Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Birthday celebration

Yesterday we celebrated my 66th birthday. Actually my birthday was back on March 8, but to celebrated my birthday we went to the Performing Arts Center (PAC) for a concert I wanted to hear. J bought tickets a few weeks back.

After we dropped off Jenifer and Luke, instead of returning home, we headed for downtown Tulsa. We had a nice dinner at the Hyatt Regency hotel. Next we went to the PAC and attended the "Ragtime for Tulsa" concert. Featured in this concert were Bryan Wright and Dalton Ridenhour.

The concert began with Wright playing Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag." He actually played it twice, first as Joplin wrote it, and then as Wright adapted it. After Wright played a half dozen rags, Ridenhour joined Wright on stage where the two played duets on two pianos, both concert grands. The performers had trouble with one note on one of the pianos. Ridenhour got out his tuning wrench on worked on getting the note in proper pitch. Following the duets, Wright left the stage and then Ridenhour played solo ragtime. Among the pieces he played were "Palm Leaf Rag" and "Gladiolus Rag." After fourteen rags were played came intermission, at which time the performers sold copies of their CDs.

After the intermission, Ridenhour played "The Harlem Strut," written by stride piano composer James P. Johnson. Other pieces by Jelly Roll Morton and Zez Confrey followed. Ridenhour played one of his original compositions during the second half of the show.

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