LINKS:

www.sparconline.org/liveart – ticket sales page

http://bit.ly/LiveArtExcerpt – 4 minute except from the LIVE ART documentary

sparcliveart.tumblr.com/ – LIVE ART tumble page @SPARConline- Twitter name

http://www.facebook.com/sparconline – Facebook page

Wouldn’t It Be Nice? (Saturday, June 11, 2011)

“Next time, bring a glass.”

That’s what the woman sitting near me at Dogwood Dell said to me at the end of the evening. Earlier, when she’d tried to surreptitiously open a bottle of wine, I’d looked over and grinned at her.

All good Richmonders know alcohol is forbidden at the Dell. That said, I’ve never once been to a a performance there and not seen people drinking. Most people.

So at the end of the evening, she’d made sure to tell me that if I brought a glass in the future, it would be filled. Good to know and yet completely meaningless from a stranger.

A neighbor and I had gone for opening night to see the Upper East Side Big Band. As it turned out, we also got the Mills Family band as an opener.

Their set list ranged from “Little Liza Jane” to Paul Simon’s “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover” to Sesame Street, all enhanced by Samson Trinh’s unique bluegrass saxophone and nonstop leg gyrations..

We enjoyed our picnic supper of fried chicken, watermelon, grapes and German chocolate cake. We weren’t going to starve; he also brought a sandwich and I also ate a salad. Picnic of champions.

The night was beautiful, what with the temperature and humidity having dropped earlier despite no signs of the predicted thunderstorms.

As always at the Dell, dusk brought out the swooping bats over the trees and eventually the moon.

We had Jackson Ward neighbors sitting right in front of us (“We should have formed a caravan over from the Ward”), who only noticed us once my friend began lobbing grapes at them. Ah, the pleasures of thrown foodstuffs at outdoor activities.

The Upper East Side Big Band is big, with probably 18 or 19 musicians, including brass members from Bio Ritmo, Glows in the Dark and No BS Brass Band.

Their set led off with “Very Strange Night” from their first album and bandleader Trinh alternated vigorous musical directing with playing the flute. His multi-tasking was an indication of things to come.

A few songs later, out came five jazz vocalists. four women and one man, to augment the musicians on stage. “This is part one of blowing your mind,” he told the audience.

They began with “Back in the USSR” with keyboard player Adrian Duke on lead vocal (the closet vocal comparison I could think of was David Clayton Thomas) and the other five on backup.

Segueing into “Dear Prudence,” Trinh became a rubber-legged wonder, all but moon walking across the stage.

Raving about his love for the Beach Boys’ masterpiece “Pet Sounds,” Trinh said that, “This will be the first time in Richmond that the Beach Boys are done right.”

The crowd lapped up “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows” before a guest guitarist was brought onstage for “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Given Trinh’s love of the Beatles, finishing with “Rocky Raccoon” was no surprise. Many people packed up and made for the parking lot at that point, only to miss the barn-burner of the evening, “Helter Skelter.” It got the baby boomers dancing, that’s for sure.

Clearly pumped at the audience’s reaction, Trinh shouted, “Maybe next year we can be on Style’s Best Bands list. Five years and nothing!”

Had it been up to the crowd tonight, they’d have been a write-in vote.

After so much retro music, neighbor and I headed to Cous Cous for something much more au courant. The Diamond Center, those recent veterans of South by Southwest and Austin’s Psychfest, were playing a free show.

I’m always torn about shows at Cous Cous; it’s an ill-configured place to see a band perform and the crowd can be obnoxious.

It’s impossible to have a conversation without endlessly repeating yourself and a pain in the neck to get a drink from the overcrowded bar.

But the show was free and the Diamond Center were playing. I always see scads of people I know, always the music lovers. It’s a trade-off, she said diplomatically.

Visual projections were by Cosmic Hum and were they ever groovy. Amoeba-like forms morphed and moved over the screen behind the band and the ceiling.

At one point, the red blobs showing on the ductwork looked like blood spatters. Groovy and gruesome.

