Monday, October 28, 2002
A RETURN VISIT
I decided to end my musical appearances in 2002 at the Blue Note in New York City. Selfishly speaking, it gave me a chance prior to the holidays of being with my quartet on a personal and musical basis before the end of 2002. Considering the fact that, as I mentioned in an earlier chapter, I have been grieving over the terrible year during which Jazz suffered tremendous setbacks with the loss of some great talents such as Ray Brown, Roy Kral, Russ Freeman and several other local Toronto players. Most importantly, added to all of this I was truly saddened by the loss of one of my daughters, Sharon.
After some vigorous and intense urging and understanding from some close friends, I decided to accept the engagement at the Blue Note. I might also add that on November 8th I had been scheduled to play a joint concert for Yamaha's 100th birthday, along with Martha Argerich and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall. It was just before that concert that I was notified of the passing of a dear, sweet friend, Noreen Nimmons, wife of Phil Nimmons, the well-known leader of Nimmons 'N' Nine, and most recently a recipient of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award.
With all of this taking place, I became personally drained, and after some prodding by some close friends, I decided to perform the Blue Note engagement.
The engagement was a roaring success for us (the Quartet), along with the fact that we were honored and musically inspired by a very close and dear friend, Clark Terry, who dropped in on us our closing night and joined us at first from his seat in the audience, and then finally on stage in what was a memorable and, needless to say, ultra-musical gift for the quartet and most certainly the audience. I must also mention here that we were pleased (although I didn't find out until the night was over) that another dear friend and great talent, Tony Bennett, decided to spend the evening listening to and sketching us. It is always a great pleasure and is musically stimulating when talents such as Clark and Tony grace the room with their presence.
So as you can see, 2002 went out for us, musically speaking, on a very high note with the presence of these two musical giants. Here's hoping that 2003 will bring happier news than 2002 did. Thank you Clark and Tony, and all of our visitors from various parts of the world.
After some vigorous and intense urging and understanding from some close friends, I decided to accept the engagement at the Blue Note. I might also add that on November 8th I had been scheduled to play a joint concert for Yamaha's 100th birthday, along with Martha Argerich and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall. It was just before that concert that I was notified of the passing of a dear, sweet friend, Noreen Nimmons, wife of Phil Nimmons, the well-known leader of Nimmons 'N' Nine, and most recently a recipient of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award.
With all of this taking place, I became personally drained, and after some prodding by some close friends, I decided to perform the Blue Note engagement.
The engagement was a roaring success for us (the Quartet), along with the fact that we were honored and musically inspired by a very close and dear friend, Clark Terry, who dropped in on us our closing night and joined us at first from his seat in the audience, and then finally on stage in what was a memorable and, needless to say, ultra-musical gift for the quartet and most certainly the audience. I must also mention here that we were pleased (although I didn't find out until the night was over) that another dear friend and great talent, Tony Bennett, decided to spend the evening listening to and sketching us. It is always a great pleasure and is musically stimulating when talents such as Clark and Tony grace the room with their presence.So as you can see, 2002 went out for us, musically speaking, on a very high note with the presence of these two musical giants. Here's hoping that 2003 will bring happier news than 2002 did. Thank you Clark and Tony, and all of our visitors from various parts of the world.
