Ed Mascari

Conversations at the Piano

The first time I came across Like Someone In Love in a Fake Book, I was immediately taken by its descending bass line, the line that the left hand plays that is created by the bottom notes of each chord (in this case: C-B-A-G-F#-F-E). The discovery of this great standard took place right after I had made the transition from being the keyboard player in my commercial group Synergy to my role as a solo jazz pianist. As a result, I probably noticed this style of arranging the chords because of its similarity to Billy Joel’s Piano Man.

Like Piano Man, many pop songs written after 1960 incorporate the descending bass line technique in as a way of connecting one chord to another. In contrast to this, the standards of the American Popular Songbook usually emphasize the ii - V and ii-V-I chord progressions as the method for relating and joining one chord to another. Certainly, the use of the handi variation aka minor line cliché is common to both styles of music. However, Like Someone In Love is more of a exception than the rule for the standards.

In any case, I got to thinking about how composers from every era often found ways to express a non-musical image by using a certain compositional technique. For example, many of my students play James Bastien’s arrangement of the theme from the 5^th movement of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. In many instances, I tell these students about how amazed I am every time I listen to the section of the piece in which the composer created the effect of a chirping /singing bird by using real instruments. No computers or synthesizers necessary!

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Several years ago, a composer friend recommended that I read a book called Walking on Water, which he found helpful for understanding the creative process. The author was Madeleine L’Engle. Many of you may recognize the writer’s name because of her well-known books including A Wrinkle in Time.  Having spent most of my career as a professional musician seeking to find a balance between my corporate side (i.e. the need to make a living) and my creative side (i.e. the need to explore and develop my composing, arranging, improvising, performing and writing as well as my teaching talents and interests), this book was a huge help.

Ms. L’Engle had dealt with her own need to balance her roles in life, that of being a writer as well as a wife and mother. In the book, she dispels the myth of our image of Beethoven walking through the woods and having all of the music for a symphony just pop into his head. The creative process is certainly a complex one. I have explored the concepts of psychologist Carl Jung, studied the content of my former composition teacher Lukas Foss‘ Boston University Faculty Lecture, and read many biographies of classical composers. As a result I have come to realize that creativity certainly involves a combination of many components.

One of the elements that can evoke and energize our creativity is to discover a successful working method that we can practice until it becomes a habit. Although this will NOT guarantee that we’ll compose a great symphony or write a bestselling novel, it will certainly contribute to the quality and amount of material that we can create. Over the years, I have observed that many of my piano students will arrive at one of their lessons and proudly produce a piece of music that they have composed or arranged. For some, it’s music written down on staff paper, for others it’s something that they can play on the piano and for a few, it’s a notated musical score along with a MIDI recording that they have produced on their computer.

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When I’m teaching my piano students how to play one of the great standards, it’s easy for me to forget something very important. If you’re like most students, you probably have become familiar with songs, especially the standards from the American Popular Songbook, by hearing vocal versions of them on recordings and/or by going to Broadway shows (including shows of this type presented locally).

So what’s wrong with this? Nothing is wrong! 

However, your acquaintance with a particular song is probably making you think that a song can only be performed one very specific way - the way you heard it.

Here’s the good news…..

There are usually many ways to interpret songs. Such is the case with today’s featured blog selection, Jimmy Van Heusen’s Imagination. I must tell you that during the past week, I felt like my listening relationship with this great piece was more typical to that of my students than to that of my normal overview.

Here’s what I mean…

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For a long time on my gigs, Here’s That Rainy Day was the only song by Jimmy Van Heusen that I played. When I decided to present this blog post series that features his compositions, I realized that even though I have played many of his great songs since my early years as a professional musician, I’ve still only scratched the surface of his oeuvre (body of artistic i.e. compositional work). In fact, Van Heusen’s list of his 50 commonly performed standards represents only about 6% of his total output of 800 songs.

Last week’s featured selection, Darn That Dream, marked the beginning of Van Heusen’s most prolific period. Not long after collaborating on this tune and several other songs with lyricist Eddie DeLange, he began his long-time partnership with lyricist Johnny Burke. Burke, like his soon to be collaborator, started out as a staff pianist for a music publisher. In this case, it was Irving Berlin’s company.

