.jpg)
Stories from Cold Springs
This is a storytelling podcast that celebrates the creativity in everything from the mundane to the extraordinary. Creativity knows no bounds, and Stories from Cold Springs nurtures the story in all of us.
Listening to the host, J Stephen Beam, makes you want to grab a cup of sweet tea and join him on a wrap-around porch in Mississippi. The hours feel like minutes and you can't wait for the next visit (episode).
Stories from Cold Springs
The Cello Chose Me - Garfield Moore
Garfield Moore didn’t set out to become a cellist. But sometimes the right moment finds you—and for him, it happened in a school assembly, when a beloved guitar teacher revealed she was, in fact, a cellist. That quiet surprise would tune the rest of his life.
In this moving episode of Stories from Cold Springs, Moore shares a remarkable musical journey—one shaped by legacy, resilience, and joy. Born into a family of groundbreaking Black professionals—his grandfather the first African American OB-GYN professor in Chicago, his father the first Black ER director in Berkeley—Garfield grew up surrounded by excellence. But perhaps no influence was greater than his mother.
When his parents separated in the 1950s, Garfield watched his mother—once a devoted housewife—build a career from the ground up in a world that offered few opportunities to women of color. She rose to become a professor at one of California’s largest state universities, and today, a full scholarship bears her name. “Her achievement is utterly superb,” Garfield says. “That’s something she did without help.” Her determination, alongside the examples of Dr. King, Leontyne Price, and his father, instilled in him a profound sense of responsibility and purpose.
From a 1979 Carnegie Hall debut with jazz legend Sarah Vaughan (“one of the greatest music lessons I’ve ever had”) to backstage encounters with Dean Martin, Lucille Ball, and Liza Minnelli, Moore’s career is a kaleidoscope of American cultural history. Yet his story is not defined by fame, but by perseverance.
He speaks with reverence about Leontyne Price, whose performance once gave him strength during a personal collapse. “When I left that theater,” he recalls, “I decided—if she can do this, I can do something.” That connection to Mississippi would become even more meaningful years later, when Garfield and his husband moved to the tiny town of Bassfield. What some might’ve seen as a step back became a return to purpose.
Now preparing concerts that span from Bach to Rock, Moore continues to teach, practice, and dream—including his goal of becoming the first American cellist to perform all six Bach Suites in Portugal.
Whether you're here for the music, the memories, or the legacy of those who paved the way, Garfield Moore’s story reminds us that inspiration doesn’t just come from the stage—it’s passed down, lived out, and kept alive through the act of telling it.
🎧 New episodes each month, right here in Cold Springs—where stories don’t just live, they resonate.
Hello everybody and welcome to Stories from Cold Springs, a place where we talk about creativity and storytelling. I'm your host, J Stephen Beam. Today's guest is an exciting one, but before we kick it off with him, let me take the time to let you know that I'm a novelist with two books out there, and they can be found on the various internet platforms and at your favorite bookstore. Please support your local independent bookstore. You know these guys work on a thin margin and could use your help. You can go to my website, jstephenbeamcom, to learn more.
J Stephen Beam:Our guest today is a world-renowned and there's no hyperbole here jazz cellist. I'm excited to have him visit today. He currently lives in the small town of Bassville, mississippi, and we'll learn more about that as we speak with him. I met him recently when he and his partner joined my wife, dawn and me for dinner. It was just out of the blue type of meeting and I immediately fell for him. His name is Garfield Moore. I love jazz, but my understanding is very superficial. I wish that weren't the case, but it is Garfield Moore, welcome.
Garfield Moore:Thank you, Dr. Beam, and good morning. I want to say at the outset that it is a real privilege to be identified as a jazz artist. The truth is that, despite the fact that my first performance in Carnegie Hall was behind, as a sideman, with the divine Sarah Vaughan in Billy Eckstein I'll tell a little story about that Jazz is part of what I've had the privilege to do. I am also a mainstream if you will I hope that term is okay cellist, meaning that the standard repertoire, the classical repertoire, and jazz are at the core. But it is, again I say, privilege to be identified as such, and I'd be happy to share with you some of my experiences.
Garfield Moore:In 1979, when I was in New York, a young student in New York, and I was studying with one of the great American cellists, my last master, my last mentor, the wonderful cellist Kermit Moore. We happened to share a last name and, because we're both African American, everyone thought we were father and son. Indeed, we were not. Creativity and the universe provide a happy coincidence. Anyway, to get to the point, he had hired a group of string players to play behind Miss Vaughn, who was returning to Carnegie Hall for the first time in five years, and he had a recital in Argentina, and so he sent me in as substitute. Well, I was so excited I didn't know what to do.
