I regrettably was unable to attend the Berlioz Requiem weekend, held in honor of the late Maestro Hans Vonk. I hear of incredible sounds, incredible visuals with singers and musicians stationed at surprising places around the hall.
This weekend I spent some time with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet’s new CD Guitar Heroes, which is made up of songs in homage to guitar greats such as Norman Blake, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Metheny, Django Reinhardt, Chet Atkins, Los Romeros, and others. I spoke with Bill Kanengiser of LAGQ this morning. He was on his cell phone in an LA supermarket at 7:45am California time. The first thing I asked him, “You must be the one with kids.” He is.
He says that the program they play Dec. 10-12 is partly in homage to Los Romeros, who played the Rodrigo concerto with the SLSO a few times. But I had to divert our discussion a little bit away from the upcoming concert to thank Kanengiser for putting a Frank Zappa dedication on the CD. They won’t be playing “Let’s Be Frank” at Powell, but anybody who plays Zappa deserves recognition.
I will be away from the office Tuesday. I’ll report back to you on Wednesday.