Burke headed for Hollywood in 1936 and within four years he and Jimmy Van Heusen began making their mark on song writing history. As a matter of fact, four of the six standards that I selected for this blog post series come from this collaboration. As I mentioned earlier, I have played Here’s That Rainy Day since the earliest days of my performing career.

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I’ll never forget the time that I found out Michael Landon’s real name. Years ago, many actors and actresses used a stage name rather than their real name as a way of helping their fans remember them. Can you imagine seeing the youngest of Ben Cartwright’s three sons on Bonanza being billed by his birth name, Eugene Horowitz?

Although I never used a stage name, this practice was so common among performers that anyone who wanted to join the musicians’ union had to list his or her stage name on the membership application. Thinking back to a few professional musicians who used stage names, I am reminded of an experience I had on one of my summer hotel gigs in the Catskill Mountains. A few weeks into the season, a saxophonist came with his family to stay at the hotel for his annual vacation. Apparently the owner of the hotel had promised him free room and board if he would perform with our trio in the casino (as the lounge was called) every night during his stay.

And so without any discussion or warning, this gentleman introduced himself by his real name and then proceeded to show us all sorts of promotional materials that used his stage name which I think was Paul Whiteman (not to be confused with the band leader who premiered Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue). To make a long story short, this older man took over the leadership of our group by becoming both the featured soloist and the emcee. Oh yes, he also showed up to perform in a white dinner jacket with his tuxedo so he would stand out from the three of us who wore black tuxedos.

Need I say more?

Well that brings us to the composer of today’s song selection, Darn That Dream: Edward Chester Babcock.

Who?

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Today marks the final chapter of my Cole Porter blog series. As I mentioned a while ago, this composer was far from being an overnight success. Although Love for Sale was featured in the revue called The New Yorkers, its lyrics were considered much too explicit for society in 1930. Nevertheless, this song composed two years after Cole Porter reintroduced himself to Broadway, has become a popular standard. In fact, many jazz instrumentalists and vocalists continue to include Love for Sale in their performance repertoires.

When I reflect on the collection of songs that I played and recorded for this series on Cole Porter, I certainly can appreciate Porter’s contribution to the American Popular Songbook with a different perspective. There’s something very valuable about getting acquainted with a composer’s musical language. By this I mean his or her manner of creating melodies and harmonic progressions as well as choosing certain chords and presenting these with certain overall and specific rhythmic patterns. In the case of Cole Porter, there is the additional element of his lyrics which definitely have an impact on his musical structure.

During the 16 years when I was actively composing concert music (classical music), I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge by getting to know the lives and works of many classical composers. My pattern was to select a specific composer because I had heard a piece that I really liked. I would buy the CD and purchase or borrow the musical score from the library. Usually, I would be curious about the creator of the particular piece that had caught my attention. This motivated me to find and read the biography which in turn introduced me to the even more of the composer’s compositions. Before I knew it, I was listening to many new (at least to me) pieces of music. This process combined in a way that energized and enriched my musical life.

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When I was young, going to see a movie was a big deal. Unlike the availability of films on TV as well as on DVDs, the Internet and even hand held devices as we have today, the local cinema was the only place to experience Hollywood’s latest motion picture. The characters looked larger than life on the giant screen; the color picture provided a marked contrast to the dull black and white images we viewed on our television at home, and the sound was staggering since we were use to hearing heard voices and music coming from small poor quality speakers.

Because these trips to the movies were infrequent during my childhood, they stood out in my mind. It’s interesting that two of the films that our family attended came to mind when I began preparing to write this post. One of them, which was and continues to be an important part of the American cultural experience, was The Wizard of Oz.  In fact, I recorded and wrote about Over the Rainbow in my blog post nearly one year ago. There I pointed out the fact that this song’s universal appeal is the reason that I often use it to demonstrate a variety of arranging styles to prospective piano students (adults and/or children with their parents) when I meet with them for their free initial interview/consultation.