Garfield Moore:And let me tell you, after the chase, that final song, that rendition of Send in the Clowns, was something that remains in my memory, in my heart engraved to this day. It was one of the greatest music lessons I've ever had Beauty, freedom, imagination, spontaneity. I was so shaken and yet she came off stage. Billy Eckstein was standing to the side. She got notoriously nervous, as many of us do. He was there for moral support. She came off the stage and she saw me sitting on the edge of the bandstand and she grabbed my arm and she said Honey, thank God, this so-and-so and so-and-so is over. And there I was, in Carnegie Hall, in front of 5,000 people, with the divine Saravanda on my arm, and I was deeply moved.
J Stephen Beam:Wow, deeply moving. Tell us how you came to be there. Tell us where you were born and raised. Tell us a little bit about your family.
Garfield Moore:Gladly. I am originally from Berkeley, california, born in the hospital of which my father years later became the first African American director of emergency services. My mother, his then wife, became a professor in the state university system and while the marriage did not last, the energy, the training last. The energy, the training, the discipline, the encouragement did continue. My mother had a gorgeous voice and yet my dad I remember when we would visit on Sunday mornings would always sing, being the good Southern Baptist, that he was the hymn, the spiritual Were you there, and I'm really proud to tell you that to this day.
Garfield Moore:It is often something that either begins or closes my programs and I played it most recently down at St John's Episcopal for a wonderful service that I'm invited to play every year Good Friday. And when I finish this spiritual in this beautiful pine open sanctuary which holds 150 people, you can hear the spirit reverberating, and this comes from my father and I will never forget that, buick being in the front seat from him and his bass baritone voice. So I hope that that shares a little something. My mother is in parade. Inspiration goes even farther in the sense that there's a connection that I have with mississippi and it's a large part of the reason why I'm proud to say I'm here.
Garfield Moore:The great state of Mississippi hath produced the artist for me who is the greatest singer that has ever walked across the stage. And when I mention Sarah Vaughan and I speak of the great lady Leontyne Price I want you to know that the elements that I felt that evening in Carnegie Hall with Sarah Vaughan, and as she extended into that magnificent upper register and made Time Stop, is precisely the same element of creativity that I heard from the magnificent Leontyne Price the first time I heard her sing Verdi's Leonore in Trovatore. And what I discovered at that point, early on, was that there was much more to bring us together in terms of creativity, in terms of music, in terms of style, in terms of expression, in terms of humanity, than there ever will be to separate us.
J Stephen Beam:You're making my heart swell a little bit here with the idea that music is a way for us to come together. I've always believed that you didn't start out studying the cello. How did you get started in music?
Garfield Moore:You kind of have to hang with me. I had a wonderful guitar teacher and I was actually studying all types of guitar, classical guitar. She was a wonderful player, turns out during a student assembly in Berkeley, california, unbeknownst to me, she was really a cellist, and in front of all of us she demonstrated this instrument and that was it. I love the guitar, but when she played the cello and there was one particular work by a composer who has now come to light as one of the great classics, along with Mozart and Haydn and is also revered by jazz artists because of the time he spent in Spain and his interest in flamenco early, early on Luigi Boccherini.
Garfield Moore:Anyway, she played a piece by Boccherini and I heard this, I heard these opening bars and that was it. My mom tried to talk me out of it. My dad looked at me like I was crazy. There was no holding me back and I'm really pleased to be able to say to you that, despite whatever trials or tribulations or difficulties or challenges, many, many, many, many years later, I still have that same desire and same flame.
J Stephen Beam:It occurs to me as a retired physician myself. You're from a physician family. I believe you told me that your grandfather was also a physician. Oh yes, was there any? I don't want to use the word pressure. Was there any? (GARFIELD) "Absolutely, I am not shocked. How did you fight that off?
Garfield Moore:Here's the thing. Thank you for asking that question. Now, once again, you have to hang with me.
Garfield Moore:I never met my grandfather, who was the first man of color to be professor of OBGYN at Providence Hospital in Chicago, across the Mason-Dixon line where we [Black people] could practice [medicine]. He was very serious and insisted that my dad become a doctor. A little bit more about that later. But he insisted that when my mother was carrying me, even though my parents, I can say we, because I had been conceived were in California, and he would drive to California and back to Chicago, and he properly predicted the date of my birth. He said now he's going to come, and I know it's a boy. He's going to come on the 8th of August and I'm going to be here. I've got to go back to Chicago because I've got to wrap up some business.
Garfield Moore:In 1952, in July, he went back to Chicago, had a heart attack and passed away. This is where I come by my name, Garfield. His name was Garfield. My father was a fabulous surgeon. He was an excellent, I'm sure like yourself, diagnostician. It came to my attention that it wasn't something he really wanted to do. The only person who pressured me or indicated that I should follow in their footsteps really was his mother, my paternal grandmother, who was quite the character and personality.
J Stephen Beam:You must have gotten some of your personality from her, I would think.
