Pete and I just got back from Heinz Hall, we saw Marvin Hamlisch conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, along with his special guests, Dave Koz and Greg Karukas. You probably have seen or heard the CD from Dave Koz "At the Movies," where he plays popular songs from various old movies. That is what they performed tonight.
Did you know that he performed a lot with Richard Marx back in the 80's?? I remember seeing him on that stage with Richard Marx many times. I asked this 20-something chick standing behind the table full of CD's for sale if she knew that, and she gave me this blank smile, like, "Who is Richard Marx...?" and I waved my hand at her, and said, "Aw crap, you're too young to even know who Richard Marx IS...am I right?" she laughed and nodded, and I said, "He also had John Walmsley, who played Jason on The Waltons, as one of his guitarists...but...aw hell, you probably don't even know anything about the Waltons either, do ya...?" She shook her head no, and I said, "Well thanks for listening to an OLD LADY like ME spew out a bunch of useless trivia. G'head and Google it sometime."
SNIFF. Damned whipper snappers. GET OFF MY LAWN!
I have been feeling rather old lately.
I didn't expect Greg Karukas to be there, though, WOW that is awesome!! He wore this cool hat, which looked VERY similar to the hat YOU wore in the "Oh Sherrie" video. Did you know he was one of the founding members of The Rippingtons?? I used to listen to his music (and the Rippingtons) all the time on my favorite jazz radio station when I lived in Washington DC. LOVED IT. Dave Koz is pretty awesome too. That dude has got some LUNGS.
I would rate the following as my top favorite saxophone players...(Kenny G is my LEAST favorite). He's just too "white bread," ya know? Not much "soul." He's kind of a surfacey player, not really much emotion behind it. Richard Elliott, however, WOW, he blows me away...and Boney James was incredible when I saw him in concert years ago...I wish I could have seen Clarence though, that would have been the best performance of them all, I would guess.
1. Richard Elliott
2. Boney James
3. Dave Koz
4. Clarence Carter (RIP)
5. Kenny G.
Well anyway, so I took a photo and a little snippet of video for you....here it is....
On Thursday nights, they have a Q&A session after the concert is over. So, Pete and I usually stay that extra 20 minutes and sit in the front row. That's Dave Koz on the left, and Marvin on the right.
I asked Dave a question....I sat there the whole evening, with this burning in my brain, so I had to ask: "Would you ever consider a collaboration with Robert Osbourne on the Turner Classic Movie channel, to do some kind of event, where you play the songs, he gives some trivia about the song and/or movie, and shows that part of the movie too?" Dave's eyes lit up and he grinned from ear to ear, "I would LOVE THAT! What a cool idea!" he answered. I said, "I am addicted to TCM so that would be an AWESOME thing to see on that channel." He said, "Oh man, I agree, that would be very cool...."
So, I don't know if that will ever happen or not, but I'm going to write to Robert Osbourne too. What the hell. I got nothing to lose, what do I care?! It was just one of those, "seems like a natural progression" things, ya know? Why not do that on TCM, and encourage more musicians to sit down with him and talk about THEIR favorite movies and music, rather than just doing it with actors? I thought it was a pretty cool idea myself, but who knows if it'll ever really happen.
Anyway, here's the video snippet of Dave being asked a question...the beginning is a little hard to hear, but someone in the audience asked him why he played "the LITTLE saxophone," instead of those other bigger ones, and his answer was, "Because the LITTLE one makes ME look BIGGER!" (He's kind of a short guy). Then he says, "True story," and continues with more dialogue.....
Now......somebody ELSE asked him if he would ever RECORD music with Marvin and the orchestra, and the two of them looked at each other and said, "YESSS!! LET'S DO IT!!" So, we'll see.
So Stephen, (you see it coming, don't you?) my question to YOU is, would YOU ever consider hooking up with Dave or Greg or Marvin to do something totally DIFFERENT from what you've usually done musically?? I think that would be THE COOLEST THING EVER. But hey, that's just my opinion, what do I know. Sometimes breaking away from the same old thing is scary, but turns out to be the best thing EVER. Reinventing of oneself is never easy, but there are LOTS of musicians like them who would LOVE to work with you, I am sure of that.
Well, it's just a thought. I love ya no matter what.
Hope you have a good weekend. I am off to bed, hopefully to SLEEP through the night for once.
Bye for now.
Love, Rebecca
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