Singer Calabria Foti and her husband, virtuoso trombonist Bob McChesney will perform at the Rialto Dec. 11 at 8 p.m.
Courtesy of The Rialto
Downtown Atlanta became livelier with the reopening of the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts in November after 20 months. A festive concert this Saturday continues the merriment as the Rialto presents acclaimed vocalist Calabria Foti, her husband, virtuoso trombonistBob McChesney, and their band with a program of holiday-themed music. Foti and McChesney joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to talk about this special night of holiday music and their special relationship born out of a mutual love of jazz.
Interview highlights:
A story of “love at first sound:”
“I adore working with Bob,” said Foti. “When I was in high school, I was a violin student practicing my scales and concertos and so forth, and all of a sudden, I heard this beautiful trombone playing down the hall in the practice rooms, and I thought, ‘Who is that? This is a beautiful sounding player.’” She continued, “I walked down the hall, and I peered into the little window, and I saw this curly hair and this trombone. And many, many years later, the rest is history — we met and went to a concert on our first date, and we’ve been married for 36 years and raised two children.”
“We were just two young players going out to L.A. to make our fame and fortune in the studio business, but along the way, we said, ‘You know, we’ve got to perform together and make our own records,’” said Foti. “It’s so much fun to perform with Bob. He’s amazing. I fall in love with him all over again when I hear him play.”
“Everybody melts when they hear her voice,” McChesney said. “It’s so sweet, and her phrasing is great. And because she was a classically trained musician, I think that has had a big effect on her approach to singing. When you’re an instrumentalist first and a vocalist second, somehow you have this different kind of discipline.”
On McChesney’s unique approach to the trombone:
“I think the thing that makes the trombone difficult is mainly the articulation,” he said. “It’s not that you have to move the slide so far. Everybody sees trombone as just having the problem of having to move frantically out and in. But you really don’t have to move as far as people think to play clearly and fast; it’s the articulation. If you don’t have the tongue coordinating, you get some messy notes. So that’s what makes the trombone hard, especially just starting out. But I developed a system of articulating that I’ve written a book about … It’s called ‘Doodle Tonguing.’”
“What I love most about the trombone, though, is … the sound,” McChesney added. “People have always said that it’s very close to the human voice because of the way it can express by bending notes. By just moving the slide, you can alter the pitch and you still keep that pure sound while you’re altering the pitch. It has a wide variety of things; it’s used in the orchestra for the power, but it’s also a very melodic and beautiful instrument.”
How a love of Hollywood’s Golden Age led to a rare opportunity:
“I just adore old movies and the Golden Age of Hollywood. George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, all those wonderful songwriters and all the wonderful composers … So that’s kind of the era where I always am as a performer,” said Foti.
“Through our association, Bob and myself, we became friends with Frank Sinatra, Jr., and we were musical cohorts,” Foti recounted. “We were playing his shows and played on some of his recordings, and it came to our attention that ‘Lush Life,’ which was started in the studio for the ‘Only the Lonely’ album for his dad, Frank Sinatra, had never been completed. So Frank, out of his generosity and kindness … said, ‘Would you like to take this and record it? Because it’s never been done.’”
The special event “Christmas with Calabria Foti and Bob McChesney” takes place at the Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University on Saturday, Dec. 11. More information and tickets are availablehere.
