All posts by kruekutt

Grateful for my beloved wife, son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren and siblings. Also a lover of theology, music, history, philosophy, classic novels, science fiction, fantasy and Looney Tunes.
Republic of Letters

Fresh from the Vaults: Black Friday 2023 Jazz

Black Friday has come and gone, leaving a trail of vinyl & silicon breadcrumbs at indie record stores. And, as typical of previous years, there’s been more than a smattering of fine jazz released, as the archives of artists, legendary venues and European broadcasters give up their secrets to the delight of listeners worldwide. Four quite special sets caught my ear this time around . . .

Resonance Recordings continues its deep dive into the music of guitarist Wes Montgomery; Maximum Swing: The Unissued 1965 Half Note Recordings catches him live in New York City, backed by the Wynton Kelly Trio. Pianist Kelly and drummer Jimmy Cobb were key players on Miles Davis’ game-changing Kind of Blue; teaming with a round robin of bassists that includes once-and-future Miles sidemen Paul Chambers and Ron Carter, they launch plenty of lean, thrusting grooves and hypnotic vamps that give Montgomery room to take off. And does he ever: whether on untitled 12-bar jams, highlights of Miles’ book like “Impressions” and “No Blues”, standards from Broadway (“All the Things You Are”) and bebop (“Birks’ Works” and “Cherokee”), or his great original “Four on Six”, Wes is endlessly inventive, spinning out fleet, angular licks, spiky chordal excursions and his trademark octave lines in fluent, inspired fashion. The shape-shifting finale “Star Eyes” is a real highlight, but every track has its thrills, showing that this group’s classic album from the same year, Smokin’ at the Half Note, was only the tip of the iceberg.

Montgomery isn’t the only jazz legend whose riches producer Zev Feldman has been excavating; released on Elemental Music, Tales: Live in Copenhagen 1964 marks his 11th cache of buried treasure from Bill Evans (the main pianist on Kind of Blue). Plowing his own furrow after leaving Miles, Evans steered the piano trio format away from solos with backup toward a conversation of equals, an ideal he pursued the rest of his life. This album presents that ideal in perhaps its purest form; caught on tape by Danish radio and TV, bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker drive the music onward as much as their nominal leader, while Evans complements his partners’ vibrant ideas with shimmering backing and radiant flights of fancy. Multiple takes give up the secrets of pensive weeper “My Foolish Heart”, bittersweet waltz “How My Heart Sings” and speedy flagwaver “Sweet and Lovely”, grounded in a supple rhythmic bedrock, unlocking the melodic and harmonic possibilities only master players in tune with each other can find. Immediately, immensely appealing, but with subtle delights galore beneath the surface.

From the 1950s on, vibraphonist Cal Tjader won plaudits for his forward-looking emphasis on Latin rhythms – though recognition of his innovations faded as the sound became more mainstream. Feldman’s Jazz Detective label aims to right the balance with Catch The Groove: Live at the Penthouse 1963-67 — and succeeds brilliantly! In all six sets (originally broadcast from the Seattle club), Tjader lays down his jazz credentials through standbys like Ellington’s “Take The A Train”, Miles’ “On Green Dolphin Street” and Milt Jackson’s “Bags’ Groove”, then cooling down to a warm hush on ballads “It Never Entered My Mind” and “The Shadow of Your Smile”. But when percussionist Armando Peraza (later the beating heart of Carlos Santana’s most popular bands) brings the rhythms to a boil on “Morning of the Carnival”, “Cuban Fantasy” and Tjader originals “Davito” and “Leyte”, the results are spectacular! Throughout, the playing of Tjader and his sidemen is solid, strong and tasty — even heating up the Association’s “Along Comes Mary” for an unexpectedly spicey closer.

Before his passing earlier this year, one of piano giant Ahmad Jamal’s last public acts was to authorize Jazz Detective’s releasing three double-disc sets from the Penthouse archives; the last in the series, Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse 1966-68, is another towering monument to his unique blend of conceptual chops and melodic mass appeal. Teaming with Jamil Nasser on bass and Frank Gant on drums, Jamal swiftly grasps the essence of every tune, then unfurls spontaneous variations that polish their inherent possibilities to a persistent dazzle. Catchy rhythmic vamps, daring harmonic reinventions, ample space for Nasser and Gant to strut their stuff — it’s all here, along with heaping helpings of precision filigree and gutbucket swing. You’ll never quite hear chestnuts like “Misty” and “Autumn Leaves” the same way again — and when Jamal turns the samba “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars” into an uptempo barnburner and backspins a ballad like “Where Is Love” into hipster territory, you’re gonna want more! (Good thing there’s three volumes, eh?)

Beyond Feldman’s extensive explorations, we’ve also been gifted with the third in a series of Brubeck Editions, “new, officially authorized releases of great music featuring Dave Brubeck and his many musical collaborators”. The Dave Brubeck Quartet Live from the Northwest, 1959 gathers hotel and college dates from Multmonah, Oregon recorded by legendary engineer Wally Heider — although, with the game changing Time Out album in the can but as yet unreleased, there was nary a 5/4 tune on the horizon. Instead, Brubeck leans into standards and originals where he can sound like a one-man big band with his two-fisted block chords, launch into spontaneous counterpoint with saxophonist Paul Desmond, or ride the dynamics of “Basin Street Blues”, “These Foolish Things” and “The Lonesome Road” from a whisper to a roar — all hurtled along by the nimble propulsion of bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello. The whole set is a marvelous example of four talents locked onto each other’s wavelengths, working as one; liner notes from Brubeck’s sons Darius, Dan, Matt and Chris offer up rich insights to underline the virtuoso interplay and effortless momentum on display.

