Dear Good Ones!
I’ve been putting in some long hours exploring the fine details of Paul Simon’s music and loving every minute of it. Almost every minute.
It turns out writing the sheet music is a laborious long task that essentially needs to be done. Once done, the charts find their way into the hands of the gifted musos who read up a storm and magically and quickly make the music come together. Wouldn’t it be nice if Digital Brian could manipulate an algorithm that could write out the music that I’m hearing in my head?
I’ll get him working on that but in the meantime we’re prepping for a livestream show that’ll lift off one week from today.
Live(ish) at SpragueLand Episode 22
Angels In the Architecture
Peter Sprague Plays The Music of Paul Simon
Friday, August 27, 2021
7pm
I’ve been a huge fan of Paul Simon’s music ever since I first heard the opening chord sequence of “Scarborough Fair” and the way the vocals start expanding into majestic counterpoint. Moving from there, 20 years later, we arrive at a situation where a man’s contemplating why he’s soft in the middle when the rest of his life is so hard. He sings “I can call you Betty and Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al.”
Paul Simon’s lyrics are something special to behold. I heard him talk about his process and one of the stages involved bouncing a ball against a wall and going over and over the words and phrases until they were just right—never settling for a cheap rhyme or solution. It shows, these are big league stories and big league lyrics.
Next you add the melody and the chord progressions which are a steep step up from three chord justice. But then, when he was creating the Graceland album with the African influence he embraced three chords as if that’s all that mattered.
Versatile fellow and I think it’s time to celebrate his creations through our jazz lens.
For this livestream concert we’ve got Allison Adams Tucker lined up to sing vocals along with Tripp Sprague on sax, piano, and flute; Justin Grinnell on bass; Duncan Moore on drums; and me on guitar. Also our vid switcher Steve Grant will make a special musical appearance.
Some of the songs that we’ll play include “Cecilia,” “Hearts and Bones,” “Sound of Silence,” and “You Can Call Me Al.” As we like to do, we’ll add our own jazz angle into the blend for a unique sonic experience.
Here’s to seeing angels in the architecture spinning into infinity!
Price of admission? Actually the concert is free but we will have a “virtual tip jar” complete with PayPal, Zelle and Venmo info for you to donate whatever you feel good about. Also, old reliable snail mailing checks works too. You folks have been super generous with this and it makes us happy.
Paypal: petersprague@sbcglobal.net
(It’ll show up as Satyam Music, that’s my music company)
Venmo: @PeterSprague
Zelle: Peter Sprague peter@petersprague.com
mail checks via snail mail to: Peter Sprague
311 East Glaucus St.
Encinitas, CA 92024
A few notes:
You don’t have to watch the show live. The same YouTube link will bring up the recording for you to view anytime.
If you do watch it live (and we recommend this), you can participate in the live chat during the concert as long as you have a YouTube account.
Click here https://youtu.be/MEaCbZ-DlqQ to watch a vid, leading you through the easy process of creating a YouTube account. Maybe do this before the concert begins.
If you do have an account and you’re logged in, you can type something fun into the chat box and that’s how we create modern day jazz community in this era of the pandemic. Maybe start with something simple like “Hi, this is Lisa from Wyoming” or “Hi, I’m Reggie from Portland.” By doing this we’ve got an app that will magically take your name and location and drop a pin on a spinning globe. During the show we’ll visit all of the listeners and say hi and marvel at your exotic places of residence. No worries about privacy…How many Lisa’s are in the entire state of Wyoming? Or “Reggie’s in Portland, Maine?
you can call me Al, Peter