Focus: Schnittke’s World (2) – Juilliard School, Peter Jay Sharp Theater – January 30, 2014
For my second foray into this year’s Focus festival, in contrast to Tuesday’s session, complete ensembles (and a soloist) were captured, lending a slightly better sense of closure, though I didn’t stick around long enough to try to get autographs. The first number was six hands on a single piano!
David Aladashvili & Peter Dugan & Dan K. Kurland
Tristan Clarke & Aaron Plourde & Samuel Jones
Fanya Lin
Focus: Schnittke’s World (1) – Juilliard School, Peter Jay Sharp Theater – January 27, 2014
This year’s Focus festival is on Alfred Schnittke and his circle. The four players portrayed are each part of a separate ensemble; time is too brief to get any entire group.
Robyn Quinnett
Remy Taghavi
Ai-Ching Huang
Khari Joyner
Songbook: Broadway’s Future – Bruno Walter Auditorium – January 27, 2014
This was a serendipitous session. I was mad early for a program at Juilliard, needing to kill a major hunk of time, so I went over to the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center to check out the exhibitions. Downstairs was an unstaged no-costume reading (a kind of intermediate phase of development) of a musical play, “Gary Goldfarb, Master Escapist”. The major players were there, as well as the lyricist, the composer (who played piano accompaniment), and a drummer to fill out the music. Although Broadway musicals are not my thing, this wasn’t so different in terms of sketching, so I just went at it, and was thoroughly entertained in the process.
James Olmstead
Omri Schein
Jared Loftin
Zachary Eldredge
Helen Avakian – Unitarian Fellowship Hall – January 18, 2014
Avakian was the featured performer at the Poughkeepsie branch of the Hudson Valley Folk Guild. She’s an awesome songwriter and performer; her encore, a version of Rhapsody in Blue, was the kind of virtuosic thing that makes me want to put down the guitar.
Helen Avakian
Pepe Romero – Winter Garden – January 10, 2014
This performance by the classical master was part of the larger New York Guitar Festival. John Schaefer, one of the festival organizers, introduced Romero, and as he usually does, provided insightful info tidbits and anecdotes. First, although it was an all-Bach program, it turns out that ol’ JS never composed a single note for guitar – all Bach guitar pieces are transcribed from works meant for other instruments. Pepe Romero was part of a family performing troupe (the Romeros) consisting of a his father and the three brothers. When Pepe was born, his father was in the delivery room playing him in with some Bach; and when his father lay dying, Pepe was in the room playing him out with Bach!
Pepe Romero
Holiday Hoot – Howland Cultural Center, Beacon – December 7, 2013
This was a community cultural affair, with a whole menu of musical and spoken performances; the Howland Cultural Center is ground zero for the Beacon arts community. Chris Ruhe was the evening’s MC. I was only able to grab snippets; nobody was on for real long. Many of the performers didn’t stick around for long after they were done, so few signings.
Chris Ruhe
Dave Bernz
Jacob Bernz
Michael Tabon
Chris Shann
Alvin Bell
Campbell Brothers – David Rubinstein Atrium – October 24, 2013
The Campbells play what they call “sacred steel”. The sacred part is that the music is strictly gospel or spiritually-oriented (they fit Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” into the category); the steel refers to the slide guitars – one just a straight steel, one with more pedals than I’ve seen before. They really tear it up, and what comes out is as bluesy, funky, folky, as any secularists out there. The concert was part of a larger extended set of presentations throughout town called the “White Light Festival”. Several of the players had their own pens – metallic-ink sharpies, which doesn’t scan all that great.
Darick Campbell
Phillip Campbell
Denise Brown
Carlton Campbell
Chuck Campbell
Daric Bennett
Sean Jones – Schomburg Center – October 21, 2013
Jones is associated with the JALC Orchestra. Here he’s stepping out a bit with his own small group. Drat these halls with more than one exit. I waited quite some time to get Orrin Evans’s signature, thinking that I had the exit covered, only to find out otherwise.
Sean Jones
John Davis
Dezron Douglas
Orrin Evans
Zorn at the Met – Metropolitan Museum of Art – September 28, 2013
In honor of John Zorn’s 60th birthday, a special concert series was held at the Met. Each hour from 10 AM until 8 PM, a different set of music was presented by a different set of musicians in a different museum location. I managed to catch only two, and a major disappointment was that I got so distracted by viewing certain museum exhibits that I got shut out from seeing the man himself. Oh well!
Bill Frisell
Carol Emanuel
Kenny Wollesen
Jane Sheldon, Sarah Brailey, Melissa Hughes
Abigail Fischer, Kirsten Sollek
Busking Central Park – Central Park – October 19, 2013
I caught this busking group during SketchCrawl 41. A more extensive account of my day is posted (buried amidst stuff) at http://nyc.urbansketchers.org/2013_10_01_archive.html
Kolja, Lumpert, Farkas
