For a little more than five years when I was in my late 20s and early 30s I was composer-in-residence at the NY Shakespeare Festival (The Public Theater) working with producer Joseph Papp in what was, at the time, the most creative theatrical hot spot in the country.  Joe Papp and his plays and musicals had an amazing run of success during the 70s that we haven’t seen the likes of from a theatrical producer since.

It was at The Public where I learned my craft having the opportunity to work on some 40 shows in those 5+ years working as composer for Joe.  Besides many other theaters in The Public complex, the NYSF also produced two Shakespeare plays per summer at the outdoor Delacorte Theater in Central Park.  I created incidental music for a number of these productions and I remember one particular production of Shakespeare’s Comedy Of Errors where I was backstage standing in the wings one night.

An older actor was on stage in a scene with one other actor one night when the older actor simply stopped in the middle of one line and kind of slumped over, still standing, into a frozen position.  The long pause brought us all to quick alert.  His fellow actor fed him his cue again to no response.  The stage manager in the wings downstage of me also fed him his lines in a stage whisper several times to no avail.  The audience began to buzz and we all quickly realized that there was something very wrong with the older actor.

Truth is, he had had a small stroke.

The stage manager, taking charge, simply walked out on stage calmly, and taking the arm of the older actor, led him slowly off stage.  Then the stage manager went back on stage and announced to the audience that we would take a short intermission and resume the play after 15 minutes.  The audience, still abuzz, did as they were told to do peacefully.

Backstage it was anything but peaceful.  Rather, it was a pretty wild scene as the older actor was addressed and cared for, an ambulance was called and his understudy was frantically preparing to go on in the older actor’s place.

The costume mistresses scurried about preparing the understudy’s costume changes, I got in his face discussing his musical cues and the stage manager ran through a litany of reminders for the young, inexperienced understudy.

As it was very early in the run, the understudies for each role had only had up to that point one two-hour rehearsal — far too little for a three and a half hour Shakespeare production, and we soon discovered that the understudy had not totally committed his lines to memory.

On top of that, the understudy was also one of the townspeople in the play so his role had to be covered by the swingman and that had to be organized as well – all in the announced 15 minutes.

It was quickly decided that the understudy should carry the book – that is, hold the script from the play while acting his part on stage.  This, of course, would kill the reality of the play, but there seemed no other choice and we hoped that the audience would simply understand the predicament and put up with the solution.

The understudy was a cute, funny little unknown fellow with the unlikely name of Danny Devito.  Yes, that Danny Devito – pre-stardom and yet undiscovered.

No one knew that frantic night backstage that a star was about to be born.

The announcement that we were about to resume brought the audience back to their seats and the announcement that the role once performed by the older gentleman would now be played by Danny Devito brought the dreaded groan of disappointment from the audience.

And then this tiny little man, script in hand, nervously walked out on stage and resumed the scene where we had left off.  I watched nervously from the wings.

The role was never a particularly funny one as played by the older actor.  Danny read his first line nervously and somehow caught the humor of it and the audience tittered at this little fellow.  That titter seemed to give Danny courage to go on and by the end of the scene he magically held the audience in the palm of his hand and had them roaring in the aisles.

It was an amazing transformation and afterwards, talking to several people who were in the audience that night, I discovered that they did not even remember that he held the book throughout.  They just remembered Danny and how funny and charming and adorable he was.

In the bows afterwards, Danny got the grandest of standing ovations from the audience and also the entire cast.  It was as sweet a memory as I have in life to see this little guy triumph over such adversity the way he had.

The next day the NY papers were full of the incident and Danny finished the production that summer doing the role.

The actor’s nightmare puts the actor on-stage in a role where he does not know his lines and often does not even know the name of the play he or she is in.  All actors have this nightmare from time to time.  One always wakes gratefully from it in a sweat.

The composer’s nightmare is similar.  For me, I stand in the wings watching my own musical, but the songs are not mine, don’t really fit the play and are not performed well.  I can’t figure out what has gone wrong and finally I too wake gratefully in a sweat.

The opposite experiences are the joys of my life.  To stand in the wings and watch the magic of my own hit show night after night, to hear the laughter, to feel the confident throb of the music and hear the audience cheer in response, to feel my songs touch the hearts of hundreds or even thousands is, of course, pure pleasure.  It is a gratification that runs deep and that I’ll probably never get enough of.

