It was puppy love that set Latin jazz star Dave Valentin speeding toward a Grammy.
“The truth is I was not interested in theflute at all, just interested in Irene,” Valentin said about his high school crush.
Valentin first picked up the flute after seeing his potential sweetheart play a C-major scale on the instrument.
He played the scale immediately before perfecting a song in three weeks that Irene spent three years learning. “So I lost the girl and kept the flute,” he said.
On Saturday, for the first time in his lengthy career, New Yorker Valentin will perform in Baltimore.
Accompanying Valentin at the Baltimore Museum of Art?s Sculpture Garden will be the Bill O?Connell Latin Jazz Project. The show is a part of the museum?s annual summer concert series, Jazz in the Sculpture Garden, in its 20th season.
“The best part of a performance as a jazz player is the excitement of the moment ? the spontaneity, responding to what each musician brings that particular day,” said veteran musician Bill O?Connell, who has worked with Valentin for decades as a pianist, arranger and composer.
There?s a set list for the evening, but that can change at any second, depending upon the energy that night, Valentin said. For him, a performance is a “conversation between musicians,” he said. “We don?t play Kenny G ? not to denigrate him ? this is actual, real music. The possibilities, that?s what real music is about. A performance is always a journey of exploring the possibilities.”
In 2002, Valentin won a Grammy for best Latin jazz album.
“A lot of musicians forget that performing and becoming popular is a union with the audience,” he said. “They think that they?re famous on their own. The public made me famous, and that?s the truth. On your way up, remember you?re going to come down again. If you piss off someone, you?re going to meet them again.”
Among the flourishing greens surrounding the stage are 19 sculptures including “Four Dishes” by Alexander Calder, “Head (Tete)” by Joan Miró and “Three Piece Reclining” by Henry Moore, said Anne Mannix, spokeswoman for the Baltimore Museum of Art.
“The Jazz in the Sculpture Garden concerts are a wonderful evening for anyone who likes jazz and wants to experience live music in a beautiful setting,” Mannix said. “I think the combined ambiance of art, music and the lush gardens make for a truly enchanted evening.”
If you go
Dave Valentin and the Bill
O?Connell Latin Jazz Project
» Venue: Baltimore Museum of Art; 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore
» When: 7 p.m. Saturday
» Cost: $25 general admission, $18 for BMA members, Free for children 12 and under
» Information: 443-573-1700, artbma.org
