Winning Artys theme song entry by Dalt Williams. (The final, orchestrated version of the winning song will be played live at the Artys on Sept. 9)



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It’s a theme come true

Vallejo musician sways judges with toe-tapping Artys song

By Tony Wade

Daily Republic CORRESPONDENT


Dalt Williams sits inside his 1974 retired Navy ambulance, which now serves as his gig mobile. The jazz musician wrote the winning Artys song.



FAIRFIELD — A 74-year-old lifelong Vallejo resident snagged the top prize in the Artys theme song contest with his three-minute Broadway Big Band salute to the annual Solano County theater awards show.

Dalt Williams, a composer, musician and retired music teacher, was the top choice in an extremely close race that attracted 29 digitally-transmitted entries to the theme song Web site, which has garnered about 20,000 hits.

The grand prize winner will receive a recording session for a five-song, professionally mixed demo at Biklops recording studio in San Jose and an overnight hotel stay courtesy of Jelly Belly.

“I’ll probably take my quartet or quintet there,” Williams said. “I added a trombone to my quartet and I also have a vocalist. I’m not sure exactly what we’ll do yet, but it’ll be centered around the group that I have.”

Teaching music at schools in Benicia, Fairfield, and Vallejo for decades honed Williams’ skills. These days, he flexes his musical muscles with the Dalt Williams Quartet, which specializes in “Jazz for All Occasions” - www.jazzforalloccasions.com.

A volunteer panel of 10 judges – a veritable who’s who of local tunesmiths and music mavens – listened to the MP3s submitted by the July 13 deadline and scored them, coming up with a group of finalists. Then they voted again. Williams came out on top, with the finalists trailing within a handful of points on a 100-point scale.

The first runner-up is the team of Robert Jacobs and Jim Hurt, bassist and pianist/arranger who are key members of Alive Music Orchestra and Vacaville Jazz Society.

Other runners-up are Ruben Oriol Rivera (Matai), Christopher Grokenberger and Eddy “K” Kaanoi. The alternates are Arthur Stout; the trio of Barbara McFadden and her mother, Betty, and Mark Middleton; and Anthony Gray Finocchario.

Artys theme song coordinator Kevin Ryan will release all the submitted Artys tunes to the public at www.artysthemesongcontest.org by 5 p.m. today.

Williams was pleased when notified that he had composed the winning tune. “It’s wonderful, it was really a fun project to do,” he said. “I wanted to do something bright, show biz, Hollywood-like and classy.”

With the exception of zydeco-polka-death metal-fusion, nearly every musical genre was represented in the entries — big band, salsa, hard rock, rap/hip hop, island music and love ballads. There was even an a cappella entry.

The age range of the entrants went from a 9-year-old Fairfield girl to a Dixon grandmother. The contest fell short of obtaining entries from all seven cities in the county – Rio Vista and Benicia were the holdouts – but still served as a sampling of the abundance of talent in the area.

Dalt Williams knows a thing or two about stringing notes together; he’s been intimately involved in music since 1947. After graduating from Vallejo High School, he joined the Army as a bandsman for three years and later attended Vallejo College (now Solano Community College).

Williams majored in music and was mentored by Dave Froehlich, whose music theory was so advanced that when Williams later went to San Francisco State University, he breezed through the music theory classes and went on to composition. While in the city by the bay, Williams played with jazz luminaries such as Rudy Salvini and Vince Guaraldi (of “Peanuts” fame).

Coming up with the winning song took Williams – a talented acoustic bass, tuba and trumpet player – a few weeks to finish. “I had a tune in mind based on the words ‘the Artys,’ ” Williams said. “Then I got to thinking, ‘What is the Artys and what does it include?’ I had a concept of something that was showy and that was Hollywood in nature.

“I wanted the middle part to be different and I went to a different key in the bridge.”

Williams’ song is simply titled “The Artys” and manages to sound fresh, original and yet pleasingly familiar all at once. The lyrics and melody work together to create an ode to the song’s namesake.

The Arty Awards honor outstanding performing arts groups and artists in Solano County. The black-tie optional, gala event includes live performances from nominated shows and a reception with refreshments in the lobby following the awards ceremony.

“The Artys” will play on KUIC 95.3 FM, Brenden Theatres, the cable access channels in Fairfield, Vacaville and Vallejo and, of course, live at the Artys on Sept. 9. In addition, Vallejo independent filmmaker Maria Guevara will film the event, which will later play on Vallejo Cable access TV.

Reach Fairfield freelance writer Tony Wade at getthelowdown@sbcglobal.net.