Concert Review March 28, 2015
No average Joes could captivate equally well with either their quips or the classics.
The musically expert, highly entertaining Joe Trio comprises Cameron Wilson, chief musical arranger and wizard on violin; Allen Stiles, masterful storyteller and maestro on piano; and Charles Inkman, coaxer of music sweet enough to soothe the most savage of beasts, when heís not creating the roars of said savage beasts or the chirrups of crickets, on cello.
The trio not only carried out its mandate to "unstuffî the classics"; it kicked the stuffing clean out of them, describing titles such as Joseph (Joe) Haydn's Trio in G Major, Hob XV, No 25 as "unimaginative." Yet their evocative rendition of its second movement, Poco Adagio (a little slowly), moved the audience to a spellbound, reverent silence.
By contrast, the trio irreverently opened their show by saying, "Please remain seated for the national anthem!" They then played their version of O Canada, renamed Joe Canada, inserting cheeky, witty musical references at every opportunity.
These three clowning musicians contorted their generally friendly features into ferocious scowls as they played The Pink Panther theme, Beethoven-style, complete with the wild composer's "Da da da daaa" opening to his 5th Symphony.
It was the second of the trio's nine variations on the theme, dubbed ìthe greatest piece of music ever written. Others included Pink Panther a la Mozart, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Presley.
One variation particularly favoured by the audience focused on an intense, existential search for the meaning of life, the universe and everything. It was a gem. So was the Romantic Pukedom variation which overflowed with the flowery gestures its nickname implies.
Speaking of gems, it would be remiss not to mention the first movement of Johannes (Joe) Brahms's Trio in B Major, Opus 8, accurately described as "long, but good," as well as Tom Anderson's profound tribute to his wife, entitled Da Slockit Light (Extinguishing Light).
The varied program culminated in an audience participation version of Dizzy Gillespieís Salt Peanuts, which drew cries for an encore. The trio obliged and launched, at breakneck speed, into their arrangement of Orange Blossom Special, decorated with segments from Fiddler on the Roof. It earned them a second standing ovation.
The Kelowna Community Concert Association’s season commenced Wednesday at Kelowna’s Community Theatre. It was the Joe Trio, but the performance certainly wasn’t a Joe-job that any unskilled threesome could pull off.
The Joe group is a piano trio, but they would, no doubt, resist being called that. While I’m about it, I should probably mention that a piano trio is not a trio of pianists but two bowed instruments--usually a violin and a cello--and a pianoforte, with their corresponding players, of course.
Members of the Joe Trio are Allen Stiles, piano; Cameron Wilson, violin; and Charles Inkman, cello. All of them are superbly trained and marvelously musical. I was particularly impressed by their mastery of complex rhythms and by the spot-on intonation of the strings.
Everything about the Joe Trio seems to be tongue-in-cheek. Theirs is an unbelievable level of sophistication paraded about in a clown costume.
The concert opened with the Black Dog Rondo by "J.S. Plant." Even an expert would have been hard pressed to recognize the rondo form, unless the ensemble’s periodic vocal outbursts in falsetto were actually the rondo sections and the pastiche of J.S. Bach melodies were the diversions.
But good Joes they were, and before the show could spin totally out of control, the artists proved their artistry with a captivating reading of the Opus 15 Trio in G Minor by Bedrich Smetana. It was so well and movingly played that I was tempted to join in the applause between the movements. From where I sat, the piano sound occasionally covered that of the strings, and--at least for that number--I would have closed the lid of the piano completely.
Then it was back to hijinx: The Sound of Moosick with Richard Rodgers tunes exceedingly arranged by Cameron Wilson. It even included a duel between Maria von Trapp and the Puerto Rican Maria from Westside Story.
Wilson did most of the arrangements for the concert numbers. In fact, he is a composer-arranger of note (pun intended). For a composer, Wilson’s violin technique and rich tone are virtually unheard of.
Speaking of technique and rich tone, it was a particular delight to hear Charles Inkman’s cello playing. Although Inkman seemed to be the least frivolous of the three, his bio in the program corrected that impression by stating that he "was born at a very early age."
The second half of the program was lighter than the first, but still the Joe Trio did serious--and beautiful--interpretations of Elgar’s Salut d’Amour, Bernstein’s Westside Story Medley, and Tom Anderson’s Da Stockit Light (The Dimming Light), which has an authentic-sounding Celtic aura about it.
The Maltese Goose, a hodgepodge of Mother Goose characters and tunes and presented as a narrated whodunit, was the big number of the second half. Pianist par excellence Allen Stiles not only accompanied this flight of fancy but also narrated it.
