The final Live & Local of the Burlington Performing Arts Centre’s (BPAC’s) 2022–2023 season is happening this weekend, on Sunday, March 19, and it promises to be another great one, featuring Andy Griffiths as the local guest, Tom Wilson, and, of course, the Mark Lalama Trio.
The Live & Local shows have proven to be a popular BPAC offering: the intimate Community Studio Theatre setting, the always-excellent Mark Lalama Trio, and the mix of a local artist and a more widely-known artist, all performing on one stage. This series allows BPAC to support local artists, giving them the opportunity, as Mark Lalama says, to experience “full production, lights, a great sound guy…to perform at a legitimate concert venue,” that the artists might not yet have otherwise had yet.
For the audience, part of the Live & Local series lure is the magic that happens onstage between Mark Lalama and his bandmates, Davide DiRenzo and Rich Moore, and each guest performer. Musicians all have their own style and sound, of course, so that magic is in the “sound du jour,” as Lalama puts it — what happens in that combination of the trio’s sound and guest’s music. “Even though it’s the trio every week, people say, ‘I love seeing how you guys adapt to such different artists…so different, but it all sounds right when you listen.’”
This weekend, the trio will be “learning the vibe” of local guest Andy Griffiths’ folk/rock/pop music. And Griffiths truly is local: BPAC is a 10- to 15-minute walk from his Burlington home. This show is a bit of a full-circle moment for Griffiths, as he has known the Mark Lalama Trio members and Tom Wilson for some years, and has played at BPAC a number of times before — most recently for Family Day, warming up the crowd in the lobby for the feature act.
The songs he’ll be performing this week will not be the same as the Family Day set; though recently his focus has been on kids’ music, Griffiths has chosen from his “adult” material for this show, songs that fit with both the show and its other players. He is very excited to be playing with the trio, who he describes as “world-class musicians, consummate pros,” and Wilson, who Griffiths cites as one of his musical inspirations, alongside the Beatles, Crowded House, and Tom Petty.
Indeed, one of the songs that Griffiths intends to play on Sunday, “Stella,” has a nice little tale associated with it that loops in Tom Wilson — though you’ll have to attend the Live & Local to hear that one. Suffice to say for now that Stella is not a person; she’s a guitar. Made in 1965, no less.
Stella is just one of 20 or so instruments that Griffiths owns, including at least 17 guitars; for him, these instruments “are kind of like art pieces.” Each has their own history, their own sound, “their own personality.” A mainstay for Griffiths is the 1969 Gibson J5 guitar that he inherited from his father, which he says, “just has a great feel, a great vibe to it.” So much so that this is the guitar Griffiths most often uses when he is writing songs.
Though Griffiths notes that he is not a prolific writer of songs, ideas are always turning over in his head, so that “all of a sudden, a song will pop out.” A song that Griffiths describes as “one of the best songs I’ve written,” called “Lend a Hand,” is one such song that came out, all in a 30-minute rush. He says the first verse and melody “came crashing in” quickly, late at night, and he decided to finish the song the next day. Then, as he was going upstairs, the second verse came to him, so he ran back down to write it down. The third verse came to him in the same way, on those stairs. Inspiration hits hard and fast for Griffiths.
And music has become a bit of an inter-generational link, too; the aforementioned guitar that belonged to Griffiths’ father, and the kids’ music that Griffiths started writing when his children were small, inspired by things they said or did. Though adult music was his main interest then, a conversation with a friend about 10 years ago about Fred Penner’s iconic children’s song “The Cat Came Back” led to Griffiths revisiting those kids’ songs, writing more, and then performing for families. Griffiths’ wife, Helen, is an artist, and together, they put together a picture book of Griffiths’ original “Our Cat Flash,” with illustrations, lyrics, and music charts to play along with, all printed locally in Burlington. And now, Griffiths’ grandsons are joining in: his three-year-old grandson has accompanied Griffiths onstage to sing.
And though Griffiths is not a full-time musician (he refers to himself as “semi-professional” and architectural design is his “bread and butter”), the passion he has for music has kept him playing from when he first picked up a guitar at 16 or 17 years old. Living in Burlington for the last 22 of his years, Griffiths appreciates the city’s support of local arts and culture, the Sound of Music Festival, local walking trails (Lowville is a favourite) and watching the city grow over time.
Another long-time favourite? The Bombay Grill restaurant on Fairview. Like the city itself, the restaurant has changed over time, but the food and the owners have remained constant and excellent.
