The Tierney Sutton Band played for my 37th wedding anniversary
Well not really! Not personally. Tierney Sutton didn’t come round our house to sing just for Erica and me.
Wednesday of last week Erica and I celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary. I say “celebrated”, but Wednesday was a fairly busy day. An Equality and Diversity Forum meeting all morning, lunch with Brian Pearce, Director of the Inter Faith Network for the UK, and participating in a Royal Commonwealth Society inter-faith dialogue session at the Commonwealth Club kept me pretty busy.
I went straight from the Commonwealth Club to the basement of Pizza on the Park to listen to the Tierney Sutton Band.
Tierney Sutton is a wonderful jazz singer who happens to be a Baha’i. Or is she a Baha’i who happens to be a wonderful jazz singer? Whichever way, her voice and her band are worth some sacrifice to hear live. Rob Weinberg was kind enough to book a table for a number of friends at Pizza on the Park, where they have weekly live jazz.
In addition to Rob, Erica and me, Arman Danesh was there. So were Sean and Tebby Hinton, who are about to move to China with their children, Sarah and Ollie Perceval (Sarah’s the wonderful storyteller and teacher who conducted last weekend’s storytelling course, and Kerry Ann Smith.
The basement was well filled for the gig. We ate our pizzas and waited for the lights to go down and the band to come onto the small performance area.
Sutton sings a mixture of standards from the American song book, some happy, quite a lot are sad. The thrill comes from the arrangements (which the band does consultatively) - I had actually had to listen quite hard sometimes to detect the melodies on which the arrangements were based - Sutton’s voice - spot on pitch and she’s a great exponent of scat singing - and the band’s ensemble (it’s “togetherness”). Tierney told us the band had been together 15 years. They listen; they listen hard to each other; and they are, each of them, great musicians. Somebody in our party referred to them as “tight”. This was not a reference to a state of inebriation - they were drinking bottled water on stage - but to the way they all slotted their jigsaw of parts together to make a glorious whole.
Tierney said nothing about her faith during the gig, but she did say that the band works collectively on the arrangements - an oblique reference to the Baha’i practice of consultation.
I love jazz. I listen to quite a lot of recorded music. But there’s nothing to beat the real thing, live in front of an audience. It’s a great way to celebrate 37 years of marriage - particularly at a time when marriage is increasingly out of fashion or seen as a “lifestyle choice” rather than as a lifetime commitment.
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13 comments
Happy Anniversary Barney and Erica….
My heartiest congratulations! Knowing how young Erica really is, I’m surprised it is actually 37 years; are you sure you haven’t got a digit wrong?
What a treat for you. Tierney Sutton is such a virtuoso jazz vocalist. She has perfect pitch and tremendous expressiveness.
Thanks, Bilo and Toby, for your kind wishes. A digit wrong? No, sometimes I think it would be great to wind the clock back, but the reality is I wouldn’t want to lose everything Erica and I have learned over the years.
Bill, Tierney Sutton is, as you say, a virtuoso. She’s a thrilling singer; she raises the hairs on the back of your neck. And the band is tremendous. I’m listening to one of her tracks on iTunes as I write!
happy anniversary - and perhaps some nice photos of Tierney and or her band could be uploaded to wikipedia for her page. It’s mostly album covers or publicity photos (if still present - they’ve been tearing those down all the pages.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tierney_Sutton
Steve, sadly I didn’t take any pics of Tierney and the band. If I had, I would certainly have been happy to upload some to wikipedia.
Happy Anniversary Barney and Erica
BTW, did you know that your blog is spawning popups now? Must be something you added recently… could be the motigo webstats, I had the same problem. If you remove the javascript, they’ll stop appearing.
Thanks, Dan. Great to hear from you! I’ve removed the motigo webstats javascript now, so I hope the popups will now cease. Perhaps you could let me know if they continue.
Happy Anniversary Barney and Erica. I seem to remember Erica being sort of a child-bride marrying a rather antique type!!!!!!!Tierney is quite wonderful and she sang as I sure you recall a solo at the World Congress in New York. I have her first CD. By the way Barney Sima and I celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in September.
A rather antique type? I think your memory’s failing, Derek. But then, you are older than I am.
Many congratulations to you and Sima for September. I’m amazed she’s up with you for so long!
Yes but I look so much younger than you. Sima only wanted to be with the best; hence she is with me. Thank-you for the congratulations, Laili and David are coming over in August. Why don’t Erica and yourself come and see us in Wyoming sometime?
It would be great to come and see you sometime. I’ve never been to Wyoming and (more importantly) it’s a long time since we’ve seen Sima and you (please note order of preference!)
We’ll have to find a date in our calendars.
It would be better if Erica checks the calenders as it is well known your grey matter is in an advanced state of decay. Come soon.
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