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Imagine
I Know This Sounds Crazy
FREE CONCERT! August 16, 2013
Dmitri Matheny flugelhorn
Clairdee vocals
Andrew Gross tenor saxophone
Nick Manson piano
T-Bone Sistrunk bass
John Lewis drums
"A visionary. Matheny's flugelhorn is both hot and cool,
wide of range and brilliantly imaginative."
—San Francisco Examiner
Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny will share the stage with celebrated vocalist Clairdee in a salute to The Great American Songbook on Friday, August 16, 7:30 pm, at Chandler Center for the Arts.
The free concert will showcase favorite Broadway and Hollywood hits of the 1920s though the 60s, including works by George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington and more.
Celebrated for his warm tone, soaring lyricism and masterful technique, American musician Dmitri Matheny has been lauded as "the first breakthrough flugelhornist since Chuck Mangione" (San Jose Mercury News). Matheny is an honors graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and the Berklee College of Music, Boston. First introduced to jazz audiences in the 1990s as the protégé of Art Farmer, Matheny has matured into "one of the jazz world's most talented horn players" (SF Chronicle), touring internationally and releasing nine critically acclaimed CDs.
"Clairdee is among the most skilled and appealing singers around...fine songs, beautiful voice, great moves" raves the San Francisco Examiner. Following in the tradition of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Wilson, Clairdee's genuine manner of conveying emotion and giving each word a clear, personal touch makes her one of America's best singers in any genre.
The Chandler Center for the Arts is an acoustic masterpiece, providing a superb quality of sound for live performances. Over the past twenty-one years, thousands of patrons have been entertained, educated, thrilled and inspired in this beautifully designed and elegant facility, enjoying a broad range of music, dance, comedy, drama and family programs.
TWO, FIVE, WONDER WHAT'S FOR LUNCH?
INTENDED approach to improvising:
Don't think. Just listen and react. Don't play licks and patterns. Create melodies. Let the horn sing, and play from the heart.
ACTUAL thoughts while improvising:
Here comes the turnaround...classic Brownie riff goes here...nope, this tempo's all wrong. Bop scale! Cleverly ironic Daft Punk quote! Ooh, that was hip. Nobody caught it, of course. Now C-sharp diminished up the...Fail! Awww. Nick Payton wouldn't have missed that high note. Third valve is sticky...uh...where does the bridge go again? No idea. Blues lick! What the hell is happening? I wish the bass player would play the damn roots. Sloan Sabbith. Sloan Sabbith. Sloan Sabbith. Two, five, wonder what's for lunch? Hey now, that was kinda awesome. Sloan Sabbith. Oops, lost the form.
MANIFESTO
CLAIRDEE'S GIFTS
Next weekend, on Friday, August 16, the celebrated San Francisco vocalist Clairdee will join with the Dmitri Matheny Group in a salute to The Great American Songbook at Chandler Center for the Arts in Chandler, Arizona.
Presented free-of-charge as part of the arts center's "On The House" summer series, the program will showcase our favorite Broadway and Hollywood hits of the 1920s though the 60s, including works by George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington and more. Sharing the stage with us are saxophonist Andrew Gross, pianist Nick Manson, bassist T-Bone Sistrunk and drummer John Lewis.
If you've never yet experienced Clairdee in concert, you're in for a treat.
Clairdee possesses a beautiful, generous spirit that carries over into her song craft. On stage, she comports herself with effortless grace. She is unpretentious, charming and charismatic, and her performances convey a welcoming air of hospitality. Each member of the audience feels as if we've been invited to a cool, convivial party, and Clairdee is our elegant hostess.
Clairdee's vocal gifts are many. Her soulfully alluring style and rich vocal timbre reveal roots in the gospel church. She has an intimate, vulnerable and gentle way with a ballad, yet can swing or shout at will. Clairdee is that most exciting kind of jazz singer — the kind who always keeps a little rousing R&B in her back pocket.
Finally, as a song stylist and interpreter of lyrics, Clairdee is unmatched. Her diction is incredibly precise (all too rare today). She is aware of the meaning and feeling behind every phrase, all of which she communicates with winning sincerity and warmth.
Performing with Clairdee is, for us, a giant joy.
We hope you can join us for this very special evening.
~DM
CHOOSE WISELY
I know what you're thinking.
You're asking yourself, "Who should I go see on August 16th?
