At the Orion Centre, Sydney 4 November 2012 -Dave plays audience requests. Sound recorded in Hi-Fi A-B stereo using 2xRode NT3 mics. High quality speakers or headphones (eg Sony MDR-XB300) recommended.
Just simply amazing and beautiful. Not a spot of music to read, and 24 minutes of pure musical perfection. Please always keep doing this. The world needs it. I need it. The world is so dark and music like this brings light to it. God bless you!
I am floored at how good the Widor sounds on the Theatre Organ. I play it every Easter at my church as the closing voluntary. How I would have loved to hear that in person!
Actually a few requests is actually 16 by my reckoning, and I have them as these: Dave Wickerham medley 1. Chopsticks :45 2. Baby Elephant Walk (Mancini)2:30 3. Easter Parade (Berlin) 3:22 4. White Christmas (Berlin) 4:18 5. Carol of the Bells (Leontovych) 4:50 6. Claire DeLune (Debussy) 7:09 7. Moon River (Mancini) 7:33 8. Song of India (Rimsky-Korsakov) 9:10 9. Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Arlen-Harburg) 12:05 10. I'm Always Chasing Rainbows (Carrol) 13:40 11. 12th Street Rag (Bowman) 14:11 12. Sobre Las Olas "Over the Waves" (Rosas) 13. Send In The Clowns ( Sondheim )15:43 14. Rock of Ages (Toplady) 17:32 15. About a Quarter to 9 (Warren) 18:17 16. Widor's Tocatta (Widor) 19:20 Brilliant playing with seamless joins to connect the tunes, punctuated with great voicing and arranging. Dave is clearly a master of the WurliTzer and its many moods.
And should have said - WHAT A RECORDING! Was there when George Wright played at the Gaumont State Kilburn in London in the 70's and thought I'd heard it all then - but THIS man!!
Great recording, rjnsmith1! Dave is both a good friend and frequent performer here at Blackwood in Western Pennsylvania (USA). To those who have commented about Dave's improvisation and ability to "clear" ciphers, I must relate a story... I serve as the organ technician at Blackwood, and the very first time Dave played here in concert, a nasty posthorn cipher occurred (middle A). When he was unable to "clear" it, he quickly closed the solo shades and played completely from the main chamber. Most of the audience was unaware... and I was thankful that I could pull the one and only note playing in the solo chamber! Even more amazing is that within 2 seconds of pulling the pipe, the shades opened and he began to use both chambers once again! To the "cipher chasers" out there, you know how rare this is!
Jason Wiles i had a oboe horn at the Senate theater (former Fisher Theater Wurlitzer in Detroit that i was watching while Walt Strony was playing, went down ... my stupid mistake was... in with the 10 ranks in the main chamber, the oboe horn is right next to the Trumpet... and i thought it was the trumpet... in the heat of things (he actually stopped playing so we could grab it given the acoustics of the small theater with the large organ) it wasnt until my knee hit the resonator of the oboe that i heard the pitch change and realized what it actually was. Pulled the pipe... he finished the song, during intermission, i dropped the magnet armature and cleaned it, it was fine.. in the second half however... it cyphered again.... SAME pipe.. we put a dollar under it to shut it up, later on... the valve got stuck some how.. and it wouldnt even PLAY. But i did learn.. the difference between the oboe and trumpet lol.
WHAT AN ORGAN - WHAT AN INSTALLATION - WHAT AN ORGANIST ! ! Why in my 60+ years of organ fanaticism have I only TODAY come across this amazing organist?!! The way he uses the whole instrument - - - - - WOW!
I had to replay this twice for the cypher as I originally played this to fall asleep and didn't notice the high pitch out of place note. Dave killed that sucker with style LOL. I remember the last time he played Indianapolis Manual High School Wurly 3/26, it gave him fits as pistons were sticking especially mem-level which he fluidly moves between while in performance. Dave has an excellent memory and a wide range of musical styles to play from which makes him number one in my book. There are a number of organist who have such ability, but Dave is the only one I know who can do this on the fly with no preparation.
Great playing in individual songs, and in the smooth transitions. And, Dave's a great guy too. I always remember when he let me play a few songs on thr Roxy organ in the Las Vegas Fiesta Casino restaurant, after he finished his set. Thanks Dave, we amateurs rarely get that opportunity. Greg Weathers
The cypher just happened to be in the right key to cover for a few seconds and then we started to notice it. By the time our tech expert was halfway up the hall heading towards the chambers Dave had played it out. For those in the know it stunned us!
Dave is coming back to St. Louis in May 2016 for Party on the Pipes. Can’t wait to hear what he has in store for us this time! The Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis, home of the Mighty 4/36 Wurlitzer in its original installation.
I heard him a few months ago here in Rochester and he was brilliant. Did this same kind of "request medley" (must be his trademark) and he's an improvisationist extraordinaire. Scratch my head trying to figure out for the life of me how he does this stuff because no one just knows all that off the top of their head like that. Got to talk to him a bit when the whole crew of us went out for a bite after, nice guy, class act all the way as well as a great performer!
I have seen Dave perform in San Diego, Phoenix, las Vegas, Foxburg, and Blackwood in Harrisville Pennsylvania. Never a better performance than Blackwood
Just got a notice he's playing at Shanklin Music Hall on May 15th! Wurly 4/34 out of the Boston Metropolitan Theatre restored and installed in a building built explicity for it. Great experience last time, other than rude people pushing a 4 y.o. girl out of the way.
