Meeting Marcia in Morristown

             About a year ago when I first begun the ZEIsSIT World blog, one of my first entries was regarding my opinion that the greatest singer ever is Johnny Mathis. Many months later I happened to receive an email from someone who happened to agree with me, so I know I'm correct about my greatest singer-ever assessment, and this person also included a link to an article written about her which I found amazing. Her name is Marcia, and although she was born blind, through specialized schooling for the blind and with help from a software called Dolphin Guide, she has managed to become an emailing guru. In addition, she has to be about the biggest Johnny Mathis fan in the world with having attending thousands (no exaggeration) of his concerts over the years as well as had the fortune of meeting him six times!!

             Luckily she was able to come upon my blog entry and she was excited to find a fellow fan enough that she emailed me. We planned on meeting in person at a future concert and originally selected one scheduled in August at the Capital One Bank Theater in Westbury, but unfortunately Mathis had to cancel most of his concerts for hip surgery, which meant Marcia and I had to put off meeting until a later date. Months after his recovery, new dates were confirmed and we re-scheduled meeting at a show that was going to take place at the Mayo Performance Arts Center in Morristown, New Jersey. Mathis was going to play two nights in a row, and of course as a super-fan Marcia was going to both, but I was just going to the first show. Also as a super-fan and since she purchased her tickets well in advance (her excitement never wanes) she was sitting up front by the stage while I would be many rows back. Once we were all set we shared a few more emails to make sure we would be able to meet up, and we were very excited to finally be able to attend a show together. Marcia was going with her friend Billie while I had to make the drive by myself all the way out to Jersey.

             On the Google map Morristown was listed as only an hour away from the Bronx, but as usual Google takes no account of the Cross Bronx Expressway and one of the other highways I had to take, I-80 West, as both were crawling the whole way. In the end it took about a hour and forty minutes finally reach the area. I've been on a bad string of getting lost lately and this Morristown trip was having bad news written all over it. It seemed once I got off the highway, everything seemed dark and the street signs were difficult to read. As I started to worry, all of a sudden I found myself driving on South Street were there were lots of stores and I happened to pass by what looked like a theater with many people entering, so I figured that had to be the place. I turned around and passed by again and felt more confidant that I had finally found my destination. I was able to find parking three blocks away and walked up to the front of the theater to make sure there was some mention of the Mathis concert, and there was. Had I come earlier, Marcia, Billie, and I were going to get something to eat before the show, but since I was stuck in traffic for a while, we had to wait to meet at the theater. We arranged to meet the souvenir stand and the three of us chatting it up for a while before the show started. Marcia had a custom-made sweatshirt with photo imprint taken with her and one of her other friends, and standing in the middle was none other than Johnny Mathis. Billie didn't have a custom sweatshirt, but she was carrying a picture she had taken with Mathis a couple of years ago. I wished I had cool pictures like that to show them, but closest I got was shaking Mathis' hand in a concert last year, never had a chance to meet him.

             About ten minutes before showtime we decided to head for our seats and the theater was nearly packed, except for a few rows towards the very back and a couple of random single seats here and there. This was going to be my sixth Mathis show, only nine hundred ninety-nine behind Marcia, and the format was similar to the previous five. He came out on stage a few minutes after 8pm to a big applause, which was a little longer than usual because this was one of his first shows back since the hip surgery, and then went into his first song. Most performers at concerts like to be chatty in between songs and tell stories, not Mathis. Except for a couple sentences after his first song, he basically likes to crank out the songs one after another with very minimum interruption. He breaks up his shows in two acts. The first part is usually his signature hits such as "Chances Are", "Twelve of Never", "Misty", "It's Not for Me to Say", "A Certain Smile", plus selected musical pieces from Henry Mancini such as "Moon River". After that a stand-up comedian, usually Gary Mule Deer, comes out for a twenty-minute bit, then there's a fifteen minute intermission. I went back out to the souvenir stand to see if I could meet up with Marcia and Billie again for a few minutes, but for some reason they didn't show up, so I was hoping we would be able to catch each other after the show.

