California Guitar Trio Diaries Bert's Diary
California Guitar Trio Diaries
Saturday 13th. December, 2008
Phew! The West Coast duo tour with Tom Griesgraber is over. It's been a great few weeks, with concerts just about every night, and some serious drives. But it was well worth our while: the living room concerts were a success, and we played for a gracious and intent listening audience every night.
On Wednesday we drove up to Clearlake for a concert organized by John Griesgraber and his wife Thomasine. And though it was a last minute notification on our part, they still managed to get about 60 people to attend the concert.
The next morning we drove to Los Altos for a small house concert organized by Natasha Carlitz, at the house of one of her friends, a very nice lady named Ann Rando. Most of the audience were members from Natasha's dance group. The CGT did a performance with them last year in San Francisco.
After the concert we drove into the hills of Los Gatos to spend the night in the mountain home of our friend Sandy. There we enjoyed a relaxing morning off, a hike up the hills and a trip into Los Gatos on our way to the final gig at Kevin Raymond's house.
Kevin's been a long time friend; he works for Apple in Cupertino, and whenever we drive by this area he invites us to visit the Apple Headquarters. It was great to meet his family, and we played for a great group of invited friends.After the final concert we drove two hours East across the mountains, and spent the night in a motel in Los Banos. This morning we got up at 6 am and drove to the Los Angeles airport, for Carrie to catch her plane back home. I'm staying a few days here in LA to visit with my daughter Tillie.
Evening view over Clearlake, CA from Tom's dad's living room.
Concert at Queen of Peace Church in Clearlake, CA
House concert in Los Altos Hills, CA
Los Altos Hills
Morning off at Sandy's in Los Gatos Hills.
Morning hike in Los Gatos
Wild tree creature in the woods around Los Gatos..
House concert at Kevin Raymond's
Talking to the audience at Kevin's house.
After the last concert near Cupertino, with Kevin's family
Wednesday 10th. December, 2008
Clearlake, California.
On Monday night we played at the beautiful Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, California. Flute players Nancy Tyler and Carol Alban joined in on the Marsh and the Aria of Bach's Goldberg variations. Didgeridoo player Paradiso played on several pieces too, walking around the audience. There was also a brief appearance of Carol's students on two pieces. It was a diverse evening of music! The drive day had been very heavy: 7 and a half hours straight to the concert, and no time to warm up. But the concert was fun, and we enjoyed playing in this gorgeous place.
Last night we played a house concert at our friend Nancy and Larry's home, in Santa Rosa. Both Nancy Tyler and Carol Alban joined in on three pieces. When we finished the concert, people had a lot of questions for us, and we played several encores. We visited some more with Carol and our hosts afterwards, and they are planning another World Flute Fest in 2009 in New York City. At the very end of the night Carrie read one of her poems to us.
Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, CA.
Living room concert with special guests Carol Alban and Nancy Tyler on flute.
California, I-5 North towards San Francisco. Today is a long travel day: a 7 hour drive straight to the concert in Oakland, and another hour drive to Santa Rosa after the gig.
On Saturday we played at the historic Bembridge house in Long Beach. This concert was organized by our friends Mark Perry and his wife Cheryl. Both of them are involved in restoration projects for old homes in the Long Beach area. The concert was great, Mark's home made wine was superb, and lots of old friends were there.
Last night we played at the home of our friends Sally and John in Redlands. It was a private event for invited guests only. Our concert was followed by a nice dinner and a selection of great wines from John's cellar. Fun!
Bembridge house in Long Beach
At Sally and John's in Redlands.
Encinitas, CA. We're enjoying a day off at Tom's house. This morning Carrie and I visited the beautiful meditation gardens, on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. Here Paramahansa Yogananda wrote his inspiring book "autobiography of a Yogi".
