Ray Manzarek and George Winston
in a dual piano concert
Society Hall in New York City September 26, 2002
I attended the George Winston & Ray Manzarek concert
on Thursday, Sept. 26th. in New York City. The venue was Society Hall at 2 West
64th. Street, a small concert hall by Central Park West and near Lincoln Center,
and justa few blocks away from the Dakota where John Lennon used to live...
New age pianist George Winston has been a fan of the Doors ever since he was a
teenager, and his most recent project has been new age-style arrangements of
classic Doors songs for his new CD "Night Divides the Day" to be released Oct.
8th. Ray heard an advance copy and says that he was really impressed.
They played George's arrangements - at times Ray
referred to sheet music on his piano. Ray was the dominant personality on stage
and did most of the talking between songs, etc.
This concert was Ray's idea, but George's staff set it up. They obtained two
Steinway grand pianos on loan for the evening and put them face to face on the
stage. There were no other musicians. It was conducted very much like a
classical chamber music concert. Seating was 'sit where you like' with certain
sections reserved for higher priced tickets. Tickets were $30, $40, $50 and $75.
The $75 seats were the front two rows and provided an after-concert 'meet and
greet'.
I was sitting in the first row of the mezzanine; not long after I sat down, Ray came in and walked along the aisle right in front of me, I could have shook Ray's hand if I had seen him coming...but he was already past me when I suddenly recognized him ... oh well.
The concert was videotaped (and presumably audio recorded as well) so we may see some sort of commercial product or televised program available.
I would say that the hall was almost full (despite a
heavy rain) and had about 400-500 people attending. I was wondering why these
two California guys decided to hold this concert in New York City - it turns out
that Ray was in NYC anyway, as his new film 'Love Her Madly' was making its
public debut the next evening in NYC. Ray hinted that he and George might do
this duo concert again occasionally.
Ray mentioned how successful the recent House of Blues Doors concert was ... he
said "it was slammin'!!", and that the new Doors were touring next spring and
would be creating new Doors songs.
The set list:
- The Crystal Ship
- Love Street (Ray spoke the spoken lines in the middle "I see you live on Love
Street ... etc"
- Love Me Two Times
- My Wild Love (Ray's piano was "prepared" ala John Cage with objects placed
inside atop the strings to give a buzzy, muffled sound, and George reached
inside and plucked the strings of his piano)
- Love Her Madly
- Light My Fire (Ray did his own solo, George did the guitar solo)
-------intermission-------
- Summer's Almost Gone
- I Can't See Your Face In My Mind
- Take It As It Comes
- Ray solo: Ray explained this piece was an improvisation to accompany Jim
Morrison reciting his poetry. (music only, no one actually spoke)
- George solo: Bird Of Prey (a bonus track from the CD version of American
Prayer)
- Riders On The Storm
--------encore--------
- Soul Kitchen....starting at the second verse, Ray couldn't hold himself back
and began to sing throughout the remainder of the song.
by Jim Vliet, NYC
(thanks, Jim)
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