Two particular shows provided that gratification night after night for literally hundreds and hundreds of performances.  The first was another NY Shakespeare Festival production done at The Public Theater of a rock opera that I wrote back in the 70s.  The Wedding Of Iphigenia was an assignment given to me by Joe Papp to help me learn my theater craft and work with a master.  The master was Euripedes, one of the greatest of the Greek playwrights, and the two classic works of his that I drew my opera from were Iphigenia in Aulis and Iphigenia in Taurus.

We performed the show both at The Public Theater in NYC and The Old Vic (their experimental theater, The Young Vic) in London under the leadership of Sir Lawrence Olivier.  The opera simply worked form the beginning and melted the paint from the walls every time it was performed over the course of a couple of years.

When we first cast the show, I knew the show would have a Greek chorus of women to support the young maiden lead, Iphigenia.  In casting we had so many wondrous young women try out that we could not decide who should play Iphigenia so we hired them all with the stipulation that we would decide in the course of rehearsals and the others would be in the chorus.

At the end of each day, the director, producer Joe Papp, and I would discuss the choices.  Every day we changed our mind to a different girl.  Two weeks went by and they were all so good and so original that we were dumbfounded at our own inability to decide.  The girls were, of course, getting restless and impatient to have a decision and our inability to decide was beginning to create negative vibes in the company.

Finally Joe Papp had a most original and courageous idea.  They should all play Iphigenia.  At first we laughed at the idea, but then, as we discussed it thoroughly, we got first intrigued and then excited about the possibilities.

The idea worked like gangbusters.  It unified the women and brought an amazing style and power to the play and to the music.  It was so different from anything audiences had ever seen – the leading role of a Greek tragedy being played by 12 women at the same time — but we laid it out well and the music took you to powerful places of drama and passion.  It also helped that the music, rock music, was very new to the theater and so created an ambiance of “anything goes” in the theater.

I watched these ten women tear this opera up night after night as they ripped through every conceivable passion provided by Euripedes’ masterwork.  Trish Hawkins, Nell Carter, Margaret Dorn, Marta Heflin, Linda Lawley, Leata Galloway, Pamela Pentony, Marion Ramsey, Julianne Marshall, Andrea Marcovicci, Bonnie Guidry, Sharon Redd and even Patti LuPone all played this one little girl together and sang their way to standing ovations night after night.

I got to watch it from the wings.  It was a time I shall never forget.  A number would start and I knew each night that it would scrape the moon and each night it did.  It was a great feeling.

Years later I had a very similar experience with The Jenny Burton Experience.  Jenny, and a choir of nine of the top studio singers in NYC, played to sold-out audiences every Thursday night at a NY club called “Don’t Tell Mama”.  The act won, in that time, every conceivable music award given and drew thousands of people – many of which came back time after time.

Here again I got to watch from the wings great performers sing my music in magical ways.  The choir, led by vocal arranger, Margaret Dorn, was a superb blend of R&B and Gospel voices and could raise the roof at the drop of a hat, but it was Jenny herself who grabbed us all by the socks each night and carried us.  She was a radiant performer at the height of her art, able to both touch the center of your heart with a ballad and dazzle your mind with an up song and set your feet a’dancin’.

And she was, on top of it all, funny.  She developed into a tremendous ad libber and could run with an improvised moment away from the written show and then get back and keep the audience in stitches.  She was the consummate performer and the group backed her up beautifully.

She also had the so important ability to recreate the performance every night.  One night during a terrible snowstorm they performed the show for the 6 people who trudged through the blizzard and showed up and the show was as good as it had ever been.  I was one of those six.  I sat that night in the audience at a table just to make the room look fuller.  At the end of the show I was also one of the six who stood up and cheered.  There were more people on stage that night than in the audience.

Standing in the wings for the hundreds of performances throughout those seven years is also one of the most cherished times of my life.  The opportunity to be so close to such talent and to actually be a part of it, even though I hid behind the curtain, brought me the joyous satisfactions of a lifetime.

Stay tuned for Part 4 – the last if this series – yet to come.

Even More Inspiration

• Gabriel, Come Blow Your Horn
• WFM Listening Room — Series II Opener
• By The Numbers?
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• My Body
• Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Note: The following is a compilation of several posts and some new updates intended for newer readers of this blog.  Much has been written about our new project, Goin’ Home.  If you’ve been following all along, you may find some redundancies here; however, if you’re somewhat new to the project, you’ll find here a summary of events and thoughts that will bring you somewhat up to date.

