A Night At the Symphony

So Saturday night, Andrea and I absconded from the Fortress of Ineptitude for a night at the symphony at the Tanger Center in downtown Greensboro.   

My wife had scored some free tickets through her job for the Greensboro Symphony and I had no idea what I was in for.  

Hey, it's a free trip to the symphony. I'm always down for some Vivaldi or Mozart. It would be my luck it would be Dvorak. 

Andrea said something about this performance involving jazz somehow and that didn't exactly improve my expectations a lot but hey, I'm out of the house and I didn't pay for this so who am I to complain? 

Well, not me. What we got was a most unexpectedly delightful show where I dare say had (hold on, let me check the dictionary on this) what humans call "fun".  

The performance was headed up by a man named John Pizzarelli, a singer and guitarist who performed classics from the Frank Sinatra play book backed by a solid jazz trio (drums, piano and stand up bass) and a full orchestra.  

John was an excellent front man, full of boundless energy in his excellent musical performances and his fun banter as he recounted his own person history of working with Frank Sinatra.  

John recalled the 5 words of advice that Frank gave him when they first met in 1993: "Eat something. You look awful."  

I scoured You Tube looking for live performance clips to share some idea of what this show was like but alas I could not find any.  I did find some individual clips of John Pizzarelli.  Below is a video clip of John performing a song from Frank Sinatra's 1960's bossa nova album that he made with Antônio Carlos Jobim.   

Joining John after intermission was Catherine Russell who perfectly and wonderfully captured the style and range of Billie Holliday.   

Andrea and I have been watching a lot of old movies from the 1930s and 1940s on TCM and one thing that happens a lot is the protagonist goes into a night club with a big band and singers.  This show with John and Catherine and the Greensboro Symphony captures the spirit of that age.   

Here's a  video clip of Catherine Russell performing "You Send Me". 

What is remarkable to me is coming to this show, I had NO idea what I was in for and when I did find out what I was in for, I had NO idea who John Pizzarelli and Catherine Russell were.  What I have discovered are two astonishingly talented people with long careers as performers with legacies extending back decades. For example, Catherine's father was a musical director for Louis Armstrong.  

Both John and Catherine have Grammy awards on theirs shelves back home. 

As I get older, it's amazing to find out about people like John Pizzarelli and Catherine Russell. How could I have not known before now of such talented people? 

Here is a clip of John and Catherine collaborating on "All Of Me"

Thank you to Andrea for getting these tickets and reminding me I can still be surprised by what life has to offer.