The program concluded with the Dizzy Giillespie/Kenny Clark number, Salt Peanuts. The sellout crowd of subscribers ate up the hot jazz licks and even chanted "Salt PEA-nuts" on cue. The famous Gillespie trumpet was, of course, not on hand, but, as if in compensation, the jazzy tones of Cameron Wilson’s fiddle resurrected the ghost of Stefan Grapelli.
The sun beat down from a sky which was that same sparkling shade of blue you see in the girl's eyes just before she passes out.
It was hot enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk.
If there was a sidewalk.
If anyone wanted to eat fried eggs.
"Eine Kleine Sold Out", the sign said. It could have been a simple statement of fact or an accusation of something darker.
That's what I was there to find out.
That's what I do - I'm a music critic, finding out who's been playing presto when they should have been allegro, who's been mixing their forte with somebody else's pianissimo.
It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it.
It all started a few days earlier when the Fat Man came calling.
"Mr. Marlow?" came the wheezing voice through my office door. "I understand, sir, that you take commissions to review concerts."
"That's what it says on the sign."
"Sign, sir?" The man who entered defined enormous; he oozed through the doorway like a slick from a single-hulled tanker; he was clearly puzzled and mopped his perspiring brow with a large, dubiously clean handkerchief.
"That's right - the illuminated sign as you came in, just next to the heated pool and the string of polo ponies."
"Ah, you make a joke sir! Wonderful, I do like a man with a sense of humour!"
"So do I. Let me know if you come across one."
"But seriously, sir. I wish to commission your services. You've heard of Eine Kleine Summer Music?"
"I want you to attend this week's concert: Joe Trio are playing."
"I heard. So? Apart from the odd name, what's the deal?"
"Deal, you ask sir, as well you might! The deal, sir, involves a statuette, a statuette that my associates and I have been seeking for years."
"Statuette?"
"A carving, sir, an carving of a jungle cat, carved from jade, a jade of an exquisite roseate hue. It was carved for the Emperor Go-Wei of the twelfth dynasty, lost during the Boxer rebellion, resurfaced in Hong Kong in the last days before the Japanese invaded and was lost again. Until now, by Gadfrey, until now."
"So what's the connection?"
"Joe Trio, sir. We think they know where the cat is. There have been rumours of coded messages in their playing. We suspect their contact will be in Sunday's audience. I want you to observe anything unusual about the concert - anything at all you hear?"
"Fair enough. But just so's I know: what's the name? who am I working for?"
"Goldberg is the name, sir, Goldberg."
"Well, that's a change."
Which is how I ended up sitting in the back row of a church that couldn't have have been more crowded if the minister had announced that the Lord Himself would be putting in a personal appearance after the show.
Joe Trio took to the stage: they looked normal enough, but then that's what the mass-killer's neighbours always say.
Your trained investigator knows what's important and what is simply distraction - and the Joes certainly know how to distract. They opened with a witty arrangement of Vincent Youman's "Tea for Two" and their programme was full of similarly diverting tit-bits.
But, just as every actor knows that only he can truly do justice to Hamlet, so the Joes gave us their take on Beethoven. His Trio Op.1 No.1 in E flat.
Maybe pianist Stiles fooled the rest of the audience with his "analysis" of the piece; to me it was clearly some form of secret message to his contact in the audience. All that talk of "Little A" and "Big B" was just so much alphabet soup.
You've got to hand it to the Joes though. They can play and then some. Energy? They had energy aplenty in the quicker music. Lyricism (hey, I have a dictionary, I'm even learning joined-up writing) poured out of the slow movement.
And balance? Maybe it was common where this Goldberg came from, but I've rarely heard all three instruments as clearly as this.
Which, in itself, made me suspicious. What where these guys up to?
The last work on the first half was "A Brief History of Western Music with apologies to Henry Mancini, Op.1" Who was this Mancini? Were the Joes flaunting their mob connections in public?
It was clear to me that the whole work was a brilliant piece of misdirection: "your basic summary of the last 200 years of Western Music" proclaimed the innocuous-looking violinist Wilson.
But Mozart died 215 years ago; and Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" was written in 1972 - so what happened to the last 34 years?
It was but another part of the distraction, as I realised when I identified the theme they were variating on: The Pink Panther!
Suddenly it all came together: Goldberg's missing statuette, coded messages - it was nothing but smoke and mirrors. There was no statuette - or, if there was it was probably at the bottom of Hong Kong harbour or hidden in some offshore bank vault. There was nothing here for me.
