Opening Ceremonies for 150th anniversary at Saratoga Race Course

 

 

Crowd of 22,000

Grasso's Ice Cream

$2 Pony Rides

Tall Boots

 

 

Disney TV star Zendaya

Some of the images captured
on July 14, 2014.
- Thomas Dimopoulos

Dance at Saratoga

NYCB at SPAC

Images from opening night of the New York City Ballet at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on July 9, 2013.

Children in the Garland Dance

Cool Jazz on a hot summer afternoon

Tony Bennett surrounded by a majestic aura

Chris Bergson wrung blues licks from the rosewood neck of his cherry-red guitar.  Layers of gospel chords seeped out the organ from atop the gazebo. Several hundred yards away, across the great lawn and down inside the pavilion of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band rocked a New Orleans-infused version of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Midway between the two stages - where their sonic polyrhythms merged and co-mingled in the air - you could find everything you ever needed to know about America. 

Sunday’s finale of the two-day Saratoga Jazz Festival featured a varied collection of artists whose respective tones spanned several continents.  Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who hail from South Africa, provided eight sweet, synchronized voices that slid down easy across the Avenue of the Pines in a set which included selections from their ‘Graceland” collaboration with Paul Simon in the 1980s. 

Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy opened his songbook to the page of tunes that have influenced everyone from The Rolling Stones to Eric Clapton, wrenching low, mournful tones from his Fender Stratocaster in a set list of songs that included “Hoochie Coochie Man,” and "I Just Want to Make Love to You." He also provided some moments of levity. “Hello Saratoga,” said Guy, who last appeared at the Saratoga Jazz Festival in the summer of 1993. “It’s been so long since I’ve been here I’m going to play something so funky, it smells.”

An afternoon ceremony featured the dedication of a star in SPAC’s Walk of Fame in honor of the late jazz legend Dave Brubeck, whose 13 appearances at SPAC through four decades place him at the top of the list of most frequent performers at the venue.

“His white hair would fly, his feet would tap, and his whole body would rock,” recalled SPAC President Marcia White of Brubeck’s most recent appearances at the venue, in 2006 and 2009.  

Marcia White, Brubeck Family

“His light will continue to shine and he will be represented here in Saratoga,” said Brubeck’s daughter, Catherine Brubeck Yaghsizian, who attended the ceremony Sunday with her son and nephew. “It’s sad he’s not here to see this, but my father said all along that there is a fifth member of the quartet -  the audience  – and that audience is still here today.”

She also shared a quote her father had made about one of the reasons he believed in jazz: “The oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It’s the same anyplace in the world, that heartbeat. It’s the first thing you hear when you’re born — or before you’re born — and it’s the last thing you hear.”

McCoy Tyner

Saturday’s set featured Legendary pianist McCoy Tyner, best known for his work with John Coltrane in the 1960s, who performed with his quartet and was joined by guest guitarist John Scofield.

Big Sam’s Funky Nation warded off a brief afternoon shower with with a combo of hot beats, wild horns, and a shaking-the-amphitheater version of the Funky Donkey 

Sunday evening, Tony Bennett also invoked Brubeck, with a performance of “That Old Black Magic,” which was based on collaboration between the crooner and Brubeck a half-century earlier. Bennett performed a 60-minute set in strong voice and style that transcended his 86 years, finger-snapping to the upbeats, gesturing to the soloing wizardry of his four-piece band, and blowing kisses to an audience delighted to hear both, his songs of love long gone and of love everlasting.

n the neighborhood where I grew up, Tony Bennett was a hero. It is a place where brick-faced apartment buildings still bear black and yellow signs that point to a fallout shelter; where the marker that told you that you had made it in this world was measured by the ownership of a two-story home, with a patch of flowers and a few feet of lawn that was all your own.

There have been others who have made their mark in Astoria, which sits at the west end of Queens, geographically located in New York City, but in reality, not. Pitcher Whitey Ford, and singer-songwriter Melanie Safka grew up here, as did actor Christopher Walken, and writer-musician Dito Montiel. Here, at one end of Steinway Street, they have been hand-crafting the world's great pianos for nearly the past 150 years. At the other end of the avenue named for the family of German immigrants, they have been making movies since the 1920s, sometimes re-arranging the architecture in the neighborhood for fictional adventures upon the silver screen.

Tony Bennett was born in a different era, but, like most of these things, he has survived the change of generations. He was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto, the son of an Italian-born grocer on Aug. 3, 1926. Surviving residents in the neighborhood where he grew up still talk about seeing him starting out as a singing waiter at Riccardo's restaurant, or watching him perform at The Red Door club, which stood beneath the El - where the McDonald's is now, they tell you.

Bennett dedicated “The Good Life,” to Lady Gaga - with whom he is collaborating on a new album, recalled that his first big singing break was granted him by Pearl Bailey, and how Bob Hope recommended he “economize” his birth name - Anthony Dominick Benedetto – in to the stage-friendlier Tony Bennett.  Bennett’s promenade of hits included Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart,”  a swing-time rendition of “For Once In My Life,” Irving Berlin’s “Steppin’ Out With My Baby,” “The Shadow of Your Smile,”  “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” and “Smile (though your heart is breaking”), in a graceful nod to Charlie Chaplin.