Garfield Moore:I think that's exactly correct. Thank you, I take that as a compliment. It was my maternal grandmother and, as I said, mom, with whom I was raised the inspiration in music, and I want to say that part of my attachment to one of the great ladies I mentioned, the the wonderful leontine price, and I just want to tell you this we all have times in life, no matter what we decide to do, when we don't know if we're going to make it. And one of the contributions of any great artist through sound, through visual mediums but, but in this case, particularly through sound is to strike a chord, strike a note and reach someone who's coming along to help them understand that they can also use their creative ability, in this case my creative ability, to do what they really love. And this is something that Miss Price did for me on a number of occasions.
Garfield Moore:I was at Stanford University really on the verge of not knowing you know why I'm in this school, why am I doing this? This is not working. There are people here I just can't make it with and I don't have any confidence. And I remember, on the 23rd of January in 1973, hearing a performance that she gave as solos with San Francisco Symphony and the final show we say number, just like Send in the Clowns with Miss Vaughn and Carnegie Hall, was Weitet Brachna from Strauss's failed opera, except for the last scene, the Egyptian Helena.
Garfield Moore:The Egyptian Helena, and it is the most sweeping, majestic, gorgeous, soaring piece of music ever written for soprano. And when I tell you it is true, maria Callas was a media, renata Tobaldi was the most beautiful voice on earth, leontyne Price is the most beautiful voice from heaven. And when I tell you that she opened up the universe, that night, when I left that theater, I decided, though I was kind of, I felt, I was kind of collapsing if she can do this, I can do something. That's how I got here with you today. So I want to thank Mississippi, ms Price and you.
J Stephen Beam:Okay, let's delve a little bit deeper in your family history. If you know it, a good point, if I know it. If you know it, chicago was obviously an important part of your family's movements around. You said up there, so that your grandfather could practice. What southern states did your family come from?
Garfield Moore:Ah, okay, thank you. Let me be really completely honest. I have some details, some strong feelings, but very little information. My father and my grandfather and my grandmother my paternal grandmother were settled in Arkansas Now my paternal grandmother the Pruitts of Gethsemane, arkansas were longtime residents. So far as I know, that's all I know.
Garfield Moore:My grandfather had come to the state of Arkansas to begin his practice of medicine and they met and married and my father came along. So my dad was raised in his early childhood in the state of Arkansas. From there they went to Chicago and I want to tell you something else I'm really proud of. My granddad's career as a physician was not easy. As he was getting started, he worked in the post office while he was attempting to open his first medical practice, and I'm real proud of that. My father bragged about his vegetable cart in both Arkansas and in Chicago and being able to feed his family in part when we were in need. My grandmother, who was a very grand lady, so grandmothers I'm not sure she would have agreed with that interpretation, but they were very dedicated and hardworking people and the one thing that they would have wanted for me, for any of us in this generation, would be to have received that sense of discipline and responsibility in order to aid and help humanity. Now, that much I can tell you.
J Stephen Beam:That's incredible, I being vaguely aware more than vaguely aware, I must admit I've done a lot of reading but the migration of black folks up to the North goes without saying, happened, and for good reasons, which you've just detailed.
Garfield Moore:Can I share one more thing with you?
J Stephen Beam:I wish you would share anything you want to share.
Garfield Moore:I do remember. I do remember there was a point of disillusionment. I guess I'm about five, six years old and I was becoming, certainly becoming, literate, which was encouraging to my family. Fortunately I was very blessed and very lucky. But I can remember opening a what do you call them, the little drawers, nightstand tables, and my father kept some of his correspondence and even after my parents had divorced it was still there. And I remember on onion skin paper reading a letter of recommendation. This would have been around 1950, the year I was born, 1952. So the letters were old, they were typewritten, the year I was born, 1952, so the letters were old, they were typewritten.
Garfield Moore:"Dr. Calvin Moore Dr. , we understand, is a candidate for such and such and so, and so we could recommend this candidate with no hesitation. His skills, his acumen, his abilities are absolutely outstanding. And then new paragraph we do hope the fact that he is colored will not stand in the way of, and this was something that stuck with me. It's indelible Not to produce any rancor or any dissatisfaction but to simply understand the challenges that many people from my generation and generations previous to me faced. And I dare say he overcame them because he was the first black head of the emergency room. He obviously did.
J Stephen Beam:Yeah, he obviously did, and a lot of that drive that he had was based on your family and what he was taught as a young person. As you were Right, and there's nothing that can replace that. It doesn't matter your background, your economic background, your social background. If you grow up poor, even as I did, but have a mother, in my case, who pushed education and didn't allow me not to do my homework and didn't allow me not to dream, she wanted me to dream. If you have that, regardless of your background your grandfather's being tougher than mine I do understand that. But if there's that family drive and that family will, then it is amazing what can be accomplished.