And then there’s the music, with its hazy guitar (including a twelve-string), haunting melodies and a sense of urgency that has bodies moving and heads bobbing.

There is a reason so many of us show up whenever they play. I ran into a musician friend who, like neighbor and I, had begun the evening at the Dell and moved on to something completely different sans his neighbor.

I saw the big-voiced singer and ukulele player I’d seen busking in Charlottesville before the Arcade Fire show. She’d been smart and watched the show from outside, saving herself from group sweat-in I endured.

And I saw the comedian/ukulele player/man-about-town who perennially suggests that I join his group after the show for some late night munchies and chatter at McLean’s.

I declined; the picnic had more than scratched that itch. Even my insatiable need for music and conversation had been well-satisfied.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say I had everything I need on this Friday night.

But next time, I’ll bring a glass and see who’s willing to fill it. There’s just no telling.

View this blog @ http://icouldgoonandon.blogspot.com/2011/06/wouldnt-it-be-nice.html

The 20-piece big band will feature guest vocalists Adrian Duke, Allyson Mills-Steele, Curtis Mills, Desiree Roots Centeo, John Winn (from the Neighborliness Jazz Quartet), Terri Simpson (from the Butterbean Quartet), and Laura Ann Singh (from Quatro na Bossa). This is the DREAM TEAM of Richmond singers!!!

Why SO many vocalists? Because Samson’s going to present a smorgasbord of brand-spanking new musical arrangements, which will include new Samson Trinh originals, selections from The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album, and selections from The Beatles’ “White Album”! And to top it off, the big band will perform cuts from Samson’s first
album “Very Strange Night” to celebrate its 5th anniversary reissue.

And if that’s not enough, there will be three drummers on stage with a plethora of percussion toys! They’re going to be back and forth on drum sets, timpani, bass drum, bell chimes, xylophone, glockenspiel, cowbell, and more!

This is going to be a special and magical night. And the best part… it’s FREE! Spread the news to your friends and family. Pack a picnic and be prepared for us to blow your minds again! See you all on Friday,
June 10th at 8PM!

- Samson

THE LINEUP…

SET 1 – MILLS FAMILY BAND

Allyson Mills-Steele: vocals, guitar
Curtis Mills: vocals, guitar
Samson Trinh: sax, flute, clarinet
Rusty Farmer: bass
Andy Brockmann: drums, background vocals
Carter Gravatt: mandolin (special guest from Carbon Leaf)

SET 2 – UPPER EAST SIDE BIG BAND

Samson Trinh: musical director, composer, arranger, sax

VOCALISTS: Adrian Duke (keyboards/arranger), Allyson Mills-Steele,
Curtis Mills (guitar), Desiree Roots Centeio, John Winn, Terri Simpson,
Laura Ann Singh

GUITAR: Tom Patti

BASS: Rusty Farmer

DRUMS & PERCUSSION: Aaron Thompson, Andy Brockmann, Mike Boyd

SAXES, FLUTES, CLARINETS: Kevin Simpson, Suzi Fisher, Jonathan Gibson

TRUMPETS: Rob Quallich, Scott Frock

TROMBONES: Pete Anderson, Stefan Demetriadis

SPECIAL GUEST: Slashtipher Coleman

“Richmond had so many amazing albums come out this year, there was no way I could lump them in with national releases and narrow them down to 10. So I made a completely separate list. And it was still hard to do. Here are the best albums Richmond musicians had to offer for 2010.” – From the Article

Check out the full article HERE!!!

The date is Wednesday, December 15th. We’ll be on air from 7-8:30AM. This will be our third year with Bill Bevins and Shelly Perkins. We can’t thank them enough for supporting us local artists.

We also have a gig this Friday, December 10th at Poe’s Pub! Yeah, I know it’s been a while since our last gig. We’ll be playing a benefit concert called HAMAGANZA. Proceeds benefit The Food Bank / $10.00 donation or bring a Canned Ham! Come on out!

- Samson

- Samson

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.