— Rick Krueger

Music

A Night at the Opry

“Country musicians first performed on radio in 1922, and, within a few years, radio stations initiated the first barn dances — ensemble variety programs with the relaxed, chatty atmosphere of a family gathering.”

— the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum’s exhibit “The Dawn of Country.”

Heading south for our most recent vacation, we finished up in Nashville — and I wasn’t going to visit Music City without taking in at least one show. After catching Ringo Starr at the historic Ryman Auditorium proved prohibitively expensive, I pivoted to the spot all the travel guides (as well as local friends) had recommended in the first place — the weekly Saturday night performance at the Grand Ole Opry.

Make no mistake: coming up on its 98th year, the Opry is a well-tuned corporate machine, effortlessly parting multitudes from their cash with a smile — but it’s also an affordably priced, entertainingly old-school variety show. Broadcast live in multiple formats, the program consciously carries on traditions developed from its radio roots through country music’s ongoing breakout to the broader public (and if you’ve ever wondered where Garrison Keillor got the idea for A Prairie Home Companion, look no further). Regularly booking a mix of promising rookies and seasoned veterans, inviting rising stars to become “family members” and providing an environment open to impromptu guest shots and team-ups, the Opry deliberately claims a gatekeeper role, anointing a core of artists that cover a fairly broad spectrum of what country music is today. With no mass-culture superstars on the bill, September 23rd’s Opry was an enjoyable example of how all this works in practice.

To kick it all off, throwback quartet Riders in the Sky stepped to the mikes, blending smooth harmonies and lively instrumental work into affectionate renditions of vintage cowboy songs and Western swing. There were plenty of corny antics, too; bassist Too Slim provoked fiddler Woody Paul into a face-slapping “Dueling Banjos” duet as guitarist Ranger Doug and accordionist Joey the Cowpolka King looked on in bemusement. (It’s no surprise that, in his true identity of satirical college journalist Fred LaBour, Too Slim convinced the counterculture that Paul McCartney was dead back in 1969.) But after we’d laughed ourselves silly, these long-time Opry members cooled us down with the gorgeous title track off their latest album Throw A Saddle On A Star, then whipped up a fiddle-focused hoedown for an exhilarating finish.

Making her second Opry appearance, vocalist Riley Clemmons was an engaging bundle of nerves, nearly beside herself with excitement that she’d been asked to return. But emotions of the moment and self-deprecating jokes about her advanced age of 23 aside, Clemmons was all business, making the most of her short set. An enthusiastic crooner in the Carrie Underwood mold, she put across her faith-based songs “Church Pew” (her new album’s title track) and “Jesus Cries” with plenty of heartfelt sentiment, ably backed by the Opry’s onstage band and backup singers.

20-year-old singer/guitarist Sam Barber was next up, the first of two debut performers taking the leap from streaming services to the Opry stage. Exhibiting raw yet remarkably well-honed talent, Barber’s unsoftened Missouri accent (complete with occasional growl from the gut) and his determined strumming on “Straight and Narrow” (the first song he wrote, at the age of 16) grabbed the audience hard and strong in his acoustic solo slot.

Recent Opry inductee Charlie McCoy, one of those multi-instrumental Nashville cats who’s played on albums by everybody (Elvis, Dylan, Willie & Waylon, etc. etc. ) in the course of 12,000 sessions, brought the first half of the show to a rousing finish. After laconically drawling a humorous ditty about the consequences of “Thinking with My Heart” (“A heart doesn’t know how to figure out/ Whether to run or to jump/It ain’t got a clue; zero IQ/After all it’s just a pump”), McCoy pulled out his trademark harmonicas for a lyrical film score excerpt, then a lightning-fast “Orange Blossom Special” that nearly left the band eating his dust — and left the audience hungry for more. Cue the intermission!

Continue reading A Night at the Opry →
Music

Jazz for Record Store Day 2023 – Zev Feldman’s Quest Continues

Record producer Zev Feldman hasn’t slowed down one bit since we checked in with him about this time last year. For this year’s Record Store Day (Saturday, April 22nd), Feldman’s fingerprints are on no fewer than six releases of consistently excellent archival jazz — on four different labels, no less! All will be available on LP in limited quantities only at participating stores, beginning on RSD. CD and digital release dates vary; purchase links are included in the titles below.

Three of these releases come from the vaults of Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society, which sponsored concerts by a multitude of great musicians for 50 years starting in 1964; two of them are the latest in a series from Cory Weeds’ Vancouver-based Reel to Real Recordings. On Bish at the Bank: Live in Baltimore, pianist Walter Bishop Jr. leads a quartet of first-class players — including saxophonist/flutist Harold Vick, bassist Lou McIntosh and drummer Dick Berk — through sets from 1966 & 1967 marked by thrillingly extroverted, thoroughly satisfying interplay. Confident and crisp, Bishop and his bunch leave a distinctive, sparkling mark on standards, blues and a hefty chunk of Miles Davis’ repertoire, based in classic bebop stylings but stretching the idiom to a John-Coltrane-tinged probing of “Willow Weep for Me” (complete with soprano sax).

