Did you attend either of this week’s concerts for Matthew in the East Bay? If you were at either the memorial concert at 21 Grand or the annual Chapel of the Chimes concert and have concert notes, musings, observations, thoughts to share or other comments, please leave them here.
Matthew Sperry in Memoriam
Dedicated to the memory of bassist / father / husband Matthew Sperry, who touched so many with his love, honesty, humor, and music.
I was unfortunately only able to attend the 21 Grand show for a little while — it was late, and my little one got squirmy — but only after cooing along with Philip Gelb’s trio for a while. The house was packed, with listeners stacked up in the aisles. Great vibe in the air — I just wanted Miles to experience that love for a little while, and he did.
Philip Gelb sent me this as email the day before the Chapel of the Chimes concert:
I will be performing solo in the Garden of Supplication at the Chapel of the Chimes at the wonderful, annual, solstice festival. This is the room where Matt’s ashes will be. I will be playing traditional Jewish and Japanese pieces as well as modern pieces. This has always been one of my favorite festivals to perform on!!
This year, it obviously takes on much greater meaning. Last year Matt and i were both performing on it though not together. I introduced him to my homeade nukamiso daikon and cucumber pickles that evening which he was relishing while standing in front of John Lee Hooker’s remains. I think he mentioned that there should be more
garlic…
Shortly afterwards i started playing with 2 wonderful koto players, Shoko Hikage and Brett Larner. A few minutes later,from the floor above us comes a very loud barrage from Dan Plonsey’s ensemble. My trio stopped playing. I went upstairs and Matt is playing in Dan’s group and looking at me with this guilty smile on his face, looking
at me and mouths the words “are we too loud”? He was managing to eat the pickles while playing and never seemed to miss a beat! I decided to join them for a piece and then my trio found a different room to play in. 🙂
Matt finished all the pickles before the end of the concert.
I was sitting next to the cooing baby Miles at 21 Grand– it was great to having him singing along. The whole show was amazing, I didn’t want it to end and I didn’t want to leave.
Also, Phil Gelb’s performance at Chapel of the Chimes yesterday was soulful and mesmerizing. I spent much of the afternoon sitting by Matthew’s photo and listening to him.
It’s so good to be in the company of so many people who loved Matthew, even though I just moved back to SF and so don’t really know anyone at these events (I knew M from Seattle days). Just having the quiet companionship and the music is wonderful and soothing. Thank you everyone.
The memorial concert at 21 Grand was a great, wonderful and emotional experience. It was amazing to see so many artists give 110% of themselves in their performances. The spirit of Matthew pushed us to be great that evening.