@joshgroban & @ItsBMcKnight

 then

now (granted with worse sound quality)

It's interesting to hear how both men's voices have evolved over the years.

I would say that they're both louder and both have a more operatic sound, more vibrato, less reediness. 

@tonyann @lprnyc May 23, 2024

 Just in case you haven't yet heard of Tony Ann, here's a recent video

I found out about him on Instagram.  One of his videos was suggested to me and I was hooked. Actually, a lot of his compositions sound similar to each other, but I like listening to them all anyway.  

Let me just say a few warnings about this venue.  

1. It's super dark.  I couldn't read the menu without my cell phone flashlight.  (People at tables were required to order food) 

2.The salted almond appetizer was *way* too salty

3. I sat near the stage, but they were making artificial fog, which I now know makes me feel ill.  I had sort of thought that this concert was going to be my first crowded indoor even with no mask.  I ended up putting on the mask because of the artificial fog on stage.  I felt much better with the mask on.

4. The air conditioner was kind of hyperactive, which was good in terms of the artificial fog getting into the audience, but it was also pretty chilly.  

 5. The start time they tell you is one hour before the concert 

6. The bathrooms are all gender and the men don't necessarily close the stall doors when they pee, which strikes me as rude.

A friend later told me that this venue used to be called The Village Gate.  

If you sit at a table there is a required minimum order.  I knew that going in, so I wasn't surprised.

Tony was booked for 2 concerts that night, and they had to leave time for seating & ordering food before the concert; and buying albums and song books and getting autographs and selfies.  They allowed 3 hours for the early concert, but that really only allowed for about an hour of actual concert -- and Tony tried to chat between songs, so really there wasn't much playing.  There is supposed to be a concert at the Town Hall theatre in October, so, hopefully, that will be a full show, as that is a Broadway Theatre.

Tony didn't really have too much worked out to say.  People shouted questions at him.  I turns out that he doesn't like personal questions.  You might want to ask him professional questions, if you get a chance.

He did answer that he's from Toronto and is not married, but he never did tell us the answer to the question of what his ethnicity is.  He is clearly of Asian extraction, but more than that I do not know.  He is fairly tall.

He could use some joke telling training, but that might not fit in with his improv mentality.

He did tell us that he took up piano because he wanted to be a composer.  

He also told us that he improvises most of the pieces that we see on Instagram.  That possibly explains why they end without a formal ending.  That's been one of the things that I find curious about his music. There isn't a final chord at the end or ending sequence.  It just stops abruptly or fades out, for most of the pieces.  

The ending sequence that we're used to is just a convention, really.  There isn't a real reason why a piece can't just stop abruptly, but I'm not used to it.

He doesn't like to describe himself as particularly talented.  He just thinks that he worked very hard and practiced a lot -- tho I feel that that level of focus is a kind of talent in and of itself.  I personally don't have that kind of focus, to be able to master something to the point that I  would be able to truly excel at it.

He said he's going to be adding more instruments to an upcoming piece.  It will be interesting to hear that, tho it may obscure his extraordinary piano playing.

@officialdfoster and @katharinemcphee in Staten Island

The voyage to the St. George Theater in Staten Island was pretty long for me, coming from Westchester.  I chose to go on public transportation, because I otherwise would have been driving down there during rush hour and that might make things difficult from a restroom point of view.  Also, I wanted to ride the Staten Island Ferry, which I have not been on for many years.

The weather was good for a ferry ride.  It was neither hot nor cold and the water was quite calm.  

Everybody else looks so young on public transportation these days.  Maybe older people like me aren't back on yet.

The St George is a very beautiful historical theater, with ornate decorations.  It's a very short walk from the ferry, though a shopping mall and a park and then one more block.

The Fosters were good, tho the repartee sounded tenser than it used to. I hope their marriage is ok. They did mention that Dave was on oxy for back pain, though, and they had both just gotten over a virus, so that might have affected their mood.

I like to sit in the back row of the upper balcony, so no one is breathing on me. Unfortunately this meant that the video material they were showing was partially blocked with scaffolding. They showed an interesting video of the history of the artists that David worked with. I couldn’t see all the faces, though I recognized some anyway.

They had their three year old son, Rennie, out there playing drums briefly. He’s obviously taking after his dad who was playing with adult orchestras at age six. 

They also had Daniel Emmett singing, and some audience members.  Originally, Dave said he would have 2 audience members sing.  He ended up letting 2 more sing.  They were all 4 really good.  Kat said it made her nervous that there were so many good singers, but it was New York after all. One of the women was only 18.  Dave told her she was going to be singing on Broadway.

The concert was supposed to end at 9:30, but they got out closer to 10, maybe because more audience members sang.  Some of the audience members said that they were going to sing a capella, but the band was always able to pick up and join in.

There were three eminent band members whose history they also discussed and played excerpts from. We often don’t get to hear about studio musicians who are typically amazing.  Unfortunately, I didn't write down the names of these band members. They had a bass, a drummer, and a synthesist. 

I'm searching around the internet to find the names of the other performers.  I think the bassist was Keith Nelson.  The drummer was JR Robinson, who bills himself as Michael's drummer.  I'm still searching around to find the keyboard/synth player, who was very impressive filling in orchestral sounds.  

Daniel Emmett was on AGT, I think.  He was introduced as a new Josh Groban.  I would say Emmett has a wonderful voice, but he's not Josh Groban.  Josh has a fabulous ability to convey emotion with his voice, in addition to having a beautiful voice.  Emmett is good at conveying emotion, too, but he's just not Josh Groban.  

Dave has said before that he's tried to find another Josh Groban, but hasn't.  I still don't think he has, but Emmett is worth listening to nevertheless. 

It was a good show, overall. I think Dave was discouraged that it wasn’t a bigger venue and wasn’t full, tho he didn’t say so. He likes to be a hit, though he’s always used famous singers as foils, disguising his role behind the scenes, because his singing isn’t so great, though it’s definitely improving.

I was impressed that his Russian counterpart, Igor Krutoy, is actually a wonderful, emotive singer as well.  I think Dave might be getting there.  It sounded to me like his voice was resonating more than it used to.

Kat sounded fabulous.  They said she had been singing through a cold on that tour, which made me nervous.  I once read a story about Placido Domingo's father damaging his voice singing through a cold.   

In several cases, they played songs that had lost, rather than won.  They did the number where they were kicked off Masked Singer, which Dave blamed Kat for, which I didn't like so much.  It didn't sound like he was joking around. They played a song that had lost for an Oscar to a song from Top Gun.  Dave blamed the casting of the movies for the fates of the songs, so he showed scenes from Top Gun during his song, to try to illustrate how his song might have won with a better movie.  He said his music had been nominated for Oscars 3 times and had always lost.  That's ok.  He has plenty of Grammys.