If Bishop’s music sparkles, organist Shirley Scott’s Queen Talk: Live at the Left Bank positively sizzles! Playing a classic Hammond B-3 (and providing her own bass lines on foot pedals) for this 1972 date, Scott, backed by George Coleman on tenor sax and Kenny Dorham on drums, leaps out of the gate ablaze on Coltrane’s “Impressions”, lays down smoky grooves that ground the contemporary hits “Never Can Say Goodbye” and “By the Time I Get To Phoenix”, and steps out in high style for the standards “Witchcraft” and “Like Someone in Love”. And when vocalist Ernie Andrews joins the party towards the end, full-fledged testifying breaks out and the blues prevail.

The third Jazz Society show, Sonny Stitt’s Boppin’ in Baltimore: Live at the Left Bank, is being released through Feldman’s new Deep Digs Music Group, on his fledgling Jazz Detective label. A giant on both alto and tenor sax, Stitt took the legacy of Charlie Parker to new heights of innovative expression; for this 1973 set, he brings a sweet, dancing touch to ballads “Lover Man” and “Stella By Starlight”, digs into the challenging changes of “Star Eyes” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” and turbocharges multiple 12-bar hard bop workouts. The veteran rhythm section of Kenny Barron on piano, Sam Jones on bass, Louis Hayes on drums meets the challenge of keeping up with Stitt with energy to spare, prodding his creativity onward and upward while asserting a presence all their own. Exhilarating stuff!

The other Jazz Detective release, Blue Room: The 1979 VARA Studio Sessions in Holland, provides an evocative distillation of the magic trumpeter/singer Chet Baker could conjure, taken from two Dutch studio sessions. Given room to explore on Wayne Shorter’s bossa nova “Beautiful Black Eyes” and the title ballad, Baker’s tone is rich and his improv work a thing of genuine beauty; his dashing up-tempo takes on “The Best Thing for You” and “That Old Devil Moon” build delightful momentum; and his vocals on “Oh You Crazy Moon” and “Candy” are finely shaded, with pensively inventive scat episodes. A variety of players provide empathetic backing; Phil Markowitz’s interactive piano and Jean-Louis Rassinfosse’s sturdy bass stand out.

In lieu of a new release, Resonance Recordings (where Feldman made his initial impact and continues as Co-President) is offering a second LP edition of Eric Dolphy, Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions. A fellow traveler with cutting-edge players such as Coltrane and bassist Charles Mingus, Dolphy brought a refined yet pungent new voice to the alto sax, flute and bass clarinet. This comprehensive set includes the solo albums Conversations and Iron Man (recorded by Jimi Hendrix’s future producer Alan Douglas with an all-star session group), plus outtakes and “A Personal Statement”, a flamboyant neoclassical piece by future smooth-jazz stalwart Bob James (?!?). Fusing primal hollers and sophisticated dissonance into a spicy musical gumbo, Dolphy was deprived of appropriate recognition by his early death; this multifaceted compilation lays out his unique contributions to jazz for all to hear.

The final Feldman RSD release, Bill Evans’ Treasures: Solo, Trio & Orchestra Recordings from Denmark (1965-1969) on Elemental Music, was not yet available for review — but based on previous finds like 2020’s Live at Ronnie Scott’s and last year’s Morning Glory and Inner Spirit, it should be another winner. Kudos to Zev Feldman and to all involved for the cornucopia of great jazz from the past that makes every Record Store Day an eagerly anticipated event, and will enrich fans of the music for years to come.

— Rick Krueger

Music, Republic of Letters

In Concert: The Maria Schneider Orchestra Looks Up – and Soars

The Maria Schneider Orchestra presented by The Gilmore Festival, Chenery Auditorium, Kalamazoo, Michigan, March 12, 2023.

On the final date of a tour celebrating both a Pulitzer-Prize nominated album (2020’s masterful Data Lords) and 30 years together, composer Maria Schneider and her 18-piece jazz orchestra got down to business with aplomb and obvious delight. Launching “Look Up” (featuring supple, soaring trombone from Marshall Gilkes and Gary Versace’s lyrical piano), the MSO quickly gathered itself and swung hard, from a hushed opening through yearning, full-bodied ensemble passages into the charming reggae-tinged coda. It proved an inspired invitation into Data Lords’ contrasting aural portraits of disc 1’s grim “The Digital World” and disc 2’s expansive “Our Natural World”, and the Gilmore Festival audience, at this outlying event from an organization usually devoted to keyboard music of all genres, ate it up.

Pivoting to the dark side with the sardonic, Google-themed “Don’t Be Evil” (“and they can’t even live up to that low bar,” Schneider commented) bassist Jay Anderson set up the mocking tango pulse, Ben Monder spun out a fiercely rocking web of guitar, trombonist Ryan Keberle peeled off growl after growl, and Versace took the mood from pensive meditation to harried protest as the orchestra built menacing riffs behind them all. In the title role of “Sputnik,” baritone saxophonist Scott Robinson ran through an astonishing gamut of melodies, textures and sounds, feeling his way into orbit through the barbed obstacle course of his bandmates’ hypnotic, obsessively repeated laments. Throughout the afternoon, Schneider’s compositions proved gripping and brilliantly tailored to her players, while her conducting brought the music’s sure-footed rhythms and the group’s precision-tooled backgrounds into pin-sharp focus.

Flipping back to the natural world, soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson conversed with Johnathan Blake’s percussion (including wood-fired pottery?!?) and Julien Labro’s accordion on the pointillist “Stone Song”, with Schneider cueing gleefully off-kilter orchestral hits. Halfway between the two domains, tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin (best known, along with Monder, for his playing on David Bowie’s Blackstar) attempted contact in the tense, Morse code-based “CQ CQ Is Anybody There?” — only to be answered by the dissonant howls of Greg Gisbert’s distorted trumpet, wickedly role-playing as artificial intelligence. During these works, the orchestra and Schneider listened hard to each soloist, visibly reacting to particularly special moments of improvisation, and shaping their support to match the fleeting moods.

