Last Easter I was so pleased to be a singing participant in the 88th annual Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service. I was not going to be there this year, but it turns out that no one else will be there either. The pageant has been canceled due to recession woes and lack of funds. Here’s the LA Times story about it. Hopefully it’ll be back next year.
I hope everyone had a great Valentine weekend. The weather in Los Angeles was just glorious – temps in the 80s, clear blue skies, not bad for mid-February.
Rhonda and I had a spectacular Sunday, taking a trip to the Americana At Brand complex in Glendale. On the way home, we were listening to K-EARTH on the radio as they were taking Valentine dedication requests all weekend long. There was one in particular from a woman in Tarzana who was dedicating ‘Now That I Found You’ by The Foundations. I thought that was a sweet little moment…until I started thinking about the lyrics:
Baby,
Now that I’ve found you
I won’t let you go
I built my world around you
I need you so
Baby even though
You don’t need me,
You don’t need me oh, no (emphasis added)
Oh well, here’s hoping your day was better than hers.
We had the 78 rpm record of this when I was a kid (I think it was my mom’s), but there was a chunk chipped out of the lead-in groove, so I’ve never heard the beginning of the song. Now, not only can I hear how it begins, but I can watch this great lipsync by the mad men themselves – Spike Jones and his City Slickers!
My RP Rhonda and I had the good fortune to join a sold-out crowd at the Hollywood Bowl for the Sing-A-Long Sound Of Music on Saturday Sept. 26. I have some pictures to share with you of this fantastic event. Read more…
From left: Randy Phillips, Arlan Anderson, Rosemary Storm, Patricia Mace, Deanna Thomas, Kevin Lewis, Pandora Simmons, Darin Adler, Paulien Strijland
Waaay back in the ’80s I was a member of a little madrigal group called ‘Huzzah!’ Based in Silicon Valley, the group was made up for the most part of young professionals in the tech industry who’d had a background in choral singing and had come together and work up a few songs from the Renaissance, ostensibly to get in the Renaissance Pleasure Faire for free as strolling singers. Somehow the ever resourceful Deanna Thomas arranged for us to do some recording one night at Mission Santa Clara. I ran across the DAT from that evening, and here are the results.
Fair Phyllis I saw sitting
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Già torna a rallegrar l’aria e la terra
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I love, alas, I love thee
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Si ch’Io vorrei morire
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Weep, o mine eyes
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Riu riu chiu
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So ben, mi, c’ha bon tempo
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The boss has a blog! Lesley Leighton, the artistic director of Los Robles Master Chorale (with which I sing) has gone and published A Musician’s View in which, in her words, she will “write occasionally about music, politics, food and anything else that comes to mind.”
First post was July 8 2009 and there have been two since. As busy a career as she has, I don’t know how she finds the time to post, but I’ll be reading when she does.
NPR’s All Things Considered ran a segment on this afternoon’s broadcast about the least appropriate wedding songs ever: songs like ‘Send In The Clowns’ as the bride glides down the aisle, or ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ ‘ for the couple’s first dance.
I’ve sung at a ton of weddings over the years, and have a ton of stories to match, but all the songs I’ve sung have been fairly appropriate: ‘One Hand, One Heart‘ from West Side Story, Billy Joel’s ‘Just The Way You Are’ and David Gates’ ‘If’ (both of those at my brother’s wedding), Dan Fogelberg’s ‘Longer’ (I sang it with my brother at my baby sister’s wedding). I sang a song of my own composition at my own wedding, interrupted not only by my own blubbering but the noise of an aircraft landing at Oakland International Airport, the landing pattern of which passed over our backyard ceremony. And of course I’ve sung Paul Stookey’s ‘The Wedding Song’ at a great majority of all the other weddings at which I’ve performed.
I sang at a wedding at Villa Montalvo near San Jose where I sang a snippet of a different song as each bridesmaid walked across the lawn. I was singing some pre-ceremony music when it started to rain at an outdoor wedding in the Santa Cruz mountains – I managed to fake my way through ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head’ and ‘I Love A Rainy Night’. I’ve sung ‘Ave Maria’, I’ve sung ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, I was even in the ‘wedding singer’ business in partnership with a videographer – had a demo tape and everything!
