September Song (Comp. Kurt Weill; Perf. Bernie Blue: Sopr. Sax)

September Song (Comp. Kurt Weill; Perf. Bernie Blue: Sopr. Sax)

It was a late August Sunday afternoon when I was out for a nature hike in High Park and along the waterfront with the family and friends.

Bee On Gerber Daisy

Growing up I was exposed to a wide variety of music.  You see, my crib was in the study/family room and that’s where the record player was.  So my father would play classical music, big band and jazz.  For example he would run around with the kids in a frenzy dancing to Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance”.

Shortly thereafter, my brother would bring in his Led Zeppelin records such as:

As you can see, that’s quite a breadth of music.

Sidney Bechet has always been a favourite of my father and I, and his style is quite distinctive.  Indeed, Woody Allen, quite the aficionado of ‘good’ music included a Sidney Bechet gem in one of his recent movies Midnight in Paris:

Sidney Bechet, had a very distinctive style which was not as famous here in North America as it was in France and Europe.  It’s my belief that Bechet hit the North American scene just a bit late as things were winding down as far as a receptive audience to his style.  Wikipedia seems to agree somewhat with my idea:

Over time Bechet had increasing difficulty finding musical gigs; he eventually started a tailor shop with Ladnier. During this time, they were visited by various musicians, and played in the back of their shop. Throughout the 1940s, Bechet played in several bands, but his financial situation did not change until the end of that decade.[8]

By the end of the 1940s, Bechet tired of struggling to make music in the United States. His contract with Jazz Limited, a Chicago-based record label, was limiting the events where he could perform, for instance excluding the 1948 Festival of Europe in Nice. He believed that the jazz scene in the US had little left to offer him and that was getting stale.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Bechet#Biography

Also Bechet was known for a unstable temperament which many connect with his lack of early success.

So walking along Sunnyside Beach Park, I heard the distinct refrains of the Sidney Bechet style and the distinctive tone of a Soprano Sax.

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Sunnyside Beach, circa 1930. Palais Royale (Toronto) in the background.

So as fortune would have it was able to trace the source of these wonderful overtones mixing with the wash of the waves along the beach.

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Bernie Blue plays his Soprano Sax in ‘Nature’s Studio’ along the waterfront.

This is “Bernie Blue”.  I have no further information on him because he has no web presence and only gave me a business card.  Hopefully this article will help people discover him.  He did say he plays all over the city so perhaps he has already been discovered.  Anyways, we were all low on cash, being on a hike but we scrounged and tried to contribute as much as we could.

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Doing what we could in supporting Bernie.

With it being the verge of September (late August) and Bernie looked to be in the mood to take a request:  I asked for September Song and the result was magical.

The most endearing part of the performance was that I could see he could hear the accompaniment in his head as he played solo.  With my limited musical acumen, I’ve had the experience of being able to sing and hear the rest of the choir singing along with me, even if they actually are not.  You could tell that Bernie was a seasoned veteran of music with a deep love of music.  The soprano sax is not a ‘money making’ instrument.  Indeed, Sidney Bechet himself struggled financially at one point resigning himself to opening a tailor shop.  I put it to you that you have to love music to play the soprano sax.

Another irony was apparent to me:  Bernie was playing just feet from Toronto’s Palais Royale which hosted the cream of the crop of Big Band Era stars, quite possibly including Bechet himself, but definitely including: Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and many more.

Palais-Royale_Cover
Palais Royale

Also, the Rolling Stones played here in 2002.

So it would seem that Toronto’s Palais Royale is a little known hotspot for music legends from all eras.  I had the pleasure of interviewing Chef Stefan Howard, Executive Chef at the Palais Royale:

For more info: http://www.martincwiner.com/chef-steffan-howard-on-the-history-of-palais-royale/


Here again is Bernie Blue playing “September Song”:

If you’d like to hear a version with the accompaniment, here is Sidney Bechet himself, playing the same piece:

If you’d like to know more about Bernie Blue or book him for an event, I have his business card:

Bernie Blue

 

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