Release followed tension quickly, via the throwback chart “Gumba Blue” from the MSO’s debut album Evanescence (with features from Gisbert, tenor saxophonist Rich Perry and Versace). Then the highlight of the afternoon: Schneider’s setting of the Ted Kooser poem “The Sun Waited for Me” (originally written for soprano Dawn Upshaw and classical orchestra) translated stunningly into the big band idiom, with Gilkes and Labro “singing” the now-wordless melody while McCaslin pirouetted above, below and around lush ensemble backings that mutated from classical chorale to gospel groove. A ravishing experience!

But then, Schneider took the mike: “Can you handle this? This is about the annihilation of humanity at the hands of artificial intelligence . . . Sometimes it feels good just to face these things head on!” Cue the jittery, pulsating title track of Data Lords, with trumpeter Mike Rodriguez and alto saxophonist Dave Pietro raging against the dying of the light, and Schneider stoking the Orchestra’s encroaching singularity to a fever pitch in a shuddering apocalypse of a climax! Good thing we wanted an encore; Schneider decided to leave us with “something peaceful”: “Sanzenin”, a final vista from the natural world, with Labro fluttering over the Orchestra’s muted portrayal of a Japanese garden.

In sum, the overall impact of the MSO was overwhelming. Schneider’s thoughtfully crafted tone poems, her intense focus and leadership, her orchestra’s breathtaking ensemble playing and consistently creative, exciting solo work made for a musical experience that was visceral, invigorating, moving and beautiful in the highest sense of that word. Only the Bach Collegium Japan’s 2003 Saint Matthew Passion and King Crimson in Chicago in 2017 have been more powerful live shows for me. If you want to experience this one for yourself, I heartily encourage you to pay what you want and livestream the concert between now and April 12th!

— Rick Krueger

Music

In Concert: Artemis on the Hunt

Artemis, Royce Auditorium, St. Cecilia Music Center, Grand Rapids Michigan, February 16, 2023.

On a West Michigan night where snow and ice made travel a slippery business, Artemis cut right to the chase. Thanking those in attendance for braving the elements, pianist/founder Renee Rosnes briefly introduced her fellow players, then counted off the tricky opener “Galapagos”. Navigating the twists and turns of Rosnes’ post-bop tune, the sextet’s free-flowing intro and tight initial statement gave way to confident, creative solos by tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, flutist Alexa Tarantino, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, Rosnes and drummer Allison Miller, with bassist Noriko Ueda driving the supple, pulsing beat forward all the while. The applause after each solo and at the end of the tune was spontaneous and heartfelt; from where I sat, it felt like everyone in Royce Auditorium was in for a good night.

One secret of Artemis’ success would seem to be this: not only is every member a world-class player and leaders in their own right, but they absolutely delight in their ongoing collaboration. As they dug into the evening’s music (taken mostly from their upcoming second album for Blue Note Records), they frequently grinned with joy and cheered on each other — especially during the generously allotted solo spots. Glover lovingly developed core motifs into rich, flowing lines; her feature on Billy Strayhorn’s ballad “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing” was the very model of an intense build to an expressive climax. Spending most of the night on alto sax, Tarantino brought a puckish sensibility to her solo moments, playing high-spirited rhythmic games while stretching tonality almost to the breaking point. And Jensen brought impressive range and imagination to bear on trumpet; her multifaceted arrangement of The Beatles’ “The Fool on the Hill” displayed the same dramatic juxtapositions of register and timbre and intricate melodic knots as her arresting lead moments.

A powerful front line like this demands a rhythm section that will step up to the challenge of egging them on — and again, the players on stage didn’t disappoint. Rosnes kept the band percolating with thrilling grooves under the tightly harmonized ensemble chorales and imaginative comping for solos, then unapologetically grabbed the spotlight during her own vibrant, gleeful features; Ueda’s imaginative propulsion flowered into joyous, brilliant melodic flights on Thelonious Monk’s “Hackensack” and a composition of her own; and Miller was always forceful, always elegant, always doing the unexpected — kaleidoscopically shifting to just the right accent, rhythm and color for the moment. Throughout the night, piano, bass and drums shouldered in alongside the horns and joined the conversation as equals, forging one marvelous moment after another.

Whether navigating the enthralling compositional hurdles of Miller’s “Bow and Arrow”, paying tribute to the late Burt Bacharach by debuting a fresh arrangement of his “What The World Needs Now” or stopping clocks (and hearts?) with Rosnes’ spare ballad “Balance of Time”, Artemis was in tune with each other and on point as an ensemble from beginning to end. Above all, they had serious fun — as good a definition of jazz as any — and, if the standing ovations that capped the night were any indication, so did the audience. Check out their first album (recorded with slightly different personnel) below, catch them live if you have the chance, and be on the lookout for a new album in May from this first-rate group!

— Rick Krueger

fiction, History, Politics, Republic of Letters

Stratford Festival Review: Richard III by William Shakespeare

The thought will not down that an unfortunate choice was made when King Richard III was selected as the spearhead stage offering. It is definitely the most unwholesome of all Shakespeare’s tragedies, and its only character of any real dramatic interest is that of Richard himself — a physically repulsive hypocrite, liar & murderer without one redeeming feature.