What if today you could go over to your neighborhood grocery, grab that cart and shop for anything your little ol’ heart desired, then, instead of getting into the checkout line, skip that and just head home with your groceries – steak, shrimp, Haagen Daz, throw in a little Kobe Beef, some chocolate truffles and perchance a tin or two of Almas Caviar.

When you got outside with your overflowing shopping cart, the police would be there, but would just look the other way as you passed by chuckling gleefully, licking your chops.

What a great idea!  Why don’t we do this?  Food should be free!  I think most of us would agree that life would be a lot easier if food were free.

Trouble is, after very little time, maybe the next time we went back to the supermarket, the aisles would be empty, the shelves bare.  “Hey, all the food is gone!” you might cry.  “Well, let’s go back to the farmers and get more,” the store manager would say.

So we’d go to the farmers and say, “Hey farmers, make more food!”  They would respond like this:  “Without getting paid, it’s just too hard.  Sorry, but there’s just no more food.  We’re gonna go do something else.”

Well, essentially that’s what just happened to the music business – except for one problem.  Of course the farmers equal the artists in this little analogy and the artists, who love to make music, are still saying, “Oh cool, you like my music? You actually want to listen to my music?  OK, I’ll give it to you for free!”

So it’s gonna take a little time before this situation is righted.  Give the starving artists a chance to really starve.   Then they won’t be able to make any more music no matter how much they love to do it.  Cuz we all gotta eat!

We are, today, living in that era of empty aisles and starving artists.  The music business has collapsed under the weight of horrible leadership. (The four majors ignored the power of the Internet for so long that now they’ve missed the boat.) File sharing and outright stealing have become the norm for millions of young people.

The unfair treatment of artists by the companies has long been legendary (the companies themselves would always make back all their investment before the artists ever saw a cent of their royalties), and now development money has completely dried up as both the major record labels and the indies struggle for survival.  Where would the pharmaceutical industry be without research and development?  Nowhere.

That’s the old record business.

But all is not lost.  Never before in the history of the world has music been more proliferate.  Everywhere we turn, there is music.  “The day the music died” is a virtual impossibility.  Music is simply that much a part of the human consciousness.

So, as part of the natural order of things, a new world emerges.  Out of the ashes of the old one rise new ideas, a more fair treatment of the artists by now paying royalties on first dollar earned, and a cutting edge approach to new ways of approaching fans and customers.

It is a renaissance time in which the artist is now asked to be both business person and artist.  Not only must he be able to play his guitar, but he must also be able to understand the constantly changing evolution of the Internet and its powers.

In most cases today, the artist must be his or her own investor, marketing department, graphics designer, videographer, accounting department and retail store.  Selling from their own websites, many artists have almost been able to accomplish the near impossible.  Where most fail is on the all-important level of promotion.  By the time the new music is finished, mastered and manufactured, there usually just isn’t enough money left to promote the product.

So the music sells to a few friends and family and sits quietly on a website among millions of other sites that perhaps receives a hundred hits a month, if they’re lucky.  And the music languishes on a virtual shelf.

One thing we know for sure: Acts who tour, sell.  Acts who don’t, don’t.  So we must tour.  Touring is expensive, however, and the money is gone.  Often, many artists don’t even get to this point, running out of money before the CD is actually completed.  It’s a frustrating scenario.

However, now there is the hope of companies like Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com, on-line companies where artists and entrepreneurs with creative projects can raise money through crowd-funding from leagues of possible friends and supporters from around the world.

We are exploring this very real possibility right now with a new CD, Goin’ Home – On Heaven and Beyond to be released in November of 2011 and promises to be an in-depth look at a subject that many of us spend most of our lives avoiding.  Here is a joyful, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, exploration of the transition from this world to the next.  It’s really a celebration of eternal life.

The CD’s purpose is to open our eyes to the timelessness of our future.  The vision is to take an open-eyed look at an eventuality we all will face one day and face it head on.

The music is drawn from both original compositions, and also from the rich tradition of beloved Spiritual songs and Gospel lyrics from the past hundred years of the American songbook.

Great traditional songs like In Dat Great Gittin’ Up Mornin’, When The Saints Go Marchin In, the title song, Goin’ Home, with Antonín Dvo?ák’s timeless melody, and even Spiritual classics, I Ain’t Gonna Grieve My Lord No More and I Got A Robe all receive new fresh approaches and orchestrations and tremendous performances by a powerful cast of New York session vocalists and guest artists.

