Connections
By David Budin

A few things happened on the same day that all connected me with old friends. It was the Sunday of the Cain Park Arts Festival and the Ingenuity Festival. At Cain Park, I ran into Jane Berger – she’s an artist and art teacher, and she’s an old friend who went to Heights High when I did. We talked about art and teaching and old friends and Heights High. And we agreed that there’s something about old friends that’s different and unique.

I was thinking about that later the same day, on my way to the Ingenuity Festival to hear the brilliant young New York City-based pianist Spencer Myer III, who was born and raised in the Cleveland are and whose parents still live here. I believe he’s a brilliant young pianist, anyway. I can prove that he’s young and a pianist, but I guess you’ll have to judge his brilliance yourself. If you missed him at Ingenuity, there will be other chances to hear him in the Cleveland area during the next few months; watch for his name.

Spencer’s father and I were rock musicians in the 1970s who sometimes played in groups together. One day in August 1978, Spencer II called me to ask if I could fill in for him at a club where he was doing a solo gig, because his wife had just gone into labor with what turned out to be Spencer III. Now Spencer III is winning classical piano competitions all over the world.

Classical? Where did we go wrong? Man – kids are so rebellious.

As for my opinion of his playing, sure, I may be biased, but, you know, I’m not judging those piano contests he keeps winning.

Anyway, Spencer III played for an hour– a little more with his encore – at Ingenuity, inside the very air-conditioned United Church of Christ on the hottest day of the year (until the next day). And, of course, he played brilliantly.

Before Spencer’s concert, I checked out the outdoor stage next to the United Church of Christ. I got there in time to hear the last song by a collection of musician’s from the Roots of American Music organization, including another friend, the musical-educational organization’s founder and director, Kevin Richards.

Then I caught the beginning of the next act, Rick Smith Jr. He’s a young magician who recently broke the Guinness World Record for card throwing. That’s throwing playing cards; and there are records for distance, height, speed, accuracy and, I guess, whatever else you can achieve with a thrown playing card.

He was obviously influenced – at least – by the magician who held the record until he broke it, and the only other person to have ever held the record, Ricky Jay. You may have seen Jay’s HBO special, which was essentially the one-person show he performed in Los Angeles and in New York, on Broadway; or the many national TV shows on which he’s appeared as a magician and card thrower; or in movies in which he’s appeared as an actor, including several by David Mamet, like House of Games; or the HBO series Deadwood in which he played a character.

I had never met Rick Smith Jr. before that day, but I knew Ricky Jay. In fact, I was his manager in New York in 1969, with my business partner, a guy named Bart Friedman, a New York native who now lives in Woodstock.

But this is the kind of thing that can happen in Cleveland:

Some time ago, Cleveland attracted Liza Grossman, who arrived here and a few years later – 10 years ago – founded the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (CYO), which has brought national attention to Cleveland through such things as many world premieres of living composers’ works and the annual Rock the Orchestra concert, when CYO teams up with a major rock artist to perform the artist’s music. After Liza moved to Cleveland from Detroit, her brother, Adam, moved here, too. Then, a few years ago, her sister, Sadie, moved here. Sadie’s an actress you may have seen at Cleveland Public Theater, Dobama or other area theaters. A couple of years ago, their mother, Linda, moved to Cleveland.

My son got into the CYO in 1999, and I became friends with Liza, and then her whole family. Then I met her aunt Nancy, Linda’s sister, who lives in Southern California. Nancy’s married to Paul Krassner, the legendary founder of the Yippies and of The Realist magazine; the author of several hilarious and fascinating books; and a participant in several historically significant events – he’s what I call a true counter-culture “Forrest Gump.” What are the chances that I would get to know people who live in Cleveland who are related to Paul Krassner?

Then one time I met Aunt Nancy, when she came to Cleveland for a CYO concert. She and I both seemed familiar to each other, but we’ve never lived in the same city at the same time. She mentioned that she once lived in Venice, California. I told her I knew someone who used to live in Venice – the magician-actor-author-card thrower Ricky Jay. She said that in the 1970s, she used to live with a guy who had been Ricky Jay’s manager. I told her that I had once been his manager, in New York in the late ‘60s, with a business partner, Bart Friedman. She said, “That’s the guy.”

Now, what are the chances that I would get to know people in Cleveland, who moved here from Detroit, who have a close relative who lived for 15 years in Woodstock with my former roommate and business partner from 35 years ago in New York City?

Apparently the chances are 100 percent.

I believe that’s because Cleveland is big enough, for instance, to have a great Youth Orchestra – two, in fact: the Contemporary Youth Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. And it’s big enough to have lots of benefit parties where you can meet interesting people of all kinds from all over. And where you can have two great arts events on the same weekend – Ingenuity Festival and the Cain Park Arts Festival. (Though, as it turns out, it might have worked out better for both if the two had taken place on different weekends.) But Cleveland is also small enough that you can get to know the directors of the youth orchestras, or any orchestras, and where you can go to the Cain Park and Ingenuity festivals and have personal connections with a bunch of the artists.

When I talked to my visual artist friend Jane at Cain Park, she told me about her son, who’s becoming this great artist himself. When I watched Spencer Myer playing his piano recital, I thought about how his father and I used to play in rock bands. When I watched Rick Smith Jr. throwing cards, I remembered watching Ricky Jay throwing cards around the stage of The Tonight Show to the amusement of Johnny Carson.

After you’re around long enough, you understand that there’s always a new generation who will, at first, share the stage with you, and then eventually take over when it’s time for you to bow out. I’m not quite at the bowing-out stage – in fact, I’m far from it, especially considering that I’m just now getting back into playing music professionally again.

Back when I was managing Ricky Jay in New York, I was also performing in a duo, David & Denise, with my singing partner at that time, Denise Johnson, who now lives in Oregon. Next week, on Tuesday, August 8, we’re performing as David & Denise for the first time in 35 years in Cain Park’s Alma Theater. I’ve seen her only once since we last sang together (other than rehearsing in June in Los Angeles). But, as I said, there’s something about old friends that’s different and unique

Am I saying this to advertise the concert? Not really. It’s a small venue and the concert may be sold out by the time you read this (though, on the other hand, don’t let that stop you from trying to get tickets if you want them). I’m saying this because it’s amazing to reconnect with so many old friends, so often, which, it seems, is more possible and more likely in a place like Cleveland. It happens to me all the time – when I leave the house and go do all those Cleveland things, the things that make Cleveland cool.

Go out and find some of that stuff. Maybe you’ll meet someone who will become an old friend.

From Cool Cleveland contributor David Budin popcyclesATsbcglobal.net (:divend:)