— The Stratford Beacon-Herald, June 30, 1953

Defying the Beacon-Herald’s strictures, the Stratford Festival nonetheless opened its inaugural season with Richard III — with no less a personage than Alec Guinness (“the old Obi-Wan”, as I overheard a Festival-going mom telling her son a few years back) in the title role, and the results were raved about throughout the Anglophone world. Since then, the Festival has mounted the tragedy at least seven more times, with both widely-known actors such as Alan Bates (1967) and Brian Bedford (1977) and talented company members like Stephen Ouimette (1997) and Tom McCamus (2002’s 50th season) flocking to fill the part.

Having paid his dues at Stratford before launching into a well-rounded career that spans Canadian biopics of Pierre Trudeau & Glenn Gould and comic book movies (Thor: The Dark World and The Amazing Spider Man 2), it’s intriguing to see Colm Feore become a repeat Richard, 35 years after he first essayed the role at the 1988 Festival. His deeply physical take on the Duke of Gloucester, complete with a gait that evokes the scoliosis evident in the monarch’s recently-discovered skeleton, is visually riveting. His way with the text is equally arresting; doing without the scene-chewing excess of an Olivier, he’s nonetheless “determined to prove a villain” from the opening soliloquy, unabashedly eager to walk the Tom Patterson Theatre audience through his machinations as he claws his way toward the throne. And like Feore’s other role this season as Molière’s The Miser, his Richard becomes the focal point around which Shakespeare’s cast revolves, constantly manipulated and mesmerized by him whether they realize it or not.

Sooner or later, however, most of the other characters do discover what Richard really wants. Freed from their self-deception and ambition, it’s their reactions that give the tragedy both its recurring sparks of conflict and its building momentum. Michael Blake’s Duke of Clarence, with his dreamed intimations of his brother’s betrayal; Jessica B. Hill’s Lady Anne, whose loathing of Richard is palpable even as he perversely woos her (and wins her!); Ben Carlson’s clueless Hastings and Andre Sills’ scheming Buckingham, whose death row regrets soar to commanding heights — all these keep any empathy the audience may be developing for the would-be usurper at arm’s length.

Towering over all these are Seana McKenna (who played Richard in 2011!) as the mad, prophetic dowager Queen Margaret, calling down curses on all and sundry; Lucy Peacock, whose Queen Elizabeth soars to dizzy heights of spite and bereavement following Richard’s slaughter of her children; and Diana LeBlanc, whose Duchess of York is shocked into cursing her upstart son just as he gains the throne. This is titanic stuff — the loosely historical narrative may drive the action of the play, but the clash of deep — and deeply flawed — characters is what keeps us from joining Team Richard, despite the combined allure of Shakespeare’s words and Feore’s strange appeal. In fact, no sooner does Richard become king than we (and possibly he) realize that his downfall is inevitable — and that we need to see it, to make some sense of these tumultyous events.

Even in the intimate TPT (with one-third the capacity of the Festival Theatre), there’s spectacle aplenty to be mined by director Antoni Cimolino and the populous, well-drilled cast as Richard approaches his necessary end. Royal processions, civil unrest, a coronation, ghostly visitations and the final battle between the forces of the usurper and Jamie Mac’s enigmatic, recessive Henry Tudor stir the blood, even as they bring Richard’s lurid dreams to both their culmination and their dissolution. And while this generally traditional production is a feast for the eyes and ears that I can’t recommend highly enough, Cimolino leaves us with more food for thought as well. His prologue and epilogue are set in the present day, with the discovery of Richard’s skeleton and his reburial in Leicester Cathedral bookending the tragedy — as if to remind us that, no matter how high Shakespeare’s characters may fly, as the Bard wrote later in his career,

Golden lads and girls all must,
Like chimney sweepers come to dust.

(Cymbeline)

Richard III runs through October 30th at the Stratford Festival’s Tom Patterson Theatre. Tickets available at stratfordfestival.ca.

— Rick Krueger

History, Music

Stratford Festival Review: Freedom Cabaret 2.0

In last year’s cut-down Stratford Festival lineup, actor/musician/playwright Beau Dixon’s Freedom Cabaret (part of the Festival’s Forum of other performing arts and speakers) garnered some of the strongest reviews. Walking out of yesterday’s performance of Freedom Cabaret 2.0, I completely understood why.

Subtitled “How Black Music Shaped the Dream of America”, this year’s cabaret is loosely structured around the life of work and Martin Luther King, Jr. Dixon’s command of the black musical tradition is formidable and thrillingly eclectic; grasping the connections between decades and genres with a firm hand, his new set comfortably mingles jazz, soul, folk, gospel and even a touch of hip-hop in an arc that illuminates both King’s journey and the idealism he set loose during the era of the Civil Rights Movement.

And the ensemble that Dixon has reconstituted for this year — serving as the lynchpin on piano and vocals for a trio of singers with rhythm section — grasps those connections at the same level, vividly painting a compelling portrait of King’s context, life, death and legacy. Shakura Dickson’s floating soprano and Alana Bridgewater’s earthy alto scale the gospel heights of “Oh, Happy Day” and “Move On Up A Little Higher”, then pull back for an eerie, hovering “Strange Fruit” and Nina Simone’s wrenching “Four Women”; Aadin Church runs the emotional and vocal gamut from soaring tenor to down-home baritone on showcases like Louis Armstrong’s “(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue”. Rohan Staton on guitar, Roger Williams on bass and Joe Bowden on drums lay down one irresistible groove after another, slipping serenely from a Jeff Beck quote in “People Get Ready” to the abstracted jazz of “Freedom Day”. And Dixon ties it all together with his supple piano, his power-packed voice and his understated yet emotional narration.

