Hang on, folks, because this region is about to experience some seismic activity, straight up from California, in the form of rocking, swinging, knock-your-socks-off piano music. Carl Sonny Leyland will appear in Seattle and Portland this week and you don't want to miss him. (Show information below)
Even at a young age, Leyland understood American music and made it his own.
I had heard about Leyland long before I met first him at a jazz festival. There he played traditional jazz, one of the types of American music he first heard and loved as a boy growing up in England.From there, he began a career as a pianist that went on to include a move to the United States, nine years as a musician in New Orleans before heading to California, and the development of his expertise and authority in piano blues, country, Boogie Woogie, Rockabilly, and Western Swing. There is no one else like Carl Sonny Leyland.
If you have the idea that no one person could do all of that and do it well, think again. Or better yet, just watch and listen to him playing a wide selection of numbers in the videos on his website, here, including some original compositions. I've included more at the end of this post. You can read his complete biography here.
Carl Sonny Leyland
"I
am very happy to have a chance to play in Seattle and Portland and spend a
few days in such a beautiful area," Leyland told me. "I have made some great friends there and
hope I can return frequently!"
If you live anywhere within 500 miles of Portland or Seattle all I can say is this: "Get your tickets now to see and hear Carl Sonny Leyland." And time's a wastin'. His first show is this Thursday night, May 30, in Seattle.
Here are your opportunities to hear Leyland in the Northwest:
Thursday, May 30, at Slim's Last Chance, 5606 First Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98108. Phone (206) 762-7900. He will be performing at 9 p.m. as a special guest with the Seattle Rockabilly band The Black Crabs. On Friday night, he has a private engagement. But you can catch Leyland playing again with The Black Crabs at The Landmark Saloon, in Portland, Oregon. He will perform there at 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 1. The Landmark Saloon is located at 4847 SE Division St., Portland, Oregon. Phone: (503) 894-8132.
Now, here is a special treat for you, a selection of videos beginning with some Boogie Woogie improvisation at house concert. He makes it look so easy.
Here Leyland plays and sings "Stagger Lee." (below)
Or maybe you would prefer some traditional jazz. Michael Steinman, New York jazz scholar and writer and the author of the blog Jazz Lives, included it in a post. It features the Carl Sonny Leyland Trio, with bassist Marty Eggers and drummer Jeff Hamilton, at Dixieland Monterey in 2011. Read what Steinman has to say about these fine musicians (joined by Marc Caparone on cornet) in this post: "My Main Men: (Rockin' in Ventura) ..."
If you're like me and you just can't get enough, come see Carl Sonny Leyland and The Black Crabs while you have the opportunity. Then let's invite him back to the Pacific Northwest soon. He likes it here. When he visited Tacoma last year, my husband and I took him out to lunch at Chambers Bay Grill.
Six-string guitars dominate music these days, so four-string tenor guitars and the musicians who play them don't get the attention they deserve. Mark Josephs, an accomplished musician himself, on both guitar and harmonica, wanted to change that. His love of the instrument and his awareness of some outstanding players inspired him to launch an annual four-day weekend event called the Tenor Guitar Gathering. It will take place in Astoria, Oregon, May 30 – June 2, 2013, for the fourth time, using the acronym TGG4.
Mark Josephs, founder of the Tenor Guitar Gathering
“What we try to do is have a really fun event that is extremely inexpensive,” Josephs said, “and this year we have so many tenor guitar players that we couldn’t put them all in one night.”
If you’ve never heard of a tenor guitar you’re about to
meet a special member of the stringed instrument family, a member with a small
but fiercely loyal fan base. Tenors are nothing new; they’ve been around for
about a century. Like tenor banjos—widely used in traditional 1920s and ‘30s
jazz—tenor guitars have only four strings, instead of the usual six. They are
tuned in fifths, using the notes
C-G-D-A. But if you think that means they’re two strings short of being a real guitar, or only two-thirds as
musical, think again. Listen to John Lawlor as he shows how great a tenor guitar can sound.
In 2010, Josephs and his wife, Karen, bought a home in this
historic town, located in Oregon’s extreme northwest corner, where natural
forces of the mighty Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean meet. It seemed the perfect
setting for the birthplace of his idea.
“Walking around the quaint town of Astoria, pop 10,000, I
thought it would be a great place to have the world's first tenor guitar
gathering,” Josephs told me. “No one else seemed to be able to get one off the
ground, so I decided to throw a party and see who would attend.”
