Every true music-lover has an indefensible pet-peeve, and this is probably my biggest one: There isn’t a song in the world so beautiful that it can’t be ruined by a little saxophone.
Oh, I’ve heard the squawk-back: The sax is the most expressive of the woodwind instruments, the closest mechanical approximation of the singing voice, yada yada. I suppose I could name a couple of sax-soaked tunes that don’t annoy the crap out of me (Coleman Hawkins’ “April in Paris” springs to mind). But I can name ten times as many songs that might have been bearable if the reedman had only called in sick. (I’m apparently not the only one who feels this way.)
It is for that reason that I find a certain double-negative allure to Rob Verdi’s upcoming concert at the Ronan Performing Arts Center, next Thursday, Jan. 18.
Titled “Saxophobia,” the concert figures either to be my worst nightmare or best proof of bias.
A longtime member of the Side Street Strutters, a Dixieland jazz band that appears weekly at Disneyland in Los Angeles, Verdi has entertained tens of thousands of visitors to the park since 1985. Along the way, the group won first place at the International Association of Jazz Educators Collegiate Dixieland Competition and the Breda International Jazz Festival Competition.
Outside that band, Verdi has made a name for himself through his one-man show, which highlights his bizarre collection of some of the most unusual saxophones ever made.
That’s where the appeal lies, in my eyes at least. I’m pretty sure he can’t convince me to love the sound of a tenor sax; but I’m certainly intrigued to hear him honk on his six-and-a-half-foot tall contrabass sax – basically a tuba with a single-reed mouthpiece. Ditto that teeny-weeny “sopranino” sax, an instrument that could easily be confused with a child’s toy.
Altogether, Verdi’s collection numbers more than 100 instruments. Surely, I figure, one or two of them will not sound like an ill goat.
(The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences would seem to agree: in 2009, “Saxophobia” was nominated for a regional Emmy in the category of Instructional Media.)
Verdi will be joined in his performance by a band of Ronan High School music students under the direction of Alicia Lipscomb. They’ll chart their way through some classic sax showcases, including “Over The Rainbow,” “How High The Moon,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and “Stardust.”
Rob Verdi presents “Saxophobia” at the Ronan Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Jan. 18, at 7:30 p.m. Single tickets are available for $12 ($14 at the door). Anyone 18 or under is admitted free, thanks to the Youth Home, but children 11 and under need to be accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. Tickets are available in advance from Fiddle Sticks School of Music on 5th, or Shannon Nunlist Physical Therapy on Main St. in Polson, or from True Value Hardware on Hwy 93 in Ronan. Concertgoers can also get tickets by emailing cmc@ronan.net or calling 800 823 4386.
[...] I might consider sax with Verdi [...]
[...] I might consider sax with Verdi [...]