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Eugene jazzer leaves for the big time
Musicians have long understood several
things about Eugene: it's a nice place to
live and study; applause is generally big
ger than the door; and the door rarely
opens into a grand recording foyer. An
artist may produce an album, several of
them even, but in jazz parlance, Eugene just isn't
happening.
To be happening is to be in L.A., longing perhaps for
the good earth in Oregon, but necessarily immersed in
the art and the business. And so it will be for Dan Siegel,
a native Eugenian, but also an ambitious jazz pianist with
five albums behind him.
Before he leaves, Siegel is bidding goodbye to
hometown Eugene in a final farewell concert at the Hult's
Soreng at 8.30 on Saturday night. Sharing the limelight
Story by Patrick Bieck
Photos by Mark Pynes
and all the fine acoustics with another Eugene virtuoso
group. The Don Latarski Trio, Siegel says it will be a
special event. The keyboardist has lots of goodbyes to
make before he takes off for the big-time in L.A. The
farewells include ones to his family and his friends —
but also to the band which backed his most recent tour
and has been with him for nearly a year.
Siegle is both excited and apprehensive about a move
that he says will be permanent — at least for five years.
"It's basically a career move," Siegel says with some
resignation. For the last couple of years he has lived two
or three months out of each year in L.A., and says he has
never wanted to live there. "But," he adds, "time has run
out for me to relax and mellow out here in Eugene. I've
gotta go for it."
He has a lot to go with and for. All of his five jazz fu
sion albums, produced in a three-year period, have risen
to the top of national air play charts both for jazz format
stations such as KLCC and for AOR stations (album
oriented radio) such as KZEL. Sales have been good,
especially for his second album, "The Hot Shot," which
rose to ninth position on Billboard's sales chart, the in
dustry's premier publication, two weeks after its release
in June, 1981. Critics have heralded Siegel as a trendset
ter for the '80s in the fusion idiom, and his latest album,
"Reflections," is reportedly doing well.
Siegel plans to diversify his career by working in
television and movies while continuing to produce his
own albums and those of other artists. Thus far he has
produced (read: directed, as in film) two albums for other
fusion artists, including University music school graduate,
Steve Narahara.
But life for Siegel will be different in L.A. No more
lush verdure and clean air to inspire the composer's soul.
No more disciplinary rain to close in and concentrate his
flight.
Is there beauty and art to be had in the suffocating,
concrete jungle?
Siegel remains optimistic. In one sense, he feels the
change will benefit his work.
"In a place like L.A., you know, there're so many out
side forces that are negative — the cars and the air and
driving — it's just an unhealthy place to live. And that
kind of environment puts a different light on your art; it
makes your art so much more worthwhile; it's like a
haven," he says.
Siegel has experienced an artistic haven before, in
Boston, where he studied privately with heavyweights.
They included such people as Micheal Gibbs, composer
in residence at the Berklee College of Music and or
chestrator for such notables as Stanley Clarke and John
McLaughlin; famed tutor Madam Challof, whose students
have included Keith Jarret and Herbie Hancock; and jazz
pianist Ray Santisi.
"Boston was weird," Siegel says.
It was a difficult place to relate to for a small town
Oregon boy, unaccustomed to the harsh Eastern climate,
sidewalks mined by dogs and a large, excessively
regimented study program. He quit Berklee after a week,
knocked on doors and established his own program.
His biggest influence came from Madam Challof,
whom he describes as a frail, eighty-year-old woman of
unusually intense spiritual mind dedicated to the ad
vancement of musical talent. Among other more or
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In addition to saying goodbye to Eugene, Dan Siegel will
also be saying goodbye to friend and fellow musician
Don Latarski. Latarski's Trio will be opening the show at
Siegel's farewell concert. (Related story on Page SB.)
thodox displays, Siegel recalls witnessing Madam Challof
tap the positive energy she insisted her student discover
in his own solar plexus and snap a string of a nine-foot
Steinway with her baby finger, hands on the keyboard.
“At that point," Siegel recalls. "I thought she was
dangerous."
Ironically, though, Siegel eschewed structured train
ing at Berklee, he describes his own music as highly
structured. (He later received his degree in composition
from the University of Oregon.) It is melodic, tight, neatly
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