WMV Music Web Log

The Weary Blues Project is up on YouTube!

"Weary Blues" at Busboys and Poets was a great success - perhaps more so than I could have hoped, given the complexities and difficulties of mounting such a production. Everyone seemed pleased and excited, musicians, Busboys staff, friends and board, and a full house. Holly is a phenomenal stage presence - Hughes' "Dream Deferred" through her lips was as if spoken for the very first time.

Charley's overall concept turned out to be perfectly sound and well-executed and could not have been more appropriate for the venue. The whole production had shape, variety, seriousness, humor, and considerable freedom. Freedom is another concept which might be considered fundamental to the jazz aesthetic. Charley is such a solid presence in a jazz band, and so personally self-effacing, that one tends to take for granted his absolutely smoking saxophone solos. They are invariably profoundly expressive, full-throttle statements. He is a very big fish.

The guys in the band are all such pros. Harold Summey's drum break was one I will think about for a long time. I hope we got it on tape - he did stuff like I have never heard before. Yes, it was drums, but there is no doubt that it was music. This band fit Holly like a glove.

A general (slightly jaundiced) observation about audiences in the DC area, that tend to be sophisticated, well-educated, and discriminating: sometimes it seems that the best is just about good enough for them. Occasionally Mar and I talk about who it is that we serve and why. Yes, I believe there is a need for genuine, soul stirring art here - but there does not always appear to be a hunger.

Many thanks to Zona Hostetler and the Randy Hostetler Memorial Fund, as well as to the Washington Musica Viva board and individual donors who made "The Weary Blues Project" possible.

Tonight is the first performance of the Weary Blues Project, at Busboys and Poets. I think it will be pretty amazing! (Check out these rehearsal clips: Bad Man, Morning After, Commercial Theatre, Ballad of the Fortune Teller, The Weary Blues)

For a classically trained pianist like me, this is a precious opportunity to sit in with a top-quality jazz band. The educational value is phenomenal.

As I try to share my enthusiasm about what I am learning, it seems that there are a lot of strong opinions out there about what jazz is and isn't, even from people who say they don't like jazz. Sometimes non-musicians feel more strongly than the jazz players themselves. My tentative analyses of issues like swing, syncopation, improvisation, rhythm, and (God forbid!) soul are not always met with much interest.

Charley Gerard has been the Virgil to my Dante. Which reminds me of a very funny passage in Dylan's autobiography in which he details an amazing musical discovery which (he says) transformed his approach to rhythm. I couldn't quite follow his thoughts, and it began to dawn on me that he might be pulling our legs. I gave Charley the book to look at - yes, sure enough, he agreed that the whole section is complete and utter bullshit. Just a little Dylan humor at our expense.