Chloë is at the Cineplex, but Clairdee is at Chandler Center for the Arts!"
Well friend, it's a no-brainer.
Movie houses are a dime-a-dozen, but Chandler's celebrated multi-use theater is a one-of-a-kind, elegant marvel of acoustical engineering.
Chloë & Aaron will be fake crime-fighting together for weeks. Clairdee & Dmitri are real life artist-warriors, appearing together for one-night-only.
Their show is overpriced. Our show is free, and we do ALL our own stunts!
Most importantly, San Francisco vocal sensation Clairdee is the Original "Hit Girl," singing and swinging Broadway and Hollywood hits like nobody's business.
And is there anything more Kick-Ass than The Great American Songbook?
We don't think so.
TRUCKEE HOTEL established 1873
My kind of atmosphere. This is the kind of place Clint Eastwood might've
stayed in Pale Rider or High Plains Drifter.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
COURSE CORRECTION
This week, Sassy and I have enjoyed the hospitality of some friends who've generously provided lodging for us in their home while I play a few gigs in the area.
Their son (let's call him Freddie) is a very talented young aspiring jazz trumpeter.
Although I regularly give master classes on the road, and have done my share of classroom teaching, spending time with Freddie and his family over the past week has been a powerful reminder to me of what it means to be a serious musician and what an industry jazz education has become.
At the age of 16, Freddie has already taken advantage of more specialized training and travel opportunities than I had in my college years, and he's already twice the player I was in high school.
Freddie's days are so full that I'm actually hesitant to call him an "aspiring" musician. Not yet a high school senior, he's already playing professional gigs, studying advanced concepts and techniques, taking and teaching private lessons, listening broadly and living a decidedly music-centered life.
Freddie studies privately with two teachers: one for trumpet, another for jazz.
He's a veteran of jazz camp, Jazzschool, the Grammy band, SFJAZZ All-Stars, J@LC Essentially Ellington and Monterey NextGen.
He participates in a summer music mentoring program and leads sectional brass rehearsals for his school jazz ensemble. He's won awards in all the regional and national honors programs you've heard of and several that you haven't. And he's already performed on the most prestigious jazz stages worldwide: New York, Monterey, Montreux, North Sea, Umbria.
I never practiced like this kid, not even at Interlochen. He hits it hard for hours every day. Each morning I awaken to the sound of Freddie's horn, methodically working its way through James Stamp warm-ups, Clarke etudes, Clifford Brown turnarounds, articulation and lip flexibility exercises and chord scale after chord scale. Every afternoon he has a rehearsal or two with this or that band. Every evening he practices again.
When I was Freddie's age, my bedroom was a shrine to Lindsay Wagner and Spencer's Gifts. I had only just begun to take private lessons and didn't take them very seriously. I loved to play but hated to practice.
Freddie's room is a hardcore crucible of brass: his chair, music stand and horn are at the center, surrounded by stacks of lead sheets and method books. His walls are festooned with festival posters and images of great jazzmen. On his desk a laptop computer is open to an overstuffed iTunes library. Two speakers face the practice chair.
I spent a couple of hours trading riffs with Freddie, and am astonished by his proficiency on the horn and his familiarity with the nuances of the jazz language. He's already familiar with every classic recording I mention, and he seems to own nearly all the available Aebersold and music-minus-one collections of standards. He has a remarkably sophisticated ear for modern harmony and can toss off bebop clichés over complex changes at bright tempos. He listens to all the same jazz heroes I do, plus the latest recordings by Alex Sipiagin, Ambrose Akinmusire and Billy Buss. He already knows the tunes, licks and lore that I learned in my five years at Berklee.
The other night I invited Freddie to sit-in with me and the band on "Invitation." The audience was knocked out. He played a mature solo, including some very creative motivic development. After the set, Freddie was appropriately gracious and grateful, pausing to individually thank each member of the rhythm section. He even possesses enough charm to balance all that swagger.
After 30 years in music, I'm now at an age when I think it's important to pay it forward. It's been my belief that I have a responsibility to share what I've learned over the course of my life and career, and to mentor and encourage the next generation of musicians.
But if they're at all like Freddie, I don't have the time.
I need to practice.
— D.M.
BEFORE MOTOWN
We're putting together a jazz residency in Michigan next spring, with concerts in Detroit, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, and workshops at colleges and high schools throughout the state. These will be my first Michigan appearances since attending Interlochen Arts Academy 30 years ago, and I'm very excited about getting back to the Great Lake State.