             When I arrived back at my seat I saw a lady in front of me had a photo album of Johnny Mathis pictures that it looked like she had been collecting over the past forty years. In fact, on the inside cover, it too looked like she had the chance to meet and have a picture taken with him. With Marcia, Billie, and now this other lady, I was really behind. I scanned my eyes around other fans in their seats and I noticed some more had photos albums, some brought in old vinyl records, people were holding these items in their hands like they were gold. A different lady in the row ahead of me was telling stories how her and her husband used to dance to alot of these Mathis songs (it seemed like the husband isn't alive anymore). I was trying to figure out why has everyone followed this singer and these songs for close to sixty years? Plus, how was I able to get drawn in and become a fan? For whatever contemporary musical acts that are being produced today, are fans going to flock to see them even twenty years from now? Most likely not, and certainly not fifty years down the road. Much like the feeling of attending an antique toy show; it seems toys used to be made out of die-cast metal so they would last for decades, now toys are made out of plastic and snap into pieces after fifteen minutes. Whatever the reasons are, groups like the Rolling Stones or single-acts like Johnny Mathis are limited natural resources and should be appreciated while they're around. Instead of long-lasting music, people these days are more concerned with having an electrical socket nearby to charge up their overpriced gadgets.

             The lights dimmed again for the second half of the show and I realized Mathis had changed into a pair of white shoes. As usual with his second-half openers these days, he started things off with "Pure Imagination", then went into his cover of "You Make Me Feel Brand New". From his latest album, and the first time I ever heard him perform it, he surprised the audience by singing "Shenandoah", which turned out to delight Marcia very much. Towards the end of a Mathis show he usually takes out a couple of stools and sits next to his long-time guitarist Gil Rogers for a few tunes. They covered the Beatles classic "Yesterday", then went into Mathis standards "99 Miles to L.A." and "Brazil" to wrap up the show. Mathis came out for one more song as an encore, and then accepted a few bouquets of flowers among the standing ovation as he left the stage for good for the night. I caught up with Marcia and Billie on the way out and Marcia was completely blown away as if it was her first Mathis show. With everyone shuffling out of the theater we couldn't stay much to talk there, so we decided to look for a place to have a cup of coffee and talk more Mathis. Just down the block there was a Strawberry Fields Frozen Yogurt shop that has tables inside we would be able to sit at. With a Beatles them inside of pictures and photos from the 60's, Strawberry Fields has a dozen of different yogurt flavors you pump yourself and they charge you by the weight of your cup. I tried pomegranate and had a cup of coffee with that, Marcia just had a cup of coffee, Billie didn't feel like having anything.

             We discussed the show we all just attended, and of course nobody had any complains. Then Marcia peeled off some of the many Mathis-related stories she had in her vault, and Billie chimed in as well with her experiences. Marcia is a walking-encyclopedia of musical acts, although Mathis is her #1, she's been to Elvis concerts, she met Smokey Robinson, I think she has about everyone from the Golden Era of music covered. We were talking and talking and time seemed to fly by fast to the point the store workers had to tell us we needed to go because they were about to close up. We asked the cashier to take a group picture of us so we would have something to remember from that night, with hopes of all meeting again at another Johnny Mathis concert in the future. Once Marcia and Billie were safely off into a cab, I headed back to my car for the drive back to the Bronx. Once I turned on the car I saw my gas tank only had one bar left until it was going to be empty. I was in the main part of town and probably would've found a gas station, but I didn't feel like going on a wild goose chase and possibly getting lost late at night in the dark, so I stuck with the directions and took the highway. I remember on I-80 seeing a few gas stations on the side of the highway, so I figured if I get into an emergency, I'll just gas up over there. I kept the speed to about 50 mph so I wouldn't burn up my gas too quickly, and eventually did see the gas station on the side of the highway, but I didn't exit. The thing with Jersey is you can't pump your own gas, plus I really didn't have cash on me. So if I did use a New Jersey gas station, I would have to hand some unknown attendant my card, plus give them a cash tip (which actually makes the gas price is higher than advertised). I decided to keep on driving with the gas tank signal pointing to Empty with hopes I could at least make it into the Bronx.

