An Evening with The Salvatones at St. Peter's Cathedral

Christmas season is both exhilarating and exhausting. Just when you thought all your Christmas cards have been sent, your mail is full of more people's holiday wishes and these folk were not on your list this year, were they? Better make out those "Happy Holidays" cards and wish them a Happy New Year.

New York City is glistening on the surface but sizzling with last-minute season's jitters underneath. Today was just a swirl of mailing out what I thought, at least, was the last of cards and packages. I very much looked forward to getting together with my friends Kathy, Nick and Richard Skipper at The Salvatones concert at St. Peter's historic church down near the World Trade Center site.

Sometimes I feel like I don't get low enough in Manhattan. Seriously, all the good, bohemian, arty stuff is down there below Canal. Including tonight's choral concert in a Roman Catholic Church. Quite respectable and, yet, with a distinctly very-downtown air about it all.

I knew St Peter's was a Catholic church because, before you can enter, you have to do the penance of climbing the long, steep cement stairs. Mia culpa! And thank God for handrails.

I arrived, after cocktails, with my friend Nick Lion. (We doubted they'd be serving drinks at the church -- and we were correct in our presumption). We joined my longtime friend, Kathy, and her mother (who survived WWII in Germany to come to the States) in a pew near the front of the church. Kathy and her mom are such a cute team, they deserve their own reality tv series.

The Salvatones performance was absolutely cathartic for us all. Nick and Kathy lost their mom and dad, respectively, in 2012 and I lost my mother in 2011. The opening songs inspired us to pull out the Kleenexes. A mix of grief and joy, it was the spiritual beauty that connected with us and perhaps our memories of Christmas with loved ones through the years.

I recalled my childhood days of going to church with my Mom, and of the music (along with incense and stained glass windows) that filled my formative life with a kind of erotic/spiritual passion. Bible? Who knew what was in the Bible? I had my Catholic missal (Cliff Notes for Catholics) to explain and interpret it all.

Now, with our groovy, new Pope whose positive presence for change in the world I'm very much enjoying, I felt no guilt in my devotion to the hymns, carols and string orchestra moments (with and without chorus). Oh, those divine violins!

Opening with Handel's "Messiah," and closing with the composer's  "Joy to the World" (before an encore of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"), this dignified and respectful 90-minute performance offered many highlights, like "Carol of the Bells," a joyous "We Three Kings" and a swing arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."

Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future filled the cathedral, it seemed, and the audience appeared, overall, to be genuinely moved on a deep, primal level. There is something unusually resplendent about a concert, unplugged and without microphones, where the acoustics are the music and the voices bouncing off cathedral walls, stirring the emotions.

So, blessed are the Salvatones (Sal, loved your solo), the New York Virtuosi (strings), organist/ arranger Stephen Fraser and musical director Daniel Brondel. And thanks and happy holidays to promoter Richard Skipper (who greeted us after the concert) for recommending this beautiful tour de force. Richard invited everyone to dinner at Odeon, Nick invited me to join him and his partner for dinner, but an early morning obligation directed me to hailing a taxi and be homeward bound via the nearby Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.

As I left St. Peter's (with a $10 Salvatones album on cd in pocket), tripping merrily down the cement steps, it really felt like Christmas had arrived. God bless us, everyone!

EXCLUSIVE Q&A with The Salvatones Part 2

Since my interview with Sal & Daniel of The Salvatones ran too long for a single post, here is Part 2. I didn't care to further edit this vivacious and thoroughly enjoyable Q&A that was such a pleasure for me to do. I may have to do more live interviews, though I doubt many could be as much fun as this one was.

DBB: How will you each spend your Christmas Day?
DB: At St. Patrick's Cathedral where I am Associate Music Director. I'll play again after going home to crash on Christmas Eve.
SD: And I'll be in that choir.
DBB: Great, reserve me a seat in a pew at St. Pat's!

DBB: What kind of music did you listen to growing up.
SD: Another good question. I had a lot of eclectic influences and that manifests itself in concert. I studied classical but loved pop stuff on the radio. Madonna, The Police.
DB: Petula Clark, Edith Piaf, Beethoven, Beatles, disco, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Tina Turner all heard around our house while growing up in France. A lot of American influences.

