Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote an article about an annual Old First Concerts (O1C) program at the Old First Presbyterian Church. The event was an afternoon performance by jazz pianist Mike Greensill playing with fellow musicians. The title of the article was “Mike Greensill and Friends Running out of Steam.”
Yesterday afternoon he had enough steam to return to O1C. This time the performance was a celebration of his 80th birthday, which took place this past Saturday. Greensill often accompanied himself at the piano with his own singing. Sadly, the audio for this livestream performance was poorly managed, meaning that at least half a dozen of his verbal introductions came across as mumbles.
Mike Greensill at the piano leading his instrumental quartet (screen shot from yesterday’s YouTube livestream)
He began the program with a trio performance of “Stella by Starlight,” with rhythm provided by Ruth Davis on bass and guitarist Brad Buethe. After that, things started to go downhill at different paces. The good news was that Greensill allocated a generous amount of solo work to the other musicians. These included not only Davis and Buethe but also Noel Jewkes alternating among saxophones and clarinet and, perhaps most interesting of all, Bill Klingelhoffer on French horn. (I used to have a good view of Klingelhoffer from my box seat at the San Francisco Opera!)
While Greensill’s singing voice may not be as polished as that of other crooners, I am afraid that it rose above the other three vocalists on the program. These were Roberta Donnay, Kellie Fuller, and Gale Terminello, all of whom seemed to be more interested in stylization, rather than solid command of the pitches. In spite of the distance in age, Greensill’s vocal qualities soared (or at least puttered) above all of them.
Is it time for a long-standing tradition to recognize the end of the road?
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