The choir alone is worth the price of purchase.  Led by double gold album R&B/Gospel vocalist, Jenny Burton, it’s performers comprise an ‘A’ list of world-class back-up singers who have sung with just about every major star in the music business – from Celine Dion to Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Sting, Bobby McFerrin and even Luciano Pavarotti.  The list goes on and on.

They are flawlessly organized by vocal arranger, Margaret Dorn, (Bette Midler, Jennifer Lopez, Carly Simon, Michael McDonald, Garth Brooks, Diana Ross) and together create a sound that blends with both a rich meticulous warmth and also can get up and shout down the rafters when needed.  They are: Angela Clemmons, Keith Fluitt, John James, Kevin Osborne, Catherine Russell, Vaneese Thomas and Darryl Tookes.

Guest artists joining this gathering of superb talent include: Julia Wade, who with seven Inspirational solo CDs under her belt is Watchfire Music’s best-selling recording artist, Tom Tipton, who served for 29 years as a soloist at Reverend Robert H. Schuler’s internationally famous Crystal Cathedral and has sung for four U.S. Presidents, Barry Danielian, one of New York City’s most in-demand session players recording with such pop notables as Celine Dion, Paul Simon, Bon Jovi, Ricky Martin, and James Taylor, and AHMIR, the #1 most popular R&B group on YouTube with over 50 million views.

We also close the CD with a new song recently penned by Grammy award winning songwriter, Julie Gold, best known for Bette Midler’s version of her song From A Distance which won the Grammy for Song of the Year in 1991.  Come To Me As A Bird is a heartbreakingly beautiful new song that is sure to capture the imagination of millions.

Watchfire Music, www.watchfiremusic.com , an Inspirational music company and on-line store, will release this CD and be the machinery behind the product.  Without the machinery, it’s pretty much a dead end road no matter how talented you are.  That machinery is almost in place.  The company is now in the black and running off earnings and no longer investor monies.

However, we’re not a rich organization.  We have to find special funding for special projects.  This new Kickstarter concept is most interesting to us because we have such a loyal and appreciative customer base.  We receive letters every day from people around the world expressing their gratitude.

With the projected Kickstarter money we will hire an Internet publicist, who knows these new and far less expensive ropes very well.  We have little overhead.  We run our company from virtual offices in four cities across the country over Skype, the Internet and email with a little telephone thrown in.”

It’s a different world, but I truly believe we’re on the cutting edge of it.  The Internet is the new way and we’re using it and understanding it.  It’s an exciting new Phoenix rising that fascinates me every day.”

So, once again we mount another CD, another show, but with a stronger machinery behind us.  With the success of Watchfire Music over these past 6 years during the roughest period in the history of the music business, we have been able to put together a strong on-line presence, a smoothly working delivery system to tens of thousands of loyal customers and have an Inspirational record company and on-line store to back this project.

Let’s be honest here, however.  The future of the music business, with all the file sharing and “free music” concepts, is a very tough road ahead.  The Internet is the new Tower Records and the hope is that this new and challenging world will provide a new start and a better way.

We’re small, but nimble – perhaps not yet a supermarket, but rather an elegant deli finding it’s way through this new world.

A three-city tour and subsequent Internet webcasts of the live performances are in the planning stages for 2012.

To find out more go to:

http://kck.st/o9vUvR

Even More Inspiration

• Light At The End Of The Tunnel
• Spiritual Scientist
• Love Is The Reason For Living
• Looking Back on 2010
• I Stood In The Wings… Part 4
• The Changing Scene

Consequently we have begun a 30 day Kickstarter.com campaign to raise money to complete and promote a CD project that I’ve been working on now for over a year and a half.

It’s the making of new CD called “Goin’ Home” and a subsequent National Tour around this CD.  It involves an inspiring blend of great tradition and cutting-edge new music and deals with a very important aspect of each of our lives.

It deals with the experience at the end of our lives that we each face eventually that I like to call “transition”.

In the words of Jenny Burton, one of the project’s stars, “It’s a subject that, at first, we walk away from, but will walk towards one day, so why not walk towards it informed and without fear.”

I, personally, would like to go through that experience, when it comes, fully aware and alert, expectant joyful, and filled with spiritual curiosity.  When it comes to that transition, we Americans tend to look the other way and pretend that it doesn’t exist.  I don’t want to be like that.