Most fascinating to me were the artists Dixon chose to anchor King’s story. Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today” and “Living for the City” bookended the narrative, melding harmonic sophistication with unaffected idealism; the Staples Singers “Why? (Am I Treated So Bad)”, “Freedom Highway” and “Respect Yourself” embodied both the lament of the oppressed and the spiritual grit to stand up against that oppression. But the searing quartet of pieces by chanteuse Nina Simone provided the real key to unlock the heart of King’s message. From unflinching confrontation with racism’s deepest horrors in “Mississippi Goddamn” (operatic in structure, visceral in its impact) through the heartbroken elegy for the fallen leader “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)” pivoting to the visionary hope of “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, Simone’s music is brutally honest and unsparing — but it also incarnates how King’s dream of hatred conquered by love was set loose in the 1960s and how its ramifications have been rippling out ever since.

The dream and its spread — even after the horrors of black history in the United States, even in the face of what obstacles remain following the progress of the Civil Rights era — are why Dixon and his ensemble can finish Freedom Cabaret with a hearty invitation for the Festival audience to join the “Love Train” that King set in motion. If you can, I highly recommend you catch it.

Setlist:

  • Oh, Freedom
  • Love’s in Need of Love Today (Stevie Wonder)
  • Why? (Am I Treated So Bad) (The Staples Singers)
  • Oh, Happy Day (The Edwin Hawkins Singers)
  • Move On Up A Little Higher (Mahalia Jackson)
  • Strange Fruit (Billie Holliday)
  • Mississippi Goddam (Nina Simone)
  • Freedom Highway (The Staples Singers)
  • People Get Ready (The Impressions)
  • We Shall Not Be Moved
  • John Henry (Harry Belafonte)
  • Black Man in a White World (Michael Kiwanuka)
  • (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue? (Louis Armstrong)
  • Respect Yourself (The Staples Singers)/Respect (Aretha Franklin)
  • Freedom Day (Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln)
  • Phenomenal Woman (Maya Angelou)/Four Women (Nina Simone)
  • So Much Trouble in the World (Bob Marley and the Wailers)
  • Why? (The King of Love Is Dead) (Nina Simone)
  • Harlem (Langston Hughes)/To Be Young, Gifted and Black (Nina Simone)
  • Living for the City (conclusion) (Stevie Wonder)
  • Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now (McFadden & Whitehead)
  • Move On Up (Curtis Mayfield)
  • Love Train (The O’Jays)

Personnel:

  • Joe Bowden, drums
  • Alana Bridgewater, singer
  • Aadin Church, singer
  • Shakura Dickson, singer
  • Beau Dixon, piano, singer, musical director
  • Rohan Staton, guitars
  • Roger Williams, basses

Freedom Cabaret 2.0: How Black Music Shaped the Dream of America runs through August 28th at the Tom Patterson Theatre’s Lazaridis Hall in Stratford, Ontario. Tickets are available at stratfordfestival.ca.

— Rick Krueger

fiction, Poetry, Republic of Letters

Stratford Festival Preview: The Miser by Molière

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Harpagon, the title character of Molière’s The Miser, is a flat-out fool. Money — getting it, keeping it, hoarding it — is his obsession; in the presence of his stash, he kneels in abject devotion. But he also projects that obsession onto everyone else in his life. He berates his adult son and daughter for their “spendthrift” ways; he lends cash only at exorbitant rates (with outrageous stipulations in the small print); his fear of both having his treasure with him and letting it out of his sight easily slides into wholesale paranoia that everyone is out to part him from it.

The thing is, Harpagon isn’t completely wrong; his single-mindedness warps how everyone in his life approaches him. Both his children hesitate to reveal their new loves to him, for fear he’ll deny access to their trust funds. His household servants (including his son’s shady buddy and his daughter’s lover) suck up to him and diss their colleagues to his face, bitching behind his back and battling for dominance all the while. The local matchmaker (who Harpagon has tasked with finding him a new, young wife) and moneylender butter him up outrageously, hoping against hope to profit from their flattery. Even the ingenue both Harpagon and his son are after wants the miser’s money — to provide for her ill mother’s medical care, but still! The farcical complications of the play flow naturally and wittily from this set-up; in the company of a master fool who has what they desire, everyone’s foolishness will out.

Where the Stratford Festival’s new production of The Miser is faithful to that core revelation of Molière’s wry fable, it sparkles with a sneaky glee — even through two layers of adaptation (Ranjit Bolt’s Anglicized translation of 2001, further updated to contemporary Canada by director Antoni Cimolino). Guarding not only his briefcase full of Canadian $100s, but every absurd knick-knack in his Victorian horror of a house, Colm Feore’s Harper is the blazing star of this show; his alternating mania about Mammon and cluelessness about everything else send everyone around him into their own eccentric orbits. The household servants — ne’er do well Fletcher (a phlegmatic, sly Emilio Vieira), butler/secret lover Victor (Jamie Mac, confident and bewildered in turn), and chef/chauffeur Jack (Ron Kennell in full clowning mode) — alternately brazen their way through Harper’s whims and unleash their frustrations on each other; matchmaker Fay (Festival stalwart Lucy Peacock, in what amounts to a well-deserved star cameo) puts on a show of managerial competence for everyone else while gingerly fumbling with Harper like he’s about to explode; love interest Marianne (an empathetic, determined Beck Lloyd) stands up for herself and her mother appealingly, even as Harper and his son Charlie scrap over her like kids on a playground.

