Amram, McEuen, Statesmen – what a weekend of music as the Palladium celebrates 15 years!

Down at the Palladium we are all still reeling from the amazing opening weekend of our 15^th Anniversary Season.

 

Friday nights Side Door show featuring David Amram and John McEuen was absolutely magical.  McEuen played some Nitty Gritty Dirt Band hits – like Mr. Bojangles and Will The Circle Be Unbroken.

 

 And Amram, told stories of his days working with Jack Kerouac, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and lots more. And on any given tune he’d move from piano, to guitar, to penny whistles, to hand drums and more.

 

I think both McEuen and Amram are national treasures and having them on an intimate nightclub stage is something you’ll only see here at the Palladium.

 

I picked David up at the Tampa Airport on Thursday night and we ended up sharing some wine and food with the great songwriter Eric Andersen, who was on Amram’s plane and headed for a string of local gigs.

 

Sunday over breakfast at the Hollander Hotel I introduced Amram to Chuck Redd, Nicki Parrott, Nate Najar and Ehud Asherie, who were playing in our Statesmen of Jazz show that afternoon.

 

Chuck Redd told Amram he’d played on one of his classical compositions and had always wanted to meet him. Both Amram and Redd had played with the late Charlie Byrd and Nate had just released a Byrd tribute CD, so there were plenty of stories to tell.

 

Later that day, the Statesmen, with Nate opening, played two great sets for a very happy jazz audience. Nicki did an uptempo version of The Man I Love, and she and fellow Australian, reed-player Adrian Cunningham, teamed up for a swinging duet of Waltzing Matilda.

 

Our photos are by Palladium staffer Katie Keislter. And we’ve got more photos to come in future blog posts.

 

Thanks to the Palladium staff for their hard work this past weekend and to our great audiences for turning out.

 

And to top off a great weekend, I was at the Straz Center on Saturday night for the Broadway Ball which featured a concert by my favorite American Songbook interpreter – Michael Feinstein.

 

Now, I need some rest!