Birdland

June 22, 2004

Birdland is a name that thrills jazz musicians everywhere... even twelve year old jazz musicians.  So, when Matt had the opportunity to play there, he was teaming with excitement.

And not only did he get to play at Birdland, he got to perform with the legendary Clark Terry on trumpet, Jimmy Heath on sax,  Jon Faddis on trumpet, Marcus McLaurine on bass, and Kenny Washington on drums.  Don Friedman was there also, but since Don plays piano, Matt had to bump him out of the band for the time he played.  (Thank you, Don, for being so nice about it!)

This event was a combination jazz book release/Reading is Fundamental event.  The reading of the book (called Nicky the Jazz Cat, which comes with a jazz CD for kids), the performance by the jazz legends and by Matt, and a short performance and “jazz clinic” by Clark Terry were the focal points of the day.  Matt had the honor of reading the book to approx. 110 NY elementary school children and probably another 20-30 adults.

The excitement started for us even before the event began…at sound check.  The piano on which Matt was playing was a Bösendorfer that had been played by Oscar Peterson just the night before.  Oscar had even autographed it.  That was cool.  I wish we had heard Oscar play it in person, however...  We would have flown to NY a day early if we had known he was playing there.  But hopefully one day SOON we’ll hear him.  Matt owns many, many of Oscar’s CDs.

During sound check, the owner of Birdland listened to Matt play and was amazed by what he heard.  We spoke, and he invited Matt and his Trio to perform at Birdland.  I said the band would love to come, but that Matt could play only one concert in a night and could not do multiple nights in a row.  He IS only twelve.  I figured that would kill the invitation.  But Birdland usually books just one show for Monday nights anyway, so the owner suggested that Matt play on a Monday night.  Needless to say, we accepted.

Birdland is a great venue…with a terrific layout, a great stage and sound system, a beautifully clean room, and REALLY nice people working there.  We were trying to determine a gig date, so I told the owner that Matt had a CD coming out in September.  He invited us to do a CD release celebration concert the first Monday in October.  So, now the Trio is performing on October 4^th, 2004 at Birdland!!!!  Matt and the sidemen are psyched…and so am I.

I have to admit that the owner of Birdland is one of the nicest people I’ve met.  He was SO incredibly sweet to Matt, and gave him a Birdland shirt and hat, which Matt will wear proudly.  The owner is a father, so he took the time to make sure Matt had water to drink and that he was comfortable.  It is no wonder that he is so well liked by so many musicians and why musicians like to perform at Birdland.  (This I learned via the musician grapevine when I returned home).  The fact that his concern was for Matt’s wellbeing and he completely supported me in my limiting Matt’s performance schedule endeared him to me forever.  Somehow, I think this is just the beginning of a long friendship.

So all of this excitement happened even before all of the greats had arrived.  This was just what happened at sound check!

The event opened with a song from the jazz CD that accompanies the book…A Tisket/A Tasket, which was performed by the children in the audience.  They were SO cute!!!

Jon Faddis said a few words, telling jokes and “warming up the crowd”.  The book’s author, Carol Friedman, welcomed everyone and thanked the sponsors and then introduced Matt.  Matt addressed the children for a minute and welcomed them to Birdland, telling them that the venue was named for Charlie (Bird) Parker, a great jazz musician.  At that point he played a solo piano tune for the kids.  What did he play?…  a completely jazzed-up version of The National Anthem.  It was totally cool. Then he relinquished the stage to Jon Faddis again. Jon talked to the kids and explained each instrument that was to be played by each jazz legend, with each musician playing a short solo so the children could hear the instrument.  It was great.  When the whole band was there, they played a song for the kids.  I was in awe of these guys.  You could just feel the magic they were creating, even for schoolchildren.

After that, it was time to read.  Matt had the honor of reading the book to the children.  He loves to read to his little sister, so this was right up his alley.  The kids responded to the book and to Matt.  Then it was Matt’s turn to play with the “big guys”.  He played “Cherokee” with them.  Each musician had his turn to solo, and it went wonderfully.  Everyone was smiling.  Matt relinquished the piano again for the finale…the “mumbling” clinic by Clark.  Clark and the band played a tune, and he did his famous mumbling for the kids, who loved it.  Then he moved to jazz scat and the children repeated it back to him in rhythm.  Everyone was laughing and having a blast.  Clark talked to the kids while the band kept playing and told them how to mumble.  He did it and had the children do it along with him.  The children picked it right up.  Then he asked for someone to come up from the audience.  Jon had been paying attention to the children and knew who seemed to have a knack for the mumbling, so he brought up a little girl.  The band kept playing the tune to which Clark had been mumbling.  Jon put the mike up to the little girl and she proceeded to mumble perfectly.  It was hysterical.  She was fantastic.  She kept going for a long time, too.  She was really good.  Finally, she sat back down and the band wrapped things up with a song.

After the children left, Matt and Jimmy Heath jammed for a while.  Jimmy was SO nice to Matt and although he must have been tired, took time to speak with me.  I introduced myself and passed along a hello from a mutual friend of ours in Montreal.  He told me that he and our mutual friend go way back to 1960.  We lamented that so many of the great jazz musicians had recently passed away and many more were retiring.  I told him I was trying to take Matt to hear as many of his heroes in concert as possible before they retire, but that we were running out of time.  Matt knows their music from CDs, but it is one thing to hear music on a CD and another to see the charisma of the musician in concert.  Jimmy agreed that an era was ending, but looked at Matt, who was still playing piano, and said, “That right there is the future of jazz”.  We both smiled.

Backstage (l-r) Jimmy Heath, Clark Terry, Kenny Washington

I would like to thank Carol Friedman and everyone involved in bringing Matt and me to Birdland.  It was like putting together a “dream team” of musicians for a day.  We had the opportunity of a lifetime to hear these gentlemen and Matt was thrilled to perform with them.  To all of the gentlemen, please forgive me for my endless picture taking.  I’m not always such a pest.  I wanted so much to remember the day myself and to get photos for Matt to have in his archives.   He’ll be able to reminisce about meeting and playing with you all when he is older.  You may not know how much you influence young musicians, but you do.  And you certainly have influenced Matt.  If you ever read this, please know that we thank you and that you have left a memory with Matt that one day he’ll be sharing with future jazz musicians when HE is the old-timer.