Roosevelt Island Music and Memory Guitar Concert With Matt Katz - Plays Folk, Misissippi Blues and a Sing-A-Long Too
Image Of Matt Katz From Dave Evans
As reported in post last Thursday, Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Matt Katz performed a Music and Memory Guitar Recital yesterday afternoon at the Gallery RIVAA. Among those attending was Roosevelt Island resident Dave Evans who shares his thoughts on the concert. From Mr. Evans:
GALLERY RIVAA HOSTS MATTHEW KATZ IN CONCERT
Yes indeed - - on Saturday, 26 March 2011 right here on Roosevelt Island, our man Matthew Katz, blessed with a wonderful memory and many talents beyond being the President of our Roosevelt Island Residents Association, gave a solo performance to the delight of a full house of listeners in the wonderful Gallery RIVAA. OK, it was not totally solo, but more on that later.
Now, when I think of names like Tom Lehrer, Joan Baez, Peter-Paul-Mary and others, Matt will also come to mind as he "picked" his way through folk music, Mississippi Delta blues, and even led the audience in a sing-along. My feet showed evidence of his outputs as they tapped along with much of the music. So, just a few days after the passing of a blues legend, Pinetop Perkins, here was Matt giving his take on the history of the blues. I must admit that for me, the 'Blues' conjures up memories of reading about a genesis close to 1862 of a special sound influenced by church, folks who 'talked with the guitar', and later, my own experience with Beale Street and good peach cobbler.
Two hours of entertainment was quite impressive and the audience roared its appreciation. But get this, there was a kind lady there, Sherrie, who is always by Matt's side, who rendered us a classic, operatic sound - - all was absolutely satisfying. Brava Gallery RIVAA for hosting good folks like Matt and Sherrie."
Image of Matt & Sherrie Katz From Dave Evans
Another Roosevelt Island resident, Vini Fortuna captured Matt performing Here Comes The Sun and shares it with us via You Tube.
For Mr. Evans and others lovers of the Blues here's some Pinetop Perkins who died last Monday at the age of 97.
You Tube Video of Pinetop Perkins
14 comments :
Matt suffers in the musical comparison: Pinetop = caviar; Matt = catfish. A couple of beers might have made the "singing" Matt experience more "digestible". Maybe Dave Kraut can take a turn one day at RIVAA with his guitar. Also - suggestion to Mr. Martinez: Since the Chapel is often used for concerts and the interior may be renovated, why not obtain the opinion of an acoustics engineer and try to "tune" the space while renovations are being made, as well as put in a better/permanent amplification - or even lighting - system; this way we can have an improved performance venue - one of the few decent ones on the island. Sorry Matt - despite your efforts, you are no Sinatra or Dylan, and Sherrie, although a trained vocal performer, is certainly no Baez. You have good fingerpicking technique but need someone with singing/emotive chops to complete the act. I'm not sure you would even be accepted as a subway troubadour if you sang and strummed at a token-booth audition, though the guitar playing alone might land you a spot. What you would then need is a reverse karaoke device: You could accompany an isolated vocal track and almost be a one-man band. Matt drew polite "enthusiastic" applause, but not only was it not a "crowd" of attendees, they didn't roar (to their credit). For Roosevelt Is. though, where live musical performances historically tend to draw a scattered often blase/skeptical audience, Matt drew a respectable number of "live bodies" to listen to him, who also appeared to be greater in number because of the "intimate" performance space. Still the RIVAA Board merits a thank-you for allowing this local act to appear - Matt's singing may yet inspire others on RI to get to work on their vocal technique, and possibly songs, to one day get on the RIVAA stage and be received with smiles and appreciation befitting fillet of sole if not actual caviar, instead of the nausea/gagging response elicited by Matt's practically atonal, mechanical mewing - and in this way "save" the community from the lingering aesthetic nausea brought on by having to politely endure the "singing" effort from Matt.
That was a nasty comment. I would tell Gregor to share that with his family, people at work, and friends, but he is obviously an unemployed loser with none of those things. Keep sharpening that crayon Gregor.
Gregor just proved why nobody should take him seriously. Matt and Sherry run the Residents Association... that's the only reason they get to do things like this. Come on Gregor, I agree that the performance was shabby at best, but you take critiquing to a new level.
Steve, it was a critique of the performance just like you would read in the New York Times. It's perfectly fine. Once you perform in public you have to be able to listen to the critics.
Gregor, they're called paragraphs. You should make their acquaintance.
I suppose I could occasionally pen vicious takedowns of your rambling, semi-coherent, barely literate comments on this blog but why would I want to do that? Would it inform anyone? Would it illuminate the issues at hand? Assuredly not.
And yet (notice the paragraph break) you felt compelled to trash a performance (which I did not attend) designed to do nothing more than convey and share the joy of music. It fell short of your standards. The singing was subpar, you assert with metronomic repetition.
What of it? I have no taste for Katz's folkie boomer nostalgia, but by god the man filled the room, and who carries a heart so cold to begrudge a singalong to "here comes the sun"?
