Tuesday, December 09, 2003
West meets East: Hollywood comes to the Forum
In front of a stage whereon stood a baby grand piano, drum set and electric six-string bass was a pair of pretty poinsettias in front of a monitor. Over the stage a parachute was draped like a cross between the bow of a ship and a giant orchid, a red light pointing up into its dome.
Thus the Kitty Hawk Elementary School awaited the advent of flautist Jim Walker and his group Free Flight.
A meager audience arrived gradually from the cold moonlight, laying their winter coats on the backs of their chairs.
Outer Banks Forum vice president of programs Sue Meyer said people were apparently picking and choosing among the many events happening on the Outer Banks on the weekend. The biting cold didn't help, either.
A five-minute warning came through the loudspeaker two minutes before Forum president William Teague came onstage to announce the band.
Silver-bearded Jim Walker, heard on such Hollywood soundtracks as "Titanic" and "Vanilla Sky," and who performed with Sir Paul McCartney at the recent Academy Awards presentation, loped onstage. He was followed by Bryan Pezzone, Mike Packer and Tim Emmons, who took their respective places at the piano, drums and bass.
First, said Walker, was music, the way Mozart really wanted to hear it. The band deftly launched a jazzy Mozart medley, mixing up a Minuet with a walking-bass bridge and some twenty-first century flourishes.
The sound was light, the mood swinging. Each musician took a little solo, establishing his bona fides. As a band and individually they had huge chops.
Next came a Hubert Laws-ish rendition of Richard Rodgers' "Climb Every Mountain," using all the dynamics available to the combo, who even toyed with a samba rhythm before a well-received drum solo.
"Blackie and Max" was "a funky little blues," one of only two pieces Walker ever wrote, dedicated to his late cats. They must have been cool cats, as their song rocked with a swing-time call-and-response between electric piccolo and piano, and an outstanding chorded bass solo.
Pezzone has written much of the group's music, and they began a suite of three of his pieces, which sounded like every good cliche you ever heard about Los Angeles, Walker's home base. Pezzone's piano had some of the airiness of the late Vince Guaraldi, but his virtuosity was second to none.
Leaning sideways across the keyboard, he invented chords and harmonies not heard in nature, but which made sense, delivered with perfect assurance.
The second piece in the suite was a duet between flute and piano only - a poignant piece which grew in power through a profound piano movement before resolving itself peacefully and welcoming back the bass and drums for the third, cinematic piece.
Walker revealed that Pezzone is the pianist on the "Pinky and the Brain" show and lots of cartoons. It spoke well of Walker that he gave Pezzone's huge talent the platform and space he did.
Walker, of course, was no slouch himself, as he showed with variations on a Paganini caprice. Paganini was known for composing (and playing) pieces for the violin that were almost technically impossible. Walker's fingers blurred over the keys of his flute while the band kept up precisely.
"Skeeball," written by Pezzone, welcomed the audience back after the intermission - it started dreamily before settling into a loping shuffle featuring a pretty melody line - west-coast jazz at its best.
"Interaction" was described by Walker as the "closest we come to overt post-bebop jazz." It was indeed reminiscent of Miles Davis, with stretches of improvization between classic set-piece riffs. Pezzone and Packer played intersecting time signatures that suddenly and delightfully united in surprising ways.
The master, J.S. Bach, was well-served, too, with a beautiful second movement from the Sonata No. 2 in e-flat major, the "Siciliano." It was another idiosyncratic performance, featuring a liquid piano, brushes on the drums and a carpet of soft bass chords for the exquisite fluted tune.
"Libido" - after a "very well-known Italian sculptor" was insistent, full of life, joy and energy, the band rolling on above the double-time drums.
Mike Packer was featured on "Methane Five," a 5-4 time piece written by Pezzone. Packer started it with a stuttering 5-4 drum solo that grew into a blur of sticks and cymbals before subsiding for the entrance of the band, who plucked some dynamic passages from the steady state of the 5-4 time signature.
A medley of tunes centered around "My Heart Will Go On" from "Titanic" was dedicated to student Matt Aiello, who gave Walker a ride down from Va. after a master class Walker gave. Walker said he didn't do all that much on "Titanic" - just enough to put his name on the residuals package. Of course, his playing was familiar to anyone who had seen the film.
Finally, George Gershwin was given his due, with an assemblage of his music threaded on the "Rhapsody in Blue" - a suite of sorts, including "Plenty of Nothing," "I Got Rhythm" (an understatement, tonight), "Someone to Look After Me" and more.
