|
|
JPM VIEWS
10
As of April 21, 2009 - JPMS
Blog Has Moved To WordPress
Stewart
Copeland, Daniel Hope and....
Posted on 3/28/2008 at 12:53 AM
Recently I
got the call to perform a concert with legendary Police
drummer Stewart
Copeland at the Savannah, GA Music Festival. As a Police
fanatic and a S.C. fan, I was excited to get an opportunity to play
and make music with one of my many musical heroes. It would be safe
to say that as a young kid growing up in the 1980's, The Police
we're "My Beatles." After the Police broke up,
I would continue to follow the careers of Sting,
Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland.
After accepting
the invitation,
I received the music (printed/audio) on the road and while
finishing a West coast tour with Austin based blues guitarist Chris
Duarte. I practiced as much as time would allow in between soundchecks,
concerts, car/plane rides and hotel changes. I completed the C.D.
tour on March 23rd in Denver, Colorado; and quickly flew to Savannah,
Georgia for a rehearsal with Stewart on the 25th and the preceding
concert on the 26th. I had less than 5 days to go over the music
before hitting it with Stewart, however I was pumped.
My first
encounter with Stewart: I found him to be a very polite, humorous,
warm, well tempered and courteous man. He made an effort to reach
out to everyone in the group and politely introduced himself. We
chit chatted a bit and off we went, down that musical journey from
the Rhythmatist. In the hours that followed, it would be
an intense yet rewarding experience playing the music of and with
this musical genius. I was mostly a silent observer and did my best
to take it all in. In short, let me just say that Stewart wasn't
there to play checkers. His passion for his craft was nothing short
of inspiring.
Halfway through
the concert, Stewart brought out another amazing talent, Daniel
Hope. Stewart wrote a trio composition for one of his daughters
that featured drums, violin, piano. During
this moment of the concert, I took a seat to bare witness of this
premiere work. It was astonishing! Daniel Hope tore it up and his
intonation and tone was impeccable. While I didn't play with Daniel,
we chatted a bit backstage. Daniel is also a very nice chap with
an amazing aura around him. Daniel might be one of the best violinists
I've ever heard, a true madman I say!
Not to go un-noticed,
the musical ensemble for this event was an amazing group of musicians/artists.
The group consisted of:
Ted Nash -
reeds
Victor
Goines - reeds
Walter
Blanding - reeds
Carl
Maraghi - reeds
Marcus
Printup - trumpet
David
Elliot - trombone
Ricardo
Ochoa - violin
Gretchen
Frazier - viola
Annalise
Nelson - cello
Hans Kristian Kjos
Sorensen - percussion
Kirk
Brundage - percussion
Stuart
Gerber - percussion
Eric Jones - piano
Andy Ripley - ewi
Mike Daly - french horn
In addition to the genuinely warm spirit of Stewart and the musical
ensemble, he had a wonderful crew of people that worked on his behalf.
From his manager, tour manager, production team, festival organizers;
it was a top shelf entourage. Stewart's drum tech/engineer Jeff
Seitz was also a great asset (and talented drummer).
Jeff has been with Stewart for 25 + years which not only speaks
volumes of his abilities and the people Stewart surrounds himself
with, it also says everything about the true meaning of loyalty
from Mr. Copeland. In fact, Jeff can be seen in the recently released
S.C./Police documentary, Everyone
Stares.
Conclusion:
a high profile musical friend/artist once told me not to play with
my musical heroes as they might end up disappointing me (he
was speaking from experience). Well in my case, nothing could
be further from the truth. Stewart is an amazing artist, a terrific
human being and I was honored to be apart of this musical experience!
Until next post...peace
JPM
<<
back
Photograph
by: Kellie M. Walsh
|