             As I crossed over the George Washington Bridge I had visions of the car just dying out, so I kept in the right lane in case such as thing would happen. The first exit I came upon which looked like a good chance I would get gas was Jerome Avenue. As soon as I got off the exit it was a madhouse with two police vans flashing their lights for absolutely no reason. Cabs were flying all over, cars were honking horns, all I wanted was a little gas to get me home. There was a Sunoco gas station to the left of the exit I got off of, so I needed to make a U-turn and head left. Due the lateness of the hour, the location near a highway exit, and the dense street traffic, by the time I reached this gas station, filled up, and was on my way back on the Cross Bronx Expressway, at least thirty minutes went by. Since I had traffic going to the concert and didn't have an opportunity to eat, plus can't really consider frozen yogurt a meal, my stomach was finally growling for dinner. Before going home, I decided to stop off at a diner that's usually open all night. It was extremely too early for breakfast, but I wasn't looking for anything heavy or overly greasy, so I went with a belgian waffle with beef sausage. I was so hungry I think I crammed it all down in less than eight minutes. The anxiety of driving home on one cup of gasoline really tired me out and I was ready for bed. It was some night!!

             That's what happens when you declare someone the greatest singer ever........

Ball of Confusion out of the Parking Lot

            Roughly six years ago I was in Connecticut and I saw a local theater which was promoting an upcoming concert which was going to feature two of the biggest Motown groups ever in rock-n-rolls history, and that was Four Tops and The Temptations. I figured, wow, what a great idea to have both iconic groups playing together like that on one night. Since it was up in Connecticut it would've been a pain to get back up there again a few days later, so I let the concert pass, even though those two groups stayed in the back of my mind that I was going to see them live one day in the future. Time and time again I would read the act(both groups together) would be playing somewhere closer in New York, but there was always something else or a lack of motivation to see it. Recently, I saw a notice online that both groups were going to be performing together at the Capital One Bank Theater in Westbury, NY, a place I've been to several times and enjoyed its intimate setting, so I made sure I wasn't going to miss them this time around.

            The day of the show I bought a ticket online, and since I only needed one seat for myself, I actually ended up with a bargain price for a single seat located in a section that normally would've cost thirty dollars more had I needed a pair of seats. The theater must have had a single floater ticket they needed to get rid of, so it seems they dropped the price on it as an incentive for someone like me to pick it up. The show was scheduled for a 8:00pm start, I arrived about 6:40pm. The people who were supposed to help with parking wore baggy orange jumpsuits and had a thuggish way about them. It made me think the theater hired a few convicts out of their cells for a couple of hours to help with parking. The doors to be seated opened at 7:00pm, but was in no mood to wait and hour sitting down, so I stayed in the lobby area which has snacks and drinks available. There is a VIP section which allows access for a nicer area with a bar and lounge area, but I didn't buy tickets to the theater's VIP section. I been to this theater a few times before, twice to see Johnny Mathis and once for Peter Frampton. When I go to see a show there, I'm usually the youngest one in the audience, but I was happy this time there were at least five people younger than me attending the performance. It's probably my favorite venue as its very small and intimate whereas you can see performers way up close, even if you're in the very back row. The rotating stage is a neat feature to see performers at all angles. Plus, even though they announce photography and video taping in prohibited, most of the staff there is elderly, so either they can't see what's going on or just don't have the energy to enforce the rules.

             The first group to go on, around 8:10pm, was Four Tops. Although they're considered the opening act in this case, I actually like their songs more than those of The Temptations, so to me they were the main attraction. Out of the four group members, only one of the original Tops, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, is still alive and was on stage. The other three original members have died over the years, including lead singer Levi Stubbs. So even though they're billed as Four Tops, the sound isn't quite the same as when hearing their classic songs on the radio or on the iPod, or in movies. As for the other three members, one is the son of one of the original members who died, and the other two just became part of the group over time. They all did a great job being in sync together which would give the impression they're been performing together since the 1960's. They mixed in some commentary, some playfulness with the crowd, some dance moves, and lastly were decked out in gold suits. All the vintage Four Tops hits were covered such as "Bernadette", "Reach Out I'll Be There", "It's the Same Old Song", "Baby I Need Your Loving", "Ain't No Woman Like The One I Got", "Shake Me, Wake Me(When It's Over)", "Standing on the Shadows of Love", "When She Was My Girl", "Walk Away Renee", and the grand finale "I Can't Help Myself(Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)". They also went off the menu, so to speak to, for a few solo acts, but it was these classic hits everyone enjoyed the most.

