Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

The playing of [tag]jazz [/tag]found its orgins in relatively small venues indoors, where there was always a [tag]piano (acoustic)[/tag] at hand. The fact that I need to refer to a piano in parenthesis as being acoustic implies that a whole lot of trading-off is going on in lieu of the ?real deal.?

The first ?plug in? substitution for a piano that I recall hearing was a ?Farfisa.? It was used by local club rock bands in the early 1960s and produced a uniquely awful sound that was fortunately drowned out for the most part by loud guitar, bass (electric) and drum solos.

I mention all of this because jazz played outdoors to an audience numbered in the hundreds (if not thousands), is in need of a team of sound engineers with PHDs in physics. It is most difficult to be intimate to an audience of that magnitude.

I can understand when a jazz festival such a Petaluma?s in Northern California, in its infancy, cannot yet afford to have a piano (acoustic) at any of the four stages. However, the setting by the river and the hiring of world class bay area jazz musicians makes this venue well worth supporting.

But then you have the Russian River Jazz Festival that celebrated its 30th year of hosting music on Johnson?s Beach. No piano (acoustic). It reminded me of a take on a standard ?Try A Little Tenderness.? ?She says she?s weary, women do get weary, wearing the same shabby dress. So if she?s weary, BUY ANOTHER SHABBY DRESS!? In other words, if the sound engineers you?ve been hiring haven?t been able to solve the afternoon winds interfering with the sound emanating from the stage, BUY SOME OTHER ENGINEERS! No piano (acoustic) for Eddie Marshall?s ensemble. None for Nina Sheldon.

None for the Bobby Hutcherson Quartet. None for George Duke, who actually made mention of it.

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival had different venues throughout the city and a piano (acoustic) for the Heath Brothers, Mark Murphy, Charlie Haden and McCoy Tyner at each and every location.

The Vallejo Jazz Festival had a piano (acoustic) both on its main stage and in the intimate jazz lounge set up for the festival. Class.

Many festivals identify themselves with ?jazz,? and are anything but in their musical presentations.

The Monterey Jazz Festival has been the model of consistency that Newport once was, and prides itself on being an actual ?jazz festival? complete with pianos (acoustic).

The San Francisco Jazz Festival has also established itself within that ?Monterey? mode.

The height of my annoyance was reached after a much anticipated visit to Yoshi?s jazz venue in Oakland, CA., to catch the Cuban/Nuyorican-inspired music of maestro Larry Harlow and the Fania All-Stars. No piano (acoustic). Not only that, but his bass player did not play acoustically either! In this day and age of botox, silicone, ?American Idol,? reality television, etc., please give me the ?real deal!?

I met with a piano player the other day who actually has three electric keyboards. Three!!!???? This is understandable when a piano player is hired for a gig (wedding, bar mitzvah, company party, etc.) that has no piano (acoustic). But a jazz festival or a major jazz venue?

Oh well. Plug in. Tune out.

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