Fortunately for him, he’d landed in a town that embraced his quirky idea and radiated plenty of positive energy that kept him going. One individual, in particular, proved to be a great supporter. Gordon ‘Gordo’Styler owned a local business called the Astoria Guitar Company. When approached with the idea of hosting the gathering there, Styler enthusiastically agreed. “He was also a beloved volunteer programmer on local radio station KMUN,” Josephs said. Without his help, the first three gatherings (TGG1, TGG2, and TGG3) never would have happened. Sadly, shortly after TGG3, Styler died. This year’s event is dedicated to him.
Josephs said, "Gordo's brother, Bill Styler, a
guitar builder, has caught the bug and has built some of the most unique tenor
guitars in the world, due to hearing about TGG1 and attending TGG2. Bill will
be at TGG4 and is a very strong supporter of the annual event." Here's video of Josephs playing Bill Styler's unique double-neck electric tenor guitar, the first in the world.
Gordo Styler would have loved TGG4, because each
gathering ends up bigger and better than the one before. Attendees enjoy
features like no-cover lunch concerts at Clemente’s Restaurant and TheBridgewater Bistro, jam sessions (one of which is on a trolley), workshops
taught by some of the world’s best tenor players, an all-day tenor guitar
luthier exhibit in the banquet room of the Rogue Ales Public House, two outstanding
evening concerts, and much more. And anyone who attends will see more tenor
guitars than they’ve ever seen in their life.
EZ Marc Poschman with his National
The Astor Street Opry Company, a non-profit community
performing arts organization, offers their theater for AN EVENING OF TENOR GUITARS,
which turned into two evenings this year. Different artists will perform on
each night, from 7 p.m. until around 10 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. Tickets
are only $15 for one night or $25 for both. That’s truly a bargain price for a
total of 13 acts. Part of the proceeds will go to local radio station KMUN and
the Astor Street Opry Company.
“I’m excited to have John Lawlor flying out from the
East Coast,” he said. “I haven’t seen him in about 30 years, and I consider him
to be one of the greatest jazz tenor guitar players.” Josephs grew up in
Atlantic City, New Jersey and met Lawlor there. He shared his memories with me:
“Around
1970 or so I met up with John Lawlor, from Philly, who came to the shore to
play with his brother Jim, a drummer. They called themselves The Lawlor
Brothers, and John played a four string tenor guitar tuned CGDA. I was maybe 23
and John was maybe 20. I had never seen a tenor guitar, or heard of one. John
was my first introduction to the instrument, and I was curious (still am) about
all musical instruments. What impressed me about John's playing was that he
could play anything—old time, swing, Cream, Hendrix. And I heard the voicing, so
different from my six string guitar.”
Lowell
“Banana” Levenger of the band The Youngbloods is another amazing musician who
plays tenor guitar. (Read an interview here.)Josephs called him “an incredible musician’s
musician.” Levenger plays piano, six string guitar, and an Italian-made five-string
tenor guitar with an extra string tuned a fifth below. “In fact,” Josephs said,
“on their big hit song Get Together he actually played guitar, not Jesse
Cullum Young.
In
addition to Lawlor and Levenger, the lineup includes Josh Reynolds (son of NickReynolds of the Kingston Trio) with a band called The Lion Sons, plus The
Renegade Stringband, Myshkin, Jean Mann, The Quiet American, Professor Douglas
Fraser, EZ Marc Poschman, Jack Ponting
(friend of Nick Reynolds), Tom Molyneaux, Carl Allen, Mark Josephs, and others.
The Lion Sons - Mike Marvin, Josh Reynolds, Tim Gorelangton - keeping the spirit of Nick Reynolds, The Kingston Trio and the tenor guitar alive and well!
The Tenor Guitar Gathering isn’t even five years old yet, but it has quickly grown from the low-key event Josephs first created to the point of needing more structure. In 2012, he formed the Tenor Guitar Foundation, a non-profit organization with a six member board of directors and the slogan “Fostering Musicianship Four Strings at a Time.” Josephs is president. They also started a Tenor Guitar Hall of Fame.
My
advice? Order your tickets for TGG4 now. I have a feeling they will go quickly,
and by next year the word will have spread so far you might be lucky to get tickets
at all. Don’t miss the chance to experience part of guitar history and meet
some of the people who helped write it. Someday, when this event is famous, you
can say, “I was there back in the years when it all began.”
Now, for your enjoyment, I've included more videos demonstrating why tenor guitars deserve a special gathering to honor them.
And here are interesting posts about tenor guitar from Michael Steinman's "Jazz Lives" blog, loaded with videos.