I stayed for the second half of the concert, thinking Goldberg was going to be disappointed by my report: he would have got more enjoyment from the music.
Or maybe not. I didn't think Goldberg was Canadian and you needed to be Canadian to understand most of the second half, except perhaps for Elgar's Salut d'Amour and the Joes' arrangement of Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith's Duelling Banjos. Hey - maybe the panther had webbed paws!
Despite the heat the audience just didn't want to leave and the Joes played an encore: Ashcan Farewell.
It seemed like a weird name for a sweet piece of folkish melody, but who am I to argue?
The guy sitting next to me leaned over and said "It's not Ashcan Farewell it's Ashokan for heaven's sake!"
I turned towards him; my jacket hung open and he could see my .45 in its shoulder holster. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"
"Er - weird name for such a sweet piece: Ashcan Farewell!"
"You got that right."
(With apologies to Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett.)
Recorded live at the Recital Hall of the UBC School of Music, it's Joe Trio. The generic name belies an ensemble with a deep committment to the western classical music tradition as well as to music that constantly wafts through our consciousness via television, film, and sports. Included on this performance is Joe Trio's "D'eau a Simpsymphony" inspired by Danny Elfman's Simpson's tune well as dozens of well known classical music themes. You'll also hear "A Brief History of Western Music with Apologies to Henry Mancini Opus 1" a set of variations on a theme that according to Joe Trio's arranger and violinist Cam Wilson is the single greatest piece of music of all time! Click on the pink panther to hear what that tune is!
Joe Trio - Set 'em up, Joe - (Cam Wilson, violin/Allen Stiles, piano/Laura McPheeters, cello) - CBC Records MVCD 1145: The Joe Trio is one of a growing number of small ensembles trying to subvert the uptight concert hall decorum and make classical programming interesting to and at the same time fun for a wider audience. Their brand of vigorous eclecticism knows no borders whatever, and may include rock, jazz, TV themes, or Celtic fiddle, and their performances are often broken up with parodies of children's stories or soap operas. Their delightful arrangements contribute to the fun, often conjuring up much larger musical forces. I know the instrumentation here and some of the classical composers listed seem to put this CD in the Classical rather than the Jazz section, but the Joe Trio is so much fun that it just seems more appropriate in looser section. They sometimes sound like chamber music a la Spike Jones. You also get an unlisted additional track after No. 13, and it's backwards. You simply must hear the trio's "D'eau a Simpsymphony," which turns out to be one of the most hilarious musical parodies compositions ever - the eight-minute epic is variations on the musical theme from The Simpsons! Look at the 13 tracks and you'll see why this didn't belong in Classical: Paint It Black/ Hiccup de Tango/ Joe Canada/ The Way You Look Tonight/ D'eau a Simpsymphony/ Dumka 6/Nocturna/ If Ever You Were Mine/ Dumka 2/ Linus and Lucy/ A Little Noir/ Der Flipperzauberer/ Orange Blossom Zorbet.
John Henry
Sound Advice
This is lots of fun with several quick musical right turns over the course of the CD. Tongue is firmly planted in cheek, and you can't help but smile many times here. The arrangements and performances are both clever and well executed. This will appeal to a wide variety of people. Five Stars.
Joe Trio's upcoming release on CBC Records features an hour of music played with rock concert attitude and concert hall grace. The Vancouver Sun called Joe Trio "a new breed of classically trained musicians; talented, intensely musical, and unhindered by old fashioned ideas about what constitutes acceptable repertoire." The quirky compositional genius of Joe Trio’s violinist, Cameron Wilson, is at the heart of what they do. With the exception of the two beautifully played excerpts of Antonin Dvorak’s Dumky Trio, every piece on Set ’em Up, Joe is a clever arrangement or original composition. The word "arrangement" hardly does justice to Cam’s knack for transforming the theme from ‘The Simpsons’ into an epic fantasy weaving in over a dozen quotations from popular symphonic works into a remarkable postmodern concoction called D’eau a Simpsymphony. Other arrangements, such as Jerome Kern’s lovely The Way You Look Tonight and Maurice Lennon’s Celtic ballad If Ever You Were Mine, allow the music to speak freely, and beautifully. Also look for Vince Guaraldi’s enormously popular Linus and Lucy. It will have adults and kids alike dancing like Snoopy around the hi-fi set. Set ‘em Up, Joe captures the excitement and energy of Joe Trio’s highly regarded live performances.
