John Tesh Tilles Center concert recap July 13, 2009

Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel.
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Last Saturday, I attended John Tesh: Music & Intelligence for Your Life, Live in Concert, at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at C.W. Post.

I left for the campus at 5:00, walking to the N73 (MTA Long Island Bus) bus stop bound for Hicksville.  That bus arrived at the stop around 5:15 and at LIRR Hicksville Station 25 minutes later.  I passed part of the time at the adjacent Dunkin’ Donuts.  Then, it was off to N20 bus stop and on to C.W. Post.

I shot this picture of the Tilles Center north entrance and Atrium exterior as I arrived:

The concert was hosted by KJOY 98.3 (WKJY-FM) and sister station Love 96.1 (WLVG-FM), both of which air “The John Tesh Radio Show.”

As of today, both station’s websites still have a video from John promoting the concert.

The KJOY version:

The Love 96.1 version:

The south entrance, adjacent to the Abrams Communication Building home of WCWP 88.1 FM and myWCWP.

The KJOY van:

The view from my seat before the concert:

KJOY’s Bill Edwards, whose weekday radio show precedes John’s, welcomed us:

Next to welcome us, and by extension warm us up, was Gib Gerard, the Tesh.com web producer:

Gib also operated the graphics emanating from the monitor during the concert.

Gib and Betsy Chase, the Vice President of Programming and Executive Producer for the radio show, look for potential bidders for the robe John wore Friday night at the Garden City Hotel:

The winning bid was $450.  The money will go to feed a child through World Vision.

The winning bidder later gave the robe back so it could be bid on again.

Betsy also does the “Did You Know?” tidbits for the radio show, as she demonstrated by saying “Did you know John Tesh is from Long Island and his birthday was Thursday?”

The audience erupted in cheers:

I think that’s a yes.  🙂  (I never put emoticons in my blog posts, but it was necessary here.)

Then, it was time to begin.  I apologize for some of the washed out pictures.

John’s grand entrance:

SET 1
1. Barcelona

2. Garden City

Only John and Tim Landers, the music director and bass player, performed on this one:

3. Bastille Day

This began with a bass solo by Tim:

Chelsea Ward on vocals:

Gannin Arnold on guitar:

For the next song, John shared the story of the first time he met Breeze Lee, his daughter Prima’s hip-hop ballet instructor.  Then, he invited Breeze on stage:

And Breeze was interpreting the beginning of…

4. Trading My Sorrows

John can sing, too:

Everybody had a hand on vocals throughout the show, except for Breeze and drummer Dave Hooper (he might have, but I couldn’t see him from my seat).

5. Draw Me Close

John tells the audience how the song “Roundball Rock,” NBC Sports’ NBA theme, came to be:

6. Roundball Rock

He stopped midway through and brought out an NBA regulation size basketball, signed by him and the band, for an audience member to dribble to the “Roundball Rock” beat:

A girl named Shannyn came on stage and hilarity ensued.

I won’t give details, but one of her responses to a question by John led him to say, “In the 20 years I’ve been doing that, that’s the best answer we’ve ever had!”

High five!

“How ’bout a hand for Shannyn?”

INTERMISSION

Gib dressed casual for the second set to illustrate how casual this set is:

SET 2
7. Open The Eyes of My Heart

8. Give Me Forever (I Do)
John wrote this with James Ingram and performed it at his wedding to Connie Sellecca.

9. I Can Only Imagine

10. The Breeze Lee Challenge
This is where John and the band individually challenge Breeze Lee with their instrumentation; or in Chelsea’s case, vocalization.  In turn, Breeze challenges the band by interpreting what they play.  It is left up to the audience to decide who whether the band member wins or Breeze wins.

We start with drummer Dave Hooper…

Next, Tim Landers…

Followed by Gannin Arnold…

Chelsea Ward…

After a few lines of “At Last,” she threw Breeze a kiss:

And then, it was John’s turn:

The big finish:

The audience erupted in wild cheers and applause.

Wow!  I, Mike Chimeri, think it’s safe to say Breeze Lee was your big winner!

He gave a thank you wave to the audience:

After John recalled how he, Connie, and Prima got involved in volunteering, and recommend it to the audience, it was on to…
11. Rescue

I, too, recommend volunteering.

12 (Finale). Spanish Steps

Gannin had an extended guitar solo:

Breeze Lee returned…

…to interpret wild keyboard and organ solos by John:

Throwing in the modulation wheel:

Switching to the organ:

Doubling up on organ and keyboard:

And back to keyboard:

Dave Hooper soloed on drums:

Then, the final measure of the night:

The concert was quite an experience.  Not only did I hear great music and singing, but I learned a thing or two along the way.  Thank you very much to everyone involved, and thank you to Betsy Chase for helping me remember what I forgot or didn’t know.  Appropriately enough, now I know, and you all know, too.  Thanks for reading.

7/14, 1:25 AM UPDATE: My recap has been linked to on John’s concert calendar page and concert homepage.