Memory Lane

April 18, 2009

Last night I had a great experience. It was a trip down memory lane as I performed with Jim Curry and the Kansas City Symphony. Jim does a John Denver Tribute show and he does it quite well. Here's how it came about: Several months ago Jim Curry had the idea to get John's old symphony charts and see what interest there might be for some concerts. So Jim called Lee Holdridge who was John Denver's orchestrator and arranger for almost all of John's career. When Jim asked about the charts, Lee informed him that, sadly, John's manager threw all the charts and scores in the trash after John died because he didn't want to pay storage fees. (This is nothing short of music sacrilege! 30 years of work thrown away. Many concerts could still have happened, giving joy and memories to thousands, not to mention it's intrinsic value as a part of the American pop culture.) Lee told Jim that he still had his original pencil scores and that, though time had caused them to fade a little, orchestra parts could still be derived from them. The really big problem would be the expense to have parts copied. It would take two copyists working with Lee quite some time to recreate all the parts needed to put on a symphony concert. Jim was not deterred and said let's do it. After they got everything finished I flew to L.A. so we could have a rehearsal and make sure that the scores matched all the rhythm section charts. This was sort of a proof reading rehearsal to avoid wasting time in rehearsal with the orchestra. (It's very expensive to work with an orchestra and you don't want to waste.) During the rehearsal we all made our corrections and changes in our parts and then waited for the day... Yesterday, the rehearsal with the Kansas City Symphony went very well and we were all ready by show time. 2500 seats in a 2600 seat auditorium had been sold. There were large video screens on either side of the stage showing images of nature, John Denver, and some of the slides and videos that John had used to use in his own shows. Jim sang beautifully and the audience was totally into the show. It was a real trip down memory lane. Here was Lee Holdridge, John Denver's conductor, orchestrator and arranger of 30 years conducting the orchestra, I was playing guitar, Richie Garcia (who also played for John Denver) was playing drums and percussion and Jim Curry was over there sounding like John Denver. A couple of times I closed my eyes and went back 15 years. It was strange and cool at the same time. The real highlight for me was when I got to do one of my own pieces. I have a tune called McGuire's Landing that John was going to write lyrics for. He passed away before he got a chance to write those lyrics. It's a beautiful tune that sounds very old and Irish. (A friend told me once that it sounds like it was written by 'Anonymous') Don Hart from Nashville had done a string quintet arrangement for it a few years ago and we performed that arrangement last night. I was totally floored to receive a standing ovation at the end of the piece! Thanks Jim, for getting all that music together! And for a night of memories. I hope we can do it again.