Loesser Is Always More

Frank Loesser is right up there with Sondheim on my list of favorite Broadway composers, but then there might not have been a Sondheim had there not been a Loesser, so maybe I should say he is my favorite. There is a humor, a bite and an unpretentiousness about his best music that I love, and though there is no doubt that he worked very hard to compose his musicals--Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed are among his best--one gets the feeling that no task was daunting enough to stand in the way of cocktail time for Frank Loesser. He doesn't take his music as seriously as Sondheim takes his, and maybe that's what makes it a little fresher, to my ear, at least. This song, Somebody, Somewhere from The Most Happy Fella, is one of the best. Though it conveys considerable emotion and is as moving as any song I know (the singer is telling about having finally found someone who cares, after all), there is a top-40 lightness to it, too. That is part of the magic, the sleight of hand, of Frank Loesser. He makes it look, and sound, easy.

This clip is my solo in last April's Shubert Alley in the Valley, the fourth annual musical revue we have performed at the Sautee Nacoochee Community Center in our area of the Blue Ridge Mountains north of Atlanta. I say "we"--a group of us who love musical theatre are passionate about this revue, which draws a full house, or houses, every year. Next year for the first time, we are scheduled to do four performances across two consecutive weekends. I'm looking forward to it.

About the video: It's the first I've posted on my blog and it takes a bit of courage to do so. It's not perfect, but I'm proud of the restraint I show here. No big hand gestures, not much movement, so the emotion in the lovely melody and lyrics can come through without distraction. The song is sung by a woman in the show, though I didn't change the pronouns in this performance. (Proud of that, too.) I do need to work on being looser and more relaxed, but it's scary being alone on stage in front of 100 people, OK? :) One more thing--the sigh at the end was something I added in our second performance. If we'd done a third, I believe I would have kept it in. I think it works. What about you?

P.S. And for a bit of levity, here is another number from the show--Hard Knock Life from Annie. I got to play Annie! What fun. I love everyone who is part of this show.

Sigmund Romberg and Dapo's Pork Chops

Amil Tschache, 1949
Lake Erie beach near Buffalo, NY

My grandfather always had a song going.

He'd sing bits of his favorites while gardening, fishing, playing gin with my grandmother. Walking into a room, sitting down at the breakfast table or refilling his pipe with Prince Albert tobacco--all were occasions for a few bars of some old chestnut. "Overhead the moon is beaming, white as blossoms on the bough," the first lines of Sigmund Romberg's overwrought Serenade from The Student Prince, often sprang forth in his mock-serious baritone. He was quite comical that way, and he knew it. Rudolf Friml's flowery Rose Marie was another one. I don't think Dapo--that was our nickname for him--knew any words to the song other than the first line, "Oh Sweet Rose Marie," but we heard it often. He would simply dum-de-dum the rest of the melody.

I loved all of it. It sure wasn't the kind of music we heard on the local radio station in Columbia, Tennessee in the 1950s and 60s. It was Dapo's music, and to this day I have a powerful jolt of memory of him whenever I hear those songs.

Cooking is another way I revisit memories of Dapo. Of German descent, he was born in 1892 in Janesville, Minnesota,  one of nine brothers. In his youth, he helped build the railroad. When my mother was born in 1915, he was manager of a Robin Hood flour mill in Saskatchewan, Canada. He worked with the company after moving to Buffalo in the 1930s. After he retired, he opened a florist shop in Old Hickory, Tennessee, to be near my family. We had moved south in the 1950s when the DuPont company transferred my dad there. He was as patient with a grandson who had no talent for fishing (or any other sport) as a grandfather could possibly be, and I will always love him for it.

Dapo was also one helluva cook. The following is a recipe he made when he visited. To my knowledge it was never put on paper, but over the years I think I have developed a decent facsimile of this fine creation of a natural born chef. Enjoy, and while you're putting it together, pour a glass of wine, listen to a little Romberg at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRqcRsY8aNg, and drink a toast to Dapo, a man who loved music.

Dapo's Pork Chops

Brown four pork chops well in 2T of olive oil. Season with garlic powder, salt and black pepper. Remove from pan.

In drippings, sauté a chopped onion, two chopped garlic cloves, a chopped celery stalk and carrot until the onion is soft and translucent. Deglaze the pan with a cup of red wine, continually stirring the vegetables and scraping all the good bits off the bottom of the pan. Add a 30 oz. can of crushed tomatoes and an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce. Add a bay leaf. Simmer until a bit of the liquid evaporates, maybe 15 minutes or so.

Lightly coat the bottom of a glass casserole dish with a little of the sauce. Arrange the pork chops on top. Sprinkle each chop generously with Worcestershire sauce. Cover with one large bag of egg noodles (I use the whole grain kind) boiled for 6 minutes in water and a little olive oil until al dente. Spoon the sauce evenly over the cooked noodles, then jostle the casserole dish a bit so the sauce sinks down nicely through the noodles. Top with 2 cups of grated mozzarella cheese. You can also add some parmesan. For last night's creation, I left off the parmesan but added four slices of smoked gouda before sprinkling on the mozzarella. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until brown and bubbly. Makes four generous servings with plenty of noodles left over for lunch the next day.

