Art Saves Lives...and friends do too!

Tonight ken and I had a date at the Midland Theater for a stage door Cabaret performance by Gene Bertoncini who is one of the pre-eminent jazz guitarist active today. His fluid technique and lyricism have won him international praise and accolades as the "Segovia of jazz. For two hours we were sitting on stage with this genuine man of wonder as he wove a spell over about 125 intimate friends. Gene is has an amazing background experience for example he was in the original band for Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. He has two great friends who collaborated with Gene on stage...Tom Carroll and Doug Richeson are both active in the contemporary music scene here in Licking county and Denison University. For two hours... I was carried away from any care I might have carried into the theater. A circle of friends celebrating the power of Art making and powers in music and Jazz.

Gene is a delicate skilled precision driven musician who can combine the Bosa Nova with a Chopin melody. His hands were in a ballet with the strings on his guitar and the shadows on the brick wall gave a sense of ambiance to the mood of candlelight and the fragrance of wine and cheese. I was transported to another decade and a place to serenity with multiple generations celebrating the art of making beautiful music. The total immersion while this magician with the wild shock of shiny gray hair demonstrated the mastery of the song "Someone to Watch Over Me". his arrangement of Covatina stole my heart as I listened to every note floating over my physical body...I felt the energy enter my body. He expressed his childhood memory of inspiration of listening to the great like Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Wayne Shorter and Hubert Laws on the radio...does anyone out there listen to a thing called a radio????

I am tired but art saves lives... because for a couple hours I was taken away and now I feel refreshed. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart