Indulge me. Turning points are memorable, so I’d like to share a brief story from my life.
I had, as a teenager, played in a band—we called it a dance band. It was in the very late 1950s. Later on, I had been out front in bringing the Dave Brubeck Quartet to Westminster College (the one in Missouri). It remains a vivid memory.
Fast forward a few decades, now the 21st century, I was asked to pair jazz with chamber music on the Eastern Shore. I turned to my friends.
A close friend, a jazz pianist himself, introduced me to Monty Alexander, the joyous jazz pianist from New York by way of Jamaica. The introduction became the first step in the beginning of what became the Monty Alexander Jazz festival.
Several weeks before the curtain went up for that first festival year, I got a call from Dominick Farinacci’s agent recommending we open the festival with Dominick paired with a fast-rising young pianist, Aaron Diehl.
In 2002, Diehl, in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition, was awarded “Outstanding Soloist.” The following year, he toured Europe with Wynton Marsalis. Aaron, like his friend and musical collaborator Dominick Faranacci, met while in the first jazz class at Juilliard.
Farinacci, whose virtuosity is well known in the Eastern Shore neighborhood, has won the “International New Star Award”, Disney’s “New Star Award”, and topped the charts as one of Japan’s No. 1 jazz musicians. Recently he has become a musical playwright.
This brief story of a musical friendship and beyond is a run-up to a concert starring the two friends on The Stage at Oxford Community Center on December 5th.
Preferring to let others frame my expectations, let me turn to The New York Times music critics. A Times critic praised Diehl’s “melodic precision, harmonic erudition, and elegant restraint”. Having enjoyed Aaron Diehl in a recent concert, I would simply add he keeps improving on that description.
About Farinacci a New York Times critic rhapsodized, “…a trumpeter of abundant poise,” who “plays beautifully, with expressive control” and “brings true musicality.”
Wrapping up, here is the opportunity: Dominick Farinacci and Aaron Diehl perform on Friday, December 5th, at 7:30 pm. To purchase tickets, go here.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
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