|
|
|
Birdland CD Release Party for Cutting Loose October 4, 2004
The Matt Savage Trio “officially” released its new CD, “CUTTING LOOSE” on October 4, 2004. Yes, we know the CD was available for purchase before that date; however, the famed Manhattan jazz venue BIRDLAND invited the Trio to do its CD release concert there. We agreed upon a date close to the date when we thought the CD would be available for purchase, but didn’t hit the date exactly. And we didn’t want to hold up availability of the CD. So the “official” release concert was on October 4, even though the CD was already available for purchase. The Birdland concert was actually a “doubly special” evening. Bosendorfer Pianos has just agreed to have a gorgeous 9’2” piano as the in-house piano at Birdland. This piano was played by Oscar Peterson at Birdland a few months ago, and was played by Matt the very next day (at Birdland) on June 22, 2004. Matt played with Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath, Jon Faddis, Marcus McLaurine, and Kenny Washington for a Reading Is Fundamental event. (To learn more about this, read my earlier Birdland article). It was at that time that the owner of Birdland heard Matt perform and invited him to do a gig there with his Trio. As it happened, since Matt is a Bosendorfer artist, he was invited by Bosendorfer to inaugurate the piano’s residence at Birdland on a permanent basis. So, the October concert was both a CD release concert for The Matt Savage Trio and a celebration of the Bosendorfer and Birdland partnership. BIRDLAND!!! Just the name conjures images of the past jazz legends who created jazz as we know it. For those of you who haven’t been to Birdland, it is a fantastic venue in NYC to hear music. There’s not a bad seat in the house. The venue holds 140 people seated at tables. Then there is the bar area, which can hold many more people sitting and standing. The club is clean, the food terrific and the service fantastic. If we lived in NY, we’d be at Birdland listening to jazz every week! Great place. And the Trio felt unbelievably honored to have been invited to perform there.
The gig was on a Monday night, which is not usually a night people go out (at least tired old people like ME!). But, the place was hopping on the night of the Show. There were a lot of Matt’s fans who came to the show, but there were a lot of NEW fans there, too. Robert De Niro came to hear Matt play, which I think was one of the most exciting things ever to happen at one of Matt’s concerts. Unfortunately, Mr. De Niro had to leave for a Premier before the end of the Show, so although we saw him at the concert, we did not have the opportunity to meet him in person. I must admit that I have been a fan of his for a very long time. He sent word through to us that he would like to meet Matt, so when we return to NY, hopefully, we’ll be able to arrange a meeting. The concert was absolutely terrific. For those of you who are interested, here was the group’s playlist for each of the two sets: Set One:
Set Two:
After the Show (which ended around 9:45 PM), there was a “Cast Party” scheduled. The “Cast Party” was a get-together for all of the current stars on Broadway. The best of the best were there. We stayed for just the beginning of the party. The way the evening was scheduled, each star got up and played or sang a tune from his or her musical to show his or her talent and promote his/her show to others who might not have seen the production. My guess is that each of the actors and actresses works SO many hours for his or her own show that there is little time to check out other shows currently playing on Broadway. I bet this must be one of the few ways the actors get to hear one another. Anyway, the owner of Birdland spoke with the emcee of the evening and asked if Matt could perform a song for everyone before we all went home for the evening. The emcee was unbelievably gracious and introduced Matt right away after warming up the crowd, and Matt came out and wowed the group with a terrific solo piano version of ‘Round Midnight. You could have heard a pin drop, everyone was so silent and awestruck. Afterwards, Matt got a HUGE round of applause and people came over to talk to him and tell him how well he played piano. We were told Michael Feinstein was in the audience. The emcee made a comment about how talented Matt was and how YOUNG he was. So Matt, in his inimitable style, answered back that being young just means you’ve “had less training”. The crowd roared its approval and laughter, and the emcee good-naturedly threw up his hands. As the next act was performing, he snuck over to shake Matt’s hand as we got ready to leave. We did have the chance to hear a couple of actors perform before we left, and the talent there was unreal!!! There were vocalists that stunned you, and the kids especially laughed and loved a gentleman performing a hysterical tune I think called “The Short Term Memory Blues”. So one evening at Birdland ended being an entire whirlwind of memorable events for our whole family.
Matt autographing CDs after the show. Birdland asked the date of Matt’s next birthday, and we answered May of 2005. The owner suggested we return for a “Matt turns 13” gig, so we’ll be there. For those of you who receive Matt’s newsletter, we’ll let you know the exact date as soon as it has been determined. We would VERY much like to thank Birdland for allowing The Matt Savage Trio to perform there and for making our entire family feel SO welcome. Birdland is SUCH a fantastic venue. If you have the opportunity to go hear music there, definitely GO! Did I say go? Well, I mean DEFINITELY go!!! ;-)
|
