Music Magg

by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2023 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved Two days ago (Saturday, September 23) I went to the Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park for what was billed as the “International Friendship Concert” featuring three bands: the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Training Band, the U.S. Navy Concert Band Southwest, and the Kearny Mesa Concert Band. The show was supposed to run from 1 to 3 p.m. but it actually started around 12:50 p.m. with three numbers by Russ Peck, local theatre organist and associate organ curator, including Duke Ellington’s “Solitude.” I didn’t recognize the two other pieces, though his second one sounded like a Scott Joplin rag. In fact, I was pretty much at sea the entire concert because instead of distributing printed programs, the organizers put up one of those damnable “QR codes” through which you were supposed to be able to download the program to your phone. I don’t do that sort of thing – I’d have to learn how and I’m not su

by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2023 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved My plan for last night (Monday, September 4) was to attend the final Monday night concert of the 35th annual Spreckels Organ summer series in Balboa Park, a rock show billed as a tribute to the late Tina Turner but also including songs by AC/DC, The Beatles, Van Halen, Heart, Led Zeppelin, Blondie and Black Sabbath (which probably accounts for the two songs in the set I didn’t recognize; of all the bands they were paying tribute to, Black Sabbath is the one I know least). The lineup of musicians was the same as it had been last year: singers Chloe Lou, Lauren Leigh Martin and William Fleming (easily the sexiest guy in the band, tall and with waist-length hair done in either dreadlocks or braids), electric guitarist Ben Zinn, electric bassist Harley Magsino and drummer Richard “T-Bone” Larson along with San Diego civic organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez mostly struggling to make himself and his organ hear