It's time for me to write about some of the most amazing
music I've ever heard. A small jazz club opened up in downtown St. Paul,
Minnesota early last year. The club was called Brilliant Corners (named
after a phenomenal jazz piece written by Thelonius Monk), and was dedicated
to providing jazz listening and jazz education opportunities for listeners
of all ages. It didn't sell alcohol, and it scheduled a number of gigs with
local musicians that went into the wee hours of the morning. (Brilliant
idea -- no alcohol meant both that people under 21 could get in, and that
the club didn't have to close at night when the bars did.)
I didn't make it to the club until October of last year -- it's been quite
a while since I was a late night person. But in early October I saw an
advertisement that Wynton Marsalis was going to play on the 21st. This
sounded like a great opportunity. I had heard a lot about this master jazz
trumpeter. He comes from a very talented family of musicians, and he is
fiercely dedicated to keeping jazz alive through performance and education.
He is in charge of the Jazz at Lincoln Center program in New York City. He
was a frequent narrator on Ken Burns' "Jazz" series on U.S.
public television a couple of years ago. He is also a member of the
artistic board of Brilliant Corners -- the proprietor had met him a few
years earlier, and I imagine that Wynton was intrigued by the idea of a
grass-roots jazz educational venue.
And now I had a chance to see him in a truly intimate setting: a tiny,
storefront jazz club that seats 53 people. So I stood in line for about two
hours on a drizzly Saturday morning, waiting outside the club to buy
tickets in person, the only way they were being sold. I drank coffee, read
a book, and finally got up to the front. There were three evening shows. I
decided to take the middle show -- it would give Wynton and the rest of his
quintet time to get warmed up and cooking, and wouldn't keep me up all
night.
On the night of the show, I stood in line for a while, chatting with a
fellow jazz hound. He had bought two tickets (there was a two-ticket limit
for each person in line when the tickets were sold). But they were both for
him: He was going to both the middle and the late show.
I chose a seat in the third row -- about ten feet from the band! And I was
just blown away. Wynton was personable, self-effacing, proud of his band.
(He moved to the back of the stage and listened, intently and with
satisfaction, when he wasn't playing, to give the other guys some
much-deserved room in the spotlight). And he is a phenomenal trumpeter,
tremendously agile, very much at home with his horn, and able to
communicate magnificently in several emotional registers.
They were all great! For more details, see my critique of the show in the
"Local Shaw" section of this MC (Musicians Connected) site. And
the tickets were just $45! (BTW, local musician gigs at this venue are
usually $5.) Wynton brought his group to Brilliant Corners to promote a new
jazz education program that was being kicked off there. The club is going
to offer some of the same jazz curriculum as is available at Lincoln Center
in New York. (And I'm already signed up for the first class! More on this
later.)
I was thinking this morning about writing up this performance in
"Local Shaw", for a few reasons: 1) It was one of the best concerts
I had ever heard. 2) I want to promote jazz as well as classical music on
this music lovers' site. And 3) the MC Team administrator gave us
permission to write about past concerts, as well as more recent ones.
Well, as it turns out, reason #3 wasn't needed here. There must have been
some deep currents moving in the meandering, globe-connecting Musical River
of Life that October! I wanted to refresh my memory of the concert (and
"borrow" some of my own prose) by re-reading an e-mail I sent to
Brilliant Corners two days after the concert. And what did I see at the end
of my e-mail? The following:
"A final note: Check out www.musiciansconnected.com -- they just
started, and look to be a great opportunity for amateur musicians!"
I had written this e-mail on October 23, the same day I discovered (and
joined) the Musicians Connected Network! And the wonderfully intimate
musical experience at Brilliant Corners had taken place the same week that
the Web site went live.
It was meant to be. I was meant to write about this concert, here on this
site. And I don't know whether you meant to read it, but I DO appreciate
your listening to my story.
Oh, one last footnote: the lucky people who saw the show after I did got an
extra treat: Violinist Itzhak Perlman, who had been performing in a
Schubert Club concert nearby earlier that evening, stopped in, and joined
the quintet in a rendition of "Summertime", from George
Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess". It gives me shivers just to think
about it!
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