Rob Mathes Holiday Concert — A Joyous Tradition

rob-obama-inauguration-fi

By Sara Poirier Correa
Sentinel Reporter

Rob-Mathes-piano
Rob Mathes

For most people, it’s not Christmas without music. And for resident music man Rob Mathes, the holidays aren’t complete without his annual concert.

What started as a winter performance at Greenwich’s Second Congregational Church in 1993 has transformed through the years into something much bigger as Mathes’ career as a producer/arranger/composer/singer/songwriter has grown to include work with more and more famous musicians. Now the Rob Mathes Holiday Concert, a mainstay of the State University of New York at Purchase Performing Arts Center calendar, is in its 22nd year (he missed 2000 due to a gig with the Boston Pops Orchestra).

This year’s performances are slated for next Friday and Saturday evenings, December 18 and 19.

“If you want to see great musicians having just two hours and a half of playing their music and doing what they do, this is the place to be,” Mathes said, referring to his show as “a music hang.”

“I think people perceived [the concert] early on as a family gospel event, and over the last 20 years it’s really become a holiday music event,” he added.

The first concert at the church was filmed and then broadcast on PBS, which garnered widespread attention.

“Immediately people were inquiring about the event and it became a bit of a thing,” Mathes said.

With its mix of holiday classics and original songs, the show has been held at SUNY’s PepsiCo Theatre since 1996.

Growing up with what he called “true Christmas parents” who celebrated all aspects of the season, Mathes said he always would write songs around the holidays.

“I was always inspired by the holiday,” he said. “The combination of the weather of this area with the longer nights and the short days [were inspirational].”

As for the music at his show, the theme has become about “finding faith and hope and joy and peace in such a turbulent environment that we live in,” Mathes said. In addition to the more traditional holiday songs, Mathes and his team perform special arrangements of pieces by Bob Dylan, for example, that center on hope.

“There’s always going to be the people that love the manger and the story of Christ’s birth, because the most iconic songs that I’ve written are manger-centric,” Mathes said. He said that he’s excited about other music as well, such as the song he recently wrote for the Hanukkah holiday.

“My folks raised me focusing on always letting the default position in your life, as much as you can do it, be love,” he said, adding that this has always been the theme of the Christmas holiday for him.

With musicians such as bassist Will Lee (best known for his work on “Late Show With David Letterman”), drummer Shawn Pelton and guitarist Billy Masters performing alongside him, Mathes said he tries to bring something new to the performance each year, whether it’s mixing up the arrangements with the band or adding new original material.

“Not unlike a great blues act or jazz act that has played particular songs a lot, you go back and this stuff gets deeper and deeper,” he said of reinventing the music.

In addition to the return this year of singer Vaneese Thomas to the lineup, and the inclusion of a choir, singer James “D-Train” Williams and a horn section full of musicians who play with acts such as The Rolling Stones, the 2015 concert will mark the debut of Mathes’ own work from “Wheelbarrow,” an album nearly 10 years in the making. He plans to perform half of the album at the show, and it won’t be available on iTunes until next year.

“It’s so bluesy and warm and vibey,” he said of the sound of “Wheelbarrow.”

The songs on the album, according to a post on Mathes’ Facebook page, are a mix of ones he wrote while regularly arranging music for services at Greenwich’s Trinity Church, as well as ones he wrote during a time he performed at the former Satalla club in New York City. The cover art for the album—old church hymn books battered by mud and debris from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, La.—is a photograph by his friend Chris Jordan.

“They moved me deeply,” Mathes wrote of his friend’s pictures, which will adorn the album liner notes.

“This is music inspired by an era where people just listened to a record and had the attention span for four- and five-minute-plus songs,” he continued. “This music descends from The Band, The Staples Singers, Ry Cooder, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, The Neville Brothers, The Meters, Sister Rosetta and blue-eyed soul.”

As for the holiday concert itself, Mathes said it has expanded “from this little church-centered thing to be this rock/R&B” show that is a “world-class evening of music that carries the spirit of the holidays” and is a tradition for a lot of people.

“You don’t have to go to Manhattan [to get that],” Mathes said. “You can go to Purchase.”

Tickets for the Rob Mathes Holiday Concert are still available. To purchase, visit the “Get Tickets” section of artscenter.org or call 914-251-6200.

 

Related Posts
Loading...