Reflections on Fat Tuesday...

Fat Tuesday has come and gone - so has Ash Wednesday - and I have been basking in the afterglow of both days in gratitude.  When we returned home after the Fat Tuesday concert, I wrote this note to all of my bandmates:

Sipping a glass of red wine, basking in my gratitude for the chance to both do something beautiful for others AND enjoy your stellar musicianship:  I am a blessed man tonight.  And I am so grateful to each of you for sharing your time and talent.  I trust you had as much fun as I did making music.  I am of the conviction - like Dostoevsky - that beauty can save the world.  (Read Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Peace Speech if you think this is simplistic.) And you made a ton of beauty tonight.

Like Rob Fisch (one of our trumpet masters) said, "It was a gift to get everyone together in the same room - and the money we raised for the hunger center was gravy!"  Totally right - you each made this magical and sweet.

So a deep, deep thank you - rest well - and know I look forward to seeing you soon.

It is important to me to celebrate and honor the hard work and sacrifice my artist friends share with me. Then I added the poem by Jayne Cortez, "A Jazz Fan Looks Back" that I used to open the show:

I crisscrossed with Monk
Wailed with Bud
Counted every star with Stitt
Sang "Don't Blame Me" with Sarah
Wore a flower like Billie
Screamed in the range of Dinah
& scatted "How High the Moon" with Ella  Fitzgerald
    as she blew roof off the Shrine Auditorium Jazz  at the Philharmonic

I cut my hair into a permanent tam
Made my feet rebellious metronomes
Embedded record needles in paint on paper
Talked bopology talk
Laughed in high-pitched saxophone phrases
Became keeper of every Bird riff
every Lester lick
as Hawk melodicized my ear of infatuated tongues
& Blakey drummed militant messages into the
soul of my applauding teeth
& Ray hit bass notes to the last love seat in my bones

I moved in triple time with Max
Grooved high with Diz
Perdidoed with Pettiford
Flew home with Hamp
Shuffled in Dexter's Deck
Squatty-rooed with Peterson
Dreamed a "52nd Street Theme" with Fats
& scatted "Lady Be Good" with Ella Fitzgerald
as she blew roof off the Shrine Auditorium
Jazz  at the Philharmonic

And over the next two days I began to get back responses from my musical mates on Fat Tuesday - and they made my heart sing.  Here are a few:

+ From Mr. Piano - Carlton Maiia - my director of music:  Folks, of all the places I could've been last night - of all the things there are to do in this world - all the abstractions and ways of keeping busy and feeling important - there isn't anywhere else I would've rather been: not with anybody else, doing anything else, for any other reason.

It was truly a high point of feel-good music making in my life, and I thank you ALL for it, because it really was because of each and every one of you.  The organization, and leadership, and constant energy was a gift from Pastor James; the fabulous sound setup a gift from Paul and Sean and Rob; the chance to help a great cause, a gift from the Christian Center... Oh, the Christian Center! : they probably have no idea what a gift they gave us last night!!

+ From Linda Worster, my favorite folk artist in the Berkshires: I am with you all in gratitude and joy... Loving reading all these messages! There is nothing in the world to me that is quite so wonderful as looking around a room at people I am making music with. It is a true privilege and a gift. And then to join hearts for a great cause! HOOORAH!!! Looking forward to the next time!

+ From Dan Broad, the finest bass player in the region: I wholeheartedly agree with what all of you have been saying. We pulled off the concert without falling all over each other and played beautiful, soulful, heartfelt music! What great example of building community through music.

+ From Rebecca Leigh, the BEST R and B singer I have EVER heard: Wow. Last night was so much fun and a wonderful blessing (as always) to perform with you! It's an honor to share my love of performing with the best musicians in Berkshire County. Thank you for that. Can't wait until the next! Until then, be well. Much love and gratitude,

+ And from Dr. Jon Grenoble, church member and musical colleague: Thanks for letting me be a part of it all, to be able to live in a gracious small community and be surrounded by the depth of musical talent and dedication on that stage last night is really an exceptional blessing. Look forward to being with all of you again.

Two things deserve comment:

Second, we played two killer sets and people gave up their music with passion, verve and camaraderie.  Remember: of the 18 musicians on the stage, 6 run their own bands.  And there was almost no ego to deal with and NO sense of needing to upstage any one else.  It was truly an encounter in how music can build community - with and for the artists - as well as the wider Berkshire community, too.