You keep scribbling Gregor. Maybe soon we'll have the pleasure of your public performance of Nordic death metal, or perhaps filippino hip-hop. As another bearded bard once sang, "if you want to sing out, sing out, and if you want to be free, be free, cause there's a million ways to be, you know that there are"
To JPH: Admittedly it's perplexing to find that my thorough "trashing" of Matt's vocal effort has drawn a few dismayed, even grammar-obsessed, replies. JPH: Why don't you go after the many who write their comments in a much less "grammatically correct" fashion, in the slangy, Ebonic-influenced style - do you fear if you do so you would then be branded a racist, yet in pointing out grammatical errors by a person you imagine to be "Nordic" is "safe" because it's "politically correct" - either way, picking up on grammatical or spelling errors in what I or any minority member writes demonstrates narrow-mindedness, cowardice even. But in a tiny community, views such as yours must be expected. I think everyone's opinion no matter how ungrammatically they are expressed, should be respected, especially opinions we may disagree with. Thus when people of all backgrounds go to the ballot box, they aren't asked if they can write perfectly grammatical English, or even if they can speak English for that matter. Although you did not attend the performance under discussion you think Matt gave a good performance; it is up to the reader to decide whether your opinion has much value. Am I or anyone else not allowed to pan a bad vocal performance out of consideration for the performer's feelings? If so, this is news to me and I'm certain everyone else reading this. We do have free speech here, and that includes forthrightly expressing our opinions regarding performances, or do you not think so? What makes your position correct and mine incorrect other than that you swear Matt was great -- even though you admit you weren't even there -- rendering your defense of Matt's singing questionable to say the least. Why should you suddenly be the sole arbiter of taste on RI? I'm aware of the folkie movement of the 60s in the US and have no problem with it - but please don't tell me that Matt is even remotely on the level of a Pete Seeger, Dave Van Ronk, Phil Ochs or the other often controversial greats of that era. Or is Matt a "sacred" figure on this island that no-one can criticize? Whatever Matt may or may not be, Matt is no singer, although he is good as a guitar player.
Never thought this post would bring up references to Cat Stevens and Phil Ochs but you never know where some of the comments will take you. Thanks to JPH and Gregor for retrieving these classics.
Unfortunately, my familiarity with Nordic Death Metal is sorely lacking.
Gregor, I would have predicted that you would misread and misinterpret my comment, but you have far surpassed expectations. Well done!
Rick, I'm here to serve.
Matt & Sherry have no talent - which explains their lackluster "musical careers". Is that plain and simple enough for JPH to understand? Obviously JPH has difficulty reading and understanding complex sentences so I've broken my review of Matt's singing performance down into an easy to understand concept for his convenience. Skill in playing guitar maybe, training in vocal performance certainly (that is, Sherry is a trained vocal performer) but talent - no. Like I said in my original critique, Matt wouldn't even make it as a subway singer although as a guitarist he could stand a chance of garnering a few bucks here and there from charitable riders.
Gregor... you are a scream! I love it.
The beauty and wonder of Roosevelt Island is that it provides a pond small enough for any fish to shine.
...and for any fish to be fried!
From Ms. Helstien :
First, a warm thank you to Dave Evans for his very kind comments. Thunderous, well, I don’t know about that, but an enthusiastic response from our many friends and followers.
Dear Local Faux Arts Critics:
There’s a reason Matthew and I rarely, if ever read any blog—the writers write anonymously and are thus shielded from responsibility for their comments. Anyone can do that. No talent required to do that. None, nicht, niente, nada. And that’s why blogs are NOT news in any way, shape or form. They’re purely opinion, and often based on incorrect assumptions and/or information. In a word, they’re dumb. But with that in mind I’m going to do a couple of things: own up to what the self-ascribed “critics” have to say and sign my own name. When you see me (or Matt) on the street, perhaps you’ll let me know who you really are! I won’t hold my breath, however.
What bloggers often write not only includes misinformation, but are often nasty, nasty stuff as what we happened upon tonight, in our once a year foray into the RooseveltIslander (or any) blog. We were happy to see some coverage of a FREE concert, a gift to the community. Matthew didn’t do it for any vapid faut reviewer(s). Matthew didn’t do it to hear himself or, when we did our little duo, we didn’t do it to hear ourselves. We found a pretty little song we could do together and we did it. We did it as a gift of our love and appreciation for music of all kinds.
How silly you are, Gregor. I was not trying to be Baez…why in the world would I do that? My own vocal interest and performing background has been in opera and lieder, and I’ve done quite a bit of that. I have about 12 or more roles under my belt, what’ve you got? Let’s face it, sopranos are a dime-a-dozen and the opera world is very much in love with people of a certain age and type and not much beyond these days. So I’ve found my own niche and I’m happy. I enjoy doing recital repertoire, what’ve you done, Gregor? Anonymous, etc??? I’d venture to guess nothing, but maybe I’m wrong. Doesn’t sound like Gregor is very happy at all. Miserable, actually.
Matthew didn’t profess to have vocal training or a beautiful voice—however, if Gregor (what’s that last name, Gregor? C’mon what’re you afraid of?) were an open person, he would have noticed Matthew’s love and affection for those whose music he shared with a mostly, actually very, appreciative audience. Again this was a FREE concert. No one could possibly have come in and felt gypped, ‘cause no one lost a thing but a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon. And everyone was free to walk out when intermission time came. And very, very few did. 75 people in attendance was a record, Gregor, for the RIVAA Gallery. You can check with the folks who run the joint and who were there, size not withstanding!
By the by, Mr. or Ms. Brave Anonymous, if you want to join RIRA and help us “run it” you’re free to run for election from your building next election, 2012. Something tells me we won’t have the opportunity to meet you there or ever, though. So much for cheap talk, especially where the fear of putting your money where your mouth is. Oh, well. Sour (anonymous) grapes grow wild everywhere, even on Roosevelt Island.
Gregor, JPH and Anonymous, why don’t you try owning up to your comments and sign your names. Mathew and I laughed at your comments thinking that perhaps you were all wannabe’s for the NYTimes Arts Critics section of that paper—I guess we could say the same about you with the fish analogies. Good thing Matthew and I love fish! Even catfish! Ha! Ha!
Best regards,
Sherie Helstien
Aka: Violette daGamba, Sop.
i could not sleep so i went to see katz . thank you matt i was sleeping within 2 minutes
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