What better way to prepare than to write about it.

So Goin’ Home is about Heaven and beyond.  I’ve thought from childhood that the much of the world’s perception of Heaven, though certainly idyllic, was really rather like a fairy tale or a Santa Claus story.  In a song entitled Heaven on the CD I write the following:

I don’t believe in Heaven
As a place up in the sky
A place where all the angels sit
As the clouds go passin by

I don’t believe in Heaven
Dressed in white and gold
A city in a world upstairs
Where all of our wings unfold
And a God sits upon his throne

I see it more as a state of mind
Since my body gets left behind
I see it more
As an open door
To a life of another kind

I don’t believe in Heaven
As a place this side of Hell
A place where all the good folks go
A place where the spirits dwell
An’ ol’ Peter a-rings dem bells

I see it more as a holy space
A place to pause
A spiritual base
I see it more as an open door
To a kind of a quiet grace

And when all is said and done
I think that Heaven
Like earth
Is what we make it
It’s a moment in the sun
It’s a cleansing time
In a state of grace
It’s a place where laughter reigns

Oh it’s Heaven
Heaven
It’s Heaven
Oh it’s Heaven

So this CD and eventual concert tour explores the eventuality that we all face at one time or another.

But it’s also an experience about music and great songs, and uplifting and joyful singing.  It’s fun, it’s funny, it’s rich in its depth and it definitely rocks the house.

Goin’ Home is written as a Gospel Cantata.  A cantata is simply short for “a musical composition for voices and orchestra based on a spiritual text.”

It’s performed by a mostly African American cast of top New York Session singers – great friends that I’ve worked with many years now.  In future posts I’ll tell you much more about this amazingly talented group of artists.

“So what is Kickstarter.com” you must ask.

Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. Every week, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields.

A new form of commerce and patronage. This is not about investment or lending. Project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and experiences that are unique to each project.

All or nothing funding. On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

We’re giving ourselves 30 days to raise the necessary $9500 of funding.  Those 30 days started October 3, 2011 and will end November 2, 2011.  I urge you to participate in this drive to not only support Inspirational music, but also Watchfire Music, the CD’s record company and on-line place of purchase.  Most of all, I ask you to support the uplifting idea behind the project.  Its purpose is to open our eyes to the timelessness of our future.

Your contribution, whether large or small, is critically important to the success of this endeavor.  Every dollar counts.  If each person on our mailing list just gave one dollar, we’d get there and beyond.

We’d love you to be a part of this very special event.

To learn much more about this endeavor please go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/174116135/peter-link-goin-home-cd-and-concert-tour

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• My Body
• WFM Listening Room — Series II Opener
• What Is A Cantata?
• Gabriel, Come Blow Your Horn
• Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Perhaps a song called Faith, perhaps Who Will Heal The World, perhaps Julia’s Upon The Mountain.  I’d play my ‘hood, Hell’s Kitchen, awake and stand on my terrace overlooking Lower Manhattan, the Village, Wall Street and the Statue Of Liberty and holler, “Wake up, New York!  We’re alive!

Last night I looked out on a new building springing up down where the Twin Towers once stood.  It was lit majestically in red, white and blue.  It stands where once, not so long ago, there was nothing but a hole in the ground.  Hope re-kindled.

This morning the sun rises on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

I wasn’t in NYC ten years ago this morning.  At first I counted it a blessing.  I was in my other home in Colorado sleeping with the Missus when the telephone rang to tell us of the unbelievable news.  We spent the rest of the day, just like the rest of you, glued to our TV and watching the images over and over in disbelief as they burned into our brains for all time.

We were safe, but somehow, that wasn’t enough.  We wanted to be here.  Our living room terrace and window opened up every day to us with those iconic, majestic towers.  They were part of our life.  And now they stood no longer.  Toppled by mad men Hell bent on destruction — horribly unsuccessful in their “success”.

We came back to NYC a month later to a hole in our life and a smell that still lingered – of burning metal and falling people.  The morning after we arrived, we walked down to the crash site still numb from the experience and became even more numb.

For the next ten years, as we looked out on these anniversaries, we would see only two giant shafts of light reaching into the heavens to remind us – as if we needed reminding.

This morning we seem to be threatened again.  I wake up to a day of remembrance, a day of hope, a day of new life, and yet, a day of warning.  I shall take my precautions, but I, like 8 million others of us will go on living in the face of terror because, as the song goes, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere”.  Whether that’s true or not, that captures the spirit of New York – the spirit of America.

