Ed Mascari

Conversations at the Piano

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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During my final year at Holy Cross College, my deepest desire had been to perform full-time as a jazz musician. However, due to my need to make a living, I pursued what I then thought was my secondary career, that of working as a music teacher. In order to continue performing with the Ed Mascari Jazz Quartet as well as hosting my jazz radio show on WICN-FM (both based in Worcester near the college), I accepted a teaching position at Clinton Jr. Sr. High School. Little did I know at the time that I would later establish the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s Hudson Studio location just a few miles away from there.

Interestingly enough, it was during my first month as a brand new teacher, that the music of the Charlie Brown television programs became the way that the junior high school students related to my jazz piano playing. During those days, jazz education was in its infancy and there was little interest on the part of students for this style of music. However, when I played Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man on the piano these young people immediately and enthusiastically responded “That’s Charlie Brown music.”

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Every year, just before Thanksgiving, I start working on Christmas and other holiday songs with my piano students. For the student who has become familiar with the basic I-IV-V-I chord progression by learning how to play selections from my Six Simple Songs collection, including When the Saints Go Marching In, This Old Man and Michael Row the Boat Ashore), the most sensible seasonal selection for her to learn is Jingle Bells.

I would venture a guess that, over the years, most piano students, regardless of their playing level, have included Jingle Bells in their repertoire of holiday songs. In addition to the simplicity of learning the refrain, this song is one of the most well known Christmas holiday standards. It seems to me that whether my piano student is 6 or 66 or any age in between, he is familiar with Jingle Bells. This is no accident, especially in America.

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As most of you know by now, I usually go to Rhapsody Music Service to locate tracks of the featured song selection for my current blog post. Having taught piano for more than three decades, I am thrilled that today I can simply tell my students to look for musical examples on the Internet. One of the best ways that a piano student of any age can find inspiration for practicing and learning a new song is to listen to a variety of performances of the particular piece being studied. I do the same myself.

Sometimes the available assortment of recordings is good, occasionally it’s disappointing and once in a while there are some real gems. I have to tell you that recently when I was working on my Beguine blog posts, I was somewhat disenchanted by selection of tracks offered for the Cole Porter standards that I had selected for the series. As a result, I was not overly hopeful when looking forward to researching versions of today’s selection I’ll Be Home for Christmas.

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As I’ve mentioned in several of my blog posts, my musical preferences shifted from popular music to jazz while I was in high school. In my efforts to develop my skills at the keyboard, I sought out musical models by listening to records as well as jazz radio stations. Because I grew up in Westchester County, I lived close enough to the Big Apple that it was possible to get to New York City by car or train within about an hour.

One of the benefits to being near this cultural hub was that my early exposure to jazz included some transformational experiences that have had an impact on my entire musical career. Sometime between attending the two concerts that I wrote about in my Summer in Central Park Brings Memories of Great Music blog post, a friend of mine introduced me to the music of the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

In addition to sharing some of his Brubeck LPs with me, he and his father invited me to attend one of the Quartet’s concerts held at Lincoln Center during the ensemble’s Take Five heyday period. Needless to say, as an impressionable young pianist, I was blown away by the performance.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that Brubeck (often with long-time partner saxophonist Paul Desmond) had an extensive discography that featured interpretations of the standards of the American Popular Songbook. Even though two of my three Brubeck records fit into this category, it was only much later that I realized how important this contribution was.

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It was probably during the first year of my 14 year solo piano engagement at the Radisson Milford Hotel, that I received a special gift. For some reason a particular security agency was contracted to provide services at the hotel. One of the officers seemed to be enjoying my piano playing and mentioned that he had a couple of piano CDs at home. The following week he returned with two recordings by Harry Connick, Jr. He asked me to listen to them and tell him what I thought.

After bringing the CDs with me each week to return to him, I finally gave up and left them home.  I never saw him again because apparently he was assigned to another property by the company. Several months later he stopped in at the hotel for a social visit, and he told me to keep the CDs. I was certainly glad about this, because one of them turned out to be a fantastic gift!