           After a twenty-minute intermission, where the first time in my life I saw the line to the men's room longer than the line to the ladies' room, it was time for The Temptations to hit the stage. Like Four Tops, this version of The Temptations only included one original member from back in the 1960's, and that was Otis Williams. There was also Ron Tyson, who joined the group in 1983, but overall the sound is different from what people are used to, especially without former lead singer David Ruffin that gave them a big part of their signature sound from 1964-1968. The Temptations have gone through many makeovers and personal renovations over the years, there's about two or three other groups with former members billing themselves as The Temptations in some form or another, but with original member Otis Williams, this is as close to the real Temptations as it gets. They came out with light orange jackets and purple pants, not to be confused with the dark orange jumpsuits the parking lot attendants were wearing. Just like Four Tops, they performed all the big hits that made them Motown legends during the 1960's and early 70's such as "Get Ready", "Just My Imagination(Running Away With Me)", "I Can't Get Next To You", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", "Ball of Confusion(That's What The World Is Today)", "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me", "Cloud Nine", "I Wish It Would Rain", the infamous "My Girl", and lastly "(I Know) I'm Losing You".

             The Temptations have five members on stage, versus four for Four Tops, and go a little further in terms of synchronized dance moves, but both groups stuck to their roots with the flashy clothes and movements during the songs. It was nice to see all these classic hits performed live as these are songs that still find themselves in our everyday lives. A day might be a stretch, but its near impossible to go a week and not hear one of these hits from Four Tops or The Temptations while in a store, watching a movie, watching TV, hearing commercials, flipping through the radio, etc. For instance, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) headlines the opening of the Vietnam part in the movie "Forrest Gump", as well as got a second life of popularity in the comedy "There's Something About Mary". The Temptations hits "My Girl" and "Get Ready"are simply all over the place, appearing in countless movies, shows, and other instances where a good tune is needed. The show ended about a few minutes after 11:00pm and everyone made the mad dash to the parking lot to get out. The parking lot has only one entrance, which seems to only be two-cars wide and goes up a hill. When nearly a thousand cars are vying for this one entrance, things get a little messy. Out of the team of prisoner parking attendants, I only saw one attempting to direct the traffic, and he was failing miserably, the rest of the team was nowhere in sight. What made it worse, someone had also parked their car near this entrance way, so lines splintered from two, to four, to sometimes six different lanes of cars fighting to get through. As the title of one of The Temptations' songs, the parking lot was a ball of confusion that took fifteen minutes to get out of, and I was one of the early people out of the theater.

            Motown legends or not, there was no way Four Tops or The Temptations were leaving that place before midnight...

                                           

         

The Greatest Singer Ever is Johnny Mathis

            Not because he sung the opening theme song 'Without Us' used for the TV show 'Family Ties', not because he's been with the same recording company, Columbia, for nearly 60 years strong, actually I don't know why he is, but he is.

            At first I only knew of him faintly, but in November of 2007 I was planning a trip to Atlantic City, NJ and the hotel I was staying at, The Tropicana, has a concert hall and that night Johnny Mathis was planned to perform. Not sure what else there was to do that night I decided to get tickets for the show. It must have been nearly sold out by the time I got the tickets cause the seats were in the very last row. I enjoyed the show, but was bummed out I sat all the way in the back. So in April of 2008 he was scheduled to perform at the State Theater in New Brunswick, NJ. Seeing that listing, I reserved seats sooner and was able to get much closer, which made for a better concert experience. Then in late August of 2008, his stop was for The Westbury Theater in Westbury, NY. The seats I got for this show was literally the second row, amazing! This was probably my favorite of all the times seeing him because it was the first time I saw him so up close and for the song selections he performed that night.
        
            For some reason in 2009 and 2010 I went Johnny Mathis-less, but made up for it in this year 2011 by seeing him earlier in the year at the Bergen PAC in Bergan County, NJ, and again in Westbury, NY (same theater as 2008) also in the second row. The difference this time at Westbury was my seats were closer to the aisle in which he would walk down from. The highlight that night was as he was leaving the stage after his last song, the people in my row closer to the aisle had already left, giving me a chance to get next to the aisle so I was able to extend my hand and Johnny Mathis shook it on his way out.
        
          Johnny is approaching his late 70's and he sounds great, but who knows how many years he's going to be doing shows or if he succomes to old age, so he's worth catching while you can. He has his own website and posts all his tour dates, still doing alot of shows at the moment. As for the ol' crooners; Frank Sinatra eventually lost his voice and has passed on, Andy Williams is fading, Tony Bennett is holding up well, but Johnny Mathis is the last great one. I'm glad I was able to shake his hand, I never shook one more important.