American (North and South) Timeline (6/9/16)

Alex Wu, piano, presented a relatively low profile concert on Thursday afternoon. He’s an artist that I know, and he was the draw that got me to the concert. The venue was yet another branch of the New York Public Library—this one on West 23rd Street—in a small meeting room. The audience numbered 30 to 40 tops.

There was no printed program, so all of my notes were taken while listening to
Mr. Wu announce from the front of the room. The first piece was A New Hiding Place, by Henry T. Burleigh, based on the tune My Lord What a Mornin’, and had some slight syncopations but also sections of grandeur. This was followed by The Easy Winners (1901), a nice, bright and breezy “rag” by Scott Joplin. Mr. Wu reminded us (and I have read about this before) that there is an annual Scott Joplin festival on or around June 5th in Sedalia, Missouri.

Heading to South America, we heard Manuel Poncé’s In Spite of Everything, a tango for left hand only that was written in honor of a sculptor friend of his who lost his right hand in an accident, yet still continued working as a sculptor. It was an effective slow tango. This was followed by Ernesto Lecuona’s Midnight Conga, a Cuban 1920s composition that was a little frantic, more jazz influenced, and almost clangorous at times.

Back in the US of A, we next heard Earl Wild’s variations on Gershwin’s The Man I Love and Fascinatin’ Rhythm; the former was rippling and technically very busy/difficult while the latter had a hint of Flight of the Bumblebee. I enjoyed both of them (and have heard Mr. Wu play Fascinatin’ Rhythm at least once before). From the ’30s and ’40s, we heard a couple of Duke (Edward Kennedy) Ellington tunes, the first moving from roots and hints of ragtime into the beginnings of swing while the second was from Canadian Suite, originally composed for Oscar Peterson. (Yes, I was frantically scribbling notes.)

Moving further into the 20th century, we heard some film score music—Cool (Leonard Bernstein), music from A Streetcar Named Desire (Alex North), and the theme from The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein, no relation). Taking us back into Latin flavors, we had Antonio Jobim’s Girl from Ipanema and Astor Piazzola’s Street Tango, with a mix of hard, driving rhythms countered with gentler ones, and a mix of classical styling thrown in. It seemed to me as though Mr. Wu was using the pedals of the piano almost as a percussive element. It’s unknown to me whether that was Piazzola’s intent, but I found it quite interesting. At least until someone’s phone went off!

The afternoon finished with Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo à la Turk, apparently written as a blues/jazz tribute to Mozart. It had a powerful build of repeating rhythms, eventually interspersed with blues and jazz riffs in a dense structure that was very effective. All in all, a well-thought-out and well-played concert from
Mr. Wu. Exactly as I expected.

ConcertMeister