|
I highly recommend that you do this, so you can see for
yourself the magnitude of Fritz’s work. One of the greatest
things is that he integrates students with masters of their
craft. To be honest, rubbing shoulders with such incredible
and diverse talent (my idols in a lot of cases), I feel like
a student myself when I’m there. Aside from playing, just
hanging with them and hearing all of the stories, jokes,
facts of their experiences and things they know and places
they’ve been, people they’ve played with….my friend, you
don’t get this stuff in a book or in school! Yes, this is
where the Big Dogs play, and words can’t describe the
feeling of being part of the pack!
This year featured two nights of music: Friday night: The
Aargau Youth Gospel Orchestra: “Louis and The Good Book”
featuring Lance Martin playing the voice of Louis, Buster
Williams, Victor Lewis, Dennis Montgomery, Steve Ried, Mark
Gross, a gospel choir from Berklee (Rashad McPherson, Kevin
Ross, Samantha Jordan and Annette Phillip), and Fritz Renold
conducting (the mastermind behind these yearly events).
Saturday night: The Aargau youth Chamber Orchestra “Concerto
Double Nouvel” featuring four double concertos (written for
two soloists). Composers: Barrie Lee Hall Jr. (Franco
Ambrosetti-other trumpet soloist), Gildas Bocle (Reggie
Hamilton-other bass soloist) myself (Patrick Lerchmuller-other
trombone soloist) and Fritz Renold (Volker Beissenbender and
Tobias Preisig-violin soloists). Other artists: Adam
Nussbaum on drums, Mark Soskin on piano, the Casal String
Quartet, and Kevin Fields conducting.
-The kids: I’ve seen many young musicians go through the
jazzaar “machine” and witness with astonishment the growth
that happens in these kids, not just in the week, but over
the years. Many of them are return students and stay as long
as they are young enough. Why wouldn’t they, of course? The
opportunity to rub elbows with the best of the best is one
not to be passed up. Many of them will go on to become great
musicians themselves. Patrick Lerchmuller was a student when
I first started mentoring there. This year he was featured
as the other trombone soloist on my piece! He stepped up to
the plate and knocked it out! So, to all of the young ones
who have participated in Jazzaar over the years,
congratulations for being given a great gift, compliments of
Fritz Renold!
-Buster Williams walks into a room and one is reminded of
how it must’ve felt to have Miles walk into a room. The
spirit envelopes the room and towers over everybody. “The
Hump of LIFE!” –Victor Lewis, referring to Buster’s playing,
time, feel, soul…..
-Adam Nussbaum, walking archive. Knows every tune, fact,
ect. While rehearsing he wants to know the changes so he can
play accordingly on the drums. Now that’s a real drummer!
Mark Soskin and I were hanging in his hotel room one night
and he was playing some recordings for Mark and I. He was
testing us, like a “name that musician” game. The first tune
was Joe Farrels last recording before he died. On it was
Chick. It sounded nothing like Chick at all. (this was Adams
point, trying to stump us. He has what would seem to be an
endless collection of music, information, and anecdotes as
well as a tireless sense of humor.) The next was Sonny
Rollins 1973. Mark recognized it right away because he was
on the gig! It had been a long time since I visited this era
of Sonny’s playing. The transformation from young Sonny was
amazing and reminded me of Tranes transformation from about
1950 to mid 60’s. I knew that Sonny and Trane were friends,
and in that friendship, there was an exchange of ideas, as
well as both of them in constant search for a voice. I can’t
remember who said this when I was there (it was Buster or
Victor or one of the Big Dogs), but Trane practiced
constantly in search of that voice “just in case”, meaning
that there were always new guys coming on the scene with
something else to say, and Trane was keeping ahead of the
pack, whether consciously or unconsciously. It was the
endless search for something new to say that was important,
not finding it. Once you find it, you search for something
else.
One night, I was hanging in the hotel restaurant with
Adam, Victor, Buster, Mark, and Barrie. Adam and
Victor were trading Buddy stories. The two that stand out:
Victor told this story: A kid had been coming to see
Buddy for years and all the time was badgering the tour
manager to let him meet buddy. Finally one night the manager
gave the kid a towel and said “Here, kid, go give this to
Buddy.” The kid knocked on his door, obviously beside
himself with excitement to finally meet him. He heard grunts
from inside, and when he opened the door Buddy was sprawled
out on the floor, too exhausted to get up. “That’s how much
he gave it up for the gig!” Victor said. Watching Victor
play, I get that same impression. He GIVES IT UP on every
note that he plays.
Next, Adam told this story: He and Mel Lewis went to see
Buddy play at (I believe it was) the Blue Note in NY.
