From Slash Coleman
When I was a kid I hated the Beatles. My Dad kept his hair in a Beatles cut through most of the seventies until the whiteman-perm came into style and our house was always filled with Beatles music. When I wanted an Atari for my birthday, I was given the Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club album (the one with the color magazine inside) and when I wanted a Rick Springfield album for Chanukah, I ended up getting John Lennon’s Double Fantasy album.
My Dad always seemed driven to expand my cultural horizons, giving me what he thought I needed to be a modern young man, rather than what I wanted. As a result, I always associated the Beatles, and each individual Beatle, with disappointment.
To rebel against my Dad’s claim as the sculptor in the family, I chose music and writing as my mediums. I joined my first band in middle school (answering an ad in the Trading Post for Keyboard Player Wanted) and my Dad would drive me to a house on the south side of Richmond once a week where I would practice with a bunch of forty year olds.
I went onto study music in college and graduate school and later toured around as a jazz pianist. Through that time I played with many musicians who were greatly influenced by the Beatles, but I just never connected with their music. (Maybe it was some twisted Electra complex thing).
I’m embarrassed to say that it wasn’t until I heard the movie soundtrack for the “I am Sam” album in 2003 that I gave the Beatles a serious listen. For some strange reason, when I heard artists like Eddie Vedder, Rufus Wainwright, and Aimee Mann cover the Beatles while Sean Penn walked around as a retarded guy, something clicked deep inside. I became a cautious Beatles fan and then later a closet Beatles fan (less my father say “I told you so.”)
When I began to collaborate with Samson Trinh in 2005, I was aware of his Beatles influence. He was always very vocal about quoting the Beatles influence on his work and his life.
We first worked together on director Anna Tulou’s Nouvelle Burlesque production (the show that single-handedly birthed the re-emergence of the Richmond Burlesque scene). I first went over to Samson’s house to play an arrangement I had created for the Cole Porter song “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” and I was immediately smitten with his passion.
Later, we collaborated on various projects. I would occasionally join him on stage with the Upper East Side Big Band and sing a hard-core-big-band version of Cake’s “The Distance,” he headed up the jazz trio which would eventually create the soundtrack to my PBS special “The Neon Man and Me.” And, I even wrote him a part in one of my shows where he played a pizza delivery guy.
Which brings me finally to the purpose of this note:
I knew how hard at work Samson had been on the Beatles Abbey Road project and as a fan, friend and fellow musician I was as excited as anyone else to see the debut on Friday night at Dogwood Dell.
To be honest, from the moment he took the stage, I felt like I was watching history in the making. Whatever shivers people felt when they first saw the Beatles shake their hair on stage – well, I felt something similar as I listened to Samson and his band.
Not only is he a talented composer and arranger, but as an artist he has a true gift for magnetizing a unique vision. What other twenty-something in the world has the desire, drive or confidence to compose and arrange music for a Big Band and perform it in front of an amphitheatre that seats nearly 2,400 that was filled way past capacity?
On top of it all, he’s incredible to watch on stage. Watching him dance and sing and laugh while maintaining complete control of his huge ship on a proverbial sea was like watching a genius possessed with the creative spirit. Various groups of teens and kids all through the audience attempted to mimic his gestures while he performed, delighting people all around.
I don’t need my Magic-8 ball to tell me where this young musician is heading. His interpretation of the Beatles is bound to turn on a whole new generation to their music.
I witnessed history in the making on Friday night and when I stood up with the rest of the audience and gave him a standing ovation, I felt my own human spirit stirring. I was filled with something I rarely feel any more when witnessing the arts in Richmond – proud to be here and inspired.
Good luck on your journey, my friend.
PS. I’ve come out of the Beatles closet now Samson. Thanks for the nudge.