Well, dear readers, here I sit like so much fish, listening to the seventh symphony of Mr. Heitor Villa-Lobos, having received my big boy box of the complete symphonies. Thus far the first six are really excellent (his fifth symphony is missing in action – no music – presumably lost forever) – filled with wonderful melody, orchestral color, and interesting tonalities that are completely unique to him. It’s been a Villa-Lobos kind of evening here in the City of Studio. But prior to that there were other things that happened. There are a million stories in the naked city – this is one of them.
I got a little over eight hours of sleep, got up, answered a couple of e-mails and printed out some orders, whilst I listened to these two wonderful Gershwin CDs in which the Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and Concerto in F are all played in their original jazz band orchestrations – it’s really fun to hear them that way and I truly enjoyed the two discs, which also have other fun stuff on them. It was too gray and chilly to jog, so I just hunkered down and did some work on the computer and listened to music. I also listened to the Munch Daphnis and Chloe SACD – just a few day ago I’d heard the CD of it that I had from years ago and enjoyed it, but the SACD is really something wholly other – it’s like hearing the music for the first time, such is the detail in that mastering. Then it was time to shave, shower, and get ready for our little Sherman event rehearsal.
Thankfully, the traffic was tolerable on the way there – it slowed down for no reason whatsoever for about a mile, but I got there in about thirty minutes. Just before leaving, I picked up a couple of packages. Once there, we got to work right on time. It was freezing in their black box theater mostly because the school has been closed for a week. We began with the group number, my arrangement of the Sherman Brothers nonsense words medley. First I had everyone sing everything. We drilled some notes, and then I began breaking it up into solos, duets, trios, and the full group – we’ve never done it like that, it’s always been a solo. Jason Graae did it on the album for which I created it, then Melody Hollis did it, then Sami. But it works this way and is fun, so they just have to learn it by heart and then I’ll do a little staging. I gave a few notes about the approach and they’re a good bunch of kids.
Then I worked with two young ladies who are doing my put-together of Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang and Hushabye Mountain. It was originally going to be a solo, but the gal I’d chosen was more comfortable doing it with a friend. So, we figured out how that would work, added a bit of harmony to the bridge of Hushabye and I gave them some little pointers on the feel of the arrangement and its phrasing.
Then Sami, who was under the weather, did Suddenly It Happens – I didn’t want her to push her voice too much, but I gave her some very specific notes, we sang through it twice and that was that. Richard Allen was there playing his way through music he’d never seen before. Thankfully I had all the charts from the Sherman Brothers Kritzerland show, and they were all marked very carefully.
Then Sami had to go home to do a study group project, which she and her chums do on the computer. Her mom and I went to a little Eyetalian jernt called Risto. I’d been there once before and enjoyed it. I had a small Caesar and rigatoni with sausage and peppers, a reasonable portion that did fill me up nonetheless. After that, I headed to the freeway, not sure what I was in for. Thankfully, there was virtually no traffic and I was home in less than twenty minutes – I was petrified that all the vacationers would be coming home.
Once home, I uploaded all the Villa-Lobos symphonies and began listening, as I printed out a couple of orders and nosed around the Internet.
Today, I have stuff to do in the morning, then I’ll eat, maybe try to jog, hopefully pick up some packages, and then we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal, which, as always, I’m very much looking forward to.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals and going and doing and doing and going, and dealing with a few things that must be dealt with so I can at least have a stress-free end of year and birthday, then we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal, then our stumble-through, then sound check and show. And then it’s right on to the second rehearsal for the Sherman event, followed by the event itself, which happens the day before my birthday. And then my birthday – so far no one has said boo about doing anything, so perhaps like Thanksgiving, I’ll just be here by my lonesome.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do stuff, eat, jog, have a rehearsal, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What was your very first exposure to the wonderful music of Mr. George Gershwin? What are your favorites of his – concert pieces, shows, and songs? And your favorite recorded performances? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have told one of the million stories in the naked city.