Today I shall write and create music.  No matter where this day takes us, I shall do what I was put on this earth, in this fair city, to do.  Nothing will stop me from doing that.  No confused minds, destructive thought or sad misguided life motives can get in the way of that.  That is my protection from evil.  Simply to do good.

Goodness reigns over evil always and forever.  I will not let this thought go.  Even the people killed ten years ago this morning still live – in spirit, in their own spiritual reality, in our hearts and memory.  Evil, in its proudest moment stands as nothing but a distant memory this morning – shallow in its intent and failed in its purpose.

Its purpose was to weaken; it made us stronger.  Its purpose was to destroy; it made us create and build again.  Its purpose was to make us hate; this morning I feel nothing but love – love for the departed, love for the world.  Its purpose was to create fear; this morning I stand in my window and face the world knowing that God is the only control.  Goodness reigns.  Evil simply loses again and does only what it knows best to do – nothing.

Now the sun is up.  The city wakes.  Many head off to church.  Many take their own moments of inner peace with their God understandings and pause respectfully before heading out on their day.  A few don’t even know what today is.  They missed it in the rush of life.

I wouldn’t miss this for the world.  It’s a day of action, a day of living, a day of dominion over evil, a day of creativity and a day of remembrance.  Tomorrow we shall simply move into the second decade and go about our business.

I hold to the understanding that God is in control, evil is nothing and life is full, rich with blessings and eternal in its nature.  I am a being.

That’s ‘being’.  I am.  I live.  My life is.  The whole concept includes nothing but the idea of continuation – the continuation of goodness.

Have a great day!

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• WFM Listening Room Series II – 2
• Breaking The Logjam
• Spiritual Scientist
• Resisting Evil
• Hitting The Wall

NOTE: THE WFM LISTENING ROOM SERIES III CONCERTS HAVE BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL THE FALL OF 2011.  STAY TUNED AND WE’LL KEEP YOU POSTED AS TO THE COMING DATES.

Series III of the Watchfire Music Listening Room begins Sunday afternoon, July 17^th at 4:00 PM with Classical Crossover Sunday Afternoon – something a little different – something very special.  Inspirational music has never had it so good as to be presented most elegantly and professionally at 583 Park Avenue by a whole raft of world-class talent.

International artists such as Osceola Davis, Julia Wade, Gregory Emanuel Rahming and Marianne Moore will be joined by violinist, Alan Grubner and pianist, William Lewis, to present an afternoon of classic musical delights ranging from the works of Beethoven, to Ellington, to Billy Joel.  Don’t know how we can possibly fit such disparity into one afternoon?  Join us and experience for yourself!

The July 17^th Sunday Afternoon concert will be followed by three others this coming summer.  One is still in the assembling process, but others will feature WFMLR regulars Julia Wade, Chieli Minucci, Jenny Burton, Alan Grubner and newcomer to the WFM Listening Room experience, South American string quartet, Sweet Plantain, blending Jazz, Latin and Classic styles.

For Series III and going forward we’re going to start doing something extremely novel in today’s world.   It’s called, “Pay The Musicians”.  That’s right!  Heretofore at Listening Room concerts the musicians and artists have worked for free – giving their time and energies free of charge so that we could get this great idea started and over the hump of new music experiences.

Those of you who have been around from the beginning just 8 months ago have seen and heard the quality of performances and talent escalate dramatically not to mention the quality of venue.  We have presented these concerts at a ridiculously low ticket price of $15.  That has included free snacks, free liquid and no waiters in the face.

We did this to promote the experience around NYC through the artists, enabling them to come and spread the good news through word of mouth.  Well now the word is out and it’s time to move forward.

So we shall raise our ticket price.  Now before you groan, pay attention to what is still the best entertainment deal in NYC.  The new ticket price is, all in, $25.  Nowhere else in NYC can you go out for an evening, or afternoon, and experience such wondrous live music at such a price.

The Missus and I went out to a very average Cabaret entertainment the other night with the usual 50 minute act in a smelly bar room replete with watered down drinks, uneatable food stuff and noisy rude waiters.  It cost the two of us over $100 to have 4 drinks we did not want and a host of other frustrations.

Feinsteins, across the street, will cost you double that at the minimum with the same noisy waiters and comparable talent.

