Vintage Music Concerts — 10th Anniversary
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In the past decade I’ve performed about 925 Vintage Music Concerts at more than 700 venues that spanned scores of formats and musical styles. Besides the thrill of entertaining thousands of people, my concerts have pushed the cause of live acoustic music, the splendor of period guitars in full-figured performance, and the sublime beauty of ragtime, jazz and swing creations. These concerts have also generated some great media coverage for me. |
Photo: Peter Gallo
In February 2007 Ken Lelen showed several vintage
guitars to the Hasbrouck Heights, NJ Leisure Club.
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The oldest were female centenarians. One, a resident at a nursing home in Willoughby, OH, smiled and sighed throughout the program but said nothing. The other, a resident at a retirement facility in Nazareth, PA, rolled up to me in a geriatric chair to thank me for m concert. When I told her one of my 70-year-old Martin guitars cost $50, a princely sum in 1936, she admonished me for paying too much.
• acoustic music clubs
• antique shops, art galleries & guitar shops
• churches & religious community centers
• community colleges
• cultural arts facilities
• house concerts & family gatherings
• municipal recreation departments
• museums & historic societies
• public libraries
• radio broadcasts
• senior centers
• social clubs, travel societies & fraternal organizations.
I’ve been fortunate to be the main act at acoustic-music clubs, museum concerts, live-broadcast radio shows and other venues. I’ve also opened for such big-name performers as singer-songwriter Lynn Miles of Ottawa, Canada, bluegrass singer Beth Coleman, and jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli of Saddle River, NJ.
In the latter case, I drew better media coverage than Pizzarelli. In essence, I served as the opener's tail that wagged the main act’s dog, filling the 225-seat auditorium until it overflowed with patrons who had to be seated on the stage.
When elderly people are the core audience it’s no accident they prefer songs of their early adulthood. They like to bathe in the emotional warmth of memorable songs almost as much as I like to perform old-time tunes for their emotional depth. As a result, activity directors at senior villages have been keen about my program because it artfully combines vintage songs, period guitars and amusing anecdotes.
“My residents are very vocal,” said the former activities director at a large retiree facility in Greenville, SC. “They tell you what they like and don’t like. They like Ken — he tells stories about all of the guitars. If he just played for an hour, it wouldn’t go over as well.”
I’ve also learned to tailor my concert programs to audience tastes, or market segments, for ragtime, jazz and swing. For example, adults in their 80s and 90s appreciate melodic revivals, since they don’t hear such music on the radio and still like to sing or hum along.
Younger and more mobile cohorts, folks in their 60s and 70s, want swing, pop standards and country music, but not electric guitars or rock-n-roll. To my surprise, younger audiences yearn for the exposure to my fresh, unadulterated period music because these songs bristle with alacrity, heart and soul.
Lest you think I play old songs because it’s the only thing seniors want, oldsters in my audiences repeatedly say they want live concerts that don't speak down to them. “We like music for adults,” an 85-year-old woman at a Vintage Music Concert in Newport News, VA told me. “We don’t want moon-june-spoon sing-alongs, no Karaoke, no sweaty drum bangers, no recreational therapy.”
Sadly, many oldsters are force-fed such lackluster entertainments. In my view such concerts include old-folks-at-home drivel by autoharp huggers or singer-songwriters-cum-folkies, practice sessions by classical-music students and zoot-suit yokum by Cab Calloway impersonators. Such events are more common these days because of curtailed budgets, near-sighted administrators and overwhelmed program managers at skilled-nursing facilities, assisted-living centers, Alzheimer facilities and continuing-care retirement communities.
Nevertheless, younger audiences at specialty venues say they relish the clever lyrics, memorable melodies and period guitars of my concerts. Hearing music they can’t get from an iPod lures them to an event. But once there, they discover likeable songs and robust instrumental sounds they didn’t think possible from a wooden box.
My audiences often hear me play a 1912 Grauso, an auditorium-sized guitar that was built before pick-ups, amplifiers and microphones were common. It fills a room with sustained, sweet sound. And they hear me sing songs people once sang with and to each other, and marvel: "Why did they ever stop?"
Finally, my audiences hear anecdotes that cut across age, gender and lifestyle. Tales of Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths, drugstore cowboys, stage-door Johnnies and Broadway's gold diggers nourish an audience in surprising ways. How? Such stories cast 20th Century celebrities as regular people in a way contemporary audiences can relate to.
This, and the palpable glow that enveloped every Vintage Music Concert enables my audiences to savor every one they attend.
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| In March 2010 the Ken Lelen Combo played for the Milford CT Fine Arts Council, which hosts a coffeehouse series in this former train station. |
In the latter case, I drew better media coverage than Pizzarelli. In essence, I served as the opener's tail that wagged the main act’s dog, filling the 225-seat auditorium until it overflowed with patrons who had to be seated on the stage.
When elderly people are the core audience it’s no accident they prefer songs of their early adulthood. They like to bathe in the emotional warmth of memorable songs almost as much as I like to perform old-time tunes for their emotional depth. As a result, activity directors at senior villages have been keen about my program because it artfully combines vintage songs, period guitars and amusing anecdotes.
“My residents are very vocal,” said the former activities director at a large retiree facility in Greenville, SC. “They tell you what they like and don’t like. They like Ken — he tells stories about all of the guitars. If he just played for an hour, it wouldn’t go over as well.”
I’ve also learned to tailor my concert programs to audience tastes, or market segments, for ragtime, jazz and swing. For example, adults in their 80s and 90s appreciate melodic revivals, since they don’t hear such music on the radio and still like to sing or hum along.
Younger and more mobile cohorts, folks in their 60s and 70s, want swing, pop standards and country music, but not electric guitars or rock-n-roll. To my surprise, younger audiences yearn for the exposure to my fresh, unadulterated period music because these songs bristle with alacrity, heart and soul.
Lest you think I play old songs because it’s the only thing seniors want, oldsters in my audiences repeatedly say they want live concerts that don't speak down to them. “We like music for adults,” an 85-year-old woman at a Vintage Music Concert in Newport News, VA told me. “We don’t want moon-june-spoon sing-alongs, no Karaoke, no sweaty drum bangers, no recreational therapy.”
Sadly, many oldsters are force-fed such lackluster entertainments. In my view such concerts include old-folks-at-home drivel by autoharp huggers or singer-songwriters-cum-folkies, practice sessions by classical-music students and zoot-suit yokum by Cab Calloway impersonators. Such events are more common these days because of curtailed budgets, near-sighted administrators and overwhelmed program managers at skilled-nursing facilities, assisted-living centers, Alzheimer facilities and continuing-care retirement communities.
Nevertheless, younger audiences at specialty venues say they relish the clever lyrics, memorable melodies and period guitars of my concerts. Hearing music they can’t get from an iPod lures them to an event. But once there, they discover likeable songs and robust instrumental sounds they didn’t think possible from a wooden box.
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| New York City luthier Antonio Grauso built this auditorium-sized guitar circa 1912 |
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| Art Deco emblem adorns headstock of Grauso guitar |
Finally, my audiences hear anecdotes that cut across age, gender and lifestyle. Tales of Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths, drugstore cowboys, stage-door Johnnies and Broadway's gold diggers nourish an audience in surprising ways. How? Such stories cast 20th Century celebrities as regular people in a way contemporary audiences can relate to.
This, and the palpable glow that enveloped every Vintage Music Concert enables my audiences to savor every one they attend.
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© 2010 Kenneth Lelen - All Rights Reserved
