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About a thousand years ago, I ran into a pianist friend of mine, Paul Trueblood, on the street one day. He told me that Johnny DeMaio was looking for a partner to form a duo-piano team to go into the Rainbow Room, a plush show place and restaurant on top of Rockefeller Center,
to replace the duo-piano team Whitmore & Lowe who would be finishing their engagement there. I called Johnny who came over to my place
to hear me play and he decided that we would make great partners.
The moment we sat down at twin Steinway Grands in Andrew Litton's parents apartment we sounded
as if we had been playing together for years. Johnny had the most fantastic technique and musicianship
I had heard on a pianist since my friendship at Juilliard with Van Cliburn. I told Johnny, "We have to
not only be better than any of the other teams, we have to be different. We're going to play popular and show music the way
Rachmanninoff, Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin and the other great masters would have written or played those numbers.
We were instant successes and we practiced on a weekly basis turning out new arrangements. The Rainbow Room
had a policy of celebrating a different famous composer each month. Cy Coleman came to hear us do our arrangements of his sings,
Jo Sullivan came to hear our arrangements of Frank Loesser and Stephen Sondheim came with Hal Prince to
hear our arrangements of his music. He was the only one who wasn't taken with us. He was not
amused at hearing "SEND IN THE CLOWNS" against Rachmaninoff's 18th Variation on a theme of
Pagannini, or "COMEDY TONIGHT" combined with The Polka and Fugue from Weinberger's Scwanda - The
Dudelfeiffer. He also hated the waltz from "A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC" combined with a round of "Ach
de Lieve Augustine". I have never seen such fury glare from a mans eyes as I did from his eyes
that night.
On October 13th, 1974. Johnny and I gave our legendary concert at Lincoln Center.
In the audience was every musical celebrity in town, most of the faculty from Juilliard, Fred Steinway,
Mrs. J.C. Penny and many of the composers and lyricists whose material we were playing. The evening was recorded
live and the CD is available here.
Johnny and I became Steinway Artists and performed for several years around
the country until we both became tired of living out of suit cases.
List of tracks:
| 1. |
Fiddler on the Roof (Bock-Harnick)
If I were a Rich Man |
3:28 |
| 2. |
Sunrise, Sunset |
2:56 |
| 3. |
L'Chaim (To Life) |
2:48 |
| 4. |
Anything Goes (Porter) |
1:40 |
| 5. |
In the Still of the
Night |
2:09 |
| 6. |
Begin the Beguine |
2:20 |
| 7. |
Waltz (A Little Night
Music) (Sondheim) |
2:12 |
| 8. |
Send in the Clowns |
3:21 |
| 9. |
Comedy Tonight |
2:35 |
| 10. |
West Side Story (Bernstein)
I Feel Pretty |
2:18 |
| 11. |
Somewhere |
2:51 |
| 12. |
Tonight |
2:31 |
| 13. |
March of the Siamese
Children (Rodgers-Hammerstein) |
2:40 |
| 14. |
There is Nothing Like
a Dance (Rodgers-Hammerstein) |
2:18 |
| 15. |
Carousel Waltz (Rodgers-Hammerstein) |
4:57 |
| 16. |
They're Either Too
Young or Too Old (Schwartz-Loesser) |
1:33 |
| 17. |
Somebody, Somewhere (Loesser) |
4:12 |
| 18. |
Luck, be a Lady
Tonight (Loesser) |
2:22 |
| 19. |
Ragtime / Rialto
Ripples (Gershwin) |
2:37 |
| 20. |
Easy Winners (Joplin) |
2:40 |
| 21. |
The Entertainer (Joplin) |
2:59 |
| 22. |
Theme from "Love
Story" (Lai) |
3:30 |
| 23. |
Hernando's Hideaway (Adler-Ross) |
2:11 |
| 24. |
Theme from "The
Godfather" (Rota) |
2:27 |
| 25. |
Where am I Going (Coleman-Fields) |
2:53 |
| 26. |
Hey, Look Me Over (Coleman-Leigh) |
2:21 |
| 27. |
Somewhere My Love (Jarre) |
2:28 |
| 28. |
Liza (Gershwin) |
2:52 |
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