Garfield Moore:I want to stress the importance of the point you've just made, because one thing I haven't yet to make clear that when my parents did go their separate ways, my mom had to start all over again. And her achievement is even more impressive. These are the middle 50s. This is a very distinguished and well-educated woman of color who at that time was professionally unwelcome in or on most venues. She rose from dedicated housewife to having to support two children and let me be honest and candid on her own from that station to professor at what is now one of the largest state universities in California, and I am really proud to tell you that her achievement is utterly superb because there is a full scholarship in her name to this day, and that's something she did without help. So watching her, watching Dr King, watching the magnificent Leontyne Price and my father and a number of other examples, I felt, and still feel, like I have a responsibility of other examples, I felt, and still feel, like I have a responsibility.
J Stephen Beam:Okay, so we have you, as a young person who had first set for training with guitar decided to switch to cello. Let's move on from there. How did your training ensue? Where were you, and are there any particular mentors or teachers that really had an impact on you?
Garfield Moore:You really know how to ask the right questions. When I was 13, I enrolled in a chamber music program at one of the local colleges Mills College and I didn't know a lot about it, but I knew that I was already revering the person who was running it, the great English cellist, Colin Hampton from the Grilla Quartet. Now he had just retired and was enjoying himself. He was playing very freely and openly and demonstrating his wonderful life of art. You know, the Grilla Quartet, of which he was the cellist, had been through World War II in the Royal Air Force. They disbanded during that period and went through great suffering and reunited and then came to this country and made a great success of it.
Garfield Moore:Colin Hampton was not only an extraordinary cellist, an extraordinary human being. He was a second father to me and he, while he got frustrated with me on occasion I could be quite irascible and undisciplined he was a continued vessel of love and support and he set an example which was magnificent. And he, what he did was, after I'd been with him, it was announced that he'd written a concerto for cello and small orchestra and that I would premiere it when I was 13. Ah, it was an extraordinary, an extraordinary experience, and there are a few other coincidences that I'll share very quickly.
Garfield Moore:At that time, little Chellis Garfield Moore was attending Garfield Junior High in Berkeley. We had the premiere, we did this, I went on to high school and then college and all of that. And some years later another young person of color, Kamala Harris, goes to the same junior high school and she talks about this in Berkeley and she speaks of her mother's triumphs and struggles. So there seems to be something in the water in Berkeley which provides certainly challenge, struggle, resistance and difficulty, but also seems to be a spot to nurture creativity, intelligence and the ability to contribute.
J Stephen Beam:An opportunity. Yes, yes, how did you get to New York?
Garfield Moore:Yeah, oh sorry, kind of a sinister laugh. That's a wonderful story and thank you for asking. Well, the truth is I had just experienced the most difficult year of my life. My father passed away in 1977. I had taken a job in the public school system in Oakland, which was very challenging. But there again there was a highlight. Dr King's widow, coretta Scott King, was invited to give a keynote address at the graduation from middle school and I got to present the choir and accompany them at that event. That was the one blue ribbon tied around.
Garfield Moore:Another was completely chaotic and, shall we say, really challenging existence for a year. At the end of this very difficult year I was able to get my very first cello. I didn't commission it, but I adopted it as it was being made and instruments were very expensive even then, and I remember I managed to teach that year and save $4,500. Well, I purchased the cello. Suddenly, the Civic Light Opera in San Francisco called again. I was invited to play a production starring Lena Horne, clifton Davis and Josephine Pernice. She did a version of Pal Joey. Well, previously I played my first show had been one with Patti LuPone, which was her first show on the road. Yes, patti LuPone of Evita and TV fame. And the conductor of that show promised me that if he ever could bring me to New York, he would Well guess what happened. I adopt the cello. I managed to pay for it. I'm kind of recovering from this crazy year. The phone rings Look, if you want the job, this is yours, if you can square it with the union. And at that time there was some issue. I lived in California and the show was to be Michael Bennett's first production after Chorus Line, which was Ballroom, starring Vince Gardenia and Dorothy Loudon, who had played Miss Haversham in Annie, the original version. Anyway, my best friend lent me his credit card, got me a plane ticket. I didn't have a lot of money at that point.
Garfield Moore:I went to New York, got on my you know, sports jacket and went down to meet the vice president at the American Federation of Musicians Turns out Mr EV Lewis, whom I met. He said where are you from, young man? I said, sir, I am from Berkeley, california. My mother's house is on 9th Street. And he looked at me. He said you're a cellist, are you? I said yes, I am. He said well, this is only a transfer of membership. A cellist are you? I said yes, I am. He said well, this is only a transfer of membership, there's no problem, and I own a house on 10th street. And he leaned across the table and he said welcome to New York.
Garfield Moore:Well, that afternoon I went out and my head was exploding. For the first time I was on fifth Avenue and I got to tell you something. I'm standing between the Plaza Hotel and Columbus Circle. I burst into laughter. I had never seen so many people on a street in my life and I knew this is where I belong.
