Live report by Ms. Cappuccino "The ninth 100 Gold Fingers" I went to "The Symphony Hall" in Osaka to see the ninth 100 Gold Fingers. I have watched live concert nine times. Unfortunately it had been raining since morning and I felt blue. But it stopped raining when I arrived at Osaka and it was cool night. It was the first time for me to visit Symphony Hall. It was really nice building but the service of staff seemed to be excessive. Floor is covered by carpet. From the barrier free's point of view , it might be difficult for handicapped people to move by electric or manual wheel chair. There is lobby to meet people and the hall with a high ceiling .Echo is remaining for 2 seconds and it is the most appropriate effect for classic music. Total 1704 seat are available in this hall from first to third floor. It takes arena theater system and the stage is surrounded by audience seat. You can buy the reserved seat ticket.. There are pipe organ at the center of the stage The organ has three layers keyboards with total number of key is 3732. I would like to play it. The piano is Steinway made in German. It is compared to TOYOTA as Japanese car and Benz as German car. High –class two piano are set on the stage facing each other being lid removed. I found the wood bass at the left corner o the stage and the beautiful drums set at the right of bass. |
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All pianists lined on the stage and made a bow. Dad Moroni, who was a tall Italian man is the first pianist to make performance. His feet beating rhythm in unique way caught my eyes. Thelonious Monk beat rhythm by his feet in same way in "A great Day In Harlem". After solo performance, Bob Cranshaw (b) and Grady Tate(ds) appeared on the stage and made trio performance. All pianists made solo performance , Trio performance or duo performance. In my opinion, I was impressed by Ray Bryant, Junior Mance , Don Friedman Kenny Barron , Cyrus Chestnut, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Cedar Walton, Benny Green and Eric Reed. Total number is 10. Friendly Grady Tate looks severe during his performance. He concentrated to support other 10 musicians. I don't remember the title of music without preparation. I write down some impressive titles. There might be some mistake because of my poor memory. |
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Ray Bryant is a man of square frame and looks charming. He played "Gotta Travel On".( I'm not sure. Mans may play it.) If I remember right, he played Japanese folk music as insertion. It was funny to see that he and Junior Mance adjusted the height of the seat before they played together. "Blues Brothers" seems to be a customary event. They made great performance together. I got sleepy when I listened to "Summer Time " by Junior Mance which sounded like lullaby. I was really blusy. Cyrus Chestnut was a big guy but I had good impression. He might be a sentient pianist to play various tone. Don Friedman looked gentle old man. I was fascinated with his beautiful tone and I could not believe it was Jazz. |
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Kenny Barron is a smart pianist like Vintage wine. I would like to liesten to his performance at Jazz Club. He had a piercing eye. Toshiko Akiyoshi was only female pianist and she had a strong touch. There was call for an encore when all pianists returned to the wing of the stage at the end of their performance. All of them appeared on the stage and made relay performance of "Take The ‘A' Train". I wonder they played it without arrangement in advance. They were so great pianist that their performance was excellent. The last player was Don Friedman. His improvisation was incredible. Each pianist had different style, tone, performance and I really enjoyed their originality in the hall with nice sound condition. But frankly speaking, I prefer Jazz Club to concert hall. Anyway I assured that live concert was great. |
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