Jazz duo Sprague and Patton to perform at The Merc
By Holly Herndon - For The Californian | ∞
l.sprague.122403.ww.jpg/photo by Bill Wechter/Del Mar musician Peter Sprague talks with a group of children who are going to sing "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" with him and his jazz musicians during his free Annual Del Mar Jazz Christmas Concert at an out door stage at the L'Auberge Hotel in downtown Del Mar. Sprague has been puttinng on the hometown concert for many years. Jazz guitarist Peter Sprague has toured with numerous artists in large concert venues all over the country and the world but he prefers a smaller audience close to home.
The Del Mar resident's next intimate audience will be at The Merc as he and jazz vocalist Leonard Patton headline tonight's installment of the Jazz at The Merc weekly concert series.
The son of a jazz drummer, Sprague was surrounded by music all of his life but had a little bit of trouble settling on a genre that suited him.
"I liked rock 'n' roll when I was first starting out but, because my dad was a jazz drummer, obviously I was listening to jazz and decided I would dabble in it. Then once I started to get into it, it overtook me," he said.
Sprague decided to pursue jazz due to the genre's ability to lend itself to an artist's free will.
"When it comes to this music, every time you play a song is has a different flair to it, largely based on improvisation. I think that's the main draw for me. It's a really alive type of music," he said.
As a jazz musician, Sprague has had the privilege of performing in locations all over the world including Indonesia, Japan and all across the United States. This summer he will be touring Europe with jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves, whom he performs with on a regular basis.
Although he has seen his share of exotic locales, much of Sprague's career has been performing in California venues, keeping him close to his wife and daughter back in San Diego County.
When Sprague and Patton take the stage tonight, they will be bringing their own unique music preferences to a show that is generally billed as straight-ahead jazz.
"We play a combination of music that I have written," Sprague said. "Some of them are similar jazz swing tunes but some of them are close to Brazilian music because I'm really into Brazilian music. We might also take some pop tunes, like songs from Bob Marley and the Beatles and Bruce Hornsby and do them in sort of our own way with sort of a jazz treatment."
As several former Jazz at The Merc artists have agreed, Sprague feels the 48-seat Mercantile Theater gives the performer and audience all the benefits of being in an intimate jazz club setting.
"Smaller clubs are some of my favorite places to hear music, rather than large concert venues, because with concert venues you are a little bit more removed from the performers," he said. "But in a small venue you're right there with them. I like that the best. As a performer, you want to play and have a connection with the audience and share a great time. Hopefully the audience will get to know us better through the concert and they will receive some joy from it."
According to Sprague, jazz is a genre that is constantly changing and merging with other types of music however he is confident its roots will always prevail.
"Jazz has been around longer than rock music and it's not dying," he said. "I don't think it will ever be the most popular, in the sense that rock or pop music is, but it will always have this peripheral existence where there are plenty of people who want to support it and it will always be the same."
Peter Sprague and Leonard Patton
When: 7:30 p.m. today
Where: The Merc, Old Town Temecula Community Theater, 42051 Main St., Temecula
Tickets: $15
Info: (866) 653-8696
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