OK, there’s my pitch.  Oh yes, a 3D movie is now $19.  We’re better ‘n 3D.  We’re live, in color and rockin’ the house – and don’t forget those free cookies and chips – not to mention that fabulous bottled water.

So start puttin’ those Friday nights aside for the great music listening experience offered – still the best deal in town.

Want learn more?  The Watchfire Music Listening Room – Series III.  [Click Here!]

Even More Inspiration

• WFM Listening Room Series II – 3
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• WFM Listening Room – Series II Finale
• WFM Listening Room – Series II – Event 4
• WFM Listening Room — Series II Opener
• WFM Listening Room – Series II

As I stood in the back of the room with the Missus and watched and listened and teared-up and danced, I was aware that we had reached, yet again, new heights.  This was an evening to be remembered.  (As if all the others weren’t?)  This was quickly becoming the new standard.

Here were four master musicians (Chieli Minucci, Philip Hamilton, Alan Grubner and Jenny Burton) taking us on rides of wonder, flights of daring, and journeys into the music of their minds revealing places never before visited.  Here was music pouring out of the minds and souls of master musicians – the kind of experiences that make us mere mortals sit in fascination and stand and scream in exhaustion when it’s over.

Standing ovations a-plenty:  In this day of seemingly obligatory standing ovations, no matter what the talent, here was musical number after musical number ending with the audience jumping to their feet in honor of what had just been given.

All the hard work that we have put into this, all the hassles, all the mental mind-games that we have played to pull it all off in the middle of this world music crisis were paid off.

Now I can begin to prepare Series III, starting in July, with the renewed energy of that night, those people, those musicians, that promise.

583 Park Avenue rocked.  The audience got ten times their money’s worth and went home with music coursing through their minds and hearts.  And, after all, ain’t that the point of all this?

A woman came up to me afterwards and wildly exclaimed, “I had forgotten how to listen to music!  I used to do it all the time, but I’ve gotten away from it in these last years and never knew how much I missed it.  Tonight, just sitting here, focused on the wonders of these players and the intensity of Jenny’s commitment just brought me back to myself.  I won’t miss another of these.   Thank you!”

Now if that isn’t a quote to close Series II, I don’t know what is!  She got it.  So did the rest as well.

Jenny Burton’s act was based on the theme of “She’s back”.  That’s the end of that.  It’s now official.  She never went away from us.  She’s the Jenny of old / the Jenny of new.  Still the thrill, but now with a somehow deeper life resolution poured into each moment.  Her new closer, Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes spoke well of it.

All my instincts, they return
And the grand facade, so soon will burn
Without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

In your eyes
The light the heat
In your eyes
I am complete
In your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
In your eyes
The resolution of all the fruitless searches
In your eyes
I see the light and the heat
In your eyes
Oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
The heat I see in your eyes

Was she talkin’ to God? Perhaps.  But to me she was simply speaking from the heart to her devoted audience.  She accomplished her mission.  I watched her.  She touched the light.

And Chieli and Friends…  I don’t know where to start.  These guys’ instruments (Chieli – Guitar, Alan – Violin and Philip — Hand Drum and Vocals) are simply extensions of their musical minds – whatever they think comes out in musical mastery.  This is what all the practice comes to.

While you and I were out playing baseball when we were kids, these were the kids who were home alone in their rooms workin’ on their chops, playing those scales – lost in the world of their music.

When I was a kid one of my best friends was a little boy who was a polio victim.  He was a tiny, skinny little kid whose left arm dangled like a limp rope from his shoulder.  He had an imagination at war just like I did.  We could sit in a dark closet and shoot the Germans for hours after school, but he always had to leave at 4:30 to go home because of his weakness.

He went home each day and went up to his room to rest, I suppose, but up there he practiced the saxophone.  He grew up to be David Sanborn, one of the world’s great saxophone players over the last several decades.

Chieli, Philip and Alan are these special kinds of humans — men who have mastered their instruments and are now reaping the rewards of all that practice.

Actually, it is we who reap the rewards.

They’ll all be back – and more.

Stay tuned for Series III – coming this summer.

Even More Inspiration

• WFM Listening Room Series II – 3
• By The Numbers?
• Gabriel, Come Blow Your Horn
• The Logic of Logic II
• It’s A Small World And Gettin’ Smaller n’ Smaller
• Progress Afoot

With its graceful arches and most expressive lighting, the two-story space was home this past Friday night to both Chieli Minucci, world-class guitarist and Jenny Burton, a chanteuse of heart-stopping abilities, and their devoted fans.

