Original: February 8, 2011 Issue 10
By: Alexandra Weidt
Staff Writer
On Tuesday, January 25, the Montgomery College Music Recital Hall was the place to be for jazz lovers all around Rockville. Organized by the Music Department, the first concert of this spring semester by the Harry Appelman Trio was a big success.
Montgomery College’s Jazz piano instructor, Harry Appelman, played along with his friends and colleagues Jeff Reed on the bass and Tony Martucci on the drums. The trio played their very own set of jazz music, partly a prepared play list, partly a spontaneous choice of their favourite songs. The audience was captured within the first seconds, and the total of nine songs kept them fascinated over the whole 90-minute concert.
In their repertoire were songs like “The Best Thing for Me is You” and “Rio” from Wayne Shorter. Towards the end of the set, the trio performed “Limatone,” a special song to pianist Appelman, who composed it, inspired by his trip to Lima, Peru, about ten years ago. They also played “Ballet”, another of the pianist’s favourite songs.
The trio visibly enjoyed the chance to play in this quiet kind of environment. “Since we mostly play in bars and clubs, it really is a pleasure to play this concert here tonight,” said bassist Reed. The artists of the Harry Appelman Trio are all about the music; they play, they teach, they enjoy. Martucci and Reed are both university professors, Appelman, of course, teaches jazz piano at Montgomery College. According to Appelman, every concert is “a wonderful change of routine, even though I love to teach, too.”
The audience enjoyed this kind of routine change as well. A jazz loving group of senior citizens from Ingleside at King Farm in Rockville was thrilled about the performance. “It was a wonderful concert. We would love to come again.”
The remaining audience agreed, “Lovely, Great and Excellent!”
Even one of Appelman’s students came to enjoy the concert. “He is a great teacher, and I have seen him in a concert a few times before, but tonight was the best performance yet in this group.”