Every so often, something spontaneous happens with the potential to shape your life and a couple a weeks ago, I heard a musician that I’ll long remember and hopefully some of his mojo will rub off on my own abilities.
Dave Carter called me and invited me to a cocktail party at the end of a busy Friday afternoon. That’s odd too because I hadn’t talked to Dave in more than year. Even though we’ve crossed paths many times since our first meeting at WQUT back in the eighties, it was an invitation and experience that inspired me as a musician as I met Jim Hession.
Click here for photos from the night.
Earlier in the day, we had just finished Josh Green’s set at WCYB for Rhythm and Roots . I left the office, changed clothes and headed to Johnson City for the early party near Mahonneys that started at 6.30. I called Jared Bentley earlier and we were sort of planning on going to Jonesborough to see Reagan and Greg at Music on The Square . Instead we met near Kroger, picked up a “make your own six-pack” and were on our way to the mysterious performance.
As I thought about it, me and Dave go back now some 25 years. He moved to the Tri-Cities from Orlando back in the mid-seventies. He was a disc jockey at WQUT and that’s where we met in my early twenties. We both worked various shifts at one of the greatest radio stations ever to play a record in this marketplace. It was the time of album-oriented Rock and the AOR stations were known for their personalities like Dave, The Midnight Rambler, Worm, Bergeron and others.
Dave is still the weekly host for Studio One at WETS-FM in Johnson City. He left commercial radio several years ago and sells advertising for The Loafer now and he’s still a dedicated promoter of local music in this region via his weekly broadcast which features live performances from regional/national artists.
Working with Reagan Boggs at an opening in Johnson City, I was goofing around with some of the Jelly Roll Morton tunes I’ve been working on for the past couple of years. This immediately caught Dave’s attention and he told me a story about Jim Hession. Hession is one Dave’s friends from New Orleans that worked for Disney and one of the best stride and ragtime players in the South.
I didn’t think too much about Dave’s acquaintance until he called Friday afternoon. Jim and his wife Martha were making their way through Johnson City with a performance scheduled on Studio One and they were playing a cocktail party and a show at the Sycamore Shoals Celtic Festival. His efforts were gaining them lots of popularity over the weekend. He later commented, “on my short lists were a few people I knew could appreciate this music.”
There were a lot of people at this contemporary home in Johnson City. No familiar faces, but when Jared walked in someone thought he was Nascar driver Tony Stewart and that was funny, but on a glance…she’s got a point (particularly depending upon how many beers you might have had and if you regularly watch races).
We strolled into the outdoor patio and Jim was already playing a dazzling ragtime piano tune when we walked in. There was a bar around a pool table and Dave met as soon as we came in the door. He was fixed on Jim’s hands on his Kurzweil keyboard and we both stood there grinning as Jim played song after song, bouncing his hands across the keyboard with incredible accuracy.
Bill Williams, publisher of The Loafer was seated with a drink beside the pool table and I introduced myself to Jim and his wife Martha and before long, our introductions lead to requests and he was hard to beat. From Bille Holiday’s ‘Lover Man’ which Martha sang with ease to the abstract of Jelly Roll and Thelonius Monk’s ‘Epistrophy’ – Jim had no trouble bringing out the tunes.
At the end of the night, he was sharing with me the estimate that he and his wife could remember over 10,000 songs in their repotoire. They’ve been married for over 35 years with two kids and have been professional players all their lives which span the country from LA to New York to Louisiana. Jim had even played for both Disney resorts at several of their most memorable hotels on both sides of the continent.
The past few years have been difficult for them as Katrina has dramatically changed the performance venues in New Orleans and that’s sort of why they were traveling throughout the South this weekend.
I asked him what would be his most important suggestion to a newbie stride player and he said, “accuracy over speed.” I’ll remember that too as he continued, “whatever you do practice accuracy over speed. As you become more accurate your speed will naturally increase.” This piece of advice is good news for me too, because speed seems to be the prize, but that doesn’t come until the demands of the routine are met first.
Jim and Martha played several songs throughout the evening and answered most all of their requests. The most interesting music I heard that night was truly his own original music. In each of these songs, there was an energy and fire that seemed to hover way above the droves of pop songs they mimic one right after another.
Their performance was over around 8.30. We had listened for a couple of hours and the small cocktail party was getting a little rowdy, but the music died early and we were off into the Dog day’s night to see Rob Russell and The Sore Losers later at The Down Home .
The next day, I tuned into Studio One and Jim and Martha were talking to Dave about the post-Katrina music scene. I had called my dad earlier and later we agreed that this was one of the most electrifying stride pianists I’d ever heard. He was brilliant, talented and issued a relaxed sense of professional candor as he played. Nothing real showy from his face or clothes, but riveting efforts in melody and rhythm that I’ll continue to pursue.
Dave made it a little clearer later as we were discussing the music. Jim is a lesson for any player and in particular a keyboardist like myself. There’s a lot to learn from guys like this and I can hardly wait to start to work on the new music and look forward to hearing from him again real soon. This was absolutely a rare chance for me to be up-front and casual witha player that is one of the best on the planet. You’re not gonna see him at Fun Fest, but his legacy will be amazing.