Ken Lelen

Ken Lelen
Ken Lelen sings great American ragtime, jazz, swing and pop tunes in his concerts and plays vintage acoustic guitars for an authentic, back-in-the day sound.

Friday, September 23, 2011





Fall 2011 — Western Pennsylvania Tour
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 to Thursday, September 22, 2011
________________________________________________________
I sang for more than 200 people at five concerts and played four guitars:
1938 B&D Groton 1; 1926 Maurer Style 493; 1933 Martin
OM-18 (Sandburg); and 1937 Gibson KG-21 (Riggs).


Tuesday, 20 September 2011
St Barnabas Community, Gibsonia, PA
I performed an early afternoon concert — a 17-song program that ran 70 minutes — for a happy crowd of 55 oldsters in the basement-level auditorium of this small community located 17 miles north of Pittsburgh. I previously played this site in November, 2008 — only three years ago — but it felt like I'd been gone a longer time and overdue for a visit considering the enthusiastic response and many song requests offered by today's audience.
_____________________

Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Laurel View Village, Davidsville, PA
Located 75 miles east of Pittsburgh, Laurel View Village is a small continuing care retirement community that holds concerts in a low-ceilinged but comfy chapel. Tonight we drew 50 people who were evenly split between the facility's younger, mobile independent residents and its older, personal-care residents. Many of the latter group were brought to the room in walkers and wheelchairs by a hardy group of staff and volunteers. At my previous concert for this group in late January, 2011 I received many requests. So, this time I played more dance tunes, including "Heartaches" and "On The Sunny Side of The Street," and, of course, "Star Dust," everyone's favorite.
_____________________

Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Hollidaysburg Veterans Home, Hollidaysburg, PA
Every year since 2001 
I've performed a half-dozen veterans-only events. Many of these folks are not as mobile as other retiree groups and budgets for concerts like mine at veteran's facilities are a fraction of conventional retirement centers.

     Still, they are intelligent, attentive and discerning audiences who want to be entertained. They know a lot about the music and performers I play and the composers I mention in my programs. Many have played musical instruments. They ask unexpected or off-the-wall questions and they tell funny stories. So, I enjoy playing for military veterans.
     However, the two mid-day concerts I performed at this veteran's community were dubious pleasures.
     Hollidaysburg Veterans Home is a large retirement and rehabilitation campus of low-slung, 1950s-era brick buildings on a hillside south of Altoona. Finding the facility without adequate driving directions was hard, but grabbing and holding the attention of distracted audiences was harder still.
     The first event was offered to about 40 people in Arnold Hall, a low-ceilinged activity room. At this event the staff noisily worked in and among the audience to serve hot dogs, snacks and pop throughout the program. A few people in the room were unhappy their lunch was disturbed by a concert and bellowed to let one and all know this.
     My second concert that day was offered an hour later to about 30 people in MacArthur Hall. This room is an enormous two-story, brick-walled amphitheater with the chilly ambiance of a tiled toilet. Many people came to the room to pick out their lunch at MacArthur Hall's cafeteria, then left. Others came in for lunch, noisily pulled up a heavy wooden chair to one of the 40 tables, ate, then noisily pulled out their heavy woode chair and left. A few others came in for lunch and stayed for the concert. Those who stayed were enthusiastic but spread across a room full of echo, din and distraction.
     Alas, I never saw either of my hosts - only the apologetic staff assigned to manage the diners attending both of my events.
_____________________

Thursday, 22 September 2011
Southwest Pennsylvania Veterans Center, Pittsburgh, PA
I've performed at this veterans center at least once a year since 2001. It is a large new facility set high on a bluff overlooking the Allegheny River just east of downtown. This afternoon event, not unlike many before it, brought about 35 people to a concert of 15 songs in a 60-minute program.

______________________________________


©  2011 — Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Concert Themes
___________________________________________________
My concerts have always combined entertainment, education and mirth.
     In a 90-minute concert I sing 18 to 20 great old songs and play three to six vintage acoustic guitars. I tell amusing anecdotes about Tin Pan Alley Artists, Drug Store Cowboys, Stage Door Johnnies or Swing Shift Maisies to introduce the songs. I use a good sound system and quality microphones on guitar and voice so people can hear the music, understand the words and enjoy the programAnd after each concert I answer questions on the guitars, the songs, the people who composed them and performers who made them memorable.
     My Vintage Music Concerts are not quaint sing-alongs of moon-june-spoon tunes for old folks. Neither are they musical pablum for the mommy-&-me crowd. They're not quick bits of Broadway hits by a saloon singer with a borrowed pianoAnd they're not glorified Americana by a blue grasser or singer-songwriter posing as a folk singer.
     Instead, the music I present is full-bodied American ragtime, jazz and swing laced with a musical, historic or romantic theme that people from all walks of life can relate to. What's more, the guitars I play are from the same era as the songs, so you won't see pick-ups or wires hanging off my instruments. In short, you can't get the concert sound I deliver and you can't have as much fun in public as I do while playing some box with plastic knobs.
     In the past decade I'd typically play five or six vintage acoustic guitars and sing 18 to 20 ragtime, jazz and swing tunes from the same year as the guitar. I'd bring a different batch of guitars to each concert and match each song to a guitar's era because that's how it sounded back in the day. To keep things fresh I'd also bring just Martin guitars, or just Gibson guitars, or just mahogany-bodied guitars, or just koa-bodied guitars, or just guitars that once belonged to famous musicians or performers.
     No two concert programs were the same and the music was never distorted by pick-ups or wah-wah pedals. I've always kept track of which guitars I played, what songs I sang, how many people were in the audience, how long a program lasted, and what comments an audience made during and after each concert.
     But lately I've found some activity directors, lifestyle enrichment coordinators and program planners, including bookers who never attend the concerts they plan, were indifferent to the authentic sound of vintage acoustic guitars, the delight of musical variety and the prospect of creative programming. All they want is someone to sing standards in a familiar theme — a booking method that pushes their square pegs into a performer's round holes at the audience's expense.
     So who am I to argue if program planners want specialty programs at my concerts. Here, then, in one place are some of the program themes that have evolved from my concerts in recent years:
           •     Tin Pan Alley Heroes & Heroines (1912 - 1955)
           •     Ragtime Rascals (1912 - 1929)
           •     American Jazz Journey (1918 - 1938)
           •     Legendary Love Songs (1926 - 1946)
           •     Hollywood vs. the Depression (1930 - 1940)
           •     Radio Ranch (1932 - 1940)
           •     Soda Shop Swing (1937 - 1947)
           •     A Fine Romance (1942 - 1956)
           •     Folk Boomers (1960s)
           •     No jitterbug. No bebop. No rock'n'roll. No kidding.
_______________________________________
© 2011 Kenneth Lelen - All Rights Reserved

