Just as when you are at the silver
line of giving up with the thought that playing music [especially piano] isn’t meant
for you, think again. Renowned piano mentor and music improvisations composer Sir
Lee Cronbach is a note away for a guaranteed helping hand. It wouldn’t be so tough
to describe him on a first meeting especially when he whole-kindheartedly welcomes
you inside his mansion. Unlike other rock-jazz band performers, Lee is someone
of the subtle sort of a great man. With the notes of his piano resonating
peaceful rhythms everywhere, it is absolutely undeniable to hesitate for a full
blast music jam with The Jazz Man.
 |
| © Lee Cronbach |
 |
| © Lee Cronbach |
WAY BACK ‘CREATION
CITY’
According to his official
website leecronbach.com, Lee defined
the meaning of Creation City as: “...the name I use for groups I lead that
feature my original compositions.” During his 1971-1975 at Boston, he first started
out as a keyboardist through the help of his two good friends and band mates Benny
Petrucci [winds] and Jack Jarnis [guitar] where they played a funky, modal
style of jams in Cranberry Dreams.
Moving in to Hollywood the
following year, he met the leading congero in Los Angeles, Mel Wiggins, where
they established and co-led a series of combos. They gigged at different coffee
shops and small jazz clubs including a 14-month affiliation with Shakey's Pizza
where they perform for a variety of live audience. They also appeared on
KPFK-FM with a live broadcast and at the same time, recorded for “I am – are
you?” theme song under the same FM program. Ten years never seemed to be an
enough time to bind a quality partnership of the two in the music industry.
Together, they co-composed a large number of fine music collections. Indeed, it
was a bread-and-butter tandem.
Reforming the spirit of ‘Creation
City’ in Seattle on 1991 with Norwood 'Billy' Poindexter, son of the legendary saxophonist-composer
Pony Poindexter, together with other musicians, would have never been a triumphant
attempt if without their intense passion and solidarity for music. They also performed
their written original compositions way back in L.A. Moreover, such eight years
of rewarding teaching and working experience as a sideman in Seattle were truly
remarkable stepping stones in his career path.
Basically, Lee’s musical
journey together with the band is a hall-of-famer adventure of a lifetime. “I
have some great rock experience back at the 60’s. There’s the famous San
Francisco during the 60’s and I played for all those famous places
THE ART OF
NOTES
“You set the goal, I’ll take you
there,” Lee
Cronbach’s studio motto is very persuasive enough to aspiring piano learners
whose hearts and enthusiasms are in to the music world. His method and drills in
teaching have been proven to work out practically great especially after a successful
training completion with a random visually-impaired student who is now playing
fine with the treble and bass.
Aiming for a sound and
free-spirited beats of music, Lee is a jack and jill of all trades. Romantic,
gleeful, solitary, rock, Rn’B, Pop, emotional, Classical, Broadway, up-beat –
name it and he’ll do the jam. He has always been persistent on delivering his
clients the best mood of music in their favour.
Talking about piano and
keyboard technicalities, Lee organized significant guiding principles for his amateur
trainees. “Kanan is the singer... it’s Adele. Kaliwa is your guitarist”, he
said pertaining to the functions and symbolism between the left and right hand
when playing piano. Lee also noted that the right hand must play with the
greater intensity and volume as if portraying a dominant horse-back rider, while
being backed up by the rhythms from the left hand, or the horse itself. He also
pinpointed on the concept of playing the notes slow but perfected until a
progressive upgrade for speed signifies the next level.
 |
| © Lee Cronbach |
When asked about why the
instrument captured his deepest enthusiasm, he said, “Why piano? Well, I grew
up [where] it was very common to have pianos. Every house had a piano, and I
was like home a lot, there’s the piano... it’s a whole world.”
Of being a former pianist-organist
and music director at Bethesda Lutheran Church, Lee accentuated on his
wonderful moments and experiences with the group. “My favourite to play is
religious music. Anywhere, where people are praying and you get the spirit, it’s
so much fun to play than... [I mean] although I played rock, I played jazz... but
the most fun I had is playing at church”, he continues. “My favourite religious
song to play is, Amazing Grace I guess”, he added.
Located at the cool breezing
site of Brgy. Palocpoc II, Indang, Cavite, Lee’s sanctuary isn’t very hard to
discover especially when the mantra of his sonata starts echoing around the
place. Inside the cosy mansion, a wagging tail of warm welcome by his huge golden
retriever dog Gandalf will greet you. Here, Lee spent most of his past times
with the hypnotic majesty of his symphony. Such blissful moments in life is
completed by his company Dr. Rodel Baldoz, a medical examiner and rural health
physician.
Finally,
Lee noted two principal keys for success: “One,
don’t be afraid to make mistakes. That’s how you’ll learn.... don’t be afraid
of anything. Two, the more you work, the better you get. Now some parts of life
are not fair. Some people got reach without working. But music is very fair...
all the big famous people work [about] 4-5 hours a day... [like] Adele,
classical pianos, jazz pianos...if you wanna be a superstar...work [for it].”
No comments:
Post a Comment