December 15th, 2005

December 15th, 2005 will be a Thursday that I'll never forget.

Forgive me if I wax sentimental for a bit. It is the holidays after all, and I'll give myself a little credit for once.

"Joy to the World" is WV Public Broadcastings Christmas concert featuring the Mountain Stage house pianist Bob Thompson and his five piece jazz group. They take a seriously cool approach to Christmas music, spicing it up new-age jazz style. Now that's how you do Christmas music.

The first time I ever saw BT play would've been at my first Mountain Stage taping when I was a senior in high school. But it wasn't until I caught one of the television Mountain Stage episodes on PBS late one Saturday night that I really caught the emotion and capability behind Bob's playing. He did a solo piano interpretation of "You Don't Know Me," an Eddie Arnold country tune, re-popularized by Ray Charles on "Modern Sounds of Country & Western Music" in 1961. That was the first time Bob’s playing brought tears to my eyes. Little did I know that it would happen many, many times more.

For 13 years Bob has put on this annual Christmas concert, but it's the first year the television and radio broadcasts will be distributed nationally by Public Radio International (PRI) and around the world on the Voice of America (the United States way of propagandizing our ideals across the world).

I watched last year’s taping (featuring guest vocalist Susan Werner) on TV, but this year’s show was my first live show, and I was fortunate enough to be listed in the program under “Production Assistance” right after Michael Lipton, the MS guitarist who I admire a great deal for his pure, selfless genius. It was a real honor to be listed on the same line, and he of course made mention that “You’ll always come after me” when he signed my program.

Immediately after I changed into my suit jacket and tie, I walked down the hall, where in one of the next dressing rooms, the band and Michael Lipton were having their pre-show toast. I stopped long enough to say “Have a good show,” to the guys when Bob called me back “Hey Adam, man, do you care to partake?”

If you were a young film director, this would be like having Stephen Spielberg ask you if you wanted to watch ET with him, or if you were a metal band, and you got to record with John Custer.

So I timidly took my festive cup from Bob and said “Here’s to everybody?” out of sheer nervousness. “I guess for you,” Bob said, “It’s ‘Welcome’”

I feel like it’s taken me these last eight months to prove that I’m going to stick around, and hopefully they think I deserve to be around.

That toast was the first of three incredible moments for me that night. The second came when Bob came on stage to introduce his band, the host, and his guest vocalist before the taping started. He ran through the entire program credits and was generous enough to give Ritchie Collins, the monitor engineer, and Paul Flaherty, the production manager, and Linda McSparin, who has produced Joy to the World the last 8 seasons, a chance to come out and wave to the audience with a gracious applause. Imagine my surprise when Bob introduced me in between Paul and Linda. “And someone we’re welcoming for the first time tonight. . .”

Incredible. It’s not about getting any glory, but I got to step out, give Bob a salute and a quick wave to the audience. After the show some people recognized me and said “Thanks” and “Great Job” even though they had no idea if I’d even done anything. It’s great to see Paul, Ritchie and Linda get some credit because they are often overlooked in their pertinence and necessity to the show’s smoothness.

The after party was at Linda’s house and there was food and drink aplenty. It grew later and later. Hell, I didn’t even get to her house until after 11 p.m. By about 2:30 am the crowd had dwindled to Linda, her two daughters (both fantastic people), Ryan Kennedy (Bob’s Guitarist), his girlfriend Laurell (a fine singer, herself) Michael Lipton, Bob Thompson and myself, gathered around a table.

All of these people have known each other upwards of 20 years, so I got to hear tons of great stories. I was telling everyone how much I appreciated Linda letting me take off early last week to go see Medeski Martin & Wood. ‘How was it?” Ryan said after slapping me with what I assume was a surprised five.

“You know what?” Bob said to Linda, “This guy continually impresses me with his knowledge of music, man.”

I know my jaw dropped and I glanced at Linda and she raised her eyebrows at me, like “How about that?” because she knows how much I admire and respect Bob.

I hope I never come off as a “know-it-all.” I don’t try to impress anyone with how much I know about music. I’m more interested in sharing my passion and hopefully make a good recommendation, not bragging about what I know that you don’t. It feels good to have someone recognize the work and dedication I’ve put into listening though; especially when that someone is a brilliant piano player who’s recorded for Capitol records and knows more about jazz than I could ever hope to know.

So December 15th will always be a day I look back on as gratifying. I learned a lot too. Hopefully I’ll be around for next year’s show. At the party Bob signed my program- “Adam, You bring a great vibe to everything you do.”

I guess in the long run that’s all I could ever hope to do.

I’ve almost finished my top ten albums of 2005, and it’s looking really good. I’ve got to do some fact checking though, so I promise to post it next week. Check out these web-sites for some more on BT and the guest vocalist Mira Stanley. She seems like a hard worker and she was very gracious to everyone involved with the show. Some good friends of mine have a metal band, and the happen to be recording with John Custer, so check them out as well.

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Beat/2005120742
www.colortones.com
www.myspace.com/outoforbit
www.johncuster.com