MIDLAND — David Bowie was the perfect boss.
"He had a great sense of humor, and he was a great band leader who didn't micro-manage," Bowie's longtime pianist, Mike Garson, said. "He trusted you to do your thing. We could all learn from that."
Garson helps people learn while doing his part to keep the Bowie legacy alive.
On Thursday, Garson will star in two "Bowie in The Box" concerts at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center in Midland, backed by a local all-star band featuring The Clarks' Scott Blasey on vocals.
"I saw a video of him and heard his voice; that'll be great," Garson said.
With Lincoln Park's Black Box Theater set up cabaret style with tables and chairs, Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School music and dance students also will perform with Garson on a few Bowie numbers.
"We'll play some of his biggest hits, like 'Changes' and 'Let's Dance,'" Garson said.
"I'll also write and perform a little homage to David. I tend to do that spur of the moment, jotting down some things a few hours before the show," Garson said. "I'll also tell some stories about touring with David and doing 1,000 shows with him. Those are stories people love to hear."
As the longest-tenured member of Bowie's band, who played on the musical icon's first and final U.S. tours, you might think Garson would have a hard time picking his most memorable shows.
Nope, he quickly rattles off three.
"Glastonbury in 2000, Hammersmith in '73 and a BBC show we did in 2000, in front of only a few hundred people. Lulu and Russell Crowe were in the audience," Garson said, adding that the BBC show was recorded live for a CD set ("Bowie at The Beeb").
That Glastonbury music festival show in England's countryside drew a quarter of a million people eager to see closing-night headliner Bowie.
"Willie Nelson went on before us and was absolutely amazing," Garson said. "That show stands out to me because David and I opened the set alone by doing 'Life on Mars.' I have great memories of that. David gathered together the whole band beforehand and you could tell he was a little nervous. I mean you wouldn't expect David Bowie to be nervous but there were 250,000 people there. So he said 'Mike, go out there for me and warm them up first'. He had me play 'Foggy Day in London Town' and 'Greensleeves.'"
However, Garson's keyboards weren't working properly at first. Something went wonky with the sound.
"So there were like 50 tech guys running around trying to fix it," Garson said. "I thought the crowd was going to storm the stage because they were getting anxious and booing a little bit. But I played them some jazz and we got the sound fixed, and so then David could come out. It was divine intervention.
"If we had come on together and started playing 'Life on Mars' when the sound was like that, it would have been humiliating," Garson said. "I took the bullet for the team."
That 2000 mini tour, with just a handful of dates in New York and England, was special.
"We had 58 songs ready to play and could do about 25 a night," Garson said. "He'd choose some at the last second. We had to be really flexible. He didn't like to keep us, or himself, in a comfort zone. Though that's a great thing to have to be flexible. I remember in the middle of the Montreux Jazz Festival he asked me to play some Duke Ellington so I did. (That 2002 performance is available on DVD.) He was very spontaneous."
Garson dearly misses his friend and boss.
"He was a total renaissance man, and very, very funny."
Garson, whose studio work stands out on the Bowie hit "Young Americans" and Bowie's "Aladdin Sane" title track, tours in A Bowie Celebration, an ensemble that includes fellow Bowie band alumni Earl Slick, Gerry Leonard, Carmine Rojas and Mark Plati.
Garson also keeps busy leading his own jazz trio, writing classical music and teaching music. Before Thursday's Bowie in the Box concerts, Garson will work with Lincoln Park charter school music students.
"This will be like my 500th master class, or whatever you call it ... A residency I guess? I love it. I love working with kids."
The California resident said he feels "lucky" he gets to make a living doing the two things he feels most equipped to do — teach and play music.
"I started playing at age 14 and I'm still playing at 72 for which I feel blessed. I'm also working harder now than I did in my 20s."
This is the third time Garson will have taught and entertained at Lincoln Park.
"I love it there," he said, adding he has one misgiving.
"I know when I drive up there I see those nuclear reactor towers and that scares the hell out me."
He will get to town a day earlier to perform a Wednesday night jazz concert at Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh's Oakland section.
"I'd better practice, I haven't played a jazz concert in awhile," Garson said.
He's serious about practicing, according to Grammy-winning saxophonist Eric DeFade, a Lincoln Park resident artist who will guide the band at Wednesday's and Thursday's shows.
Garson reached out to DeFade to make sure he'd send the music charts ahead of time, not that DeFade doubts for a minute Garson will shine.
"I've played a couple of times with him before and it's a great thing to get to perform with someone so experienced and diversified with what he can do," DeFade said. "Of course there's the work he's done with Bowie and Nine Inch Nails, but he's also a phenomenal jazz player. He has some fabulous stories, too."
DeFade, who played on two Grammy-winning albums by jazz singer Nancy Wilson, assembled a backing band that includes drummer Joe Waslousky (from Corbin/Hanner), guitarist Steve Delach (from Billy Price's band) and in-demand-bassist Tony DePaolis.
"There will be student involvement to start the show before the professionals take over," DeFade said. "We'll hit on a number of Bowie eras. There's the art-rock, early '70s era into the more pop-oriented, MTV-generated era with 'Modern Love' and 'Let's Dance,' and also the more poetic side with 'Life on Mars' and 'Space Oddity.'"
Blasey, the singer for The Clarks, will find himself in that area where Bowie liked himself and his musicians to be.
"I'll be outside my comfort zone," Blasey said, "singing songs I've never performed before, with different musicians in a different venue. But that's cool. I find when I do that, I learn something about myself and grow and get better as an artist.
"I mean, it's a little daunting. He had such a unique style and presence, though I think I can pull it off," Blasey said.
"Bowie in The Box" will require a different mindset than Blasey is accustomed to playing sold-out shows with The Clarks.
"I don't think I'll be wearing platform shoes and makeup, but definitely I'll try to mentally get into that Bowie space."