Knowing that Mel was there, Buddy played differently all
night, more subtle, musical. At the end of the show, During
West Side Story (or one of those epics that typically ended
his show) He went into his usual drum solo, and at the point
where he played the slow single stroke snare that
eventually sped up to a frenzy, he stopped in the the middle
of it, looked right at Mel (Adam was sitting next to him, so
he saw his line of sight come right there), turned and said
to the audience “Why am I Doing This?” and went into
something different and creative. Buddy knew how to cater to
his audience like the best of them, and he knew that people
came to see his explosiveness on the drums, as well as his
sharp wit and temper. But when he knows that someone like
Mel and Adam are in the audience at the Blue Note, you hear
another side to Buddy- something more inventive,
polyrhythmic, subtle and musical.
This story that Adam told was ringing bell somehow to me,
and I asked him what year it was, and he said that it was
the year before he died. All of a sudden I remembered that I
was on that gig! The memory was stuck in the back of my
brain, and Adam lodged it loose.
Victor and Adam continued talking about Buddy, and the
fact that when he died, Tony Williams wanted to claim the
throne of “fastest hands”. But I think Adam and Victor
agreed that Sonny Payne couldn’t be forgotten!
Sunday: we arrive, check in, and go to Fritz’s house that
night for an introduction hang. This is a yearly tradition,
where Fritz has everybody come to his house. When you walk
in, you are immediately overtaken by the delicious smells of
Indian style cooling brought to you by Helen, Fritz’ wife.
She works all day (actually, more like days) to cook up a
meal fit for a king. The wine beer flows like, well, wine
and beer. We talk, eat, drink, tell stories, joke, laugh,
listen to music, and just have a good time. This sets us up
for a week of high spirits.
Monday: rehearsals begin. Sectionals: I work with the
brass section with Steve Reid for the other group preparing
for the concert “Louis and the Good Book”. During breaks I’m
outside hearing through the windows the different sections
rehearsal the pieces, I hear woodwinds playing parts of my
piece, and realize “Here we Go!” The thrills begin.
On Monday night after the first rehearsal day, we all
went to Fritz Renolds house for more hang/relax/laugh time.
Near the end of the night, Dennis Montgomery sat down at the
piano and tore up a jazz standard in his usual heart-felt
gospel way, and all of a sudden a jam broke out-Adam on
snare drum and brushes, Dennis and Mark Soskin trading on
the grand piano, Reggie Hamilton and Fritz’ Daughter,
Sharon, sharing her bass guitar. Steve and Barrie shared a
trumpet that Fritz had. Mark Gross played an Alto sax that
was sitting around the house….
[Side note-this struck me as funny: The night goes like
this:
-Hey, Barrie, you want to play?
-Aw, no, I didn’t bring my trumpet.
-well we have one
(exit Benjamin, Fritz’ son, 20 seconds later, enters with
a trumpet)
-Hey Mark, you want to play
-No, man not really, besides I didn’t bring my axe
-Oh, well…we have one
(exit Ben, enter with alto)
-Hey Adam….
……you get the rest……I ended up playing a little Guitar….
The guitar was a Les Paul that Fritz said was owned by
Eric Clapton at one point during his career.
Good Times!
Kevin Fields is nothing short of amazing. He was able to
traverse the world of jazz and classical in ways that were a
lesson in and of itself. He had some very musical
suggestions for my piece (this was my first professional
writing for strings and woodwinds in this setting) that made
a big difference. It was helpful that he and the musicians
took a liking to my piece. He brought out the best in the
music with direction that was concise, and he did it with
respect, grace and leadership.
Every year we are presented with the daunting task of
preparing a huge quantity of music in a just a few days. We
always say at the beginning of the week “how are we going to
get this done?”, but in the end it always comes together.
Fritz obviously knows what he’s doing in the people he
hires, and this year, Kevin gets the prize for pulling it
off!
As for me? Well, I was like a deer in headlights for the
first couple rehearsals, and never really felt comfortable
until the soundcheck on Saturday. Having such wonderful
musicians playing my piece was exhilarating, scary and
everything in between. On Tuesday, after the morning
rehearsal, I was so wound up that I had to have a large beer
with my lunch. Afterwards I had a full belly and a good buzz
on, but forgot all about the jet-lag. OOPS! I was so tired
that I could’ve lay down on the street and passed out. But,
no worries, the afternoon rehearsal started, and I was
drenched in sweat again. That’s how the following days went,
sans the beer, jet-lag getting better each passing day.
Wednesday night I hosted a jam session at a club in
Aarau. The night started with a rhythm section of young guys
from the area, and later the Big Dogs showed up! All of a
sudden a real jam broke out! I can’t tell you how
exhilarating it was to play with Buster Williams, Adam and
Mark Soskin in the Rhythm section-later Reggie Hamilton
stepped in for Buster, and before Buster, Gildas Bocle
played bass. Also playing were Barrie Lee Hall Jr., Mark
Gross on Alto, Tobias Preisig on Violin. There was some real
magic going on that night. What a thrill!
|
