The Case of the Missing Piano…..
I was in New York City getting ready to record the second half of the new album that would include some of my favorite songs…one in particular was ‘Summertime’ by George Gershwin, from his opera ‘Porgy and Bess’. This music has soaked in my bones for a long time and always fascinated me. One of the renditions of this incredible tune is Janis Joplin’s take on it…
and the opposite end of the spectrum, Ms.Renee Fleming’s version:
Back in recording land, I got a disturbing call from my producer 20 minutes before my pickup time. She informed me there was no piano to be found anywhere in the hall….no piano, but a piano technician/tuner/and recording engineer nervously standing by. Not only that, we frantically called the piano house and nobody had a clue where the piano might be…
This was all very bad news as I was in town playing concerts preparing for these very recording sessions, my pianist was ready to go (the very talented Reiko Uchida) and it was close to impossible to re-book the Academy when everybody could come back and have free time to record again. Not to mention the delay of the recording itself etc.etc. I was ready to cry………the car came and picked my sorry butt up at the hotel to take me to the Academy so we could all wonder where in the world this Fazioli piano might be.
What the?
The piano finally rolled onto the stage around noon….we had to tune it and set up the microphones ASAP. The pitch of the piano kept on slipping as it was adjusting to the warm hall (no AC as it makes noise) and smelly lunches coming from the lounge area. Drama….but we had our piano…..thank God. We finished the recording the following day and everybody was relieved and happy that we had our tapes in the can. I guess you can sum it up as another day in the life of a crazy artist……or a crazy life? Well, crazy is all relative I guess!