Garfield Moore:And while Ballroom the show did not run, it turned into four years of Evita. That did run and that turned into Yul Brynner's last run of the King and I and Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera in the Rink. But there was one particular afternoon. We're all the way up to 1985. Now I arrived at the end of 1979.
Garfield Moore:This story is very important to me. I was leaving the matinee just finished the cello solos, mr Brynner was in his dressing room, I was on my way to rehearse at Radio City with the great Roberta Fleck and I come up the stage on the Broadway theater, which now, at this point, at the age of 29 or 30 or whatever it is, is my home and in the door comes this incredible bob of reddish-blonde hair and Mr Brenner's dressing room was open. I can hear him in there. His dog runs out, steals the sandwich in my hand and I look up and here's this beautiful Bible right here. I said good afternoon, mrs Morton.
Garfield Moore:Lucille Ball took off her glasses and said how did you know my last name and how did you notice me? I was a fan of your late husband's comedy and I said anyone would recognize the magnificent Lucille Ball. And she looked at me. She said you have to be a Leo. I said just like you, madam. I went on to rehearse with Berta Flagg, play with her and George Benson that night and I got out in time to get to Carnegie Hall to hear the end of Leon Dean Price. Now where else in the world could that happen? I hope I haven't bored you, but that's kind of my story.
J Stephen Beam:Fascinating. How was Lucy in person there Is she a nice lady, open, warm.
Garfield Moore:I can tell you this I hope a pretty intuitive and instinctive person. I can remember as a child thinking that as long as bear with me Lucille Ball, joan Crawford, betty Davis, kate Hepburn and Dick Gregory alive, the world is going to be okay. I know every episode. I hope this is okay. I know every episode of I Love Lucy okay, and everything that I loved and hoped was true. When she pulled off those sunglasses with those huge eyes and looked at me and spoke to me was true. She's a great lady.
J Stephen Beam:Also a favorite of mine. Okay, so you're in New York, been there several years, by this point, and done some good work and met some obviously important, influential and talented people. Now how did you get into foreign travel to play music? I?
Garfield Moore:really want to be open with you about that. It did happen. It never happened as much as I wanted it to. In fact, I'll tell you one funny story when Philip Glass was coming along he's been all the rage for many, many years now, but when his music was first getting known, I was in a recording studio downtown somewhere and a number of the big recording cellists were in town. Understand me, this was big business.
Garfield Moore:Okay, you went in the recording studio, if you were on the list at maybe nine o'clock in the morning, stayed till five o'clock, you know, in the evening doing this jingle, that jingle, this commercial, that commercial, this set, that set, and it was a six-figure income. All right, I was not part of that clan, but I did occasionally rub elbows. Well, I was in the room with a number of them. Okay, my master, who I mentioned, kermit moore was, was was one of the kingpins in that industry. He wasn't on this date. I think this was another one where he sent me into subframe. So his engineer is there and philip glass is somewhere behind the scenes.
Garfield Moore:And at the end of the day, three hours, he said, oh, is anybody interested in a European tour? And I was getting ready to raise my hand and all the other cellists were like this and unfortunately I know this is going to sound ridiculous my shyness went out at that point. Okay, no-transcript hired me to do it and flew me down there. I'd gotten a salary and I got back and the building was on rent strike. I didn't have a dime, I had 102 fever, but I was the happiest cellist in the world because I was accomplishing my mission. The concerts had gone well and I always believe firmly that if you are really, really, really struggling and fighting for what you believe in and love, what is really creative and important to you, the universe will lend a hand. Well, I'm laying in bed on the futon and we still had, you know, phones that weren't digital. At that point, my phone started ringing. I answered God this is.
Garfield Moore:Morris, lovin Rat, pat Tua has just lost a child. We need you. Can you be in Chicago next week? I said absolutely. I said may I ask the what the pay is? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, two weeks of $5,000. I said it's a frogs, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, watertight. Next thing I knew I was sitting at the ambassador hotel for the first time in Chicago, where my family's from. I got 102 fever, but I fever, but I'm having rock lobs champagne and I know I can pay my rent the next month. But I was there before anyone else and I got to check out the chicago theater, which is gorgeous theater, okay, and this is where they were going to have the performance in chicago. Dean martin has arrived early and I'm walking up the back stairs now you, I hear a beautiful baritone voice, not like mine, warming up. And I get to the top flight and there is Dean Martin with a glass of scotch in his hand. He says oh, you're the new cellist. Hey, buddy, you cannot make this stuff up.
J Stephen Beam:No.
Garfield Moore:So that was one travel, but it was to answer your question directly. I had a fabulous duo partner for 10 years in New York, stephanie Watt. I'm August 8th, she's August 9th and we called ourselves Duo Leo because astrologically that's the Leo period. In 2002, stephanie actually said listen, I've been asked to play these concerts in Budapest and I'd like for the duo to go. So we flew to Hungary and played a series of eight concerts in six days, and that is one of the blue ribbons tied around my career.