My Fourth NATS Competition: Done!

I entered my fourth National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS)/Georgia competition this past weekend at Columbus State University, and placed third in my category of post-college-age men in the third or fourth year of vocal study/classical division. (There is also a musical theatre category which I didn't enter this year.) Though I participate in these events for the performing experience and the detailed, written comments from three music instructor judges (many of them college-level teachers) regarding vocal technique and artistic interpretation, it's always nice to win an award, especially since a certain number of points are required to place. (Nice, too, to get a $25 check for third place!) Besides having the opportunity to reconnect with buddies with whom I have performed in the past, the NATS event is always good exercise for me--fun and a bit nerve-wracking at the same time. I'm glad I do it and think I am a better singer because of it.

Five not-so-easy pieces
I had five pieces prepared--Faure's Lydia, Schubert's Die Wetterfahne, Handel's Arm, Arm Ye Brave from the opera Judas Maccabeus, Tosti's Il Pescatore Canta, and Britten's arrangement of The Ash Grove. You only have ten minutes to perform for the judges so you never get to do all five of the songs, but you have to have all of them ready, because after the first "offering" of your choice, the judges get to choose what they want to hear.

Like other singers I know, I do better performing if I can start with a laugh or at least something quirky rather than launching right into the serious stuff, so I offered Die Wetterfahne, a song about a young man who compares his lady friend's fickle heart to the twists and turns of a weathervane in the wind. Schubert's music suggests this erratic movement; it's a wonderful, fast-moving piece with a free-wheeling melody and a crazy, complex piano accompaniment. Afterwards, the judges requested Lydia and Arm, Arm Ye Brave, meaning that the easiest piece, Ash Grove, and the toughest one, Il Pescatore Canta, went unheard. Lydia is the next easiest; the Handel piece ranking right up there in difficulty with The Fisherman's Song. The challenge for me is to get through it all "loose," navigating its quick ups and downs, its repetition and its drama while staying relaxed and keeping the vibrato going throughout.

Nailed the E!
It's a tough repertoire (four different languages) that I've been working on since last fall, and I didn't perform the pieces perfectly by a long shot, but I felt good about my performance, especially about hitting the high sustained E in the Handel, a high note for a baritone and the first time I've gone into my head voice and stayed there for more than a beat or two in performance. (I can do it easily in practice, but performing is a WHOLE different ballgame.) I guess you could say this is a personal best for me. Now the trick is working to be able to do it consistently and confidently in future pieces.

I got Excellent ratings from all three judges, good comments--a few bravos!, praise for my legato lines in Lydia and my handling of the melismas and the recitative in the Handel--and good advice on breathing, achieving clearer vowel tone, and continuing to work on getting rid of my American r's in the French and Italian. As in past years, the judges liked my German diction. I value the comments--the positive way in which they are expressed and the roadmap they create for the next year of work with my voice teacher, the meticulous soprano Dr. Andrea Price at Piedmont College in Demorest, GA.

Like flying
My only regret is that I didn't have a picture taken with my accompanist, a young fellow from Atlanta named Grant Jones, who played beautifully after only two brief rehearsals, one a few days before NATS and one about an hour before we performed for the judges. I love the bond that forms so quickly when you perform with someone, no matter whether you've known them for years or a matter of minutes. It evaporates when the singing is over--after the "good jobs!" and the handshakes and the packing up of the music for the long ride home--but while it is happening it is almost an other-worldly experience. I'd say intense, but it's more a floaty feeling. Imagine meeting someone at the grocery store and deciding to fly Peter Pan-style over the parking lot together for three minutes, after which you re-enter the store and go about your separate shopping ways. A real person playing a real piano offers a sense of buoyancy and support that you just don't get with a CD. Thanks, Grant, for a great flight.

Joseph and the Amazing Community Theatre Experience


I've been away from the blog since February because I've been busy. After the NATS and NFMC competitions this past winter, there was another Shubert Alley in the Valley show at the Sautee Community Center. I had the pleasure of singing "Barcelona" from Company with Cheri Crutchfield-Luhn and "You're Just in Love" from Call Me Madam with Laura Owenby, plus singing and moving (we judiciously won't call it dancing) in group numbers from Kiss Me Kate, Mame, Hair and La Cage aux Folles. In April, I took the month off from performances and focused on selecting music for next year's classical and Broadway competitions.


The full cast of our '60s-style Joseph sings the finale

In May, it was auditions for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the summer production at Habersham Community Theatre in Clarkesville. I love this theatre. It is remarkably vibrant and well-supported for a small-town theatre, with a newly renovated space in an old movie house off the square, and fierce competition among old-timers and newcomers alike for roles in upcoming shows.