Last night we played our first show of this tour at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, about an hour North of here. Tom and I opened for Tuck and Patti Andress, a legendary guitar/voice duo. Tuck and Patti have been playing together all their life, and seeing them perform together was a breath taking experience. Tuck is one of the most expressive and musical jazz guitarists I've ever seen; he developed his own very unique style of playing. And he's a nice guy too: he came up to us after our sound check, thanked us for being his opener, and said he thought our stick/guitar arrangements work very well. Then he pulled out a notebook and wrote down our names.
After the concert he complemented Tom on his 'fluid' style of playing the stick.
When I told Paul(Richards)about hearing Tuck and Patti in an email today, he sent me a message with his own interesting story. I quote:
When I was 17 years old, I was invited to play with this band that had one gig in San Francisco. The leader of the band really hyped the SF gig up saying it was going to be huge with lots of media and maybe the band would get a record deal and on and on. We drove all the way from Salt Lake to San Francisco for this one concert. The gig turned out to be a gathering at a local cultural center. The band I played with sucked pretty bad and the whole thing was a big fiasco, but, the one great thing about it was this: The headliner for the gig was Tuck and Patti. Tuck must have been in his early 20's then, and I had never heard any guitar playing like that before. It made a huge impression on me, and I felt it was one of the turning points for me to take my playing more seriously. I remember talking to Tuck, and I remember he had a picture of George Van Eps on his amplifier. Important moment for me.
Sound check at the Coach House
Tom backstage at the Coach house
After the show with Tuck and Patti
Jupiter, Florida. Our short but intensive tour in Florida is over. This morning we dropped Tom off at the Jacksonville airport, and drove five hours back down to Jupiter. We enjoyed some wonderful concerts here in Florida, and our hosts were really gracious. Below are a few photo's of this past week's whirlwind of performances. Now off to packing my suitcase; I'm leaving at 5 am tomorrow morning for California.
DuSantis Chapel at the Palm Beach University
With special guest soprano Laurel Alexander at United Methodist Church in Jupiter, FL
The audience at Wine Warehouse in Jacksonville, FL. Photo by MaryAnne
Live performance at the Wine Warehouse
Profile of a truly appreciative audience. Photo by MaryAnne
Carrie is helping with CD sales on this tour
One of our fans arrived early and reserved herself a seat at our last house concert of this Florida tour!
Hosts Nelson and MaryAnne, getting ready to take some photos
After our last song at the house concert in St Augustine, FL
Tom Griesgraber and I are in Florida this week doing shows around Jupiter, Tampa and Jacksonville. We had a great first intimate concert at the Transformational Institute last Friday. We had a very special guest in the audience for this show: Olivia Newton John. After the concert she bought a CD and asked us to sign it for her. She also suggested a title for the new piece we're working on.
On Saturday we drove up to Tampa for a very wonderful house concert at the home of Gary and Nancy Relkin, and on Sunday we played a church service in the morning and an afternoon concert at the Unitarian Church of Tampa.
We also played at the Lifelong Learning Center the other day, and were joined by soprano Laurel Alexander; we played Bachianas Brazileiras by Heitor Villa Lobos. Last night we performed at the Community Center in Jupiter, for a small but wonderful audience. Tom had a bad cold when he arrived last week but he seems to be getting better every day. The good shows certainly help!
Coming up, we'll be doing a series of events in California in December, starting off with a great show together with Tuck and Patti. Tom and I will be doing a short opening set for this incredible guitar and vocal duo. If you've never heard them, take a look at this fantastic YouTube clip of Tuck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtljYur4_T8
Discount tickets for this show are available at http://www.thossounds.com/store.html
After the Tuck & Patti show, we'll be heading north through Dec 12th with stops in Oakland, Long Beach, Redlands, Santa Rosa, Clearlake and Cupertino.
Frederick, MD. We drove all day yesterday, from Cincinnati to Frederick, Maryland, near Washington. Tonight we have a concert here in town. We played a great show the other night in Cincinnati. We did a double bill with Fareed Haque, an incredible guitarist who resides in Chicago. He joined us for the last encore: Dance of Maya by Mahavishnu. He played an amazing solo in the middle of the piece; he is a tru master of the guitar. I heard him play some perfect renditions of difficult classical pieces during sound check. No wonder he teaches at the university of Chicago! It was an honor to meet him and to play with him.
with Fareed Haque, just before the show in Cincinnati, OH
After the show, visiting backstage with the local promoter and our good friends from Lexington.
