Way back in the olden days, eleven whole years ago, I premiered several segments from my 80-minute
performance piece (the music is available on the CD of the same name), Lessons From Vinegar Mother
at the Electro-Music festival in Asheville, North Carolina. The video segments of the performance,
shot here and in New York City, were somewhat lost since that time (particularly because they were
shot – not my me – but by others in the audience), but they’ve miraculously resurfaced. So, here’s
the first one.
Points On Jazz has its origins in 1958, when Dave Brubeck was on tour in Poland. Its primary melody
was conceived as a way of thanking his audiences for their kind reception. It’s title was “Dziekuye,”
the Polish word for “Thank you.” After hearing the piece on Brubeck’s album, choregrapher, Dania Krupska,
sought permission to use the music for a new jazz ballet. The piece was eventually commissioned by the
American Ballet Theatre.
Although it was created four years ago, it’s barely been seen. Now that missions to, and eventual human
habitation on Mars continue to inspire and fascinate, let’s revisit this fantasy…
Original composition until the aviary is open, then the music “montage” is comprised only of snippets of
jazz, classical and popular music about birds. How many can you recognize?
The October 15th concert to honor Juliet Shaw featured her own theremin, custom-built for her by the
instrument’s inventor himself, Lev Termen (Leon Theremin). Since Juliet Shaw’s theremin still works,
it on display during the concert and I used it to play Londonderry Air (aka Danny Boy), a song requested
by her daughter, Sandra Shaw Murphy. Juliet herself can be heard playing the song on Track 8 of Music in
the Air – The Artistry of Thereminist Juliet Shaw, Volume 1.
Following her very fist performance at Yale University somewhere between 1936 and 1937, she learned that
Theremin lived in New York City. With her own RCA Theremin in tow, she was able to meet him at his
apartments on West 53rd St. (an event she describes in several handwritten accounts as well as in recordings
of some of her live concert performances). Theremin was so impressed with herself-taught virtuosity that he
offered to trade her RCA, with it’s range of two and a half octaves, for a custom built instrument that would
have a range of six and one half octaves. She continued to perform on that instrument for the rest of her life.
On October 15th, 2023, a live Concert was given at the Silvermine School of Music to honor the
artistry of first generation thereminist/concert pianist/teacher, Juliet Shaw. The concert was the
culmination of The Juliet Shaw Legacy Project, begun in June of 2022 by myself, and Sandra Shaw
Murphy, the daughter of Juliet Shaw. Two marvelous pianists, Peter and Marianne Lauffer, and myself
presented a full program of both classical music, jazz, and occasional mischief. This excerpt from the
concert, a perfomance of Saint Saens’s Le Cynge (The Swan) includes a bit of mischief. Video of the
complete concert is currently in the works.
For more information about the Juliet Shaw Legacy Project, please visit: www.jshawlegacy.com
Thanks to the generosity of Nick Mellis and his “Nick’s Virtual Garage” concert series, I was able to
present a full-length concert on December 16, 2022. Selections include a) entirely new compositions;
b) two classical pieces; c) music and visuals that up until now could only be seen in live performances;
and d) a new composition created using ONLY the sounds made my an MRI machine!
Italian composer, Alfredo Catalani and librettist Luigi Illica, created one of opera’s most beautiful
and most famous arias. And like so many sublimely beautiful arias, it’s contrasted by its subject
matter — one that pervades operas: Wally, the heroine, refuses to marry the man her father has chosen
and basically says, “If I can’t marry the man I am in love with, I shall do myself in.”
