I celebrated my 64th birthday last month April 6th and am living in my 65 year and as I told you before, I have withdrawn from appearances all over the city at the musical gems. I must admit that I was at the Segovia 120 celebration last year and attended the big birthday bash of the great BUCKEY PIZZARELLI! I had to attend the concert at Symphony Space of minimalist Guitar Composers led by my dear buddy DAVID LEISNER. It is 2:49 Friday morning and I have an 8am curtain call at TIMES SQUARE. Yesterday I performed at a Library in the Bronx from 5pm to 6:15. These days I am concentrating on become great in my own manner. I am playing better then ever and still having a ball performing around the city as part of MUSIC UNDER NEW YORK. I daily bring Guitar music to the masses and feel totally committed to this. Tonight we have the great DENIS AZABAGIC performing sponsored by the New York Classical Guitar Society. There is a trio of legendary Jazz Guitarists "East meets West" just around the block from the Blue Note Jazz Spot. I know all three : GENE BERTONCINI , PAUL MYERS and from Portland Oregon the fabulous JOHN STOWELL . Gene and I share the same Birth Date: APRIL 6th ! As you see there is so much going on in this city C R A Z Y !!!!
GOHAR VARDANYAN ROCKS!!!!
Before I continue with my Donnie stream of thought writing, I must hope that those of you into the great world of the Classical Guitar pick up a copy of CLASSICAL GUITAR MAGAZINE this month as one of the truly great young artists : GOHAR VARDANYAN shares the cover. I don't remember ever seeing the cover of this great magazine split with two pictures.I wonder why but I guess I will find out. I usually get my copy on the last day of the month before the dated issue. I already e-mailed GOHAR when I saw she was being "covered". She is a great artist and works extremely hard at her craft and I am so proud of her. Whoever is managing her is doing a fantastic job. I promised here that my return to my blog would highlight her. She has her talented hands in so many things at once and is all over the place performing. W O W !!!! Keep it up my dear colleague and friend!!!!!!!! Y O U R O C K !!!!
RON CARTER BASS MAN
I have been diving into that great well of knowledge on the Internet and the last couple of nights I have been listening to Legendary Bassist RON CARTER talk about the aspects of making a living with his instrument. I was a fortunate performer several times at the STUDIO MUSEUM in HARLEM and on one occasion Maestro Carter attended a special anniversary of the Museum as I played during the meal and I was told he gazed at me several times during the evening. Listening to how he started as a cellist nut fell in love with the bass and felt he had a better chance at gigs. Even though he was better than most, he was told at the time he was trying to be a Classical Upright bass player the nasty prejudice in the Classical World held him back. I supremely hope that you folks jump on the YOUTUBE and catch the words of this man of high integrity. I have fallen in love with his deep well of truth in his life. I have taken some notes but am in awe of what he has accomplished. I can tell you that as an African American myself, prejudice continues to strike me in the face at age 64. I'll never forget the times people have said to me "ARE YOU ANY GOOD" ! They didn't even hear me play one damn note but figured since I am Black, I can't possibly be any good. When they heard me they turned red with embarrassment and walked away with their prejudiced tails between their legs. I do hope that the December 2nd 2012 GFA REGIONAL incident was not prompted by that fact as I am still smarting from that. I feel I have spent my life on the Classical and Jazz Guitar scene here in New York as a player and supporter and earned that spot on the evening concert with an excellent audition. Let me stop here because I am getting sad again as I write about this but I am playing Classical and Latin American and Jazz on solo Classical Guitar. I still get people who assume I am a Blues Guitarist because I am black! I have studied with the best of the best in several Genres and continue to grow as a musician. I think that I have tended to be overly nice to those who looked down their noses on me without hearing that 1st note. I no longer tend to do that. I was given a special talent and at this point in my life am really working hard at sharpening my craft every single day. I love playing the Guitar for people and know that they enjoy it too! I look back on my life so far and see that there were lots of great moment in my life that I can cherish. I have been listening to some performances of mine a couple of decades ago and MAN OH MAN! I WAS SMOKING!!!! I miss my DEITER HOPF F.V.T.S. ( Free Vibrating Top System ). That Guitar kicked serious ASS!!!! I miss one of my truly great special people - ROSE AUGUSTINE!!! I loved that grand lady of our instrument and I was truly pissed at the Classical Guitar Scene who made no mention of her death for several days! I had to hear the news from ELIOT FISK at his Tully Hall Concert platform! I was with her for several hours playing and talking just a week before her passing. During our visit,she had this bad cough and said that she has been trying to shake it but it would not go away! We also spoke about her wanting to get her HAUSER back from JULIAN BREAM. I told her to get on the phone and say "JULIAN. I would like my Guitar back. I miss it!" Yes I was pissed at the silence about this great supporter of our great instrument.
SHARON ISBIN also ROCKS!!
Unfortunately I had a gig at the same time SHARON ISBIN showed her recent documentary at the Lincoln Center Library. She also made it a bit difficult to attend the special tour she did with ROMERO LUBAMBO and STANLEY JORDAN but Sharon does her own thing but we owe her a great debt of gratitude for several decades of pushing the Guitar to new heights!! From New Concertos to mixing with other guitar genres, to showing you how to promote yourself she is the master. I know some of you remember how I criticized her for not carrying her guitar sound past the footlights but she took care of that with her personal amplification system she helped develop! I also mentioned how in my opinion she gave the greatest performance of the CONCERTO DE ARANJUEZ I ever heard in my life. Recently I did mention how I felt she blew her appearance in THE DEPARTED out of proportion because it won the Academy Award. I watched that film several times and the music was so "Nothing" and its' importance in the film was less than minimal. There were several guitarists in the musical score and the thematic material was really weak but she did play a couple of lines. I can put myself in this position because I have known Sharon since 1975 when she won the TORONTO GUITAR FESTIVAL. I took the week long masterclasses with LEO BROUWER when she came in to perform the lovely composition he composed for her. This was when Sharon was on the chubby side but she kicked serious Guitar Butt way back then! That is the year Eliot Fisk was there and Manuel Barrueco was the first competitor. It was a though it was yesterday for me. Manuel had just made his New York Debut and when he walked out on stage I said "WHO IS GOING TO TAKE SECOND BECAUSE MANUEL CAN"T BE BEAT"!!. He walked out in a plaid pattern shirt and casual pants and ripped that guitar to death! I didn't go to the finals because I knew there was no way he could be bested! Well I heard that Sharon won and the placing was booed and made Sharon cry. Someone told me that the only reason why he lost was that he did not dress in a suit or tux. I remember seeing him out on the benches relaxing during the day. Any way SHARON YOU ARE SUPREMELY ADMIRED BY THIS GUY AND I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE FOR OUR INSTRUMENT! I know you have some more surprises for us so go to it!!! By the way, when will you release those great GUITAR STREAM CONCERTS? I was also at the trio concert you gave with my dear teacher and friend LAURINDO ALMEIDA and LARRY CORYELL!!
Damn it is 4:27 and I am still here. I have a bucket load of thoughts to share with you. I want to thank SUE WALL and DENIS KOSTER for my birthday card and GOHAR VARDANYAN for wishing me on facebook. THAT was a great treat. There are a few other birthday wishes I received.Thanks to you all.
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