Billy Novick and Guy Van Duser
Billy Novick and Guy Van Duser were featured at the ongoing Tuesday Jazz Series at Sherborn Inn on September 2nd.
About Billy: Billy moved to Boston from New York and attended Berklee College of Music for a year, met some musicians, and fell into the local ’70s music scene, playing in various bands. While rehearsing for a dance performance in 1976, Novick was introduced to the innovative guitarist Guy Van Duser, and the two began a collaboration that continues to flourish. In 1986 Novick became reeds player for the New Black Eagles Jazz Band. He has also done considerable composing and arranging. “When I was a kid I wanted to be a composer even more than a musician.” Billy wrote New Orleans Farewell.
A Studio Musician, Billy has been featured on more than 250 recordings as a sideman or arranger for other artists. He’s also written and played background music for commercials – you’ve probably heard him on TV or Radio. He received worldwide recognition for his score of The Great Gatsby with the Washington Ballet at the Kennedy Center. (They practiced on us at the Sherborn Inn.)
The delights of tonight’s performance were many, both are true artists and great story tellers. They took off with a roaring Royal Garden Blues, followed by a fluid, sweet Embraceable You. They tested the audience on a number they played when they first came together 30+ years ago, both singing and harmonizing on Ready For The River. Sweet! Muscat Ramble, James P Johnson’s Love; a Scott Joplin Rag, Easy Winner, is easy on piano, but difficult on guitar. Not for Van Duser.
Victor Young’s Indian Summer. They faked their way through some Mariachi before moving back to our kind of music, a second line dirge played at New Orleans Funerals – Sing On. Fats Waller’s Jitterbug Waltz.
St. Louis Tickle came from 1906 World’s Fair and then became a Dixieland Tune. Billy explained that Midnight in Moscow was originally meant to be Nightime in Leningrad, but The Soviet Ministry of Culture, one of the most important government offices in the Soviet Union, insisted it become Evening in Moscow. They changed the lyrics and the version. The British Jazz group, Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen had a hit with the song in 1961 under the title Midnight in Moscow. And there you have it!
Guitar verse and melody on Stardust were breathtaking!
About Guy: We wondered why Guy wraps his fingers completely around the neck of his guitar; it’s because his fingers play both chords (down) and melody (up) at the same time. He was recovering from a cut on his index finger on right hand. We’re thankful he was here, and that it wasn’t his thumb! He has practically invented a finger-picked guitar style, closer to jazz piano than guitar.
He explains it at Berklee, where he is a Professor in the Guitar Department: “I’m kind of the oddball. I’m here because a lot of people are curious about this technique, finger style. I show them how to take melodies on the guitar—solo line melodies—and play those melodies while playing the chords at the same time. You’re trying to get two layers going. You’re using mostly your thumb just to play the lower notes of the chord while the fingers pick out the melody notes on the upper strings. The fingerpickers do that in such a way that the thumb is alternating back and forth on the string, being the rhythm as well. So I’m not just playing the chord under the note, I’m recreating a beat: boom-chick, boom-chick, boom-chick.”
They played tunes we never heard of, and others recorded by many bands. S’Posing was recorded by Fats, Miles Davis, Sonny Stitt. Billy sings it! “Mine” was the only popular song to come out of the Gershwin show ‘Let ‘Em Eat Cake.’ Scott Joplin’s Spicey Cake Walk. was a rouser!
1931 – I’ll See You In My Dreams. Guy explained that nobody sets it up with the lyrics on the verse like Ukulele Ike (Cliff Edwards) did. He was the featured voice for Jiminy Cricket for all those Disney years. Guy did it singing the lyrics on the verse just as Ike did. Effective.
Isham Jones’ Wabash Blues sold two million records in 1921, cementing Jones’s niche in the musical pantheon of the early Twenties. Billy and Guy closed this evening with their own captivating version.
This was a refreshing and informative evening with Billy Novick and Guy Van Duser. Billy Novick’s Blue Syncopators will perform again with the Sacramento Ballet Company in California October 23-26. http://www.sacballet.org/ Tickets are available.
The Great Gatsby with Billy Novick’s Blue Syncopators
Guy Van Duser will be playing solo guitar September 13th 8pm at Coffeehouse off the Square, Old Ship Church, Hingham, MA
You can find where Billy and Guy will be teaming up at http://www.billynovick.com/. marce@nejazz.com