When our girls were young, we used to joke about how many wontons we could fit in one bowl of soup. I cannot remember exactly how it started, but this past week, Sherry and I managed to pack three amazing concerts into one teeny tiny week.
Susan Mac Jazzes it up at Birdland
We re-met Susan Mac during the 1990s at the Tyler Place family resort in Vermont. Well, actually, I met her for the first time, Sherry and Susan were in graduate school together at NYU.
When we recently heard she was headlining at Birdland, we quickly gathered friends from two different parts of our lives: NYU business school and the Tyler Place and rushed into the city for the event. Joining us were Sherry’s friends Jill and Susannah from NYU, as well as our friends Debbie and Eric who we know from the Tyler Place. While we were there, we also managed to connect with Susan’s husband Ralph, her children Lance and Erica and Erica’s fiancée Dave.
We had never been to Birdland before, but as a Jazz fan, it’s a place I always wanted to visit. Susan was accompanied by a four piece band and put together a great set, leading off with “Autumn in NY” (by Diana Krall) and singing songs like “Humdrum Blues” (Oscar Brown Jr), “Over Joyed” (Stevie Wonder) and a creative mashup of “Frim Fram Sauce” (Redd Evans and Joe Ricardel) and “Everybody Eats When They Come to My House” (Cab Calloway). Susan debuted two original songs “Tis Autumn” which came from a poem she wrote in High School, recently set to music, and another “This Too Shall Pass” written more recently and dedicated to her Mom. We enjoyed the set and spending a little time catching up after the show.
Naturally 7 Crushes it at the Emelin
I have to admit I was a little shocked when Sean Simmons first walked onto the stage. He is a good-sized black man and I did not expect the beauty of his high tenor voice. Naturally 7 is an amazing a Capella group founded in 1999 by brothers Roger and Warren Thomas, from Rosedale, Queens. They practice what they term “Vocal Play” where each member vocalizes an instrument to create a “Wall of Sound.” Their music, entirely created with only their voices, includes drums and percussion (Warren Andre Thomas) of course, but also bass guitar (N’Namdi Olufemi Bryant), trombone (Dwight Martindale Stewart), harmonica (Sean Anthony Simmonds), keyboard and wah wah guitar (Roger Anthony Thomas) and amazingly, electric guitar (Lee “Ricky” Cort). They all sing beautifully and Roderick Lowell Eldridge also manages a loop table, and adds some vocally created flute as well.
The evening started when we joined friends Gail & Steve, Heike and Boris first for a quick Asian dinner (yes, I had three wontons in my soup!) and then the concert, which was simply astounding. Their second song helped to introduce each of the players and how they create their “Wall of Sound”. I was blown away by their version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (George Harrison), and their Simon and Garfinkle covers. We were all on our feet before their final number “Get Up, Stand Up” (Bob Marley).
It was a simply incredible concert. So good in fact, that we not only bought their album, but needed to go out for a late night snack to decipher what we had just heard.
The Graduates Perform in Philly
Our younger daughter, Cam enjoyed singing a Capella while in university with the “Treble Makers,” and recently joined an adult group “The Graduates.” Our next stop was to connect with Ali and head south to hear Cam and her new group for the first time at the Hamilton Family Arts Center in Philadelphia. It is clear that each of the members genuinely like being with each other and it comes through in their music, which was full of beautiful harmonies and delightful looks between them as they performed.
They presented a dozen songs for us. Some of my favorites included “And So It Goes” (Billy Joel), where Cam crushed the high notes during the choruses, “Diane” (Camaron Marvel Ochs) which is a rebuttal to “Joleen” (Dolly Parton) that I had not heard before and “Cowboy Take Me Away” (Dixie Chicks) which was so beautifully done that I want to hear it again! It was a great concert and we all enjoyed meeting Cam’s new friends afterwards.
In all, it was an exciting six days of music. When we finally got home last night, we finished off the week with some well-deserved soup!