Recently, I came across some old music recordings from my days back in the Mid Ohio Valley and I couldn't help digitizing one of them and uploading it for friends and family to hear. Growing up, music was always an integral part of our family life and for my brother Marty it was particularily rewarding.
In the early Spring of 1978, I met with the owner of the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta Ohio and pitched him on the idea of staging a Jazz band on the Becky Thatcher, a showboat docked in Marietta Ohio, which they owned. I remember him saying how much he liked the name "A Touch of Class" and the rest is history.
That Summer my brother Marty, who has since passed away, came into town from North Carolina and we played together one Summer night on the Muskingum river with the other members of "A Touch of Class" (Dave Skaugerud:Guitar and Mike Lewis:Bass). I recorded the night on a cheesy cassette tape recorder, but I'm sure glad I did!
Some of my favorite music memories come from those nights on the Becky Thatcher showboat. There was always a pretty good crowd and I remember celebrating with friends all Summer long. I'd enjoy hearing from anyone who was there.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Piano duet recital recorded at Marietta College on April 12th, 1977
Since the advent of Facebook, I've been connecting with a lot of old college friends and several of them have asked if I had any recordings of music recitals from our more idealistic days in southeast Ohio. Well, I was able to find one of my favorite performances, Billy the Kid composed by Aaron Copland. Originally written as a ballet, the premiere was given in Chicago on October 16th, 1938 using this two piano version of the score.
Now this performance was recorded quite some time ago (April 1977), but I think it is one of my most memorable ever. My duet partner's name was Steve Cooper. I can tell you that we practiced most of the semester and had never played it from start to finish until the night of the final performance. Enjoy, and please no comments from the peanut gallery.
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