DBB: When not performing, what do you guys do to relax?
DB: I don't know because music is my life, working and relaxing.
SD: Reading! Fiction, non-fiction, it's a nice way to relax. And I love to cook.

DBB: The best experience for The Salvatones? And the worst?
SD: The best was definitely two years ago at a summit exchange concert, performing along with a Dutch vocal group. It motivated we Salvatones in terms of both our physical stage presence and our sound. It was definitely validation that we were moving in the right direction professionally and artistically.
DB: We were on the right track. The Salvatones were borne by accident, not planning. Frankly, I loved all our experiences and even the rehearsals.
SB: I enjoy that we're in such a close environment working as a group.
DB: Of course, I did have a problem with a vocalist once. After giving her direction, she told me. "I don't agree with you...."
DBB: Ouch! Cheeky.
DB: Yeah, it was a little shocking to me. I told her, "You don't have to agree, you only need to do as you're directed." That was her last gig with us.

DBB: Thank you guys! Terrific interview. So nice to meet and talk to you. I'll be sure to get your new cd and be at your concert in December!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Salvatones/130859726976390?ref=ts&fref=ts

EXCLUSIVE Q&A with The Salvatones Part 1

This Q&A was my first done live. I thoroughly enjoyed this as Sal and Daniel of the Salvatones were such personable persons and our interview was great fun. We were thrown out of PJ Clark's, where I intended to conduct the interview (well, not really, but you can't have a table there and order only coffee). So, we ended up at Toasties across the street, on the upper east side, which the guys liked and so did I. An auspiciously down-to-earth environment for a couple of down-to-earth guys, the founders of The Salvatones. The final edit I did was too long for one post, so I've split it into two parts. The Salvatones' The Many Sounds of Christmas will be performed on December 21st and 22nd at historic St. Peter's Church.

Dj Buddy Beaverhausen: You're both so much younger than I expected! Do you mind if I ask how old you are?
Salvatore Diana: 39.
Daniel Brondel: 44, actually, so we're middle-aged.
DBB: Daniel, do I detect a European accent?
DB: Yes, I was born and raised in France.

DBB: Holiday season's upon us and, with it, The Many Sounds of Christmas. What can you tell us about your show?
DB: As the title implies, it's a concert with different manifestations of Christmas music also featuring organ, a string orchestra along with our vocal ensemble.
SD: There are so few downtown offerings in lower Manhattan, so this is something unique.
DB: Something fresh and new downtown.
SD: Which is experiencing a major housing and business boom right now, so it's a perfect time for our show.

DBB: I understand your first cd is also about to be released.
SD: "Wonderful World" is the title of it. We cover that classic Louis Armstrong song on it in a totally fresh, new style. The album captures all our signature repertoire with something for the holidays. All things classical, jazzy and songs about New York City (arranged by Daniel). He reconstructed "Sidewalks of New York...."
DB: There's currently no sheet music...
SD:  Reconstructed it from an existing NYC Public Library copy of the refrain and listened to various singers throughout the 1920s-40s and arranged the whole thing for acapella choir.
DB: It's eclectic and a perfect introduction to the group. All of our singers are classically trained.

DBB: When and how did your group come together?
SD: It was founded by Daniel and I. My day job is creative director at an ad agency. My boss was looking for a small vocal group and I pulled one together. I needed to name it, expecting it would be a one-night thing.
DB: We had such a blast, we decided to keep doing this.
SD: This was all about five years ago. And we had such positive feedback, we decided to bring in a few more singers and build our repertoire. This year, we became a non-profit organization.
DB: Ours was a creative experiment to cross the barrier that makes classical a niche market.
SD: We've also, partnered with other ensembles. Like, this year, the string orchestra.

DBB: You also do private parties and corporate events. How does the experience of performing at these various functions onstage differ from being in concert?
DB: Good question. It depends on the event, I think. For example, we sang at two weddings where we were to be heard but not seen.
SD: Trying to create an experience, not to star at these events.
DB: Music has so many different functions in our lives.

[More to come in Part 2. Not to be missed!]