Looking at Laurel Avenue [4k]

Looking at Laurel Avenue is a tone poem for a neighborhood in which I once lived as a young adult. When I decided to make this video to accompany the music I knew that I wanted to use photos of this building on the corner of North 15th Street and Laurel Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. Unfortunately, I didn't have any and was living in Los Angeles, so procuring them would have required a cross-half-country flight and back. As luck would have it, a quick email to my friend and extraordinary photographer Pat Carney solved this problem. Within a day I had the photos I needed and voila, this video was born. Much more about the genesis and history of Looking at Laurel Avenue below but first, credits:

Music recorded 5/31/1998 live on KFAI-FM, Minneapolis, MN. Richard Paske, piano; Brock Thorson, bass; David Stanoch, drums. Recording Engineer: Michael McKern. Audio Mastering: Richard Paske. Source Photos: Pat Carney. Photo Editing, Processing, and Video Compositing: Richard Paske.
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In Autumn, 1971 I stood at the window of my one-bedroom apartment on North 15th Street in downtown Minneapolis. At the time, the neighborhood had not achieved the level of fashionable hipness that it exhibits today. No, it was not that, it was all urban grit and rough edges with more than a few down-and-out unfortunates making it their home, along with a few adventurers from the arts world such as myself.

I often stood at my window gazing out at the street below and the apartment building directly across from me. Sometimes an isolated individual would pass by on the sidewalk but more often than not the street was empty and the view of this grand old building was unimpeded. The day I composed Looking at Laurel Avenue was one of those days. My electric bass hung from my shoulder with the tip of its head resting against the window pane so that as I played the notes were gently amplified by the resonance of the window and the wall around it. No electricity required. That day my mood was wistful but not sad and Looking at Laurel Avenue was born as I did just that.

Over the years I’ve performed Laurel Avenue many, many times, most often at the Loring Bar just blocks away from 15th and Laurel. For five of the years straddling 2000 I played twice-monthly solo piano gigs there which I always closed with Laurel Avenue in tribute to my old neighborhood. Much earlier at Walker Art Center (an easy walk from the Bar) I played it with Wingless Transportation, a trio in which I played electric bass. And I played it as you hear it here with my piano trio at the Whitney Theatre, just across Loring Park from the Loring Bar. As I write these words I realize that there is no other piece in my repertoire that holds as much personal history for me as Looking at Laurel Avenue. It has been and continues to be a true companion on my life’s journey.