Monday, January 31, 2011

Fake Kurt Loder Facebook

 


Fake Kurt Loder Facebook
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I was briefly taken in by the new Facebook page for Kurt Loder.

At first I thought it possible, but then after reading a few of the comments made by "Kurt Loder," I immediately realized it was either a joke or a mediocre pretender.

Others were apparently taken in too, like Roger Hughes, an old Army buddy from Munich who I'm sure Kurt would like to reestablish contact with or just say hello, and the women who went to OCHS with Kurt back in the Sixties.

But then reading the comments "Kurt Loder" posted, it was immediatly clear that whoever this character is, it isn't Kurt Loder, and must be somebody that not only doesn't work with him, or know him, but hasn't even read his stuff.

I tried to post a comment exposing this fraud, noting that the real Kurt Loder would never say any music is "cool," or "Kurt Loder Rules!" but they won't let me expose them on their own page, so I'll do it here.

Kurt would not ask people to "never forget" him, or ask anyone who loves him to say so or post it. And he would never ask anyone to promote him in any way.

And he certainly didn't "always enjoy interviewing musicians," but thought it was work, and tedious work at that. He didn't think that most of those he interviewed were doing anything "really groundbreaking and fascinating" or even interesting, and with only a few exceptions (ie. Keith Richards, Captain Beefheart).

Kurt Loder is an interesting person, a good guy, a smart guy, a neat acquaintance, fine friend, excellent writer and good guitarist.

But he didn't enjoy interviewing idiot celebrities, thought the most significant music went unhearld. He despised the direction that music video television went, and didn't follow it there.

Now he's writing good film reviews, and sometimes his reviews are better than the movies he's writing about.

But he's not on Facebook, and probably doesn't even know there's an idiot imposter posting junk under his good name.


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kurt-Loder/356924534103

L. Korkos: I went to school with you Class of 63 O.C., N.J. must say you did your homrwork and loved English

January 24 at 9:28pm
Roger Hughes: Kurt , this Roger Hughes your old Army Buddy in Munic Germany , Hope that You Remember ...

December 28, 2010 at 1:19pm
Kurt, I remember reading your book on Tina Turner and borrowing it from my local library in my teen years... and growing up watching MTV watching you interview Madonna, Marilyn Manson, Trent Reznor and soooo many artists/bands I listen to.

Being the music journalist you are... stay true to what you're doing because I'm ...sure it's working!

Peace.
See More

November 18, 2010

Kurt Loder: hey thanks for the comments. always enjoyed interviewing the musicians who were making some really groundbreaking and fascinating stuff. i look forward to previewing some really cool music here on this fan page real soon. stay tuned, and thanks again.

November 19, 2010 at 5:54am · Eric Cobain hey kurt how did you feel about interviewing nirvana when they were around

Kurt Loder: If you really love Kurt Loder, post how much you love Kurt Loder and help promote this page and Kurt Loder's legacy to the World Forever!!!!!!

November 18, 2010 at 12:07pm
Kurt Loder: Kurt rules FOREVER!!! Never Forget Kurt Loder!!!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Merion Inn Fire

 


Merion Inn Fire, Christmas Eve, 2010
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The Merion Inn on Decatur Street in Cape May had a serious fire on Christmas Eve, and while everyone got out okay, including George Mesterhazy and his girlfriend, her brother was seriously injured.

After a cleanup and rehab of the damage, they reopened in time for New Years and should be back in business now.

Looking forward to stopping by and seeing George during this spring Cape May Jazz Fest.

This fire could have been a disaster, not only to those who were there, but to everyone who ever enjoyed the place, one of Cape May's most historic bars and restaurants.

Built circa 18?? by members of the exclusive Merion Golf and Cricket Club in Philadelphia, the Merion Inn catered to those who enjoyed living first class.

The old hardwood bar against the wall is one of Cape May's oldest, possibly challenged only by Prince Edward at the Chalfonte Hotel.

George Mesterhazy, who I know from the old Atlantic City Days, has been behind the baby grand for years now, and whenever there's some musicians or singers in town they usually stop by to say hello to George and end up jamming or singing along.

At least we can depend on George being there next time we're in town.

George Mesterhazy

 


George Mesterhazy at the piano at the Merion Inn, Decatur Street, Cape May, New Jersey
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Mesterhazy

By BOB INGRAM
Cape May County Herald

July 2008

http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/article/30858-mesterhazy-gentleman-jazz

The Merion Inn on Decatur Street in Cape May harkens back to more genteel, Victorian times. This particular evening, eight women of late middle age, in summery pastels, cluster at the near end of the stately bar, sipping wine and chatting amiably while they wait for their table.

At the handsome Steinway upright grand piano nearby, George Mesterhazy, 55, the house pianist, long hair and beard flecked with gray, moves easily from one standard to the next, graciously taking requests that he mixes in with his own selections, while the tip level in the giant martini glass on the piano slowly rises.

“Night and Day” moves into “Some Enchanted Evening” into “Side By Side” into “I’ll Be Seeing You” into “Younger Than Springtime” and so on into the long, easy evening.

Later, on the patio, Mesterhazy reacts to a comment that his status at the Merion Inn is not unlike that of the great jazz pianist Marian MacPartland, who for so many years was the featured solo attraction at the famed Hickory House in New York City. Miss MacPartland still hosts the popular “Piano Jazz” program on PBS Radio.