The characterizations of Charlie and Harper’s daughter Eleanor were what struck me as the weakest part of this production. While Qasim Khan and Alexandra Lainfiesta hit the right notes of frustration and futility (aided by the campy thrift-store chic of their costuming), their amped-up desperation comes across as shrill and brittle. The struggle between a serenely ignorant father and his deprived yet somehow spoiled children — the heart of the play’s satire — is where Cimilono least trusts Molière to connect. Instead, he crams gratituous Boomer vs. Millenial references into both the program notes and the script, saddling Charlie with a petty consumerist materialism and Eleanor with a string of cliche “woke yet broke” slogans. It has to be said that Khan and Lainfiesta sell this material with all their considerable ability; but for me, the insistence on painfully present-tense content is what keeps a funny production from crossing over into the hysteria that Molière generates when played with trust. There are plenty of simmering chuckles and outright hoots here, but not as many unstoppable guffaws as I had hoped for.

That said, this production of The Miser (complete with an over-the-top fairy-tale ending that does retain its hilarious impact through the layers of updating, as David Collins’ wonderfully deadpan Sir Arthur Edgerton sticks the landing) had the Festival Theatre audience in stitches, attested by the generous, heartfelt ovation for Feore and his supporting cast. If you can peer through the alternately opaque and overripe references to “the next Bezos” and “the land of Tim’s” (oh, and Harper’s distrust of safes — they attract the FBI as well as burglars!), you may well find yourself reflected in Molière’s unflattering yet strangely revealing mirror.

The Miser is currently in previews at the Stratford Festival Theatre. It officially opens on August 26th, playing through October 29th. Tickets are available at stratfordfestival.ca.

— Rick Krueger

fiction, History, Music, Republic of Letters

Live from the Stratford Festival

This is an exciting time for the Stratford Festival. In 2022, we reopen our theatres, honour the excellence of the past and embark on a new leg of our journey together. A fresh start: an opportunity to reassess ourselves in the world today, reaffirm what we value and take the best path to an extraordinary future.

This will also be a year to celebrate milestones: our 70th season, the 20th anniversary of the Studio Theatre, the 10th season of The Meighen Forum, and the grand opening of our glorious new Tom Patterson Theatre.

It’s fitting, then, that our season theme for 2022 is New Beginnings. Our playbill explores the difficult moral and ethical decisions a new journey entails: What is the best way to start again? How can we avoid the traps of the past? In an imperfect world, what is good?

From Shakespeare’s most iconic play, Hamlet, to the American family classic Little Women; from the great Nigerian Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman to such captivating new plays as 1939 and Hamlet-911, we offer you stories about navigating a new start in life.

Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director, Stratford Festival

Since 2004, my wife and I have been regular visitors to the Stratford Festival in southwestern Ontario. We’ve fallen in love with the Festival’s unbroken ethos across 70 seasons — dynamic, top-level performances by a dedicated repertory company of classics by William Shakespeare, Molière, Anton Chekhov, Berthold Brecht and others, as well as substantive, appealing musicals and fresh, often experimental works by today’s playwrights. We’ve also fallen in love with the city of Stratford; set in the heart of Ontario farm country, it combines picturesque architecture, unique shops and eateries, and a stunningly beautiful park system along the Avon River and Lake Victoria. And the thought of everyone who’s trod a stage at the Festival’s multiple theatres, played a rock show at the hockey rink or busked for change on the streets (ranging from Alec Guinness and William Shatner to Richard Manuel of The Band and native son Justin Bieber) makes the place a performing arts lover’s dream.

Which is why it hit hard when, in the wake of the worldwide pandemic, the Festival’s 2020 season was cancelled and the 2021 season only went on under severe limitations and restrictions. It’s true that the summer of 2020 brought welcome YouTube screenings of the Festival’s ongoing project to film every play by Shakespeare (along with other archival videos), culminating in the online Stratfest At Home subscription service. But, a few days back at a local B&B, with a full season of 10 productions energizing the town around us, has served to remind me that there’s nothing like the real thing. And that experience is what I plan to share here with you.

Over the next few days, we’ll be attending Molière’s The Miser (currently in previews at the Festival Theatre), Shakespeare’s Richard III (at the new Tom Patterson Theatre), and Freedom Cabaret 2.0: How Black Music Shaped the Dream of America (at the TPT’s Lazaridis Hall). Look for reviews posted here ASAP after each performance. Whether you’re able to visit the Stratford Festival this season or in the future (or take in what it offers online), my hope is to capture at least a bit of the serious fun, the sheer emotional and intellectual sweep, the thrills, spills, heartbreak and heart’s ease — in short, the immersive, cathartic experience live theatre at its best can provide, and that the two of us have come to love and crave.

— Rick Krueger

Republic of Letters

Record Store Day 2022: A Resonance Records Round-up

Sure, Record Store Day (Saturday, April 23rd this year, after a couple of pandemic-fraught years of multiple, shifting dates) has unquestionably changed during its 15 years of existence — now dominated by catalog reissues from the major labels instead of indies, often indulging the worst sorts of collector mania, making eBay a scalpers’ paradise for weeks afterward, then clogging store shelves for months to come. But away from the hype, the endless lines and entreprenurial gnashing of teeth, RSD has become a genuinely exciting day for jazz fans, thanks to labels like California’s Resonance Records.

