About this entry

You’re currently reading “mark weber | the south pasadena concert | october 26, 2009,” an entry on metropolis

Published:
23.11.09 / 11am
Category:
concerts

mark weber | the south pasadena concert | october 26, 2009

,

Michael Vlatkovich & William Roper, Oct 26, 2009 | Photo by Anders Swanson

First set: Michael Vlatkovich & William Roper trombone & cimbasso duets

Second set: Mark Weber, poems | Michael Vlatkovich, trombone, music director, arranger/composer, conductor | Andrew Pask, clarinet | Tom McNalley, electric guitar | Vinny Golia, woodwinds | William Roper, tuba | Harry Scorzo, violin | Chris Garcia, drumset | Bill Plake, tenor saxophone | Anders Swanson, bass | Alan Mautner, cello

Recorded by Steven Schmidt. The South Pasadena Music Conservatory. 1509 Mission St. South Pasadena, CA 91030

Download listen to an excerpt from this concert

,

Mark Weber & Vinny Golia October 26, 2009 | Photo by Anders Swanson (in background is jazz historian Kirk Silsbee)

photo

Tom McNalley, Mark Weber, Michael Vlatkovich October 26, 2009 | Photo by Anders Swanson

TWO THINGS

When my great friend and sound tech Quincy died on the last day of 2007 (pancreatic cancer, age 51) I decided it was time to pack it in for awhile, take a break from performing. What’s a writer doing standing around on a stage, anyway? But, I made an allowance and that was if ever Connie Crothers called or Michael Vlatkovich called I’d drop everything and work anywhere in any situation with either of them. So, as it happens I was in NYC for a performance with Connie’s Quintet on Sept 26, 2009 and then exactly a month later on Oct 26 I was L.A. (South Pasadena) for a performance with Michael.
a
Los Angeles is a tough nut to crack, there is such indifference to the arts — here you have this massive conglomeration of humanity and probably only one person per 10,000 is interested in art. Not that art is exactly necessary to living on Earth, but it could be. If you survive such mocking indifference to your work then you are probably a true artist. You have no other path open to you, whether anyone pays any attention or not. I say this because we all know a lot of pretenders, those who, for some reason think working in the arts would be fun.
a
I am grateful that I was raised in the Los Angeles area simply because I grew a thick skin to indifference.  Nothing bugs me.  If you don’t like my poetry, so what else is new?  You know?  It was a blessing to be nurtured in such utter disregard.  Am I bitter?  Sounds like it. Ask my shrink. Ha ha ha.
a
We didn’t know whether to call this ten-piece group of Michael’s a dektette (after another Angeleno’s famous 1950s band – Marty Paich Dektette) or tentette or The Michael Vlatkovich All-Stars.    I’ve worked with these guys since the early 90s and have been friends with some of them since the mid-70s.  They’re hanging in.  When the real history of Los Angeles jazz is written, it is these guys that you’ll be reading about.
a
Steven & Linda Schmidt drove out from Santa Fe to record the event. Bobby Bradford came and heard us!  The jazz historian Kirk Silsbee was in attendance, sitting with Bradford.  Dottie Grossman made the scene as well.  Nice place. Pasadena is a wonderful town.  Before the performance I spent a few hours at the Norton Simon Museum, which has a staggering collection of Indian Vedic stone and bronze statues downstairs. Outside is the sculpture garden which rivals the Hirshhorn in DC, wow.  And their collection of European paintings is unbelievable, Norton Simon was a baad dude!
a
Michael wrote compositions and arrangements for 16 of my poems. As Bill Plake said,   and he’s been an admirer of Michael’s work for twenty years, “It just gets better and better.”   And they played this tricky stuff very well.  Not only are the sections moving in counterpoint but time was being over-lapped and going in different directions as well.  Michael swears it wasn’t complex. –Mark Weber, Albuquerque  23nov09

Related posts:

  1. mark weber | sometimes one note is all it takes | cedar walton trio & bobby hutcherson | concert in albuquerque, october 22, 1994
  2. mark weber | poetry band
  3. mark weber | michael pierre vlatkovich | driving with money in his pocket & hex on a donkey
  4. mark weber | 8:45am monday village vanguard new york city
  5. mark weber | billy higgins & shelly manne duet september 23, 1984 watts towers
  6. veryan weston | john edwards | mark sanders | mercury concert
  7. mark weber | on richard tabnik
  8. mark weber | beautemous everlasting & time zone differential
  9. cal haines | mark weber | poetry and drums
  10. mark weber | the photo collection
  11. mark weber | the kool festival | beverly theatre | los angeles 1982
  12. mark weber | pismo beach
  13. mark weber | my photo
  14. mark weber | four poems from new york city
  15. mark weber | the early lp’s of the free jazz scene in los angeles
  16. mark weber | ear to the ground
  17. mark weber | chased out
  18. mark weber | bygone tumbleweeds, tarnation of smoke
  19. mark weber | nuances
  20. mark weber | review of ray zepeda’s book tao driver
  21. mark weber | Em6
  22. mark weber | the judson crews I know
  23. mark weber | assembled zen
  24. mark weber | for todd moore’s birthday party
  25. mark weber | david parlato – time line
  26. mark weber | the jimmy cleveland octet rehearsal july 31, 1980 @ local 47
  27. mark weber | words and stories
  28. cal haines | concert and cd release
  29. mark weber | I love the blues
  30. mark weber | poem 16mar 08
  31. mark weber | plain old boogie long division
  32. mark weber | 9 nights at the stone | new york city
  33. jeff schlanger | mark weber | long division
  34. mark weber | the wide open spaces within a beat
  35. mark weber | hal mckusick and the finger snap of modernism
  36. mark weber | poems & doodles
  37. mark weber | joe somoza and the other
  38. mark weber | the bubbadinos | my country band
  39. mark weber | a review on vital yoga by meta chaya hirschl
  40. mark weber | gerald locklin | zerx chapbook no. 60