Pianist Tony Caramia has played the Duke Ellington tune “Prelude to a Kiss” countless times. For inspiration, he’s listened to recordings from pianists such as Marian McPartland, Brad Mehldau, Bill Evans, and even Ellington himself.
Yet, he says, “I don’t know that I’ve discovered the best way of playing it.”
He’ll give it another take on his Faculty Artists Series Recital on Sunday, September 22 at 3:30 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall that he titles “A Prelude To….” Caramia is a professor of piano, director of piano pedagogy studies (including coordinating Eastman’s piano classes), and an affiliate faculty member in the Jazz and Contemporary Media department at Eastman. He’ll use the theme of “preludes” to straddle his stylistic range and explore lesser-known composers. His recital will feature guest performers from Eastman’s jazz department: Christine Jensen, saxophone; Sara Gazarek, jazz vocals; and Jeff Campbell, bass.
A native Rochestarian who grew up listening to and influenced by a mix of genres on Rochester’s WXXI radio station with his radio-loving father, he never felt confined to a singular genre and freely traverses classical and jazz styles. However, he says playing jazz has its advantages in that he doesn’t have to follow a score or predetermined way of playing a tune. With jazz standards, he says, “you don’t have to play them in the same key, you don’t have to play them in the same tempo. The only thing you can’t change is the title of the tune.”
Although he doesn’t exclusively play jazz, Caramia’s jazz sensibilities and abilities are what sets his recitals apart. In programming his recitals, he asks, “what’s next” and “what else can I do?” –– questions he says are hallmarks of jazz and that have led him to perform only themed recitals for the last 35 years at Eastman.
For the first half of “A Prelude to…” he’s uncovered several rarely heard preludes by women composers such as Lili Boulanger (Nadia Boulanger’s sister), Marion Bauer (a twentieth-century composer in New York City), Mana-Zucca (a polymath Polish American actress and musician), and Madeleine Dring (another actress and musician). Additionally, he came across Czech composer and conductor Vítězslava Kaprálová, who had works premiered alongside Béla Bartók and Anton Webern in the first half of the twentieth century. And he’ll also perform a work by a former Eastman student Aristea Mellos ’12E (MM), ’17E (DMA). All but one are Eastman premieres.
Then, the improvisational portion of the recital begins with a prelude of a Jazz Suite by Glenda Austin, a well-known composer of children’s music. After an intermission, he’ll continue his improvisational flair in several jazz selections, including a work by Bill Dobbins, an Eastman professor emeritus of jazz studies and contemporary media, called Preludes, which is a suite of preludes not unlike Chopin’s and Shostakovich’s but in jazz styles with sections that invite improvisation.
Research turned up a French movie from the 1960s that used Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers for its soundtrack, including a tune called called “Prelude in Blue,” which Caramia will perform with Christine Jensen, a saxophonist and assistant professor at Eastman. In another work, “Blue Prelude,” new vocal professor Sara Gazarek will sing with Caramia. It will be the first time Caramia has performed with Jensen or Gazarek.
Bassist Jeff Campbell, chair of the Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media department, will provide rhythm section support in a couple of the jazz selections, freeing up Caramia to explore beyond bass lines.
And, in the most iconic of all possible “Preludes” in jazz, Caramia will close out the recital with Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss.”
Of all the pianists and recordings he’s heard of the tune, he says, “I’ll steal from each one of them and see what happens that afternoon. I’ll practice and come up with a sound and hope that I remember it. But if I don’t, I’m not going to cry and run off the stage. Because what I come with is at that moment.”
Faculty Artist Series: Tony Caramia, piano
Sunday, September 22 | 3:30 p.m.
Kilbourn Hall
Tickets are $10; Free for URID holders