I suppose the most unusual wedding I ever attended, much less sang at, was one at the Home Church in Campbell CA. I guess I got this gig because I was active in the church’s worship team as well as leading worship for the singles minstry on Friday nights. Anyway, the song the bride wanted me to sing as she walked down the aisle was Tanya Tucker’s ‘Would You Lay With Me In A Field Of Stone’:
Would you lay with me, in a field of stone?
If my needs were strong, would you lay with me?Should my lips grow dry, would you wet them, dear.
In the midnight hour, if my lips were dry.
Pretty racy stuff, no? Especially in a church!
Anyway, there were TEN attendants – ten bridesmaids dressed in square dance dresses complete with flouncy petticoats and cowgirl boots; ten groomsmen in western-cut tuxedos with ‘smile pockets’ at each breast of the jackets – in peach, no less.
But the pièce de résistance, if you will, was the bride, kicking up her heels in a beautiful virgin-white square dance dress, virgin-white cowgirl boots, and a virgin-white cowgirl hat under her virgin-white veil.
Quite the sight.
I suppose I should start by saying that I’m a member of the Los Robles Master Chorale, directed by Lesley Leighton. Ms. Leighton was recruited to direct the mass choir for the 88th annual Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service. She arranged to have members of the LRMC serve as the core of the 240-voice mass choir. After two rehearsals at the Hollywood Women’s Club, the day finally arrived for the dress rehearsal at the Bowl on Saturday, April 11. What follows is my story of my first time at the Hollywood Bowl.
Here’s something special to which to look forward: the Los Robles Master Chorale will be participating in the 88th annual Easter Sunrise Service at the Hollywood Bowl.
2007
Our director, Lesley Leighton, was selected to direct the combined mass choir for the service and she arranged to have the LRMC make up the core of the group, as well as perform one piece all by our very own selves.
1947
Our first rehearsal was this past Monday, March 30 at the Woman’s Club of Hollywood, and it was a good thing we were there; otherwise the mass choir would not have been so, well, massive. I’d imagine that of the 80 or so singers (they’re advertising 240) we made up about half of the group. We have another rehearsal on Monday, April 6, and a dress rehearsal at the Bowl on Saturday, April 11. Our call time on Easter morning is 4:30 AM! Ugh!
1937
But it’s really a historic event, I suppose – one of the first events on the Bowl site back in the twenties (before the famous shell was even built) was an Easter Sunrise service.
1929
Hollywood has had its share of controversy and scandal, and the Easter Sunrise Service is no exception. Even now, the mass choir is singing a piece called ‘Peace, Shalom, Salaam Aleikum’ brought to the choir by members of the Self Realization Fellowship – I’m not sure just how popular this celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ will be with Jews or Muslims, but hey, anything for inclusion, right?
We’ll be singing the aforementioned piece along with the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah, Let There Be Peace On Earth (And Let It Begin With Me), and the old hymn Holy, Holy, Holy. The latter three, of course, have the traditional bombastic Hollywood-movie endings, so the hills will definitely be ringing. The old choral chestnut, Wilhousky’s Battle Hymn Of The Republic is in the folder but, alas, it’s been announced that we will not be singing it. Too militaristic? Naw, probably just ran out of time. Too bad – I love singing that arrangement.
There’s no mention of the LRMC on the official website for some reason, but we’ll be there – and it’s supposedly being televised, so I’ll be sure to grab a video and post it here later.
We here in SoCal have been blessed with very springlike days here in the waning weeks of winter. The temperature has reached into the low 80s the last few days, and even now at 5 PM on Sunday the temperature is a delightful 75, with wispy white horsetail clouds scudding across the valley sky. The wind driving those clouds is dropping to the valley floor, though; it is a portent of the inclement weather set to settle over the area for the next week; predictions of 20-30% chance of rain, and just generally overcast all the way through next weekend.
I’ve been working hard on the reunion referenced in the blog post from several days ago. I’ve digitized an entire concert by the Maranatha Singers from 1973 – those recordings have been posted at the reunion website youthofthe70s.blogspot.com. I also composed an update email that went out to the nearly 60 email addresses we have, and only two have bounced back as invalid so far, which I think is pretty good.
I didn’t sleep so well last night, so I look forward to racking out early tonight. Here’s to a productive week ahead, despite the gloomy weather to come.
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