I am now three days into my first official visit to the state of Texas (unofficially my first visit was in August when I connected through Houston to get to Mexico, but no honest traveler counts an airport layover as a true visit to a new location). Yes, believe it or not, as much as I've traveled I've never found my way down here until now. Now that I have, though, it brings my total states visited count to 34 (unless I've done my math incorrectly, which is always possible) as well as Washington D.C. In the next 6.5 weeks that total will grow by at least 2, and possibly by as many as 8 depending on bus routes.
Alas, I'm getting ahead of myself. Why am I in Texas in the first place and why will I be visiting as many as 8 new states in the next 6.5 weeks? I'll tell you! I'm currently contracted as the tenor trombonist for the first (of what is hoped to be many) national tour of a holiday-themed musical entertainment presentation (for lack of a more concise genre name) entitled "Handel's Messiah Rocks". This is the first of what will likely be several entries covering my experience on this tour.
OK. So. Texas. Here I am. The town of Orange, Texas, to be specific. Where is Orange? It is located approximately 2 hours due east of Houston, along the Louisiana border. What that means is I have done a lot of back and forth travel in the last week. I flew home from Monterrey last Friday (via Houston), spent a total of about 56 hours in Beaverton, then turned around and flew right back to Houston (closest major airport to Orange). Whew! But wait a minute... This is supposed to be a tour, right? Then why have I been in one town for three days already? Well it turns out you have to learn and rehearse the music before you can take it on tour... so that's what we're doing. The Lutcher Theater for the Performing Arts here in Orange, TX (a nice hall, by the way) is the setting for what is known among these types of tours as "tech week" and it will also host the first official performance of the tour this coming Sunday. Sorry, getting ahead of myself again... Many of you may still be wondering just exactly what the heck kind of show "Handel's Messiah Rocks" IS. Well, for those I have not yet talked to about it, I would describe it as a re-imagining of Handel's "The Messiah" oratorio with a modern audience in mind, drawing from styles of a variety of well known hard rock and metal acts of the past 30 years or so, while attempting to maintain the spirit of the original composition. Imagine some of the most well known motives from "The Messiah" fused with riffs reminiscent of Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Styx, and Van Halen over the course of a 90 minute show, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what you'd be in store for. The show was originally premiered as a PBS special in 2008, with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops. The version which we are doing has been re-orchestrated and reduced to make it more practical for touring.
To all my classically-trained colleagues out there, I KNOW what you're thinking... Believe me, I thought the same thing when I first heard what this show was. Even the least cynical of you would likely describe such a concept as "cheesy" as best, and perhaps you're right. I'll say, though, that while the jury is certainly still out on how the entire experience will be looked back upon (we've only been at it for two days, after all), this material has a potential to energize crowds (in spite of its arguably limited target audience) in such a way that it will maintain its appeal for us as well, even over the course of a 20+ city tour. If nothing else, it will be interesting and exciting to have the experience of being a touring musician. I'm quite looking forward to it.
Here's the snag, though. The actual TOUR in the literal sense won't begin until November 16th... Due to a scheduling snafu involving a couple of canceled shows in Dallas, next week is free for the musicians. After this we will all reconvene in Owensboro, KY whereupon we will continue with the remainder of the tour uninterrupted. In the meantime I'm taking the opportunity to head up to Chicago for a week to visit friends and hang out, and of course expand my musical horizons when possible and/or practical. It's already been nearly 6 months since the last time I was in Chi (the longest I've been away since graduating NU) and it will be great to get to spend some a week up there. Can't think of better use of my time off from tour!
OK, it's getting late and I have to be up early for rehearsal. I'll finish with a few thoughts on my initial Texas experience thus far...
Small-town Texas is essentially everything I expected it to be, with a few small exceptions. 1) I didn't expect it to get so cold here, especially as far south as we are. Luckily I have warmer-weather clothing with me. 2) The locals here are some of the friendliest strangers I've ever met. Everyone from the hotel workers to the convenience store clerks and waiters, to the people from the foundation which is sponsoring our performance here in Orange who have been tending to our needs at the hall so far this week. I wouldn't say I "doubted" the Texas hospitality I'd heard so much about, but I guess I didn't expect it to be this "potent". Definitely a pleasant surprise. 3) Tex-Mex IS all it's cracked up to be... I was eager to compare it to the actual Mexican food ("Mex-Mex"?) I tried over the past 2 months, and was not disappointed. Different, for sure, but equally good. 4) Like Monterrey, this area has been heavily effected by hurricanes over the past few years... Not being from somewhere where hurricanes ever hit, I would have never expected people to be so gung-ho about them rolling through their town several times a year, every year. It's strange to me... I don't know if I'd ever be able to treat that as an acceptable inconvenience the way these folks do...
OK, that's all I got for now. More to come. G'night, ya'll!
No comments:
Post a Comment