“It’s funny you should mention Marian,” Mesterhazy says. “I was part of her 90th birthday tribute in March. It’s supposed to air on PBS Radio. I don’t know when. They already sent me a check, though. It was great. I only did a few songs. I accompanied Jeannie Bryson, Dizzy Gillespie’s daughter. I love Marian.”

George Mesterhazy has a natural, accessible way and loves to talk about his life’s work and joy, which is jazz. He seems to know everybody in jazz and has an endless wealth of jazz stories. He is a gentleman raconteur of what has been called America’s classical music. He is, in short, a jazz man.

He has been at the Merion Inn keyboard since he was interim musical director at the First Presbyterian Church across the street from the inn eleven years ago. The church is itself a local jazz Mecca, holding regular jazz vespers since even before Mesterhazy became affiliated.

“I would get done playing church services,” he recalls, “and the inn was doing lunch in those days, so I’d come over here and play piano for nothing and get a free lunch and have a good time, the main motivation being to talk to Vicki.”

Vicki is Victoria Watson, whose family owns the Merion Inn. She and Mesterhazy are now a couple, living over the restaurant on the second and third floors. They also have an apartment in Manhattan for when Mesterhazy is working there, either as a pianist, composer, arranger, music director, or producer. He is involved in every aspect of his music.

“I just always dabbled in it,” he says of his piano playing. “I didn’t even know I was going to be a piano player until I was 18 or 19. I would play a friend’s organ or the piano in somebody’s house or high school. I played just to amuse myself.”

Raised in New York State, Mesterhazy moved to Somers Point and attended Mainland Regional High School and considers himself “a Jersey boy.”

He played rock guitar and trumpet until he jumped in for a less-than-sterling keyboard player and just went on from there.

“I had the house band in the Strand Hotel in Atlantic City,” he notes. “I was 17. It was great. I was still in high school and I had a band called the Penthouse Trio and we accompanied all the acts who came to the 500 Club and stayed at the Strand.

To pay for their rooms, they put on free shows for the other guests at the pool and one of my jobs was to accompany them besides playing at night with the trio. It was a great job!”
Mesterhazy continues: “I hung out in those days. I mean, it was part of my childhood. I knew Skinny (Paul “Skinny” D’Amato, legendary owner of the 500 Club) very well. I played a solo piano job at a club called the Apartment Lounge. I was 18-years-old! I worked in an auto parts store during the day and played piano at night at the Apartment Lounge.”

Since those long ago and far away days, Mesterhazy has literally traveled the world as a jazz piano player. One of the highlights of his career was a Grammy nomination on Shirley Horn’s 1998 album “Loving You.”

The story of how he came to play with Shirley Horn says a great deal about Mesterhazy’s outlook and career. He was playing with Boston jazz singer Rebecca Paris, he recalls, “in a dive called Twins in D.C. It was owned by twin Ethiopian sisters. I thought, ‘Who the hell is going to come into this bar to watch Rebecca and I play jazz with a trio?’ I’m just kind of closing my eyes and playing. I open my eyes and the place is packed! And then these two guys in tuxedoes come in.”

The two guys were Joel Siegel, Shirley Horn’s manager, and the composer (Sir) Richard Rodney Bennett; they’d been at a formal affair at the Kennedy Center. Siegel said he loved Mesterhazy’s playing and understood that George would be in Los Angeles producing a new album for Rebecca Parris at the same time Shirley Horn would be having a record release party at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Siegel invited Mesterhazy to the party. There was one hitch: when Mesterhazy got to Hollywood, he had a suit with him, but he didn’t have socks. He called Hal Levy, Sarah Vaughn’s last manager, and asked to borrow a pair of socks. Levy said that was fine with him, “so I went over to his fancy high-rise apartment in the marina somewhere and borrowed a pair of socks,” Mesterhazy remembers with a chuckle.

He met Shirley Horn at the party, they hit it off immediately, and the rest is jazz history. George Mesterhazy counts Horn as one of his main influences, as well as Grammy winner Herbie Hancock, and points out that “there’s a direct lineage between George Shearing and Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock, and I have pretty much followed that lineage, which follows a line of harmonic development that I really love. And I’ve always loved Oscar Peterson. We finally met last year, shortly before he died. It was a real honor to sit in a room and talk about music together.”

Among composers, he favors Johnny Mandel and Nelson Riddle, along with Don Costa, Burt Bacharach, Michel LeGrand, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

“All you have to do is listen to a Sinatra record,” he goes on. “You don’t even have to listen to anything else to learn all there is to know about music.”
On Aug. 8, Mesterhazy will begin producing a new CD with singer Paula West at Sears Sound in New York City.

“It’s a good studio with great old microphones,” he says. “The new style of recording is you go in and lay your tracks down and you don’t even meet anybody. I’m writing for the Paula West record now and we’ll have everybody in the room together and we won’t even be wearing headphones.”

He says he’s in his third year with a production company called Razz Productions and also works for seven straight weeks every year at the Razz Room at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco with Paula West and a quartet out of New York.

“We opened the place so we’ll be the main headliner there again next year,” he says.
As to his playing at the Merion Inn, he says, “I treat it with the same care as I do everything, so it doesn’t affect me negatively in any way, even though I don’t play as jazzy as I would if I was in a real jazz environment.

On Tuesday night, though, the group we have at the Merion swings, man. It’s me and Tim Lekan on bass and Bob Shomo on drums. I pay for the band out of my pocket just so I can do it. For me, it’s mental health night. You ought to come out.”

(Thanks for the great article Bob Ingram - BK)

George Mesterhazy

 


George Mesterhazy at the piano at the Merion Inn, Decatur Street, Cape May, New Jersey