As part of my preparation, I've been brushing up on the cultural history of the region. A great resource is the book Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit 1920-1960 by Lars Bjorn with Jim Gallert — a very well-researched and enlightening volume, drawn largely from the oral histories of seminal musicians who lived and worked there. Highly recommended.
~DM
...AND THE LIVIN' IS EASY
JOHNNY FLUGELSEED
SAY ANYTHING
WHERE I LIVE
WELCOME HOME BABY
NOT A SONG
FORMULA
THE INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY
IMPRESSIONABLE
When I was young and asking the big questions, I learned most of what I still believe about loyalty, bravery and morality from the Silver Age superheroes in my comic book collection.
For real.
In later years I would travel internationally, study world religions, read classic works of philosophy and ethics, and even pay attention to my father's many lectures. I went to private school, public school, boarding school and the school of hard knocks. I'm an educated cat.
But to this day, when the world tests my mettle or challenges my sense of right and wrong, it's not Spinoza but my inner Green Lantern who shows up for the fight.
I've always been impressionable in this way.
For example, I'm pretty sure I have a goatee because of the way Spock looked in "Mirror, Mirror." I know I started wearing dashikis in high school because of a picture I saw of Elvin Jones in Downbeat. I sport a beret on stage because Dizzy did.
Today, while watching Highlander for the godzillionth time, I noticed something about Christopher Lambert's home. Like so many characters in films of the 1980s and '90s, The Highlander lived in a loft.
It now occurs to me that my interior design preferences and bone-deep love of warehouse loft spaces and mid-century modern furniture are not based on anywhere I've lived or anything I've seen or studied. They don't reflect some sophisticated notion about the aesthetic requirements of an artist's life. They aren't because I need space to rehearse and create.
Nope. I learned about loft living from the movies. Dig:
William Sanderson in Blade Runner (1982). Jennifer Beals in Flashdance (83). Lambert in Highlander (86). Barbara Hershey in Hannah and Her Sisters (86). Mickey Rourke in 9-1/2 Weeks (86). Tom Hanks in Big (88). Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally (89). Rosanna Arquette in New York Stories (89). Nancy Travis in So I Married An Axe Murderer (93). James Caan in Bottle Rocket (96). Ethan Hawke in Great Expectations (98). Julianne Moore in The Big Lebowski (98). Adam Sandler in Big Daddy (99). Christian Bale in American Psycho (00). Owen Wilson in Zoolander (01). Olivier Martinez in Unfaithful (02).
I want their cribs!
Thanks, Hollywood.
(Sure hope this flugelhorn thing works out.)
WESTWARD HO
Across the plaza from Civic Space Park (where guitarist Stan Sorenson and I played a noontime concert today) stands one of the most interesting and historic buildings in downtown Phoenix: the Westward Ho.
Upon its grand opening in 1928, the neo-Renaissance Westward Ho was the tallest structure in the area (16 stories!) and one of the most elegant hotels in the west, with vaulted ceilings, stained glass windows and beautiful tiled floors.
Over the years, the hotel accumulated its share of fame.
Jack Benny broadcast radio shows from the Westward Ho during World War II.
Elizabeth Taylor kept a suite at the hotel and dined in its restaurant, Top of the Ho.
Paul Newman filmed a scene for the 1972 movie Pocket Money there.
Robert Wagner married Natalie Wood on the hotel patio.
Marilyn Monroe filmed the parade scene in Bus Stop (1956) on Central Avenue in front of the Westward Ho and is said to have gone for a moonlight swim (without a suit!) in the hotel pool.
Some of the Ho's other famous guests include John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Rogers, Jackie Gleason, Myrna Loy, Amelia Earhart, Esther Williams, Danny Thomas, Gary Cooper, Lucille Ball, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, Bob Hope, Liberace, Lee Marvin, Tyrone Power, Eleanor Roosevelt, Shirley Temple, Al Capone, Spencer Tracy and John Wayne.
Contrary to popular belief, the Westward Ho does not appear in the opening sequence of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, but is featured in the 1998 Gus Van Sant remake.
A 280-foot television broadcast antenna, added to the hotel's rooftop in 1949, is now used as a cell phone tower.
In 1980, after 52 years, the Westward Ho hotel closed for business and was converted to subsidized housing for the elderly and mobility impaired.
The building is now recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.