And then, as icing on the cake, Jenn Smith of the Berkshire Eagle, ran this article in today's paper:

Berkshires After Dark: Rocking out -- at church
By Jenn Smith, Berkshire Eagle Staff

Thursday February 23, 2012
PITTSFIELD -- I went to church on Tuesday night, and rocked out.

I always try to celebrate the spirit of Mardi Gras, so I couldn't resist when I saw a Facebook post about a Fat Tuesday Blues and Jazz Party.

The venue happened to be at the First Church of Christ Congregational on Park Square. They had a pre-Thanksgiving benefit concert there to raise winter fuel funds for the community. It was so successful and fun, the musicians decided to get together and do it again -- this time to not only raise Mardi Gras spirits, but also to drum up support for the Christian Center in Pittsfield by free-will donation.

As I headed over to First Church, I began to think of how churches and places of worship offer non-sacred, non-denominational entertainment in the Berkshires.

When I first moved back to Berkshire County in 2005, I remember that the First United Methodist Church in Pittsfield had an excellent concert series going, Common Grounds. I got to see nationally touring folk artist Dar Williams there, while sitting front and center in a pew.

More recently, the series was tabled and the artists who played there headed to North Adams and the Railway Café at Gallery 51.

This past fall, another church, the former St. George's in Lee, was converted to the Spectrum Playhouse, which began in January to hold concerts, plays, movies and a monthly comedic performance by the Royal Berkshire Improv Troupe.

this week, I went to the First Congregational Church of Stockbridge and met Yeejin Yuk, a 14-year-old pianist who will hold a concert there this Sunday at 3 p.m. While there, I also learned that the church has a music committee that will be sponsoring a March 6 concert at 7 p.m. with the Bowling Green State University Men's Chorus.
In Williamstown on Friday at 8 p.m., Tenores de Aterúe will sing four-part polyphonic Sardinian music as part of a regular concert series at St. John's Episcopal Church, 35 Park St.

And this Sunday at 4 p.m., there will be a creative semi-secular event called the Gospel Extravaganza Concert, featuring rap artist ZION, Bob Alonge, Rodney Mashia, Pastor Crystal Brown, The Messengers, The Gospel Gang and local blueswoman Robin O'Herin. Instead of in church, however, the music will be performed in the auditorium of Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington.

When I walked through the full parking lot and into the First Church in Pittsfield on Tuesday night, just before 8, I found first a lobby stocked with boxes of doughnuts, plates of bagels, coffee and soft drinks, and a basket of purple, green and gold Mardi Gras beads. The Rev. James Lumsden headed the event.

The band was just finishing a jumping rendition of the New Orleans classic "Iko Iko" as I walked down the aisle. A couple of women I didn't know smiled and waved me in to take a seat near them in the comfortable, padded pews.

About a dozen musicians were arrayed across the gilded altar, including several vocalists and guitar players, an upright bass player, drummer, even a trumpet player.

From where I was sitting, it was hard to see those playing on stage left, but I could hear them just fine. I got there just in time to hear a stirring rendition of The Beatles' "Let it Be."

The crowd was mixed, but mostly in the middle-age range.

I also appreciated that the focus was on the music, not on being preached to. But Lumsden couldn't help but remind the crowd of about 70 that on Sundays, the music is just as lively.

I recognized the sounds and faces of local artists like Carlton Maaia II, Rebecca Leigh, Andy Kelly, Linda Worster and Vikki True. There were many others there too, though forgive me, I can't remember all of them.

The songs were quite recognizable too, from artists like Tom Waits, Eric Clapton and Norah Jones.

Leigh's rendition of "The Greatest Love of All," popularized by late singer Whitney Houston, brought a standing ovation.

Another crowd-pleaser was a boy, who I later learned is Ethan Wesley, a guitar student of Andy Kelly's. Wesley took a few leads and solos, confidently playing some great blues.

Later in the evening, small balloons rained down from the balcony, tossed by a few youths. Another great round of applause and delight came when Lumsden announced $817 had been raised for hunger missions at the Christian Center.

I left at 9:22 p.m. to make my way over to some 10x10 On North Festival poetry at Y Bar. But Lumsden and the group were still revved up, playing Clapton's "After Midnight."

Although First Church and other like venues aren't regular popular nightspots, they are, on occasion, here to provide a unique break from the norm. Amen to that.

There is a groove going on here that is a total, stone-cold blessing.  And I am one very grateful man.