Bernie Williams has rocked with Twisted Sister and shared a stage with the New York Philharmonic.
He’s performed at Abbey Highway, Café Carlyle and Yankee Stadium, the place he’s delivered renditions of the nationwide anthem on his electrical guitar.
He even carried out with a tribe of Nubians on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt.
However nothing fairly compares to what’s subsequent for the previous Yankees heart fielder.
Williams is about to co-headline a Jan. 13 live performance at Carnegie Corridor with famend tenor Jonathan Tetelman in a efficiency fusing sports activities and classical music.
“It’s gotta be, in all probability, a very powerful venue that I’ve ever performed in my complete profession, so far as a musician,” Williams, 57, informed the Day by day Information throughout a current interview in Manhattan.
The live performance marks Williams’ Carnegie Corridor debut and is billed as a mix of opera, jazz, Flamenco and extra mainstream materials equivalent to the Beatles and “Maria” from “West Facet Story.”
Williams, who’s a classically skilled guitarist, and Tetelman, a powerhouse vocalist, are set to be joined by a band that features a string part from the Metropolitan Opera.
“It has confirmed to be difficult due to the scope and the way formidable we would like this mission to be,” Williams stated.
“I imply, you’re speaking about [Giacomo] Puccini and actually hardcore opera and paring it down with the Beatles, and possibly issues that [Andrea] Bocelli may sing. … It’s very eclectic, so it makes it very formidable. Our thought is to attempt to do good by the music, not simply to have a jack of all trades and grasp of none.”
The live performance additional bolsters the musical résumé of Williams, who spent his full 16-year MLB profession from 1991-2006 with the Yankees and performed a central position in 4 World Collection championships.
Even throughout his baseball profession, Williams maintained his love of music, which began when his father taught him a number of guitar chords when he was 7 or 8 years previous and solely strengthened as he attended a performing arts highschool in his native San Juan, Puerto Rico.
“For all sensible functions, I assumed I used to be going to be a musician, however I used to be taking part in baseball on the facet. I used to be taking part in little league on the facet, after which after I turned 15, 16 years previous, I began being checked out by skilled groups,” Williams stated.
“I ended up signing with the Yankees to play this nice profession in New York … however via my complete journey in baseball, I by no means left the guitar. I by no means stated, ‘Properly, that is one thing I did after I was a younger child. I’m simply gonna neglect about it and simply type of transfer into this.’ I at all times saved it with me.”
Williams hit .297 with 287 residence runs, 1,257 RBI and an .858 OPS throughout his MLB profession, and he earned 5 All-Star picks and 4 Gold Glove awards. The Yankees retired his No. 51 in 2015.
However being in New York additionally proved useful with Williams’ different pastime, because it launched him to new music genres.
Williams launched his debut studio album, “The Journey Inside,” in 2003 whereas he was nonetheless a member of the Yankees. He obtained a Latin Grammy nomination for his second album, “Shifting Ahead,” which got here out in 2009.
“It wasn’t till I got here to New York after I truly turned extra cognizant of blues and rock and jazz,” Williams stated.
“It was all in regards to the conventional music of Puerto Rico again then, and classical music, the place I type of grew up listening to it due to the highschool expertise. However it wasn’t till I got here right here after I began actually taking part in electrical guitar and taking part in with a stomp field pedal and listening to what overdrive seemed like.”
Seven years after his closing season with the Yankees, Williams enrolled within the Manhattan Faculty of Music as a 45-year-old freshman.
That four-year program allowed Williams to pursue a school diploma, a lot to the delight of his mom, but additionally to earn credibility in music and discover his goal as a performer.
“Coaching to be a musician, it might be about competitors, however not likely. I wasn’t actually [trying] to be the most effective guitar participant and being within the Corridor of Fame of guitar gamers. That was not what was driving me. I had all of that within the baseball world,” Williams stated.
“[I realized] I might be the most effective [guitar] participant that I might be and benefit from the journey in additional of a non secular type of approach. … Expressing my creativity and being an artist on this journey, and the extra I put into it, the extra I can get out of it. And to me, it was all about with the ability to carry out with everyone, whatever the style, and really feel like I belong.”
That sentiment is on the crux of Williams’ Carnegie Corridor live performance.
The present is the wedding of two powerhouses of their respective fields, with the unity achieved via sports activities serving as a theme. José Reyes and Stephon Marbury are among the many particular visitors who’re set to contribute to the efficiency.
“The extra that I begin speaking about this, I begin actually realizing the scope and the magnitude and the ambitiousness of this mission,” Williams stated.
“It might be overwhelming at occasions, however I believe we’re going to have mixture of music that’s going to make it out there for those who possibly are simply so hardcore classical music listeners … and, conversely, individuals which might be within the pop world, jazz world.”
It’s a efficiency 5 a long time within the making for Williams, going all the best way again to his father’s impromptu guitar classes in Puerto Rico.
“While you play baseball, you type of have your price given to you by your stats. How good you have been is type of predicated upon your numbers,” Williams stated.
“As a musician, however, I believe I type of worth how profitable I’m by the locations I play at and the individuals I play with. So with that stated, this chance to play at Carnegie Corridor with Jon Tetelman … must be proper up there with the whole lot that I may ever ask for.”
