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| Paul Winter's Winter Solstice Celebration A Tribute to Sir George Martin, with featured guest Gary Brooker Paul Winter's 37th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration will feature: Special guest Gary Brooker, the founder, pianist, composer and voice of the iconic band Procol Harum; Our beloved gospel singer Theresa Thomason; the 25 dancers and drummers of the Forces of Nature Dance Theatre; and the Consort: cellist Eugene Friesen, playing his 37th consecutive Winter Solstice Celebration; keyboardist Paul Sullivan; bassist Eliot Wadopian; drummer Jamey Haddad; organist Tim Brumfield on the Cathedral's great Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ; Sun-gong maestro Scott Sloan; And I'll be playing soprano sax. Performances will take place on Thursday, December 15 at 8:00 p.m., Friday, December 16 at 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, December 17 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in NYC. Tickets and more information are available at solsticeconcert.com. REVISITING A REMARKABLE YEAR IN THE CONSORT'S JOURNEY FILLMORE EAST/PROCOL HARUM In the spring of 1971, the Consort was booked to play at the Fillmore East in New York, opening for Procol Harum. This was only our second year as a band, which included Paul McCandless on English horn and oboe; David Darling on cello; Ralph Towner, guitar; Glen Moore, bass; Collin Walcott, percussion; and I was playing alto sax. We had toured the US in 1970, and recorded our first album Road, live at Royce Hall, UCLA, and Kilborn Hall at the Eastman School of Music. Being then, as now, a band without a genre, we wanted to play everywhere, to cross bridges into many realms. This would be our first gig in a rock emporium, and we were curious. I was enthusiastic about being on a bill with Procol Harum, as they were the only rock band I liked besides the Beatles. We greatly enjoyed the experience, and were gratified that the rock audience gave us a warm response. It was good to hear Procol live, and I felt an immediate kinship with their leader, Gary Brooker, both because of the music and from conversations we had between sets. I told him I'd be coming to England that June, to meet with George Martin to plan our recording sessions for later that summer, and Gary said to ring him up. GEORGE MARTIN AND ICARUS In the fall of 1970, the Consort had acquired a high-powered manager, Bennett Glotzer, a partner of Albert Grossman, who managed a roster of folk-oriented musicians that included Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary. Bennett also managed a new rock band called SeaTrain, and had approached George Martin about producing their album. The Beatles had ended, and George had produced their final album, Abbey Road, the year before. Needless to say, he was in demand as a producer. Having recently taken us on, Bennett thought it would be a great idea to have George produce the Consort as well. George came to New York that December to hear SeaTrain perform at Carnegie Hall, and Bennett convinced him to have lunch with me the next day. I told George about the Consort, and he was intrigued with our instrumentation, especially the fact that we had oboe, since George had been an oboist with the Sadler-Wells Ballet Orchestra before becoming a record producer. Whether George had heard our Road album, or was simply so open-minded he could be convinced by our lunch conversation, I don't know. But he agreed to produce us. The plan was that George and his family would come to some beachside town in New England for several weeks, and have a vacation setting in which he could also produce the albums of these two bands. Bennett rented a house on the beach, in Marblehead Mass., for George and his family and another to serve as our studio. Portable recording gear was moved into the dining room, and mics were set-up in the living room. We put a homemade sign on the lawn, that said "Seaweed Studio." Our two weeks of sessions in Marblehead were idyllic. We could spend the mornings on the beach, and convene at 2pm and work until late evening. We were able to take as long as we wanted on each piece, and nobody had to watch the clock. It was recording heaven. I resolved I'd never go into a New York studio again, and I haven't. George was a true mentor for us, showing us how to use the studio creatively. We experimented with all sorts of overdubbing, and we had a ball. I remember a lot of laughing, much of it catalyzed by George, who had a famous sense of humor. He was a noble guide. I thought of him as a cross between two other tall gentlemen: Prince Philip and Stan Kenton. George would say, a few years later, in his autobiography All You Need is Ears, "The album was called Icarus, and was, I think, the finest record I have ever made." We will be saluting George, in our Winter Solstice Celebration, with music from the Icarus album; music featuring fellow oboist Paul McCandless; music inspired by Bach, (whom he revered), and, along with Gary, music from the band George produced for which he is most famous. APOLLO 15 To make that summer even more remarkable: On the very day, July 26 of '71, that we began our sessions in Marblehead, the Apollo 15 Spacecraft lifted off, en-route to the moon. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the astronauts were carrying on-board a cassette of our Road album, and they then named two of the new craters they discovered after songs from the album. GARY BROOKER That June of '71, arriving in England, I had called Gary; and he invited me down to his place in Surrey for a visit. We had a good time playing tennis, and comparing notes on our respective musical journeys. The saga of the song "A Whiter Shade of Pale, " which Gary co-wrote with his lyricist, Keith Reid, had propelled Procol Harum to international fame. It had been the #1 single of 1967, in that "Summer of Love" (an amazing feat, at the height of the Beatle years), and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. The song was beloved by the Beatles, and evidently John Lennon, for a time, had it in steady rotation in his Rolls Royce. Gary told of how one New Year's Eve, he and his wife Franky had come out of a club that was the favorite of many of the rock musicians, and as they were walking down the street, John pulled alongside in his car and called out for them to come and join him. Gary had been friends with George Martin for a number of years. Procol Harum recorded at AIR studios, which George owned, and George had conducted the orchestra on their recording of "Simple Sister." George would then produce Gary's first solo album, No More Fear of Flying. I saw Gary next when the Consort played at St. James Piccadilly in London, in 1995. He and George came to hear us, and it was a wonderful reunion. It would be over 20 years before Gary and I crossed paths again, at the memorial service for Sir George, in London, this past May. Meeting for lunch after the service, Gary and I decided it was time to do something together. That's where the aural-vision for this Solstice program was born. We traded ideas by email throughout the summer, and in September I went back to England to visit again with Gary and Franky, this time in their new home in Guildford. It was a productive time of listening and brainstorming, and our Solstice program of traditional and new pieces began to take shape. LEONARD PELTIER We have been networking in as many realms as possible to put forth our music and message regarding America's most notable political prisoner, Leonard Peltier, who has been unjustly incarcerated in federal prison for the past 41 years. Our 13-minute EP, All My Relations: Voices for Leonard Peltier, is intended to awaken participation in the groundswell of voices urging President Obama to grant clemency to Leonard. A presidential pardon of Leonard would be a mighty statement of atonement for the horrible history of our government's genocide against the Native Americans over the centuries. All My Relations is a 13-minute suite that begins with our recording of the Native American song "Witchi Tai To, " and features Apache singer John-Carlos Perea. The voice of the wolf follows this, with my song "Wolf Eyes, " that culminates with a chorus of 2, 000 human voices in New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, howling together "for a free Leonard Peltier." Our goal is to put forth this music, along with the story of Leonard's plight, to the widest world audience possible, over the coming weeks. write your comments about the article :: © 2016 Jazz News :: home page |