It pays to practice your scales
Grammy Award winning John Proulx, recently returned to live in Michigan, debuts his new album “Say It” at St. Cecilia Music Center on Sunday, February 25.
On Sunday, February 25 at 2 p.m., the Grammy Award winning pianist, composer, and vocalist John Proulx will celebrate the release of his new recording “Say It” at St. Cecilia Music Center (24 Ransom Avenue NE). The performance will also feature bassist Paul Keller and drummer Pete Siers and includes a reception following the concert.
This won’t be Proulx’s first time on the Royce Auditorium stage for this newly-returned local citizen. Proulx (pronounced “proo”) played piano recitals as a child at St. Cecilia Music Center—making his return to the historic landmark this month that much sweeter.
“I’ve worked with both Paul Keller and Pete Siers on several occasions,” says Proulx of his sidemen for Sunday’s concert, “and just really like the energy they bring. Paul, especially, has such a love of playing that comes through every time he picks up the bass, so it’s just a joy. They’re great readers, real professionals, and every time I’m here and do a big concert I like to use those guys.”
Proulx is no stranger to the concept of “the big concert” after living in Los Angeles since leaving Chicago’s Roosevelt University in 2001.
“I just really loved the creative energy and opportunity that was out there,” he says of his time out West. While there he was able to perform regularly with Natalie Cole and Melissa Manchester, provide piano music for Lalo Schifrin’s 80th birthday party, and record his first three albums as a leader with some of the city’s top jazz musicians, including mentors Chuck Berghofer, bass, and Joe LaBarbera, drums, who are featured on his newest recording, “Say It.”
“Say It” includes fewer original compositions than his first three albums, though he did return to work with Melissa Manchester. Together they wrote a piece called “Big Light” for her album “You Gotta Love The Life,” which featured her in a vocal duet with the late Al Jarreau.
“Of course Al Jarreau passed away recently, so it was meaningful he was able to sing that song,” says Proulx. “From what I hear it was one of his favorite songs that he’d ever sung, which is a huge compliment coming from him.”
For “Say It” Proulx and Manchester sing a duet on their composition “Stained Glass.”
“[It’s] a bit of a jazz/pop crossover kind of thing, more of a James Taylor vibe. She liked the visual part of that and how life is like stained glass and all these pieces, these crooked and jagged pieces that come together and it’s hard to see what the picture is of your life, or stained glass, until you take a step back and look at it as this beautiful picture that all comes together as one image,” says Proulx. “That’s a special song on the album.”
The recording also includes “Gentle Rain,” generally played as a bossa nova but re-interpreted by Proulx in a medium-up tempo, and the title piece written by Jimmy McHugh and Frank Loesser, two giants of what’s known as the Great American Songbook, a tradition Proulx adheres to.
“I like to write in that classic style of old songs that sound new and familiar,” he says, “where the lyric and melody and chord changes really come together in a beautiful way. Songs that last a lifetime.”
The Grammy Awards agreed by bestowing “Best Vocal Jazz Album” to Nancy Wilson for the 2006 recording “Turned to Blue,” which includes Proulx’s composition “These Golden Years” with lyrics by D. Channsin Berry.
Proulx went to the Grammy Awards that year.
“You don’t get a statue, you get a certificate… I was living in an apartment at the time and they send you this certificate in the mail, and they bend it and put it in your mailbox,” he laughs. “You get this bent piece of cardboard, you know, as your reward! I had it framed and everything else. It looks more official now, but it wasn’t as glamorous as it seems.”
Nonetheless, the award opened doors. On his new album, available at Sunday’s concert, Diana Krall’s music director Alan Broadbent contributes three arrangements for string quartet and jazz ensemble, including Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Michel Legrand’s “The Summer Knows.”
“Then there’s one composition he recently wrote with lyricist Georgia Mancio called ‘The Last Goodbye,’ a waltz: sad lyric, beautiful tune,” says Proulx, who recently returned to Michigan to earn his master’s degree at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
In Los Angeles, Proulx was doing adjunct teaching at three separate universities, touring, and watching in shock as Los Angeles was hit with an epic wave of rent increases. He called his friend Greg Jasperse, recently made head of Vocal Jazz at Western Michigan University, and took the offer for a full ride and graduate assistanceship to earn his master’s. Or course, the Proulxs have family here.
“The thing with my job now is that I travel around so much that I don’t have to be based in one particular area,” says the musician. He spent four months in 2009, for example, performing at Michael Feinstein’s night club in the Loews Regency hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City. “I feel being here would be great. We love Michigan. We love going to the lake and being near family. And it just feels a little more relaxed all around which is nice—a nice change of pace after living in the city for so long.”
John Proulx Welcome Home and Album Release Concert
February 25, 2:00 p.m.
St. Cecilia Music Center
24 Ransom Avenue NE
Tickets online or by calling (616) 459–2224.
