About this file This
file was put together in response of friends who asked to see pictures
of reunion. Many people do not use Facebook or it's hard for them to
search various people's pages. The email notification was sent in
response to this request. Pictures
from the picnic and concert are included below.
Class email list If I do not have your email address please send it to me (reza -- at --
rezamusic -- dot -- com) and I will include you on my private,
personal, discrete IHS and general mailing lists. I have a very strict
privacy policy. Nobody will ever get your email address from me. My mailings are very
very infrequent, sometimes not even once a year. One of several positive feedbacks include: "Thank you for taking the time and effort to go around getting everyone's e-mail address
and putting together several links."
The Concert The concert was a unique, wonderful, and enriching musical
adventure that was
organized separately from the reunion by a group of musicians.
Initially, I (Reza) suggested putting together our own band
instead of hiring a DJ or a band. Tim managed and coordinate the
concert given his deep musical experience and
relationships with highschool musicians, and contacts in Ithaca, and he
did a great job at it. There were musicians from as far away as New
Zealand, Switzerland and California, and we just communicated through
mainly email (which is not always easy), and we came together with very
little rehearsal (1 night for many of us), and shared equipment and
stage and friendship and put on a spectacular show consisting of a very rich
repertoire of the music of different genres from our highschool era, and people absolutely
loved it. See the bottom of http://home.datacomm.ch/rezamusic/comments_music.html
for some listener comments.
[update on the concert: Jan 2011] The
IHS concert was a very fun event. The circumstances were crazy. I
played guitar and bass on many songs. Probably was on more songs than
anybody else, otherwise Tim would have had to play the bass all night.
But this meant I had to switch back and forth between the guitar and
bass. I had a longhaul flight just before the concert and was sick
during the concert with a severe sinusitis/infection. We played around
30 songs with very little rehearsal (we barely ran through every song
once). I was playing with some people whom I'd never met before, and
most whom I had not met for decades. I was playing on other people's
equipment which were on the set and didn't bring my own guitar since I
came for such a short trip from such a far away place. Adding to the
crazy setting, we were together for a weekend that included not just
concert and performing 30 songs with virtually no rehearsal but also
meeting up with over a 100 people you really want to spend time with
but time is so short... And we had monitor problems. And not to mention
the kind of issues that many bands have in terms of relationship. I
didn't have a problem with anybody but there was some polarizing crap
going on which was not that pleasant and usually leads to gossip and
stuff that is unmusical and painful. But we were all mature enough to
pull it off. And to top it off, some of the people who were thinking of
themselves as so hot didn't even bother learning the songs because I
guess, in Jazz circles, learning pop songs from before is not that cool
-- you're just supposed to show up, read the chart and pull it off. We
did pull it off. And
people were getting chastised for suggesting to other musicians what to
do on the song they had a lead role in (that's another no-no in the
Jazz circle I guess but heck, we didn't play any Jazz :) -- I guess it
got into the egos of people who thought they were so hot that a) they
don't need to learn the song b) they don't need to receive any
suggestions c) their insecurity or whatever the psychological
complication is there can be relieved by a polarizing attitude.
The psychological crap aside, we all managed to pull it off and have a
great night and the audience loved it. Would I want to do it again? I
don't think so !!
A note of background I
entered highschool in the second half of the junior year, yet
acquainted many friends. Having come from Iran at the age of 15.5
during the revolution I faced a little bit of hostility in the
beginning but soon the open minded and open hearted kids of Upstate New
York embraced me and related to me for who I was as a human rather than
through nationalistic prejudice. I made some of my best friends for
life during that 1.5 years, polished up my English, and learned about,
absorbed and assimilated the culture, and integrated with it like it
was my own home -- it was -- one planet, one people :)
The 2010 Reunion The Reunion was a lot of fun. The organizers worked very hard at it. It was huge event. We are all very thankful to them.
And a few historical photos (the first 3 are before my time).
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: ALL AUDIO AND VIDEO RECORDINGS, WRITINGS,
COMPILATION, AND OTHER WORKS BY REZA GANJAVI ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
LAWS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
