Redlands Bowl

Another great time at Redlands Bowl.  Came tonight for the Grand Opening of the Summer Concert Series.  I have been living in Redlands for years and never been, what gives?  Concert began at 8:15, we arrived at 7:30 and got pretty good seats.  Granted your view is only as good as the person in front of you.

Tonight (6/22/12) the San Bernardino Symphony performed with Maestro Frank Fetta, guest Pianist Yanna Reznick (sp) and Tenor Haqumai Sharpe.  The audience was treated to a night dedicated to American Music such as: Olympic Fanfare, Fiddle-Faddle and Buglers Holiday by Leroy Anderson, Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin feat. Yanna Reznick on Piano (amazing), a few selections feat Tenor Haqumai Sharpe (Show Biz, Send in the Clowns, There's a Boat That's Leavin', Embraceable You, etc), and excerpts from Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofe.

Yanna Reznick filled in last minute for Mary Au.  She was amazing. Her solo's garnered standing ovations.  Haqumai Sharpe has an amazing voice and is a one-man show. :)

So glad its summer and there is culture and the arts so close to home.

Its FREE. They needs your donations, so at intermission when they pass around the donation bowls put some money in.  Please!

This in essence is a split review, the first for the venue, the second for the performers. I too went to the show last night, (the one fawned over by Amaya), the summer opener for the Redlands Community Music Association.

So first off, the venue. Have you ever been in a place and time that was so beautiful, so perfect and brought you so much simple joy it bordered on the surreal, (I mean without having ingested and controlled substances)? This was there, last night. The scene was as delish as a serving of steaming-hot gravy over oven-fresh biscuits. Yeah, that good. It made my mouth water. If it'd been food I would have stripped naked and lathered myself up. Okay, maybe that's a tad weird, but you get the picture.

The vibe was mellow. The folks, from the feted 94 year-young Pearl Harbor survivor to the 6-month old in daddy's arms in the back row, were mellow. Everyone was just chiilin' and a-groovin'. Totally, completely and utterly sublime. Full blown picnic-with-wine-in-glasses scene. Folding chairs and cribbage happening; Brie-a-thon with some soon-to-be-Isle-legal foie gras. My kinda' par-tay.

Now I do apologize from having to rip you away from this most laid-back review for a words from our sponsors. Despite what Amaya said, the Redlands Bowl Summer Concert Series is not free. If you're a grown-up piehole, you know that tain't nuthin' in this life that's free 'cept air, water and occasionally cookies.

The RBMA lives, (and has lived for 89 summers), off of DONATIONS. They're very polite about getting you to cough up. Me, I like that. They have brutally nice people in red shirts who come along right before intermission with nice red buckets to catch cash, checks, gold doubloons, Hope diamonds, you know, whatever you're coughin' up. Personally I donated one of my portraits of Andrew Jackson, (I don't have many, but gosh darn it, I'm fond of all of them!), and one of my portraits of Abe Lincoln for the raffle. If you go, open up the ol' coin purse, shake out the moths and drop some of your stash in the bucket. This place, this unbelievable little spot of heaven on Earth exists on what you donate.

The second part of this review is the actual performances last night. I'll divide this into three sections, the band and conductor, the pianist and the tenor.

The Band (The San Bernadino Symphony, Frank Paul Fetta conducting): You clowns had way too much fun with the Leroy Anderson stuff, and it showed. Six stars out of five. Smoked it, ya' did. Maestro Fetta knows how to drive the bus, period. Excellent work.

The Pianist (Yana Reznik): This lady can pound a set of eighty-eights like no one else. That said, let me be fair. Having witnessed enough jams in my life, let me share a little inside stuff. Sometimes, when you jam with some new dudes, the... comfortableness ain't always there at the start. That was true of last night. Musicians work well together when they have a feel for the other players. Seeing as the bodacious Miss Reznik, (AB-SO-LUTE-LY STUN-NUN-NUN-NUNING in a blue full length dress last night), a) hadn't been warm on 'Rhapsody in Blue' in a couple of years and b) was playing with a house band new to her and c) it was the first dang tune she had to play coming outta' the shoot, she did okay.

Now before you jump down ol' Panochey's piehole on this, hear me out. Just the fact that she can play 'Rhapsody in Blue' and get through it without embarrassment is an achievement. It is, for a pianist, one mean, tough, bad-@$$ed piece of music, and Yana cooked it considering she was coming in cold, (it was her "warm-up song"). If I were to comment, it was a little to choppy in the staccato department, in places, not enough in others. Now here's the Mulligan. If you did not hear the performance last night, (if you weren't there), fergettaboutit. If you were, you might agree with me. Meh. Don't let it bother ya', Yana, you did good, (as they say).

The Tenor, (H. Waring Sharpe): Haqumai's, (that's what the 'H' stands for), review can be summed up in four words. HE TORE IT UP. Man-o-man, what a set of pipes. In baseball analogies, the ball he hit out of the park when he sang 'Send In the Clowns', well, they're still looking for it with the Hubble. Not so much out of the park as off the freakin' planet. Dude, you have a gift. I, and the crowd last night were blessed. Thank you. If I was to give you any advice, it'd be this, and it'll either make sense to you or not. 1.) Enunciate a tad more. 2.) I see/know your range, so whilst practicing, try the Jerry Lewis 'Hey Lady!' voice to stretch the chords. I know it sounds wacky, but try it. Also, if you don't already, listen to Sammy Davis Jr. . You've got his type of range.

That's it. This summer's (2012) series schedule can be found here:
<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.redlandsbowl.com%2Fconcert-schedule%2F&s=9bb95ea5fad9c33b9fdf3d063aabd7db4d6c9cef8c2082cd38424028d9a1bac6" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.redlandsbowl.…</a>

You can catch Señor Sharpe there on Aug. 3rd when he will be belting out some opera. The Good Lord willin', you'll see my piehole there too.  
Piece out

Was here this week for the Shakespeare festival. Incredible venue and incredible organization. I don't live close and I wish there was something like this close to me, but it's definitely worth the drive. I will be making at least one trip this summer for a play or concert. It's free, too! Such a joy to have been there.