J Stephen Beam:As you look back over your long and lengthy and fulfilled career in a lot of ways and I know you've already mentioned some of these any other particular experiences come to mind when you're lying in bed at night and thinking about the past or whatever, and about the past or whatever, and oh, what a wonderful time that was. Give us a couple of experiences that really have stuck with you.
Garfield Moore:My first record date. I was invited to play before I left California. This is just before everything in my life turns around. It's 1977, just after I mentioned, my father passed away and I got a call to play this record date and it was the great jazz bass player Ron Carter. And I got to the studio earlier and the contractor was someone who had been very kind to me I knew and I said are the principals being flown in from New York? Because everything was? He said yes and I said may I ask if the principal cellist is Kermit Moore? And he said yes, and I said may I ask if the principal cellist is Kermit Moore? And he said yes, and my soon to be new father, an hour later, walks in the studio and there he is. I had only seen him in catalogs of solo books, columbia and some of the other managers when he was traveling in Europe playing recitals. So I met him there and we had a fantastic afternoon with Ron Carter recording this album Pastels, and I'm sitting in the background but I'm tickled pink doesn't begin to describe. And the album went on to win several Grammys that year. So that's one I have to tell you. When I met one of the.
Garfield Moore:Recently we lost a very great cellist on the other side, lynn Harrell name you might've heard, and I was a young fellow in an orchestra playing trying to make some money, you know, in New York, and he came to play the Victor Herbert Cello Concerto, okay, which was a fabulous experience, herbert Cello Concerto, which was a fabulous experience, but the one that really, really knocked me out, you know, casals is one of my absolute idols, emanuel Feuermann, my master, kermit Moore, but you know, I hope I can say this, it's with so many things, with the exception of Casals, the really great ones are the ladies, and I'm talking about Raya Garbosuva, we all know today, we all remember Jacqueline Dupre and the Elgar Concerto. But the one for my money, who was the absolute, under pressure, the absolute finest cellist I've ever heard, was the great Zara Nelsova, sarah Nelson, from Canada, who was of Russian parentage. Anyway, this is many years later. She's a mature lady and she came with this same orchestra to play Dvorak Concerto and I was excited beyond belief. I happen to have in my collection because I mentioned my first great master, colin Hampton. He had a recording which I adopted and then wouldn't give back Her first solo recording and I knew she didn't have it wound up and she came out in her, you know, rehearsal garb and she had in a her case was not particularly elegant, but I knew she played one of the great Stradivarius, the Marquis de Corporon that Antonin Stradivarius made in 1726.
Garfield Moore:She comes out on stage, I'm standing. She said oh, but I've forgotten something. I have to go back. Would you hold this for me? She hands me one of the world's greatest strads and all I can do is cradle it. I wouldn't dare to play it. Besides, I didn't have a bow, I just had and I held this instrument in my arms.
Garfield Moore:Anyway, she went on to play three of the most magnificent performances of one of the most difficult concertos, antonin's Dvorak, really his second cello concerto, the only one we people know, the concerto in B minor. Three nights, and the last night, I said. I said, madame Nelsova, I don't wish to disturb you, but I have some records for you to sign, would you mind? I said, oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And I purposely placed this recording, this first solo recording from 1952, on the box.
Garfield Moore:And she said where did you get this? How did you? I said, miss Nelsova, I'm not ready to part with it yet, but I have had a cassette made and I'll have it sent round to you. At the El Dorado she lived on Central Park West and I did that Years later, just before she passed away, and I got wind of it. She was, you know, isolated with her family and I took this record and it was really hard for me to pad with, but I had it wrapped beautifully with silk ribbon and I sent it to her and they said they do say I have no real, had no real connection with her or her family. Please don't let me misrepresent. But they said it was the last time that she sat up in bed and smart. Those are the things, sorts of things that are important to me.
J Stephen Beam:Did you ever get to record with any? You mentioned the Rat Pack, but any other popular music type people.
Garfield Moore:Let's see. Well, if George Benson, liza Minnelli, oh, can I tell you a story about her as a kid.
J Stephen Beam:Oh yeah.
Garfield Moore:Liza Minnelli. Oh, can I tell you a story about her with the kit. Oh yeah, I don't know if you guys are old enough to remember, but after a long career on Broadway and a Shantus here and particularly in Europe, miss Kit had a hit single which went wild. I need a man. And she did that beautiful purse she used to do. I used to run around the reservoir when I was a younger man and when my knees were still working.
Garfield Moore:And one morning I'm running around. I had been called for a record date downtown. And I'm running around and this Irish wolfhound followed by, I recognize you meet, eartha Kitt. Good morning, miss Kitt. And she and this wolfh wolf, we start running together.
