Nostalgic tribute to world’s outstanding pianists

Wednesday 21 July 1993

Tony Magee Upfront

School of Arts Cafe, Queanbeyan

Tonight plus July 22, 23, 24, 1993

by W. L. Hoffmann

CANBERRA pianist, Tony Magee, best known at the School of Arts Cafe for the fine accompaniments he has provided for many artists who have appeared there, moves up-front in his own show which highlights his talents as pianist-arranger and is currently running at the cafe.

He has devised a program which surveys a variety of popular piano styles, ranges through a half-century of light music and provides an evening of musical memories.

It is a presentation which is in three sections, with the first featuring the piano in Hollywood and paying tribute to some of the outstanding pianists of film and television.

There is Liberace in his 1955 song Sincerely Yours, and the brilliantly ubiquitous Oscar Levant in a Gershwin medley which introduces Rhapsody in  Blue, Embraceable You and The Man I Love. This section concludes with a selection of movie themes, winding up with one of the most enduring of them all, As Time Goes By from Casablanca, in which Tony displays a pleasant singing voice.

The second section is devoted to the piano in Latin-American music, with particular emphasis on the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim (but without his Girl From Ipanema which, however, turns up later in  the show).

There are examples of the bossa nova, rhumba, cha-cha and samba and such well know pieces as Green Eyes, Siboney and Ay-ay-ay.

These are all played with a fine swing and a strong delineation of their rhythmic diversity. An amusing diversion in this section is a performance of the old standard Tea for Two as a cha-cha, interlaced with alternate tea-pouring and piano playing.

Then to round out the Latin American mood, there is a sparkling rendition of the Jobim's One Note Samba.

Tony Magee introduces each of these sections with a commentary that is both informal and informative and throughout the program is excellently supported by the discreet drumming of percussionist Mark Sutton and the quiet but firm bass playing of John Stephenson.

The final section opens with two highly contrasting pieces, Scott Joplin’s bright rag The Entertainer, followed by an expressive and effective arrangement of the song Cast Your Fate to the Wind. Then follows a request section, but one with a difference.

The audience is invited to nominate favourite pieces, each table writing down a number of requests, from which the pianist and his associates ingeniously devise a medley introducing as many of these items as possible.

This makes a suitably nostalgic ending to a highly enjoyable evening of light music entertainment.

First published in The Canberra Times, July 21, 1993