Thank you for this topic and the wondrous Wilke long neck lute gig narrative which is awesome, encouraging, and even magical. In April 1976 I saw an ad in the Univ of Cincinnati newspaper that Zino's Clifton Italian restaurant was holding a night audition for a musician or musicians to serenade its patrons. Worried about my crushing $14,000 7-year acquired burden of student debt (laughable by modern standards) I took my new $450 Lundberg/Donna Curry student Hans Frei 62 cm yew 10-course to the audition confident that Italian music would be welcome at Zino's. I had penciled by ear a Santino Garsi da Parma corrente off my roommate's Nonesuch LP, hoping to imitate Walter Gerwig's charming version. A highly skilled Bluegrass band started the audition from the balcony and I think they were also med students. Their rousing "Rocky Top Tennessee" was followed by my subdued solo plucking. The Bluegrass guys sharing the balcony were excited by the lute and seemed to like it. Afterwards, the boss sitting below in the dark restaurant asked me to come down to the restaurant floor. He looked and sounded like a Soprano from the New Jersey docks. "What's that thing you've got there!" After I told him he diplomatically said "I'm sure you must be a good musician, but you aren't loud enough." He didn't say "git outta heahh!" thank heavens--he didn't need to say that. Though disappointed, I was glad the very nice bluegrass guys got the gig, I attempted only one other unpaid gig that year at a friendly nurse's more intimate party for her friends. The Beatles might have come to my aid had I learned one of their songs. Mark Seifert M.D. On Saturday, June 21, 2014 4:53 PM, Christopher Wilke <[email protected]> wrote: Dick, I got a gig playing guitar background music at a high class restaurant once. It so happened that I had a lute gig the next day, so, unasked, I brought my lute along with the intention of alternating sets. I started with guitar, then did a few lute pieces and then took a break. After the break I began again with guitar. As soon as I started, I saw the chef/owner come out of the kitchen, walking hurriedly in my direction. I thought maybe he was perturbed at having hired a guitarist and instead gotten some guy playing an esoteric instrument. "Hey, that long neck thing - what is it?" he asked, impatiently. I told him. "Well, I hope you play a lot more of it. It is just so cool!" he said. I ended up playing lute there almost every Saturday and I got money and some excellent food in return. Anyway, one of the pieces I did on lute that night was "Norwegian Wood." I didn't make an official arrangement; I just sort of played melody and bass on the fly. A couple who was at a table nearby suddenly stopped talking and stared at me. Again, I wondered if they thought I was butchering it, or if they were early music peeps driven mad by JAID (Joyless Artistic Intolerance Disorder). After I finished, they explained that long ago, the guy had played it on his guitar for his wife-to-be on their first date, and ever after it became "their song." (Which is sort of ironic if you know the words.) They gave me an extraordinarily generous tip. So apparently, the secret formula to restaurant background music is Lute+Beatles tunes=Success. Chris Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A. Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer www.christopherwilke.com -------------------------------------------- On Sat, 6/21/14, Dick Hoban <[1][email protected]> wrote: Subject: [LUTE] Re: Appropriateness of play list To: "Christopher Wilke" <[2][email protected]> Cc: "Lute List" <[3][email protected]>, "Edward C. Yong" <[4][email protected]> Date: Saturday, June 21, 2014, 2:36 PM Ha! That does sound interesting? Do you have a lute setting of "Norwegian Wood" you can share? Dick Sent from my iPhone On Jun 21, 2014, at 8:29 AM, Christopher Wilke <[5][email protected]> wrote: > Edward, > > Keep in mind that the food is probably about as authentically Italian as a taco. (I'm guessing. If they do serve actual regional Italian cuisine, the food is going to be the star, not the music.) Your audience will most likely get more of a kick out of hearing "Norwegian Wood" on the lute than Francesco. > > Chris > > > Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A. > Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer > www.christopherwilke.com > > -------------------------------------------- > On Sat, 6/21/14, Edward C. Yong <[6][email protected]> wrote: > > Subject: [LUTE] Appropriateness of play list > To: "Lute List" <[7][email protected]> > Date: Saturday, June 21, 2014, 1:03 AM > > Hi fellow lutenetters! > > So I've been asked to do an Italian restaurant gig in July, > two sets of thirty minutes each. > > Should I bother selecting Italian music appropriate for a > specific time period - e.g. dances from Negri and Caroso? Or > should I just play through '58 Very Easy Pieces for > Renaissance Lute'? > > Does anyone else get into these struggles for > 'authenticity'? I doubt anyone would even notice if I played > an all-English repertoire of Greensleeves, Packington's > Pound, and Fortune my Foe on repeat, but I'd like to be a > bit better than that. > > Edward Chrysogonus Yong > [8][email protected] > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > [9]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > >
-- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. mailto:[email protected] 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. mailto:[email protected] 5. mailto:[email protected] 6. mailto:[email protected] 7. mailto:[email protected] 8. mailto:[email protected] 9. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