Garfield Moore:Okay, I was, you know, I was kept a respectful distance and I was just. I said I'm very happy to meet you and I said I don't wish to disturb you. So no, no, fine, well, anyway, went home, change got down in the recording studio and we go in and we lay down this track and it has a beat as, oh, this has got to be a disco tune. Well, I come out and there is once again Eartha Kitt. I said, ms Kitt, didn't we meet this morning? She said absolutely we did. I said I am so proud to be a part of this project. She said, well, I just hope it works. Well, that was the 1982, excuse me, 1983 hit single I Need a man. And it went viral. So there was George Benson, there was Sarah Vaughan I got to record with. I got to record with even though she wasn't Carmen McRae. I got to record with, even though she wasn't Carmen McRae.
Garfield Moore:The artists that I work with, the one I think that I felt particularly attached to, I guess I would have to say, would have been Liza Minnelli and Gladys Knight. These were two of the biggest spirits that I've ever met and let me tell you with with gladys night, as powerful as she still is to this day, a lady of beauty, also considerably as powerful as she sounds to this day, you have no idea what she sounded like live. It was the most incredible sound. The other one would have been I hope this is is a name we remember Leslie Uggams. Oh, yes, yeah, this was again. She was a very demure and unassuming lady and when she pulled off those sunglasses and got center stage, the chandelier shook. Huge personality. Also. One thing I just want to go back to the Mr Bojangles and the T for Two sketch that Mr Sammy Davis Jr did live and in the recording studio were amongst the most powerful things I ever experienced.
J Stephen Beam:How was. Sinatra to work with things I ever experienced. How was Sinatra to work with?
Garfield Moore:He was a master of a world that enthralled and held people spellbound. He provided he, and Mr Davis and Mr Martin provided my literal existence, the salvation of it, by creating that tour. He could hold an audience in the palm of his hand in a way that I have, which is reserved for the greats. Let's just say I will remain eternally grateful to his legacy and memory for having provided that opportunity.
J Stephen Beam:What a fascinating career you had, and it still goes on. I don't want to imply that it doesn't. How did Garfield Moore from Berkeley, Chicago, New York, end up in small town Mississippi?
Garfield Moore:I'm really glad you asked that question. My then partner and now husband, a wonderful man, really wonderful guy, william Mazzali, had spent a lot of time in Mississippi and loved Ocean Springs. And the truth is that not so long ago, everything in my career which meant so much to me came to a screeching, and I got to tell you. I'm really proud to be able to sit here and say that, because I think that we all need to be aware that all careers, all lives may have peaks, but they're going to have valleys and low points too. And this was a real low point. But I had my partner, I had my dog, you know, I had my home, and I said, you know, I just and thinking, I want to get out, get, get out of here, there's nothing left to do. And my best friend had said well, look, come on to Texas. You know, you could always teach down here and I wasn't so sure of that Many fine artists or many fine cellists in Texas anyway. And so I talked to Bill. I said, you know, I'm, I'm really thinking that maybe we ought to go somewhere else. He said well, how does Ocean Springs sound? And I said that's a lovely name, where he said Ocean Springs, mississippi, and I took a moment, having never I had traveled down South. I had.
Garfield Moore:I had played in New Orleans, I had played in Houston, I had played in Dallas, but I was 16 years old at the time and the civil rights movement had just you know really completed its apex and was really quite a nice tour for me. I was very grateful and I looked at him like he had called me a dirty name and I didn't say any more about it. But I woke up the next morning and said Garfield, you're more open than this. Your roots are selling. Your father is from the field in Arkansas. So I said let's go take a look at it. Let's make a long story short. Next thing, I know I'm walking out of the airport. Everybody is well, professor Moore, we're so glad to see you at the car rental agency. Everyone is really incredibly polite.
Garfield Moore:To make an even longer story short, I decided I liked it. He really wanted to be there and in two weeks we had a home, and I should also like to boast and brag that in that time since, shall we say, april of 2018, I have made some of the most important musical acquaintances to include institutions which I consider to be as artistic and prestigious as any excuse me institutions which I consider to be as artistic and prestigious as any. I'm talking about St John's Episcopal that has a wonderful music series in Ocean Springs. I'm speaking of the Orr O'Keeffe Museum in Biloxi which Frank Gehry built. I'm speaking of and this is my blue ribbon I will have a debut next March at the Little Theater in Laurel Mississippi, miss Price's hometown. So when you talk about Little Town in Mississippi, my life's dream is to give back to Mississippi and that great lady some of what's been given to me, and that will happen next March at the Little Theater in Laurel Mississippi and I'm a very proud resident of Bassfield including all 400 cows, dogs, cats and, you know, livestock.
J Stephen Beam:Bill must be from Mississippi if he got you down here.
