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The Bastille Day Concert at City Park, New Orleans Published on February 13, 2007 The City of New Orleans is famous
for music. The city is considered the birthplace of jazz where in early
twentieth century famous jazz musicians such as Joe "King" Oliver, Jelly
Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and many other fine musicians played various
instruments and sang songs. In late 1940s and early 1950s, New Orleans
became the Mecca for rhythm and blues music, which was precursor to
rock-n-roll. Under this backdrop, it is natural that New Orleans will still
be the place where a whole variety of music will be played. In March 2005, I
found a place in the 'Garden District' of the city where many budding
musicians go to perform. The person who organizes these concerts is Mr.
Albinas Prizgintas, who goes by the name Albinas. By profession, he is the
organist of New Orleans Trinity Episcopal Church. However, he does many
things for the community as far as music goes. I befriended Albinas and his French-speaking wife, Manon. In March 2005 when they organized a marathon 28-hours non-stop music festival [Bach Around the Clock] to honor John Sebastian Bach's birth anniversary I stayed overnight at the church auditorium to record the performance. Since then, I have become a permanent fixture in their Sunday concert [Trinity Artist Series] doing live recording. The other day Manon told me, on this year's Bastille Day (July 14, 2005) Albinas will be playing an hour of French songs in the City Park’s 'Two Sisters Pavilion' at 6:00 p.m. I took my recording gear to my office, which is only a mile and a half from 'Two Sisters Pavilion.' As I was getting ready to go the concert venue, a big summer storm hit the Lakeview area where I work. Braving the storm, I drove to City Park. I thought who is going to come to listen to Albina's song in this inclement weather. Boy, was I wrong! At least 150 or more people showed up to listen to the French songs sung by Albinas. Pic: Albinas playing piano at Bastille Day concert in New Orleans City Park
Most classical music lover in New
Orleans know this for a fact that Albinas is a fine piano player. There was
an upright piano in the concert room. Albinas was playing few notes on the
piano to make sure that the PA system would pickup the piano sound; he also
sang a short song to make sure the audience could hear his voice through the
speakers hanging in two corners of the pavilion. My job was to set the
microphones for recording.
I chose only five songs out of 13 total songs to place in Mukto-mona web site. These five songs will give anyone interesting to preview the beauty of the French music. My favorite is Track No. 10 (Le Bohème). This is such a pensive music. It reminded me of Fryderyk Chopin's piano composition. Albinas did a fine job to exude the pensive emotion. In one song, Track No. 8, Ms. Lisa McDonald, a local artist, gave the flute accompaniment to enliven the song.
Please audition these songs to experience the beauty of French love songs. If you are like me, you will love them. I know most Mukto-monas will not understand the lyric of these songs but the haunting tune of these songs and Albinas' rendition of these French classic and his superb piano-playing will capture your imagination. The idea of writing this concert review stems from my desire to introduce Albinas to "cyber audiences." I was lucky to find him in New Orleans! Without music this world would go crazy. After all, we have to preserve whatever sanity we have left in us in this post 9-11 and 7-7 days. Selected Tracks [mp3]: |
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