The brainchild of experienced jazz producer/engineer/studio owner George Klabin, Resonance is uniquely structured as a philanthropic project, set up as a division of the non-profit Rising Stars Jazz Foundation. While continuing to release new music by artists such as clarinetist Eddie Daniels and vocalists Audrey Logan and Polly Gibbons, Resonance’s co-president Zev Feldman has boosted the label’s profile through more than a decade of tireless detective work, tracking down previously unreleased — or never officially issued — recordings by acknowledged jazz greats.

Two of the three RSD releases for 2022 feature one of the Resonance catalog’s core assets — an ever-growing collection of archival releases by seminal jazz pianist Bill Evans. This year’s offerings, Morning Glory and Inner Spirit, document two Evans-led trios recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina six years apart.

Morning Glory, recorded in 1973 at the Teatro Gran Rex, showcases an exuberant Evans with his longest-serving trio, bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morrell. These are three busy players who interact as equals and prod each other to escalating heights of inspiration, whether on the uptempo flag wavers “My Romance” and “Twelve Tone Tune”, the swinging “Up With the Lark” and “Waltz for Debby” or the pensive ballads “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life” and “Esta Tarde Vi Lover”. The jazz-hungry crowd regularly goes wild (at 10 am on a Sunday morning!), which spurs the trio to push even farther — at times, Evans’ introductory chords are tumbling over each other in the rush toward the next trio statement. But this uncharacteristic excitability supplements the lyrical underpinnings of his thick chording and fine-spun melody, Gomez’s steady beat and floating solo flights, and Morrell’s inventive cross-rhythms. Every moment of adrenalin in this show is backed by thoughtful nuance and rock-solid interplay, living up to its storied reputation among Evans fanatics and fully deserving of wide release.

1979’s Inner Spirit isn’t more of the same — rather, it’s packed with vital contrasts, from Evans’ ruminative, exploratory intro for “Stella By Starlight” onward. With dazzling young bassist Marc Johnson and seasoned drummer Joe LaBarbera now on board at the Teatro General San Martin, this concert isn’t hyperactive in the way Morning Glory is; rather than fleet excitement, this trio plumbs the depths of both meditative ecstasy and centered, confident drive. Plagued by personal demons and self-inflicted health problems (he would be dead in less than a year), Evans was nonetheless intensely focused on connecting with his compatriots and his audience. New tunes in the trio’s book (originals “Laurie” and Evans’ solo showcase “Letter to Evan”, “Theme from M*A*S*H*” and Paul Simon’s “I Do It For Your Love”) slot in effortlessly beside old reliables; carryovers from the 1973 concert like “My Romance” and “Up With The Lark” (here done as an avant-garde duet with Johnson) become breathtakingly daring excursions along familiar routes, recognizable from their structure but utterly different in character. The climax comes with the closer, Miles Davis’ “Nardis”: a darkly colored, virtuoso Evans intro, a muscular trio statement, a richly melodic solo by Johnson, and a crisply delineated LaBarbera feature culminate in a searing final statement. In my ears, this may be the finest Evans effort Resonance has released; with all three players and the audience fully engaged from start to finish, it’s a gripping concert where every note counts.

Then there’s Mingus: The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s, a completely different thing that delves into new and rewarding territory for Resonance. Bassist and composer Charles Mingus (whose centenary is celebrated on April 22nd) was — to put it simply — one of the true greats of jazz. Inspired by founding legends Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington as well as bebop pioneer Charlie Parker (he played with all three, plus many more titans of the form), Mingus loved to toss his multi-voiced, multi-sectioned compositions into the volatile atmosphere of his various Jazz Workshop ensembles — then feed the resulting heat with his always varying, always supple pulse to match whatever was happening in the moment. Recorded at the premiere British jazz club on August 14-15, 1972 for Columbia Records (who then unceremoniously dropped Mingus, Bill Evans and all of its other jazz artists except for Miles Davis in 1973), you hear the magic that he always aimed for and so rarely achieved to his satisfaction.

This is a transitional version of the Jazz Workshop: virtuosic young trumpeter Jon Faddis, Detroit veterans saxophonist Charles McPherson and drummer Roy Brooks (who doubles on musical saw – really), plus relative unknowns Bobby Jones on saxophone and John Foster on piano are ready and eager to tackle every twist and turn of this music. New-at-the-time compositions like “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Silk Blues” and “Mind Readers’ Convention in Milano (AKA Number 29)” don’t just reflect Mingus’ concentrated, oblique thought processes in their titles; they provide head-turning obstacle courses for this band to navigate by the skin of the teeth, whipsawing across five decades of jazz during their extended timespans. The thrill is how, time and again, the group triumphs not over, but through the challenges, summoning the ghosts of New Orleans counterpoint, the hot bands of the Swing Era, the great beboppers and moderns — and constantly at the heart of the matter, the blues — then taking liberties that even the freest players of the time might blanch at. (The extended ballad “The Man Who Never Sleeps” is a prime example.) All of jazz history up to that moment is, remarkably, present in this recording; Mingus and his men fuse the inside and outside of the tradition into exciting, unpredictable slabs of sound that never stop swinging, whatever transmutations they go through on the journey.

Everyone at Resonance, from George Klabin and Zev Feldman on down, deserve aficionados’ thanks for enlivening another Record Store Day with these first rate releases. Look for them at your participating RSD store — vinyl LPs are released on Saturday, April 23rd (the day after Charles Mingus’ 100th birthday), CDs the following Friday, April 29th. CDs and downloads can also be purchased at Resonance’s website or Bandcamp page.

(Want to hear more about these albums? Check out Spirit of Cecilia’s latest interview with Zev Feldman here!)

— Rick Krueger