I was cast as Jacob, Joseph's father. It was a smaller singing role than I would have liked, but Jacob is on stage a lot, acting out in pantomime parts of the story that are being told in song by the narrator and other characters.

It was a challenge for me and I liked it. The beautifully turned and carved walking stick loaned to me by the grandfather of one of the girls in the chorus helped me feel more like a Jacob on stage, and my buddy Laura Owenby's ideas--which she generously shared after generously attending our final rehearsal before dress rehearsal--gave me more to do on stage and, just as important, led me to my own ideas for new things to do that helped enhance the energy and sketch Jacob's character in clearer detail. (In this way, acting is so much like writing, I find: What is my character thinking here? What does he want? What is he doing? Show don't tell!) I gave Jacob brief moments on stage where he talked with God--imploringly, happily, angrily (when his other sons tell him Joseph is dead), and gratefully at the conclusion when he is finally reunited with his favorite son.

These bits of business went a long way to making me more comfortable with the character of Jacob and with my portrayal of him. As a result, I loved every one of our eight performances--and dropped some pounds, too, during the run of the show. So in addition to the opportunity to stretch one's singing and acting chops, learn more about the theatre and how it ticks, make new friends of all ages, and enjoy the unique communal experience of warming up, making up, stressing out, calming down, sweating, bonding, harmonizing and dancing with nearly 50 other local performers, the Joseph experience was good for my health, too. How can you beat it?

One of my favorite scenes from Joseph--"Those Canaan Days," a beautiful ballad comically sung by Jacob and sons as they reminisce about the glory days of Canaan when Joseph was with them





Time to pump it up!

This is the second year I have entered the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) state competitions. I don't like that word because competing is not my intent; most of the entrants are college music students and I feel competing with them is like an orange competing with an apple. But ... I placed third recently in the classical music category for men over 23 in their 1st and 2nd years of study. Whoo-hoo! I was thrilled. Came home with a certificate, a $25 check, a little bit of pride, and six sheets of comments from the judges--three for the classical music I sang, three for the selections from musical theatre. Now I'm pumped and ready to kick my breathing and my work on my high notes up to the next level. After all, next year at the NATS competition I've be in the advanced category--men in their 3rd and 4th years of study. No beginner's excuses any longer!

Loesser's lasting impressions

Watching All the Girls Go By/photos by Charlotte Teagle and John Luhn



What fun to do the celebration of Loesser's music on Jan. 23, 2011 to a sellout crowd of 90+. A few of my favorite images from the experience:

• The older fellow seated directly in front of me who knew all the words to "The New Ashmolean Marching Society" from Where's Charley? and sang along with us as we did the number. I learned later that this is a standard piece often performed by barbershop quartets.
• The look on Ted's face as I sang "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" to him.
• Smiles across the room.
• Working with a small ensemble of four (a first for me), the joy of all the group numbers we did, and doing "Fugue for Tinhorns" with nary a wobble when I had thought it couldn't be done. It was also wonderful to hear the laughter in the audience when all three of us started singing our disparate verses together and staying on track.
• The satisfaction of knowing I hit that E-flat in "Coffee Break."
• Looking pretty darn good in a hat.
• The relief of waking up the morning before the performance and knowing that I didn't have a sore throat or cold; this despite the fact that colds were running rampant in our community all through January. I really think being compulsive about hand-washing helps.
• Fully understanding that drinking water is not needed during a performance if you have hydrated well in the days beforehand.
• A fellow whose opinions I respect saying that I had done a wonderful job.
• This thank-you note from the center director: "You have a beautiful voice and a wonderful stage presence--you made me laugh out loud a few times!"
• The thrill of doing a show with fine musicians and solid performers--Laura Leigh Owenby, Barbara Luhn and C.B. Henson. Love you all!

I've Never Been in Love Before



Once in Love with Amy--Ha, ha, ha, ha!

There's no coffee!

Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm

Guys and Dolls

Fugue for Tinhorns--"I've got the horse right here."



It's almost showtime!

Preparing for the Heart & Soul cabaret-style revue has been a great experience, and makes me wonder how people did things like this before the Internet age. Our pianist has a jam-packed schedule, but we three singers have been able to rehearse sans live accompaniment thanks to CDs I made by downloading all our songs by different performers via iTunes, and then transposing them to the keys we selected via some free software I downloaded called Vocal Remover, which is meant primarily to remove voice tracks from recordings (I've never been able to get this function to work), but also lets you change the pitch and the tempo of selected works. With the aid of this CD, we have been able to rehearse the entire show consistently over the past few weeks, working out blocking for our group numbers and practicing the brief dialogue between certain songs. Next week--the week before the show--we have three rehearsals scheduled with the accompanist. We've been able to honor her schedule as well as get our kinks worked out well in advance of showtime. And now I am really looking forward to hearing how we sound with the piano accompanying us rather than Ray Bolger, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Robert Morse, Megan Mullaley and all those lovable toughs from the original cast of Guys and Dolls.