The other less well-known movie that our family attended featured Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in the 1957 film version of Cole Porter’s show, Silk Stockings. I can still remember watching this couple dancing effortlessly and gracefully across the screen. Since my mother knew, liked and could play many of the standards from the American Popular Songbook, it doesn’t surprise me to think that she not only wanted to see the film herself, but also wanted to introduce me to this wonderful musical repertoire. Needless to say, I certainly had no idea at the time that I’d be playing, recording and writing about All of You, the song which emanated from this Cole Porter score so many years later.

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A few months a year after beginning my 14 year stint as solo pianist at the Radisson Milford Hotel, I recorded a solo piano album entitled I’m Beginning to See the Light. Little did I know when I began the project, how prophetic the title of that recording would turn out to be. Although we learn from our mistakes and grow from life experiences, the process can be extremely painful.

Despite the fact that many people purchased and enjoyed my cassette album, I was somewhat disappointed by what I heard in my piano playing. After dealing with discouragement and disillusionment with the results of my efforts and investment of time, energy and money, I began to see the light. While listeners had enjoyed my solo piano music as an easy listening background tape for dinner, driving and /or relaxing, I knew that I needed more musical training to better express myself as a pianist.

Remembering the advice of my closest friend, jazz guitarist John Dougherty from several years earlier (I spoke about this in last week’s post), I knew exactly what to do.

Take piano lessons!

Within a short time after deciding to proceed to with the next step on my musical journey, I searched for, located and enrolled in private lessons with composer and jazz pianist William Thomas McKinley. At my first lesson with Tom, he not only introduced me to some new and better ways to understand and play chords, he also encouraged me to enroll in the Master of Music degree program at New England Conservatory. Before I knew it, I was a graduate student majoring in Jazz Studies.

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When I was 30 I had come to a point of crisis in my career. I had already been teaching piano for a couple of years, but I knew that I needed more knowledge. At the same time, I was performing 3 to 6 nights per week as the keyboard player and leader of my commercial trio, Synergy. Although we had started the group for the purpose of playing my original jazz compositions, the need to make a living required us to think much more pragmatically.

As a husband and step-father to three young boys, I was concerned about providing for my family. Nevertheless, it was clear to me that somehow I had to persevere in my career path as both a private piano teacher and a professional pianist. Since I had to make some major changes to manage this somewhat ambitious goal, I consulted my closest friend, jazz guitarist John Dougherty. Previously, John and I had spent a year working together in his quartet which traveled from gig to gig along the East Coast. Since he had always shared his musical knowledge, training and experience with me, I trusted his recommendation.

What did my friend think I should do? You guessed it……..Take piano lessons!

A big part of my philosophy about teaching piano came as a result of following this sound advice. Rather then send me to a concert pianist, John recommended a rather unusual teacher who provided me with a high level of diversified musical training that included classical piano technique and literature, piano pedagogy, church music, jazz composition, music theory, ear training and of course solo jazz piano playing. The great part of all this was that I was able to develop my skills and knowledge in these areas as a result of taking a private music lesson once a week. My piano instructor was a professor from New England Conservatory by the name of Joseph Gabriel Maneri. Despite the fact that he was a jazz saxophonist and a classical  composer, Joe had spent many years studying piano, music theory and composition in preparation for his own professional career.

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Many people I know have said that they were glad to say goodbye to 2009. With the economy, the political situation and the general morale being less than upbeat, it certainly seems like the title of today’s selection That’s All is spoken with a tone of relief. When he wrote the words to That’s All in 1952, lyricist Alan Brandt (born 1923) probably had a different thought in mind.

There is an element of humility in Brandt’s lyrics when they say, “I can only give you love…. I can only give you country walks….that’s all, that’s all.” Perhaps as we move forward into 2010, we can take solace in the fact that last year could only give us what it gave us. If we let it go, we can look ahead with a more positive outlook.

What better way is there to feel more joyful, more hopeful and more enthusiastic about life than by playing and listening to music? That’s All is the kind of a tune that leaves room for a variety of interpretations. Its composer Bob Haymes (1923-1989) was the younger brother of the singer and actor, Dick Haymes. Also known under the stage names Robert or Bob Stanton, Bob Haymes is best remembered as the composer of That’s All.  However, during his long career, he also worked as a singer, actor, radio host and television emcee.

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