Brubeck

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Brubeck

Over the years I’ve seen many memorable performances, early on as a teenager hearing Ella Fitzgerald at the Danbury Fair  (See The Camper-Waitress Goes to the Fair) ; and since dramas and musicals on Broadway, Off Broadway,  and at regional theater (See On the Aisle);  and wonderful  performances at cabarets, concert halls, and stadiums  – Rosemary Clooney at the Blue Note and wherever else we could catch her;   Frank Sinatra celebrating his 70th birthday at Giant Stadium;   the great stride pianist Judy Carmichael at Hanratty’s;   master guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli at the 92nd St Y;   Cyndi Lauper singing the Blues at the Palace Theatre in Waterbury;  my gal Bonnie Raitt at Manhattan’s Beacon Theatre;  Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga together at Tanglewood;  and altho we’re not opera buffs,  we‘ve seen memorable productions of Carmen at the Met,  at Glimmerglass,  and even at La Scala!   And wonderful modern dance –  Pilobolus and Ballet Hispanica at the Joyce;  Paul Taylor’s company at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington;   and Alvin Ailey’s at City Center.   (See Revelations)  And of course The Grateful Dead at Madison Square Garden. (See Rolling Stoned at the Garden)

Yet the most memorable performance in memory may be Dave Brubeck on piano opening the Kent, CT jazz fest a few years before his death at age 92.   We waited for Time Out and not surprisingly he saved it for last.  And as the festival was held out-of-doors with no house for Brubeck to bring down,  it seemed when he hit that last note he brought down the summer sky and all the stars.

But thinking back,  I can remember another Dave Brubeck memorable performance 35 years earlier when we saw a young Brubeck jazzing it up on piano at a New York cabaret.   I don’t remember the venue but I can tell you the date as we had been celebrating our anniversary,  and I remember we were both a bit tipsy when we got home.

Nine months later – almost to the day – our son was born,  and so I guess you can pin that memorable performance on Brubeck too.

Jazz great Dave Brubeck

– Dana Susan Lehrman

The Play Was a Thing

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(Please note: I am actually reading, and wish to comment upon, other Retrospect writer’s stories. But for some reason, since early August I am unable to reply to anyone’s stories but my own, no matter where I log in from. All I get is a 503 server error. Until and unless this changes, I will include all my comments in one document and publish that as a story near the end of the week. A slow, awkward kludge, but it’s the only idea I have)

I’ve written enough stories here on Retrospect, and have a poor enough memory, that I often need to go back and check that I am not repeating myself.

I’ve covered the most life-changing performance I’ve attended (Pizza and a Bad Movie).  I’ve written about an epically bad concert that also altered my life’s course (My Brown-Eyed Girl). I’ve shared the concert where I fell in love with the performer (Birthday Girl).

I need something not involving lust or Maria. Oooo… I have one!

Back in the early Uh Ohs I flirted with The Theater. Chicago has a LOT of small theaters and small theater troupes. I took some classes, wrote and workshopped some short plays, and submitted a few. I even took a couple of performance workshops. Nothing came of it and like most of my enthusiasms, it proved less than durable. But I learned a lot, met a few nice people and a few extremely flawed ones, and was exposed to some profoundly brilliant storytelling.

I think perhaps the most memorable (it must be; I remembered it first) was a play called “The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild: A Road Trip” by Greg Owens. This was the play that ignited my short ambition to get involved with the theater.

I have always greatly admired writers who weave multiple plot threads and characters into a fabric that at the end is revealed to be a brilliant and complex tapestry. The Simpsons episode “22 Short Films About Springfield” is a nice example. This play is another.

I won’t write a synopsis from 21 years on. The Amazon listing for the script has a nice summary of the plot: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Tulsa-Lovechild-Road/dp/0881452394. A couple of reviews are at https://www.bozemanactorstheatre.org/news/2015/3/29/tulsa-lovechild and https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/the-life-and-times-of-tulsa-lovechild-a-road-trip/. You can also order a copy of the play online, preferably from a small bookstore or the like.

Until now I’d quite forgotten about Tulsa. I need to dig up my copy of the script and re-read it!