Dina Kageler/Terry Duggins – Full Moon Cafe, Hilo – July 28, 2013
Kageler is an old friend from our early days in Hawai‘i. She was a member of the performance troupe, Puppets on the Path, and continues to be creative. Duggins is my first portrayal of a mountain dulcimer player. The seating was way up close, challenging the accurate portrayal with regard to perspective and completeness.
Dina Kageler
Terry Duggins
Michael Mortara – Volcano – July 25, 2013
Mortara does business under the name “2400o Art Glass”. The creation of his glass objects involves a tightly choreographed sequence wherein he is assisted by his wife and creative partner Misato Mochizuki Mortara.
Michael Mortara
Na Leo Manu – Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park – July 17, 2013
This music/hula troupe is composed of members who are all at least 70 years young, with some in their 90’s!
Cecilia Torres Kaiewe
Leilani Malani
Big Island Hawai‘ian Music Festival – Afook-Chinen Auditorium, Hilo – July 13, 2013
One highlight of our month-long vacation on Big Island (Hawai‘i) was our good fortune to be there for this music festival. And the timing was perfect for it to serve double duty as my contribution to World-Wide Sketchcrawl #40. Our big revelation was the much beloved local, fully-pidgin’-named Bruddah Waltah. Everyone in the 4-some Ben Kaili & Friends took a turn on lead vocals, and their music was smooth, relaxed, seamless, and seemingly leaderless.
Randy Parker
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Randy Lorenzo
Bruce David
Karlson Pung
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Bruddah Waltah
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Liko Punahele & Vic Chock
Ben Kaila & JJ Ahuna
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Kris Fuchigami
Suzanne Vega – Madison Square Park – June 19, 2013
Vega continues to churn out stuff, and her set mixed old favorites and newies from her upcoming album. The guitarist accompanist Gerry Leonard (he’s played with Bowie) had quite a bag of tricks, playing through two amps at once, and the backup sound was really full, daresay orchestral. He has posted details of the rig for the guitar-gearheads (http://gerryleonardspookyghost.com/2013/02/21/gerry-leonards-guitar-rig-with-suzanne-vega-full-details/).
Suzanne Vega
Gerry Leonard
Susana Baca/Calexico – New Haven Green – June 16, 2013
Although she was not the headliner, Baca (Peru’s Minister of Culture!) was the primary draw for me. Her music is not of the Peruvian Andes; it is of the African diaspora. To me her remarkable voice is a channeling of spirit, otherworldly. Hugo Bravo, depicted playing cajon, had a range of percussive instruments including the “quijada” (jawbone of a donkey). So far, I am unable to identify the violin player. Headliners Calexico were certainly no slouches, with a southwestern orientation that included at times a two-trumpet mariachi vibe. They were joined onstage for a few numbers by some members of Baca’s backup band. What a full sound! Front man Joey Burns took a liking to my work – due to his praise I have included the only-partly-formed sketch of Baca bass player Oscar Huaranga. Burns was helpful in taking my sketchbook around to get autographs from all the Calexico members, otherwise unavailable to me backstage.
Hugo Bravo
Ernesto Hermoza
Violinist
Oscar Huaranga
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Joey Burns & Ryan Alfred
John Convertino
Jairo Zavala
Jacob Valenzuela & Martin Wenk
Sergio Mendoza
Raul Midon – Rubenstein Atrium – April 18, 2013
The opener was a musician associated with “Season of Cambodia” (see April 11, 2013), Master Kong Nay, playing the “chapei dang veng”, a long-necked guitar-like contraption. This guy is old, blind, and frail; like some other oldsters I’ve seen (Candido comes to mind), once he is set up with his instrument, the primacy and boldness of his art takes him over into rapture, trumping all discomfort and disability. Kong Nay’s playing and vocal stylings, while so foreign, also seemed akin to the likes of Lightnin’ Hopkins, and he was no less down and gritty. I tried to get him to sign as he was being helped away by his handlers, and it wasn’t clear if he was familiar at all with the concept of signing autograph for fans, or if there was just poor communication. I did get a mark of some sort. The headliner (also blind!) Midon played an energetic solo set that utilized a full range of guitar sounds, including as a percussion box, and he scatted along in synch to great effect. His method of signing is to have an index card in place as a tactile guide for his pen motions.
Raul Midon
Master Kong Nay
Busking New York – Herald Square Subway Station – April 18, 2013
Cathy Grier
Arn Chorn-Pond – Rubenstein Atrium – April 11, 2013
This concert was part of “Season of Cambodia”, designed to showcase and call attention to the arts of Cambodia. The country was severely ravaged in the 1970’s, lastly by the Khmer Rouge regime, most notoriously revealed in its horrible “killing fields” (later dramatized in a movie of that name). Artists that weren’t outright slaughtered were reined in to walk a fine line so as not to run afoul of the government’s repressive iron fist. Chorn-Pond founded the Cambodian Living Arts organization to help heal the nation by revitalizing the Cambodian arts community, seeking out the surviving masters to train the next generations. He is the subject of a movie (The Flute Player – an excerpt was screened) and is also profiled in Patricia McCormick’s book “Never Fall Down”, from which she read an excerpt. I wish he had played more flute; he was more of a master of ceremonies. My research shows that the full name of “Master Mek” is Youen Mek; his instrument, a two-stringed fiddle, is the “tror so”.
Arn Chorn-Pond
Master Mek
Thuch Savang
Patricia McCormick
Paquito D’Rivera April 2, 2013 Paul Hall
This concert ended Juilliard Jazz’s season of excellent artist-in-residence events (see Wycliffe Gordon February 4, 2013 and George Coleman October 16, 2012). Like the other NEA Jazz Masters that I’ve seen, D’Rivera shows total mastery, ease, and infectious joy. In this context he is mentoring our next crop of players; he performed with two separate ensembles.
Daniel Stein
Samuel Miller
Joseph Boga
