The Perfect Concert

I usually amend “practice makes perfect” to “practice makes better,” but today’s musical gathering at the Jewish Home for the Aged was as close to perfect as it gets. This week, I played at three different Senior Living places—the Sequoias in Portola Valley, the Redwoods in Mill Valley and my home base, the Jewish Home for the Aged in San Francisco, so I was somewhat “in the zone.” Each gathering was unique and memorable. 

 

But today, at the Jewish Home, it was a particularly rich mixture. Some of it was a once-in-a-blue-moon (and yes, we sang Blue Moon) experience, but some of it a prototype that anyone doing similar work might attend to. And the two were joined by a simple principle— tailor the event, as possible, to the particular group of people gathered in a particular place at a particular time. That requires knowing the people, paying attention to what lights them up, and folding it into the organic program that emerges amidst some planned songs, in the way that a jazz musician solos on the chord structure of a song. 

 

Today’s event promised to be special because my friend, Orff student and partner-in-crime performer Laura Ruppert was in town from Seattle for a weekend bar-mitzvah. When Laura lived in San Francisco, just pre-pandemic, she joined me every Friday at the Jewish Home for some two years straight. Trained in opera, interested in jazz ballads and able to sing just about anything, we romped our way through various styles, much to the delight of the listening residents. I missed her sorely when she moved to Seattle some four years ago and I believe she only visited one time to sing at the JH during all this time.

 

But here she was again! My wife Karen decided to join us, as she had just gone to Thursday’s sing at the Redwoods and enjoyed it, so why not? Especially since Laura said she’d sing the duet Wild Mountain Thyme with her, a song Karen has been doing in her weekly choir. 

 

We walked in and a young man came up to say hi. It was Max, a San Francisco School alum now a senior in high school doing some community service at the Home! He was in 6^th grade the year I retired so I didn’t get to be with him all the way through 8^th, but had been his music teacher since he was 3. 

 

So Laura, Karen and I sat down and began with me on guitar and the song Hey, Good Looking. Why that one? Because Helen, one of the residents, asked if I knew it last month. I didn’t exactly but learned it that week and sang it with her—she knew all the words. And so did Laura, so it was fun to sing her special song again with her. Then Karen and Laura did their folk song duet and that was well-received. I reviewed the quodlibet (partner) songs we had sung last week—I Love the Flowers, Blue Moon, Heart and Soul and with Karen, Laura and I leading, actually got the group to try them all at the same time. 

 

After taking care of something, Max came back and in his honor, we all sang the favorite SF School song, Side By Side. Then remembering that he had studied piano, I invited him to play and he sat down and played an impressive Liszt Etude— all by memory. Delicious!

 

Knowing my audience, I left out the song Easter Parade and went for Dayenu, a popular Passover song. From there, a short step to Hava Nagila. Then time for Spring songs ,so we all sang April Showers and then featured Laura on the lovely jazz ballad, Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most. From there, on to Moon River, a song meaningful both to my wife Karen and the resident Rosie. Laura then sang Alfie, the favorite song of a resident named Steve who already was in the Home back in 2008 when my Mom first came, a regular during the two years when Laura and I came together, and lasted (miraculously!) all the way until last year! So we performed Alfie to honor his memory.

 

Are you feeling the personal nature of this kind of programming? Inviting Laura, Max and Karen to share the music they knew and loved, choosing the music that Helen, Rosie and Steve liked? Not only does it give pleasure to the people who recognize their favorite songs but it tells them that I’m paying attention to them and honoring a bit of who they are. 

 

Now it was time to feature Laura’s considerable Opera skills and we did with an exquisite medley that included Bach-Gounod’s Ave Maria, Schubert’s Ave Maria, Offenbach’s Barcarolle, O Sole Mio and Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Sun’s Whose Rays. The power of her voice filled the atrium-space like a cathedral and enveloped everyone in its embrace. 

 

And then I pointed to the resident Jesse and invited her to sing Amazing Grace. Her voice couldn’t approach the volume of Laura’s, but there was so much Soul in each of the quiet notes perfectly sung that the room was hushed in that same kind of stopped-time way. At the end, I invited all to sing with her, then segued into America the Beautiful (a needed reminder amidst the current ugliness) and that was that. 

 

I’ve been coming regularly to this place for 18 years now and alongside the times I’ve brought my summer jazz class here and sometimes kids from school, today was one of the most memorable gatherings. Again, not to be packaged and sold and duplicated but certainly to be appreciated and praised and put out as a model of what can be when you pay attention to the right things.  

 

Blessings to all the performers, participants and listening residents. May the magic echo on.