And of course, Griffiths’ long tenure in Burlington has led to the aforementioned relationships with other local musicians. When I mentioned I’d be speaking to Mark Lalama, after Griffiths expressed his excitement about playing the Live & Local with the trio, he suggested asking Lalama about that time he’d worked with Tony Bennett.
Of course, I did just that.
Turns out it was during Lalama’s five-year stint on Canadian Idol, when he was the show’s pianist and performance coach for the contestants; big-name guests like Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson, and Tom Jones would come on to workshop with the contestants. Tony Bennett was another of those big-name guests, probably the artist that “the crew was most excited about,” Lalama notes.
After the workshop portion was filmed, Bennett came to Toronto a week later to film his show performance. The show’s crew and the whole band, Lalama remembers, were getting updates as to Bennett’s imminent arrival, and so were waiting in a hallway for him to make his appearance. When Bennett came around the corner, the whole group of 20 or so people ended up backing up, with Lalama right in the back corner.
Bennett saw Lalama, remembering him from the week before, and said “Hey kid, how you doing?” before walking forward to shake Lalama’s hand: the crowd of crew and band “kind of parted like the Red Sea,” Lalama laughs. Then Lalama stood side-stage for Bennett’s performance. When he heard Bennett croon those opening lyrics, “Oh, the good life…,” “it was magical,” Lalama says, recalling the chills down his arm.
Besides this peak experience with Canadian Idol, Lalama’s career has spanned 35 years and has had many other great moments. The Live & Local shows are always great, he says. But going right back takes us to Lalama at 12 years old, when he started singing on weekends with his father’s band, at weddings or dances. Playing the electric piano started a year or two later. Soon, Lalama, two of his three brothers, and his father were playing together in the band.
Then Lalama went to York University to study music, and jumped into a professional career playing the Toronto scene with cover bands, writing for TV and small film scores, touring with artists.
It was only about 15 years ago that Lalama realized that though he’d produced other artists’ records, he had not actually recorded any of his own material. At that point, already living on his Fenwick farm with a standalone recording studio, he took the opportunity to ask some musicians who were coming to work on someone else’s record if they could come a bit earlier to record Lalama’s songs, too.
The musicians agreed, and something special was set in motion. After Davide DiRenzo and Rich Moore recorded Lalama’s songs, DiRenzo called Lalama up. “This is my new favourite record!” DiRenzo said. He dared Lalama to set up a gig for the three of them.
And so he did. What became the Mark Lalama Trio played at Coppola’s Ristorante in St. Catharines on a Wednesday night. And continued playing there on Wednesday nights. Lalama says that they ended up playing at Coppola’s for three years: “It just worked, it just clicked, and we knew we had something special.” The impact of that Coppola’s residency has been long-lasting; many songs were written, a record came out of it, appropriately titled Live at Coppola’s, and then the Live & Local series.
The Live & Local format began in St. Catharines, where the trio have been doing it for eight years. When BPAC Executive Director Tammy Fox called, wanting a Burlington version, the trio jumped right in.
That was three BPAC seasons ago now, and Lalama and company are still loving and learning from the series. Lalama says that every guest artist brings an interesting challenge, finding the right blend “so the audience gets the most accurate picture of this [guest] artist’s vision.” Lalama also notes that it is important to have the right environment — in this case, in BPAC — with trust coming from the venue, that the vision and creative process are understood. Tammy Fox gets it, Lalama says, allowing them to “create an environment where we’re really creative and free, and our guests feel completely free to be themselves,” and for that, he and the trio are grateful.
It all fits right in with BPAC’s ethos, according to Fox. She says, “As part of The Burlington Performing Arts Centre’s mission to nurture and support local artists, we present a series of ‘Live & Local’ performances to showcase the talents of emerging and professional artists right here in our own community. Fostering the development of local artists through this series, and other artist development initiatives that BPAC offers, brings meaning and joy to what we do here at BPAC, and the community obviously enjoys these performances as well, as our audiences continue to grow for these exciting events!”
There’s still time to experience that environment, to hear the Mark Lalama Trio this season, at 4 p.m. this Sunday. If you happen to miss it, though, you can look out for the trio as JohnnyBobbyCake, playing regularly at the Painted Lady in Toronto. Lalama is also part of jazz project Dizzy and Fay, as well as the long-running and nearly-retired band Sisters Euclid. You can catch Andy Griffiths at his upcoming shows, many of which will be great for families — and keep your eyes open for the records he is planning, one for kids, one for adults.
And, of course, there’s always next season’s Live & Local series.
