{"id":10854,"date":"2019-01-09T13:20:30","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T21:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=10854"},"modified":"2019-01-30T12:21:58","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T20:21:58","slug":"recent-listening-dave-mckenna-in-madison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2019\/01\/recent-listening-dave-mckenna-in-madison\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: Dave McKenna In Madison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2RxPNOj\">Dave McKenna In Madison<\/a><\/em> (Arbors)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/81f4Jb6XA2L._SY355_-e1547068189781.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-10853 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/81f4Jb6XA2L._SY355_-e1547068189781.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"311\" height=\"311\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>From the 1999 edition of Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <em>The Biographical Encyclopedia Of Jazz<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;McKenna brings to the piano a prodigious left hand that is a rhythm section unto itself to go along with his dexterous right. Factor in the vast storehouse of songs at his fingertips and you have a most resourceful performer, celebrated for his theme melodies.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>McKenna (1930-2008) breathes life into that description in this album recorded in the early 1990s at Farley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House Of Pianos in Madison, Wisconsin, and only recently released.<\/p>\n<p>One of the album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s treasures is McKenna combining Walter Donaldson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1930 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re Driving Me Crazy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with Count Basie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Moten Swing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which Basie wrote using the Donaldson song\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s harmonies. I was surprised to learn today that there is video of McKenna playing that medley on a Steinway C grand piano that Farley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House Of Pianos had recently restored. The instrument was getting raves from everyone who played it. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see much of McKenna but his hands\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand a glimpse of him checking his tune list as the video fades. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all we need. His hands, note choices, fluid technique\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand the music\u00e2\u20ac\u201d show his mastery.<\/p>\n<div align=\"&quot;center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-VQvIlhG7mI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Those theme melodies that Feather and Gitler mentioned include a fascinating 15-minute string of songs by Vernon Duke, two songs called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soon&#8221;\u00e2\u20ac\u201done by Rodgers &amp; Hart, the other by Gershwin\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Time\u00e2\u20ac\u009d medley combining Gershwin, Youmans, Bernstein, Cahn and others. House Of Pianos proprietor Tim Farley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s liner note remembrances of the pianist are a bonus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Dave McKenna In Madison (Arbors) From the 1999 edition of Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s The Biographical Encyclopedia Of Jazz: &#8220;McKenna brings to the piano a prodigious left hand that is a rhythm section unto itself to go along with his dexterous right. Factor in the vast storehouse of songs at his fingertips and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}