Some City Flags

 

The Final Finish Line

Saratoga’s top jockey in 2012 announced his retirement on Thursday, in the aftermath of a head injury he suffered in a spill at Aqueduct earlier this year.

Dominguez winning the Yaddo Stakes at Saratoga Aug. 2012

“It is extremely difficult for me to announce that due to the severity of the injuries I sustained in an accident at Aqueduct Racetrack on January 18, 2013, my professional riding career has come to an end,” Ramon Dominguez announced, in a prepared statement.
“While I hoped and even expected to be able to return to the saddle, as a result of my injuries and upon the advice of my treating physicians, it has been determined that I will no longer be able to pursue my career as a jockey.”

The 36-year-old began riding horses at the age of 16 in Venezuela. Last summer, he finished the season as Saratoga's most winning    

 jockey, with 68 first-place finishes and nearly $4.9 million in earnings.

“Ramon distinguished himself immediately upon moving his tack to New York in 2009,” said P.J. Campo, NYRA vice president and director of racing. “He won numerous meet riding titles and many of our top races, en route to becoming New York’s leading rider for each of the past four years.” 

Dominguez, who secured the last three Eclipse awards as North America’s top jockey, expressed gratitude to his family, fans, and fellow riders for their support in the months following his accident. “My riding career has brought happiness and success beyond what I ever expected,” he said.

Weekend in Saratoga

Ben Vereen performed on Friday night at The Arthur Zankel Music Center on the campus of Skidmore College.





RG Dance Projects presented a multi-media performance at Universal Preservation Hall which included dance, film, live music, and

New York City’s Broadway Community Chorus.

The choreographed pieces and live performance featured six dancers and 24 singers. The show featured music by Richard Danielpour, Claude Debussy, Alfred Schnittke, and Elizabeth Cotton.
 



In the Dee Sarno Theater at the Arts Center, guitarist Gary Lucas performed a sonic musical soundtrack to the 1920 expressionist film, “The Golem.” Lucas has composed seven different live music and film solo guitar scores, has played and collaborated with Leonard Bernstein, Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, Bryan Ferry, Lou Reed, the Plastic People of the Universe, and David Johansen, among others. 

Lucas' longtime band is Gods and Monsters, and he penned a book: Touched By Grace: My Time with Jeff Buckley.









Sunday afternoon, New Orleans Hot 8 Brass Band performed a surprise concert while strolling along Broadway and later joined Reggie's Red Hot Feet Warmers for an open-air collaborative rendition of "When The Saints Go Marching In," at the Beekman Street Art District.
 

A Saratoga Mystery

Daily Papers, August 13, 1853: Excitement at Saratoga

From the Saratoga correspondent of the New York Times.

A few days ago a lady and gentleman arrived at a neighboring hotel. They signed their names in the register, fully and elaborately, Mr. and Mrs. XYZ. They appeared to be of a loving temperament, and delighted much in the various attractions of Saratoga.

For some days they were the cynosure of all stargazers. The lady was a brunette, richly molded, and possessed dark, liquid eyes, on which a man's soul might float away very easily. The gentleman was favorably situated with regard to masculine perfections. Every one viewed them as a handsome couple.

On Saturday, among other arrivals at the same hotel, a lady presented herself. She was a blonde, with delicate features and mild blue eyes. The bookkeeper handed her the register, when, to his consternation, she subscribed herself as Mrs. X Y Z. Very quietly, apparently with little emotion, she asked him if her husband had arrived. With a beautiful simplicity, he replied, “Yes - and his lady too." Hereupon there was a kindling up of internal lire, and the mild blue eyes became slightly green. The blonde insisted on seeing the faithless X YZ, but the masculine representative of those three letters, in company with the feminine ditto, had gone on a pleasure trip up to Saratoga Lake. Mrs. X Y Z., no. 2, immediately ordered a carriage, and after a word of promise to the driver, went in hot pursuit.

 

Arriving at the Lake House, the eager lady discovered that two persons answering the description of the fugitives, had launched there, and were then yachting on the silvery bosom of the Lake. Not to be baffled at this, Mrs. X YZ negotiated with proprietor of the Lady of the Lake and soon hoisted sails, to follow.

Now comes the mystery.

From the jut of land whereupon the Lake House is situated could be observed with the naked eye, yachts wherein Mr. and Mrs. X YZ and still another Mrs. X YZ were seated. For some time they moved towards each other, in languid politeness of motion.

After waiting some hours, the carriages of both parties returned to Saratoga empty, since which time, nothing has been heard of the missing parties. The only reasonable conjecture is that they are still chasing each other on the lake.

The knowing ones maintain that Mrs. XYZ no. 1 will have to winter on Snake Island, if she regards the integrity of her dark, liquid eyes.