Located at Park Avenue and 63^rd Street, NYC, even the outside of this gorgeous building promises a rare experience of visual and aural delights.

As the concert begins, the first thing one notices is that they’re not barraged by waiters serving drinks or food, but instead sit in comfortable seats with excess legroom and not a bad seat in the intimate, but packed space.  The ever-changing atmospheric colors of the evening reflect the multifarious moods of the music as light and sound coordinate to present a concentrated music listening experience.

The evening is emceed by yours truly who announces that besides the visual and aural experience, tonight we will add a most elegant gastronomic experience – that of Krista Hannesson’s hand rolled chocolate truffles.  It turns out that Ms Hannesson studied the art of bombarding the senses in chocolate fashion at Le Cordon Bleu in London.  They are free, but sadly, one to a customer.  Some customers are seen to defy the rules and sneak more.

At intermission the crowd overwhelms the snackbar — Ms Hannesson’s gifts to all, a roaring success.

But I get ahead of myself.  Back to our stage…

And to the fabulous flying fingers of Chieli Minucci.

Chieli plays a half hour set of 4 gorgeous instrumental compositions rattling our senses and expanding our musical minds with his amazing technique, but ultimately, what we’re left with is the deep soul of a profound musician at the height of his art.  This man and his guitar are one in music.  The experience is not to be described and must instead be experienced by listening.

We’re bringing him back Friday, May 27^th at 8:00 for a repeat performance.  He promises even more.  I’m ready for that.

And so, after intermission, it’s back to our seats and total immersion into the wondrous world of Jenny Burton.

Her strength, her mastery of the medium are evident in each musical offering whether inspiring ballad or room-rocking gospel celebration.

After the show any number of crowd comments are overheard, many covering the same issue: “She’s back and better than ever.”  “Gone five years, but never missed a beat…”  “I saw her with JBX in the late 90’s and became a huge fan, but now she’s even better, smarter, somehow deeper…” “When does she sing again?  I wanna make reservations now.”

At the end of her 8 song set, Chieli joins her for her last two songs.  Expected standing ovations follow and the audience hollers for more.  We’re bring them back together in May for the last concert of Series II.  In the meantime, Julia Wade and Jimmy Roberts will uplift you and turn your life around Friday, May 13^th at 8:00.  Be there.  Be part of these magical evenings.

The Watchfire Music Listening Room awaits your presence.

Thanks for taking the tour.

Even More Inspiration

• WFM Listening Room – Series II Finale
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• Gabriel, Come Blow Your Horn
• Live Music Lives!
• WFM Listening Room – Series II – Event 4
• Progress Afoot

Jenny Burton at the WFM Listening Room

I thought you all might be interested in a recent comment regarding Inspirational music and the frustrations of one of our readers with living too far away from the NYC hub of music.

“I love reading everything from you, Peter, but why can’t we ever hear this marvelous music online? I am nowhere near NYC and have no opportunity to hear any of it!” — Joan

Joan,
It’s the Age of Information — the age of instant communication — if we can ever get cell phones to really work. Though world distances are certainly shrinking, there still remains a problem for some of us mere mortals.

But we’re working towards exactly what you suggest. The original intention of the WFM Listening Room was to keep the live audiences small and intimate and webcast all the shows on Watchfiremusic.com. That still is the intention; however, we needed to find a more permanent home first — a home where we could add the technical ability to do this.

I believe we’ve now found that home at 583 Park Avenue in NYC. Now we have to give it a little time, build the show to a strong local success (which seems to be happening faster than we expected) and then, of course, there’s the issue that is often the sticky wicket — find the money to implement the technology.

But with a pint of patience and a gallon of energy this too will transpire.  When an ides is a good one, the way always seems to open naturally before us.  That is clearly happening with the WFM Listening Room.

In the meantime you can always buy the CDs of the artists who perform.  Most of them are Watchfire Music artists and many of the songs performed are to be found on their CDs.

The challenge in this life on Planet Earth is most often that of time and space.  Well, we now have the space.  In time, I believe, you’ll be able to break down these distance barriers through the wonderful world of the Internet.

Bottom Line: We’re workin’ on it. We think about it every day.

And thinking makes it so…

Even More Inspiration

• WFM Listening Room Series II – 3
• The Changing Scene
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• WFM Listening Room – Series II Finale
• WFM Listening Room — Series II Opener
• God Is doG Spelled Backwards