Garfield Moore:No, bill is a Yankee from Connecticut. You're stuck with two Yankees. He has a wonderful family tradition and lineage from coastal Connecticut and he's an extraordinary human being because he devoted his life to education and also to seeing that those who have come with challenges mental and physical have been protected and housed properly on a professional basis, and he did it with such style and such professionalism that he made it look easy.
J Stephen Beam:So he got to Ocean Springs. How?
Garfield Moore:In a previous life he was married to a lady and her parents lived in Ocean Springs, and the wonderful stories that I've heard about his then family revolve around his in-laws, his wife's parents, ira and Annette, and he told so many stories about them and Ocean Springs and going fishing with Ira and out to dinner with both of them that I felt like I knew the town before I ever got there.
J Stephen Beam:That's where we begin to wrap up, thinking about you and all your many wonderful things that you've done. And it occurs to me, do you still practice quite often?
Garfield Moore:If I don't, you'll be throwing rotten tomatoes, absolutely, absolutely. And it doesn't get easier at this stage. There are some things that are easier, there are some things that are better. Performing comes a little bit more easily than it used to, but I have to put myself through daily routines, if not rigorously regularly. And I'll just add this note that not that I mean to compare myself in any way, except that I am playing solo concerts. That's what I've been doing for the past 20 years and I'm an avid recitalist.
Garfield Moore:I'm looking so forward to playing everything from Bach to rock. There will be Bach, there will be Beethoven, there will be Tango of Piazzolla and Calypso, there will be the Beatles, there will be Roberta Flack, there will be George Benson, there will be and this one is really special to me a rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water of Simon and Garfunkel. But to answer your question, I again I don't mean to compare myself with, with my absolute idol, the great pablo casals. At the age of 95, someone asked him. He said senor casals, do you still practice? He said yes, of course, three hours a day. They said why? At the age of 95, he said I think I am improving.
J Stephen Beam:Well, I bet you are too. So, garfield. You've done so many things, lived a life in some ways, and lived all over the country, played even in Europe, met some famous people. But is there any dreams that you still have out there other than I know you like to teach, but any personal dreams that you have?
Garfield Moore:You're not only a great host, you're a mind reader. Yes, sir, I hope within the next year to become the first American cellist to play all of six Bach suites which Casals and, today, yo-yo Ma have popularized so beautifully. I hope to be the first American cellist to play all of them in Portugal.
J Stephen Beam:Wow, I'm speechless. Well, I'm speechless. My hope and prayer is that you get to do that because you deserve it and you'll do a wonderful job, I am sure. Thank you. Podcast to be about creativity, and you mentioned something recently with some of your students that helped you again think about creativity. Would you just share that little snippet with us?
Garfield Moore:Sure, sure, sure, I'll try to be brave. First of all, you know, there's a saying that necessity is the mother of invention, that necessity is indeed creativity the first time we as humans discovered that we could create a flame to keep ourselves warm. And then somebody noticed the beautiful color in the flame and made a drawing on a cave wall. It is my avocation, my absolute responsibility, if I don't do anything else, to find those with and in whom I can ignite the same spirit of desire, and I've had that privilege with my students. I saw some of it yesterday. But the most valuable thing that I can contribute is to make sure that a sense of humanity, through our art form, continues to thrive.
J Stephen Beam:And it just reminds us that one of the things we can do in this life to give back is to share what we know, what we've learned, with the younger generation, and especially the very young, who don't have so many things imprinted in their mind at this time. So I salute you for that, thank you. Thank you so much. This has been wonderful. Learned a lot about you. All of it good so to our listeners, I certainly hope that you've enjoyed this. We will come out twice a month with the podcast starting soon, and invite you to continue to follow us. I also remind you of my website, jstephenbeamcom. There you can find some blog posts and some writings about what I'm up to with my writing career and also how to find my books and how to find a little bit more about our guests on this program, if you would like to do that I had just one quick note in tandem.
Garfield Moore:Forgive me, I'm skating on the coattails of your celebrity, sir, but may I also mention Garfieldmorecom, my website, because it'll have announcements about upcoming performance and where I'm teaching, where I might be giving a master class or a concert.
J Stephen Beam:Thank you for that. It was my intention to ask you to tell us that first. Oh, sorry, no, but I've jumped right into mine. I guess we're all so self-involved sometimes. Thank you for that. Again, thank you for the visit. We thank Christina, who's helped us with this recording, and, as we send it forward, you will be able to find this on Spotify starting in June. I assume that's where you found it, except for some people that I've shared it with already. So, once again, keep looking for our podcast. We look to focus on creativity in all the fields. Let me just say, not just music, not just in writing, but in things like woodworking and metalworking, and preachers who have to put together sermons, and on and on. When you open your mind to creativity, it's everywhere. Thanks again and God bless, thank you. ©. Transcript Emily Beynon.