Monday, July 25, 2011

2011 — Concert Schedule — Final
_______________________________
Jan    7            Mayflower House, Hackettstown NJ
Jan  12            Heath Village, Hackettstown NJ
Jan  25            Laurel View Village, Davidsville PA
Feb  15            Riddle Village, Media PA
Feb  26            Bishop White Lodge, Philadelphia PA
Mar    1           Jewish Community Center, Edison NJ
Mar    2           Shipley Manor,  Wilmington DE
Mar    3           Pleasant View, Manheim PA
Mar    4           Edenwald, Towson MD
Mar  22           Delaware County Community College, Media PA
Mar  29            Southgate, Shrewsbury MA
Mar  30            Heatherwood, Yarmouth Port MA
Mar  31            Mayflower, W Yarmouth MA
Apr    1            Overlook, Charlton MA
Apr    4            Lakewood Manor, Richmond VA
Apr    5            Springmoor, Raleigh NC
Apr    6            Stewart Health Center, Charlotte NC
Apr    7            Southminster, Charlotte NC
Apr    9            Glebe, Daleville VA
Apr  11            Shannondell (Ashford), Audubon PA
Apr  26            Avery Heights, Hartford CT
Apr  27            Tower One/Tower East, New Haven CT
Apr  28            Arbors, Manchester CT
Apr  29             Public Library Concert, Roseland NJ
Jun    1             Shipley Manor,  Wilmington DE
Jun    3             Lake Prince Woods, Suffolk VA
Jun    4             Heritage, Raleigh NC
Jun  10             Mayflower House, Hackettstown NJ
Jun  12             Bishop White Lodge, Phil’a PA
Jun  26             Whitney Center, Hamden CT
July  12             Lima Estates, Media PA
July  19             Crane's Mill, West Caldwell NJ
Aug  11             Willow Valley Lakes Manor, Willow Street PA
Aug  28             Bishop White Lodge, Philadelphia PA
Sep    6             Jewish Community Center, Edison NJ
Sep    6             Pine Run, Doylestown PA
Sep    7             Shipley Manor,  Wilmington DE
Sep    7             Heath Village, Hackettstown NJ
Sep    8             Wellington, West Chester PA
Sep    9             Edenwald, Towson MD
Sep  10             Cornwall Manor, Cornwall PA
Sep  16             Mayflower House, Hackettstown NJ
Sep  18             Applewood, Freehold NJ
Sep  20             St. Barnabas Community, Gibsonia PA
Sep  20             Laurel View Village, Davidsville PA

Sep  21             Veterans Home, Hollidaysburg PA
Sep  22             SW PA Veterans Center, Pittsburgh PA
Sep  26             Shannondell (Bradford), Audubon PA
Oct  10             Lakewood Manor, Richmond VA
Oct  11             Glebe, Daleville VA
Oct  12             Stewart Health Center, Charlotte NC
Oct  13             Springmoor, Raleigh NC
Oct  14             Cypress, Raleigh NC
Oct  15             Sunnyside, Harrisonburg VA
Oct  17             Bridgewater, Bridgewater VA
Oct  18             Deerfield, Asheville NC
Oct  20             Greenspring, Springfield VA
Oct  22             Fox Hill Village, Westwood MA
Oct  23             Southgate, Shrewsbury MA
Oct  24             Tower One/Tower East, New Haven CT
Oct  25             Briarwood, Worcester MA
Oct  26             Senior Center, Holden MA
Oct  27             Overlook, Charlton MA
Nov   4             Mayflower House, Hackettstown NJ
Nov   6             Avery Heights, Hartford CT
Nov   7             Willows, Westborough MA
Nov 10             Stewart Health Center, Charlotte NC
Nov 12             Southminster, Charlotte NC
Nov 11             Lake Prince Woods, Suffolk VA
Nov 12             Heritage, Raleigh NC
Nov 16             Meadowood, Lansdale PA
Nov 18             Leisure Village West, Manchester NJ
Nov 18             Crestwood Manor, Whiting NJ
Nov 27             Bishop White Lodge, Philadelphia PA
Dec   7             Shipley Manor,  Wilmington DE
       ____________________________________
       © 2011 Kenneth Lelen - All Rights Reserved