From Baroque to Boogie Woogie

Can you autograph a CD?

We were totally blown away during the early evening we spent at Glenshiel listening to the Charl du Plessis Trio with Charl du Plessis on piano, Werner Spies on bass and Hugo Radyn on drums. It was billed as an evening of "baroque swing" ... but it turned out to be so much more.

How about Bach's Brandenburg Concerto arranged for ABBA?
... Or his Air on a G String played South African style?
... The three Winter movements from Vivaldi's Four Seasons arranged for a jazz trio (the two Allergro movements) and for a pop group (the Largo movement)?
... Or our favorite, Scarlatti's Harpsichord Sonatas played with a boogie woogie beat?

 Here's a snippet ...

Who are these crazy dudes? Clearly, the leader of the Charl du Plessis Trio is Charl du Plessis. Charl was born in Pretoria where he still lives and teaches at the University of Pretoria when he is not traveling the world performing and recording.

Charl has the honor to be the first South African to be named a Steinway artist, a special relationship cultivated by Steinway & Sons with pianists from every genre. By being elevated to a Steinway artist, Charl joined the ranks of 1600 Steinway artists ranging from classical pianists such as Lang Lang to jazz stars like Diana Krall, pop icons like Billy Joel, and "immortals" including the legendary Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Arthur Rubinstein.

I couldn't help thinking as I listened to the trio perform that the person who would appreciate this concert even more than Vince and I would be our brother-in-law Mike Perryman. Mike, a gifted pianist in his own right, played  drums for many years with the Kansas City Jazz  Orchestra. So we had to buy all six CDs Charl sold in the lobby to send to Mike for Christmas. An early Merry Christmas to you Mike! You're gonna love it.

For their encore, the Charl du Plessis Trio played Billy Joel's "Piano Man" arranged as a classical jazz instrumental. Unforgettable.

Charl performed on a beautiful Kawai grand piano at Glenshiel, but if you want to hear the Steinway artist play on a Steinway, check out a concert on his exciting new 10 Chair Tour where he will perform 10 Solo Recitals on 10 Steinways in 10 Cities across South Africa. The Steinway comes with its own piano technician who apparently demonstrates his piano tuning in front of the audience before Charl takes the stage. The Joburg appearance will be on October 12 at Wits University's  Linder Auditorium. We'll be there.