camilo’s trio and The Mingus Big Band, my regret was in having missed Esperanza Spalding’s “Radio Music Society” band, fresh off her surprising Grammy win earlier this year. Work rarely allows me to take off a full weekend like most of those picnicking participants who fill every inch of the lawn space during the Jazz Festival here– in its 35th year now under several different names and sponsorships (Newport, Kool, etc.).
But on Sunday my wife and I made our way there in a leisurely fashion to meet up with our good friend Dave Casner, a musician, music collector, and multi-facted artist himself,
who is one of those who perpetuates the elaborate tent/awning and picnic-for-the-multitudes ritual on a fanatical, perennial basis. Since his spread was perched quite close to the (rear) gazebo stage, we saw the conga-led band Steve Kroon Sextet, and found that a good start to our six-hour half-marathon of jazz, in many of its diverse forms.
After that we saw a bit of the Trio of Oz– an oriental pianist named Rachel Z playing with noted drummer Omar Hakim, tasty stuff. From there we moved down to the main stage and caught some of the longer compositions from Arturo O’Farill’s Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. Diana Krall followed with a decent if somewhat drowsy version of her crooning ballads and standards of love and loss, and I kept wondering how Elvis Costello had ended up wooing and winning such a sultry, gorgeous jazz keyboardist. But I digress… After all that, it was time to see Trombone Shorty, aka Troy Andrews.
His band was the closing act on a Sunday night of the 2-day fest, and the kid made it a fitting climax, I thought. I had heard about his high-energy New Orleans-based act since he was a teenager, and WEXT had played a lot of his tune “Hurricane Season” (from the album “BACKATOWN”) over the last year or two. His live act leaned heavily on his home city’s style and mojo– channeling everyone from Lowell George (“On The Way Down”) to the still-vibrant compositions of early jazz great Louie Armstrong (“”St. James Infirmary” and “Sunny Side of the Street”). I already wrote about the fact that Trombone Shorty exhibited his Olympic-quality circular-breathing technique by holding a note for somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes during “Sunny Side” with exaggerated cheek inflations a la Satchmo himself. It was incredible, and rousing music he put out, a perfect show-capper. That got July off to a good start.
You’ve probably seen my previous entries on The Allman Brothers/Santana in concert at SPAC on July 27th, and in terms of downtown performances, I wrote about one of the 4 or 5 times we saw the band Four Down play. But something that was new to me, and outside my normal realm of interest, was going to see Yo Yo Ma– world famous cellist
who happens to be exactly my age– perform with The Philadelphia Orchestra, on August 16th. That was a treat, in a completely different way from my normal search for exhilaration–if not ecstacy– in music listening.
There is such a wealth of diverse programming at SPAC that I don’t pretend to be able to keep up with all of it, nor pretend to be a reviewer thereof. When it comes to classical music I am a neophyte at best, and an unenlightened layman at worst. The excellent 92 page program guide to the Philadelphia Orchestra’s entire 2012 season (Aug. 1-18) made me feel I was missing a ton of exceptional performances… but alas, until I am retired I doubt I will find time to indulge in more than one classical concert per year.
But this one happened to be a great one. As we strolled in, the lawn was fairly full with an attentive, silent crowd of attendees who were the antithesis of a rock’n’roll audience: totally focused on the sea of 90+ stupendous musicians who comprise the Orchestra,
being conducted by the energetic David Robertson, in a handsome white suit. The “Overture to Fra Diavolo” washed over us as I ridiculously fantasized about the Italian pasta-&-seafood dish of the same name, taboo on my current diet. Nothing stood out
to me until Yo Yo Ma came out, which had been what the crowd had been waiting for.
He was slated to play Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Opus 33, which I was to learn was one of the most compelling cello pieces in musical history. While this kind of music is not familiar to me, in the hands of Yo Yo Ma, my wife and I were drawn into its spell– not just by the technical expertise of the master, but by the dynamic of his
performance, the rapture in his face, and his portrayal of the emotions of the piece.
Intermission gave us a chance to absorb more of the scene– again, so sophisticated and reserved compared to the let-it-all-hang-out behavior at other SPAC shows we were used to. For the first half we had rolled out our blanket under the central ramp, with a good view of the stage, but for the second part we sat inside, thanks to some comp tickets from one of my listing clients, who also ushers at SPAC (thanks, Pat!). The next , piece Mr. Ma played made even more of an impression on me, up close. At one surreal interval, during the Faure composition “Elegy, Op. 24, for cello and orchestra”– Yo Yo Ma, with the orchestra silent behind him, soloed in a diminuendo section down to a point of dwindling sound that reduced to, eventually, …nothing. There was stone cold silence
in the entire amphitheater, and no one at all seemed to be breathing. I swear I counted off 5 to 10 seconds before the music resumed, and that was a relief. I never saw or heard anything like that in the hundreds of music performances I have seen in my life, and only a master, I felt, could pull that off with conviction. I was reminded of Miles Davis saying that the “silence in between the notes” was just as important as the notes themselves– but never had I felt that control over an audience, in silence, that Ma exhibited that night. It was a joy to breathe freely again.
I had been at a lot of concerts and downtown music events that made me yell and join in and scream in delight, but this was a first: ecstatic, shared, silence. How often do we get that in an assembled throng of 10,000 people??
That was kind of a threshold, a turning point of summer. When that piece finished, some people left, as did Yo Yo Ma himself, to much applause and a standing ovation, and rightfully so. Regrettably, we stayed, and the Shostakovich Symphony that followed seemed wholly anticlimatic in Mr. Ma’s absence. I couldn’t wait for that to get over, and was impatient, I’m sorry. But I would pay full price now to see Yo Yo Ma again, and understand his power as a performer. Such is the power of a summer night at SPAC.
I would say this to anyone listening to me, or reading this: no matter what your favorite musical persuasion may be– you can find something to like on a recurring, perennial basis at SPAC. I cannot do justice to the variety of musical styles available, but their glossy brochures and schedules can: there is Ballet, Chamber Music, Cabaret, Opera, Modern Dance, Showtunes, Cinematic Themes, Sinatra’s legacy, the Peggy Lee songbook, String Quartets, European Classical Masterpieces, and the aforementioned Jazz diversity, all on the grounds of SPAC. The 2012 Special Events calendar featured everything from jam bands like Dave Matthews Band and PHISH to teen-pop attractions like Demi Lovato, Big Time Rush, & rapper Drake, pop radio’s Nickelback to country music stars like Brad Paisley and Toby Keith. There were two different Rock-Star Energy shows featuring heavy metal death-knell bands (Slipknot/Slayer/ Motorhead in one, Godsmack & Staind in the other) to oldies throwbacks like Poison/ Def Leopard, Chicago & The Doobie Brothers, and even The Beach Boys this year.
Throw in a smattering of Zac Brown Band, O.A.R., Jason Mraz, and even Yanni (!) and
you realize what a huge cross-section of musical taste SPAC provides this and every summer. Visit their website or get on their mailing list– but make the pilgrimage to SPAC if you haven’t already– it is well worth it. There literally is something for everybody.
Till next time,
this is Wayne, signing off for now…