Ed Mascari

Conversations at the Piano

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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