Arts: Music
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Savannah Moon Presents a JazzCeltic Fusion
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By Rhonda Jones
O
ver the course of the last nine years or so, I’ve interviewed Butch Giusto about three times, each time covering a completely different beat. So I couldn’t really register much surprise when his was the name given to me by the organizers of Tuesday’s Music Live as the contact person for the jazz group Savannah Moon. It’s been a couple of years. It was simply time to talk to him again. He plays keyboards. His wife Susan is trained as an opera singer. And on Tuesday, Nov. 18, they are going to present to you a little musical experiment they’ve been working on for a few years: a mix of jazz, pop … and Celtic influences. It’s not a difficult thing to do from an artistic standpoint, he said, because there is no one style that can be identified as “Celtic.” “You know, frankly, Celtic is a very loose form. There’s not really a particular form in Celtic music.” “Because it’s so European in a number of its aspects,” he added, “it has all the complexity and the simpleness.” So the Celtic forms lend themselves to fusion. The Giustos have taken traditional pieces and tinkered with harmonies and rhythms to give them more of a jazzy sound. “So a lot of what I try to do with that sort of marriage of Celtic and jazz is to try to find a fresh harmonic interpretation.” From a business standpoint, however, Susan Giusto said, it’s a bit more difficult, because venue owners don’t generally go for the mixing of genres. “It’s hard to find time to do that. Most of the places we play want standard jazz. We’ve done a few concerts and things with other Celtic players and strictly Celtic music.” The big experiment, she said, started about four years ago and led to a sort of musical evolution for the couple. “It’s just been little by little. That’s the direction we want to go.” So the upcoming concert, being only about a half-hour long, is giving them the opportunity to showcase the work they’ve done to fuse the forms. One of the songs she enjoys is “Dark Night of the Soul,” which she may or may not do Tuesday. “That’s a Loreena McKinnet tune. She’s 100 percent that Celtic New Age thing. Our sound is sometimes like that. … Our sound is pretty unique. To some people it might sound a little New Agey sometimes. Ethereal.” And it’s a particularly good form to
keep someone like Susan Giusto occupied – someone whose voice has been rigorously developed. She studied voice and opera performance at the Cincinnati Conservatory and had been involved in musical theatre and opera before moving to Augusta. Since then, most of her musical experience has come from working with her husband. “The reason I like to do Celtic music is because it’s very challenging to the voice, unlike pop or jazz. Celtic music requires a real singer. It’s got high-highs and low-lows.” She also enjoys the stories told by the songs. “I like to do music that has meaning, not just the love songs. Those are meaningful and I like doing those, but also songs that address real things that are going on. Lyrics are 100-percent important to me. It really matters to me what the song is saying.”
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… Our sound is pretty unique. To some people it might sound a little New Agey sometimes. Ethereal.”
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But don’t expect jigs, reels and hornpipes. The Giustos are jazz musicians, after all. “We’re not players who have been doing Celtic music forever,” she said. “It’s ‘New Celtic,’ I’d say, which I hope sounds ancient.” Savannah Moon will play at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at St. Paul’s Church at 605 Reynolds Street in downtown Augusta. It is a lunch program, so you can reserve a boxed lunch for $7 per person. But the performance is free and if you don’t want to buy a lunch, you don’t have to. However, lunch is going to be catered by Bistro 491 and features a spinach salad with bacon lardons. To reserve lunch, call (706) 722-3463; for general info, call (706) 724-2485.
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