Evan is such a fine and versatile musician. We spent many years together in the Klezmer Conservatory Band where he could anchor the rhythm section or step out front and knock out audiences with his accordion skills. When I was working on albums with folksinger Mary McCaslin and storyteller Sharon Kennedy, Evan came to the studio and added exactly the right parts - to a traditional Celtic tune or a moody original song. And then there was the time he gave me a private concert of one of Chopin's Ballades on the grand piano in his living room. Eclecticism, skill, musicianship, emotion - he has it all.
Anyway, there we were in the green room at the Berklee Performance Center a few years ago, waiting to take the stage for a KCB reunion concert, and I, having developed a strange interest in nice suits, thought I was speaking with just the right person. After all, Evan plays gig after gig, which gives him the opportunity to exhibit a nice variety of sartorial splendor....
"Where do you buy your suits?" I asked him. Evan shocked me by saying that he only had one, the one he was wearing - a modest black suit.
"OK, then, where do you buy your suit?" I said. We both laughed and he explained that he'd gotten it many years ago at Keezers, the place where local musicians buy inexpensive black suits.
I think there's something to be learned here, but I haven't learned it. I want to buy a new suit, and I already have a few. But Evan, a life-long, well-known, in-demand, extraordinary musician only has one. Just one suit - to wear in Melbourne, to wear in Cracow, to wear in the function hall at Temple Beth El, to wear at Ryles. One suit that's heard a dazzling variety of music, and seen a thousand places. One suit!
Anyway, there we were in the green room at the Berklee Performance Center a few years ago, waiting to take the stage for a KCB reunion concert, and I, having developed a strange interest in nice suits, thought I was speaking with just the right person. After all, Evan plays gig after gig, which gives him the opportunity to exhibit a nice variety of sartorial splendor....
"Where do you buy your suits?" I asked him. Evan shocked me by saying that he only had one, the one he was wearing - a modest black suit.
"OK, then, where do you buy your suit?" I said. We both laughed and he explained that he'd gotten it many years ago at Keezers, the place where local musicians buy inexpensive black suits.
I think there's something to be learned here, but I haven't learned it. I want to buy a new suit, and I already have a few. But Evan, a life-long, well-known, in-demand, extraordinary musician only has one. Just one suit - to wear in Melbourne, to wear in Cracow, to wear in the function hall at Temple Beth El, to wear at Ryles. One suit that's heard a dazzling variety of music, and seen a thousand places. One suit!