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Local icons win tribute during Fair St. Louis

By Mary Shapiro, Staff writer June 24, 2000

The St. Louis Cardinals, Busch Stadium, a longtime beer vendor, and musicians Scott Joplin and W.C. Handy will receive a special tribute July 4 during Fair St. Louis. A musical presentation titled the "Bushy Wushy Rag," by composer Phillip Kent Bimstein, of Springdale, Utah, will be performed by the Equinox Chamber Players.

The presentation will feature a local quintet of classically trained musicians who will incorporate parts of the "Maple Leaf Rag" by Joplin and the "St. Louis Blues" by Handy. It also will feature tape-recorded sounds of players, vendors and the crowds at St. Louis Cardinals ballgames. The production will prominently feature the voice of the "Bushy Wushy Beer Man," Robert Logan, of St. Louis, a 39-year beer vendor at Busch Stadium. The performance will debut at 7 p.m. July 4 on the Budweiser Stage at the Fair St. Louis fairgrounds under the Gateway Arch. The fair will run July 1, 2 and 4. The musical presentation is a part of "Continental Harmony," a national celebration sponsored by the American Composers Forum, the National Endowment for the Arts and local arts organizations nationwide. The project will unveil new musical works created specifically for 58 communities across the country. Communities in each state were invited to participate by designing and applying to host a musical project that best reflected their area's local history, culture, hopes and ambitions. Bimstein, a composer who also serves as mayor of Springdale, Utah, is a Chicago native. He said he was intrigued by an opportunity to create a piece of music about the Midwest. "Of all the sites I could have applied for, only St. Louis appealed to me," said Bimstein, who was selected from about 27 composers who applied for the St. Louis part of the project. "I love to tell stories with music, and I know the Cardinals have been a key part of St. Louis for about 100 years," he said. Members of the Equinox Chamber Players brought Bimstein to St. Louis to attend the last five Cardinals games of the 1999 season, armed with his tape recorder, to start work on the composition. "I recorded the sound of the bat striking the ball, the ball slamming into the catcher's mitt, the organ playing and the crowd and vendors," Bimstein said. "I interviewed famous people like (Cardinals manager) Tony LaRussa, but I also wanted to talk to fans and others," he said. "One particular vendor fascinated me," Bimstein said. "Robert Logan's voice and love for the game and St. Louis stood out. It was a joyful challenge to find the rhythm and patterns and tonalities in his voice and compose music to support and amplify them." Bimstein also drew on the music of Joplin and Handy, to represent St. Louis' musical history. He began composing the "Bushy Wushy Rag" around December, using a piano and a computer. Bimstein is putting the finishing touches on the piece, and will travel to St. Louis later this month to attend more baseball games and Fair St. Louis. A Public Broadcasting Service film crew is making a special television program about "Continental Harmony," to be broadcast next year, Bimstein said. "St. Louis will be one of five cities they'll focus on," he said. "They'll be filming at Fair St. Louis and Busch Stadium June 29." Carole Lemire, of University City, plays French horn with the Equinox Chamber Players, which also includes musicians on flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon. "We're already working on school presentations for the 'Bushy Wushy Rag' this year," Lemire said. "The use of baseball themes and other pop culture icons helps children with their ability to retain classical instrumentation," she said.

©Citizen Journal 2000