Musician Malcolm Kogut has been tickling the ivories since he was 14 and won the NPM DMMD Musician of the Year award in 99. He has CDs along with many published books. Malcolm played in the pit for many Broadway touring shows. When away from the keyboard, he loves exploring the nooks, crannies and arresting beauty of the Adirondack Mountains, battling gravity on the ski slopes and roller coasters.
Minnewaska State Park is a wonderful place to hike, bike or horseback
ride. There are several layered escarpments with a circuitous network
of trails layered between them. The Shawangunk (often pronounced
Shongum) Mountains or The Gunks, meaning "smokey air," is a ridge of
bedrock in the Catskills.
For the best blueberry picking, hike
(no bikes or horses allowed yet as the recent hurricane made the trail
impassible for both) the Hamilton Point Trail beneath the power lines
heading toward the Pallmaghatt Kill or between HPT and Castle Point
Trail. The best, biggest and sweetest berries are near the power
lines. Hmmmph . . .
Make sure you visit the stone beach at
Awosting Lake. The Hamilton Point Trail has the most exciting
escarpment trail. For the climber and explorer, there are some exciting
scree fields beneath this escarpment.
In Upstate NY there is a little known music festival that has been going
strong for 37 years: Rye Bread. The festival started out by
invitation only and remains small and intimate to this day. It attracts
about 300 people and many of the concert goers have been attending year
after year. The beauty of this festival as opposed to larger ones,
such as Bisco, is that the crowd is smaller, it costs only $20 and it is
very welcoming to families and pets. Bad behavior is not tolerated and
not only will you be asked to leave but, the person who invited you
will also be banned - so I hear. Over the weekend I did not witness any
bad behavior on anyone's part. This festival is not designed to make
money and is very much like a mini Woodstock of peace, love and music.
Even the bands play for free.
As a hiker, there is a phenomenon
called "trail magic," where everyone treats one another on the trail as
an old friend and is willing to share food, water, directions and
stories. That same relaxed magic is immediately evident at Rye Bread.
You can be walking by someone's camp and they will invite you in for
food or a drink and you will be treated as if they had known you for
years. This was my first time at Rye Bread and I immediately felt at
home with everyone I encountered.
Oscar Peterson will be inducted into the Canada Walk of Fame on
September 21, 2013 at the Elgin Theater. ROAD TRIP! Oscar has had a
very distinguished musical career spanning over six decades. He has
recorded over 200 albums, won eight Grammy Awards and received sixteen
doctorates from both American and Canadian universities. He has also
won many awards as best jazz pianist.
Many of my musical
friends know that I am a huge fan of Oscar. Both he and the music of
Bach can render me breathless when I listen to them. Back in the early
80's Oscar had a television show and I taped every episode on video
cassette. Here is a track called "City Lights." I hope after his
induction someone will re-release the series in digital format. My
apologies in advance for the quality, hiss and clicks of my recording.
I
have a friend who took piano lessons from Oscar. She had many
wonderful stories about him although many of them revolved around racism
and the discrimination Oscar faced here in the US. In Canada where
Oscar was from, racism wasn't much of an issue, at least it wasn't
spoken. But, here in the US Oscar experienced it a lot and rarely
quailed in the face of prejudice.
Oscar once went into a barber
shop to have his hair cut and the barber said that he was closing.
Just then a white man walked in and sat in the chair and the barber
began to cut his hair. Oscar confronted the barber to no avail and then
went to the police station to report it. They said it was a civil
issue, not criminal.
Another time he went into a store for a
pack of cigarettes and all he had on him was a twenty. The cashier
asked him where he got so much money and if he had stolen it. Oscar
said it was legally obtained cash and the cashier threw Oscar's change
on the floor. Oscar was going to confront him but there was a cop
standing nearby who said "Pick it up, boy" and placed his hand on his
gun. Oscar left the store and sat in his car waiting for the police
officer to leave but his bass player Ray brown convinced him to let it
go.
Another time when Oscar was playing the Jazz at the
Philharmonic tour, the concert manger, Norman Granz, insisted that the
concert hall organizers not segregate the audience by color. The police
were called and three officers went backstage where they discovered
some of the black musicians playing cards. They were all arrested on
trumped up gambling charges and were taken to the police station.
Norman paid their bail and immediately called his lawyer who advised him
to just pay the fines which I beleive totaled to about $5,000. One of
the musicians was Ella Fitzgerald and she was livid.
Earl Grant was an American pianist, organist, and vocalist popular in
the 1950s and 1960s. Earl drew huge crowds at the Copacabana in NY and
the Flamingo in Vegas. He also toured in Europe, Australia and Japan.
During his short life, Grant cut 30 albums for Decca. This track is
from the Decca album "Gently Swinging."
Grant's unique Hammond
organ style made use of big block chords and wonderfully percussive
staccato glissandi. Being born one of twelve to a Baptist Minister,
Earl cut his teeth playing in church and later honed his skill while
serving in the army.
Earl died instantly in a car accident in
New Mexico, at the age of 39. He was driving from Los Angeles to
Juarez, Mexico for a gig. His 17-year-old cousin was also killed in the
accident.
I first discovered the music of Earl Grant at the age
of 14 when I landed a gig playing in a bar two nights a week for several
months. There were several recordings of Earl in the juke box
including: Ebb Tide, Volare and, I Can't Stop Loving You. Although I
never got drunk, I got to sample practically everything behind the bar.
The patrons were very generous in those days. If only my friends who
used to steal from their parents' liquor cabinets only knew.
The
bartender and owner were huge fans of Earl's music as were many of the
patrons. One night my school bus driver walked in with his wife. The
whole place lit up as he walked into the bar. He was the meanest bus
driver in the whole district and all the kids hated him but in the bar
he was jovial and very much loved. When he saw me, he screamed my name
and came running over with the biggest smile. It turned out that he too played the organ and loved Earl Grant.
The
bus stop was three tenths of a mile from my house. After that night,
the next day he dropped all the kids off at the assigned bus stop
location and told me to stay on the bus, he then drove to my house and
dropped me off there. That continued every day since and he always
smiled and dispatched of me with a pop gun gesture as I crossed in front
of the bus. He would often ask, "Are you going to the bar tonight?" Sometimes
he would hand me sheet music or record albums as I got off the bus. He
also invited me to his house quite often for his family parties and
gatherings where we would each take turns playing for them. He had a
wonderful and caring family and these gatherings revealed to me why he
was so mean to the kids on the bus. You know, it's impossible to go
through life unscathed. Nor should we want to. By the hurts we
accumulate, we measure both our losses, follies and our accomplishments
and, we learn to love, forgive and survive.
I didn't know it
then, but I know it now, that that scrawny 14 year old boy I once was,
just by being there, helped that man who lost much, to realize that life
was worth another chance. That's life.