The band, booked on a red-eye flight home, was unable to honor the audience's standing ovation with more than a curtain-call. Still, many of the audience-members were able to listen to their new First Flight CD's on their way home.
©2003 Womack Newspapers Inc.
Thus the Kitty Hawk Elementary School awaited the advent of flautist Jim Walker and his group Free Flight.
A meager audience arrived gradually from the cold moonlight, laying their winter coats on the backs of their chairs.
Outer Banks Forum vice president of programs Sue Meyer said people were apparently picking and choosing among the many events happening on the Outer Banks on the weekend. The biting cold didn't help, either.
A five-minute warning came through the loudspeaker two minutes before Forum president William Teague came onstage to announce the band.
Silver-bearded Jim Walker, heard on such Hollywood soundtracks as "Titanic" and "Vanilla Sky," and who performed with Sir Paul McCartney at the recent Academy Awards presentation, loped onstage. He was followed by Bryan Pezzone, Mike Packer and Tim Emmons, who took their respective places at the piano, drums and bass.
First, said Walker, was music, the way Mozart really wanted to hear it. The band deftly launched a jazzy Mozart medley, mixing up a Minuet with a walking-bass bridge and some twenty-first century flourishes.
The sound was light, the mood swinging. Each musician took a little solo, establishing his bona fides. As a band and individually they had huge chops.
Next came a Hubert Laws-ish rendition of Richard Rodgers' "Climb Every Mountain," using all the dynamics available to the combo, who even toyed with a samba rhythm before a well-received drum solo.
"Blackie and Max" was "a funky little blues," one of only two pieces Walker ever wrote, dedicated to his late cats. They must have been cool cats, as their song rocked with a swing-time call-and-response between electric piccolo and piano, and an outstanding chorded bass solo.
Pezzone has written much of the group's music, and they began a suite of three of his pieces, which sounded like every good cliche you ever heard about Los Angeles, Walker's home base. Pezzone's piano had some of the airiness of the late Vince Guaraldi, but his virtuosity was second to none.
Leaning sideways across the keyboard, he invented chords and harmonies not heard in nature, but which made sense, delivered with perfect assurance.
The second piece in the suite was a duet between flute and piano only - a poignant piece which grew in power through a profound piano movement before resolving itself peacefully and welcoming back the bass and drums for the third, cinematic piece.
Walker revealed that Pezzone is the pianist on the "Pinky and the Brain" show and lots of cartoons. It spoke well of Walker that he gave Pezzone's huge talent the platform and space he did.
Walker, of course, was no slouch himself, as he showed with variations on a Paganini caprice. Paganini was known for composing (and playing) pieces for the violin that were almost technically impossible. Walker's fingers blurred over the keys of his flute while the band kept up precisely.
"Skeeball," written by Pezzone, welcomed the audience back after the intermission - it started dreamily before settling into a loping shuffle featuring a pretty melody line - west-coast jazz at its best.
"Interaction" was described by Walker as the "closest we come to overt post-bebop jazz." It was indeed reminiscent of Miles Davis, with stretches of improvization between classic set-piece riffs. Pezzone and Packer played intersecting time signatures that suddenly and delightfully united in surprising ways.
The master, J.S. Bach, was well-served, too, with a beautiful second movement from the Sonata No. 2 in e-flat major, the "Siciliano." It was another idiosyncratic performance, featuring a liquid piano, brushes on the drums and a carpet of soft bass chords for the exquisite fluted tune.
"Libido" - after a "very well-known Italian sculptor" was insistent, full of life, joy and energy, the band rolling on above the double-time drums.
Mike Packer was featured on "Methane Five," a 5-4 time piece written by Pezzone. Packer started it with a stuttering 5-4 drum solo that grew into a blur of sticks and cymbals before subsiding for the entrance of the band, who plucked some dynamic passages from the steady state of the 5-4 time signature.
A medley of tunes centered around "My Heart Will Go On" from "Titanic" was dedicated to student Matt Aiello, who gave Walker a ride down from Va. after a master class Walker gave. Walker said he didn't do all that much on "Titanic" - just enough to put his name on the residuals package. Of course, his playing was familiar to anyone who had seen the film.
Finally, George Gershwin was given his due, with an assemblage of his music threaded on the "Rhapsody in Blue" - a suite of sorts, including "Plenty of Nothing," "I Got Rhythm" (an understatement, tonight), "Someone to Look After Me" and more.
The band, booked on a red-eye flight home, was unable to honor the audience's standing ovation with more than a curtain-call. Still, many of the audience-members were able to listen to their new First Flight CD's on their way home.
©2003 Womack Newspapers Inc.