Cincinnati, OH. We got up early today to drive four hours to Cincinnati for a radio show. It got a little hectic around the city, because we were given the wrong address. But we still arrived on time.
Last night we played a concert in Charleston,, West Virginia, in a Lutheran church. We were as always well taken care of by our local promoter and his family. I invited viola player Dilek Engin to join us on two pieces: the Marsh and Portland Rain. We had no time to rehearse; she just showed up and played some amazing beautiful parts on these songs. It was a musical highlight of this tour so far.
Sound check with CGT and special guest Dilek Engin on viola. Photo by D. Ross
After the show, with our local promoter David Dickens, his wife Debbie, Margie, and Dilek. Photo by D. Ross
Three days ago played two concerts at the Midland theater in Columbus Ohio. Especially the second show there was really awesome. They had an interesting set up in the venue: rather than using the (rather big) theater seating, they had chairs and tables set up 'cabaret style' on the stage! This allowed for people to have a drink during the intermission, and they also had a buffet with appetizers. People must like that set up because both nights were sold out.
CGT at Midland Theater in Newark, Ohio
Our friends Ela and Joyce helped with merchandizing at Midland Theater: thank you!
I'm flying from Portland, Oregon to Columbus, Ohio. Last night we played a short set at a booking conference(Arts Northwest) in Eugene, Oregon. Many groups were there to showcase their act to a large group of concert bookers from across the country. In the afternoon Paul and I went to see the Montreal Guitar Trio; they played a 12 min set on a big stage in the main conference hall. They were awesome; great guys to get to know(they were on the same flights as us), and incredible musicians. The CGT played later that night, in a small conference room on the 12th floor of a Hilton hotel. We were the last group on the schedule at 11;15 pm. We were concerned that nobody would show up that late, but the room was filled with an enthusiastic audience. We played our short set, and were called for an encore afterwards. We played our arrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody. Hideyo turned the microphone towards the audience in the middle of the song and lots of singing erupted.
We flew here all the way from Detroit, paying our own way(+hotel), to invest in this event. But we heard a lot of people talking about us afterwards, and we were told that we will get some good concerts from this.
Afterwards we were invited to room 300 in the hotel for a little party with our new friends from the Montreal Guitar Trio. At the party was another great Canadian group called 'The Gruff'; a quartet that plays an interesting mix of traditional Canadian and American music.
Though it was an exhausting travel schedule, we had a good feeling about being here, investing in our future, and meeting new friends in music.
The Montreal Guitar Trio, jamming at a midnight party in room 300
Another great Canadian band: the Gruff, also at the party.
The California Piano Trio and a Beethoven bust, jamming backstage in Rockford the other night. Photo by Hideyo
CGT with manualist Gerry Phillips, at the Ark in An ArborA Random "Blast From The Past":
Thursday 3rd. May, 2007
Last night we played at Rhytm & Brews in Chattanooga. We did a podcast recording for the Chattanooga Times on our way to the sound check. We recorded four acoustic pieces in bluegrass style with one microphone. Whenever one of us had a solo he moved closer to the mike.
It was an unusual and enjoyable recording session. In fact, we were having so much fun that we included a totally acoustic version of Pink Floyd's Echoes.
Podcast recording for the Chattanooga Times.
Thanks to good promotion via local newspapers and radio, and some of our local friends who went out of their way to promote the concert we had lots of people and a great show in Chattanooga. To the amusement of all, a slightly intoxicated person in the front row grabbed the microphone during Bohemian Rhapsody and started singing(in the wrong key). Tyler acted fast and turned off the microphone.
Arriving at Rhytm & Brews in Chattanooga.
