Features and Reviews
Dean Mora at Old Town Music Hall
By Ron Ross
Dean Mora gave his first complete solo piano concert since his college days, so he apologized that he would be playing from the sheet music. As consolation to the audience, he introduced his lovely wife as the page-turner.
Dean began with Willie Anderson's "Keystone Rag" from 1921, one of John Starck's last published rags. He followed with an excellent rendition of the very difficult Zez Confrey novelties from the 20s, "My Pet" and his biggest hit, "Kitten on the Keys."
Switching moods, Dean played "Soliloquy" (1927), a very reflective piece by Rube Bloom. This was followed by another novelty, "Flapperette," by Jesse Greer. Then a couple of Bix Biederbecke's four piano pieces, "Flashes" and "Candlelight's," both from 1930. (In the second half of the program, he played the other two, "In a Mist" from 1927 and "In the Dark" from 1931, composed by Biederbecke just before his untimely death.)
To begin Part II, Dean played From Hollywood--a Suite in Four Acts, composed in 1923 by Charles Wakefield Camdan for the opening season of the Hollywood Bowl, which Dean had found on the Internet, of all places. The themes of the suite were: "June on the Boulevard," "To a Comedian" (for Charlie Chaplin), "Twilight at Sycamore Nook" (dedicated to "Mother"), "Easter Dawn in the Hollywood Bowl" (for the sunrise service). Each section was quite appropriate to the theme. Master of elocution Maxwell DeMille read the introductions to each section before Dean played it.
Next was a somewhat speeded up version of George Gershwin's rag, "Rialto Ripples," which was composed in 1917 as a collaboration with Walter Donaldson when both were contracted composers with music publisher Jerome Remake. Then came the two aforementioned Biederbecke numbers. Then there were five "moods" from Rube Bloom's 1931 composition, Metropolitan Suite, evoking the sounds of New York and Gershwin; "Valise Petite" (giving a quite Parisian feel); "Gypsy" (minor key, middle-European flavor); "Blues"; and finally, "Primitive," which had the flavor of American Indian music combined with jazz.
Dean closed the program with a masterly rendition of the three Gershwin preludes from 1926 and the piano reduction of Gershwin's 1928 masterpiece "An American in Paris."
Unfortunately, there were no encores or duets with Bill Coffman and the giant Wurlitzer organ, although the audience would have enjoyed quite a bit more from this excellent pianist.
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