Simply called 25, this recording features several solo piano / vocal tracks which showcase the talents of this wonderful musician. Today, more than twenty years later, one of my favorite tracks on the CD is Tangerine. For some reason, the tune never caught my attention during my initial period of introduction to the standards. Yet, ever since hearing Harry’s version, it’s been one of my favorites.

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One of the first standards that I learned to play from memory was Mack the Knife. For some reason both the name of the musical, The Three Penny Opera, as well as that of its composer, Kurt Weill (1900-1950) stuck in my mind. And so for nearly 30 years this was all I knew about this accomplished creative artist.

When I was 39, I returned to school to work on my Master of Music degree at New England Conservatory. An important part of my graduate work for the two Masters degrees (Jazz Studies and Classical Composition) that I subsequently received from NEC was the four year period that I studied privately with William Thomas McKinley. It was as a result of these lessons that I began to discover the connection between the standards from the American Popular Songbook and the concert music (classical music) that I came to know and love.

Although most 20^th century composers focused on writing either concert music or popular songs, there were a few who achieved notoriety in both genres. George Gershwin’s concert music compositions, e.g. Preludes and Rhapsody in Blue, came after the writing of his sensational songs. On the flip side of this, there were three European composers who later became famous in the USA by making the transition from writing classical music to composing American popular songs.

I’ve written about each of them in my previous blog posts: Josef Myrow Autumn Nocturne, Vernon Duke Autumn in New York and Kurt Weill September Song. Five years after composing September Song, Weill wrote this week’s song Speak Low as part of the musical score he composed for the Broadway show, One Touch of Venus.

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As I mentioned in last week’s post that featured the composer’s signature song, Night and Day, Cole Porter was far from an overnight success. When I began to do some research for today’s selection, I discovered that one of the composer’s steps to songwriting success came two years earlier with the Broadway show Wake Up and Dream which included What Is This Thing Called Love?

In his book, Now Discover Your Strengths, author Marcus Buckingham cites Cole Porter as one of his excellent examples. He uses the composer to illustrate how a well-known person took advantage of his strengths rather than focused on his weaknesses. He stated that Cole Porter focused on composing great songs. Because these were so strong, the composer was able to compensate for his somewhat weak characters and plots that made up his Broadway shows.

As I’ve mentioned many times, I learn a great deal from my students. Knowing that one of my Hudson adult students is a director, actress, teacher and vocalist, I asked her if Marcus Buckingham’s assessment of Cole Porter’s song writing strength verses his show writing weakness had any validity to it. After thinking about it for a moment, she confirmed the author’s assessment.

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If you’re like me, you’ve often chuckled when someone says that this performer was on overnight success. After reading about Cole Porter’s popularity associated with the play and subsequent film version of The Gay Divorce, I suspect that audiences might have considered the composer an overnight success when Night and Day became such a huge hit in 1932.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Cole Porter had returned from Paris to re-introduce his music to New York audiences four years earlier, but it took the composer even more time to build up to this success.

Sometimes my students will ask me how long it will take for them to feel totally confident with their piano playing. Of course, the answer to that question can vary widely with each individual. Nevertheless, it’s difficult for aspiring piano students at any age to grasp the concept of the time required to develop musical maturity.

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When one of my students is ready for a change of rhythm, I often introduce the beguine. As soon as I play the rhythmic accompaniment for her, she’s hooked.

As I discovered long ago with my own musical development, becoming comfortable with a new accompaniment style is not always easy to learn. Perhaps this is why I teach the way I do. It’s also why I am so passionate about guiding the Ed Mascari Piano Studio faculty members in the use of my teaching method. By finding ways to simplify the skill of playing songs on the piano, we focus on helping each student learn how to make use of a particular accompaniment style.

Enter the first of our two featured selections, I Love Paris…..

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