Performance knitting with StephenBe

StevenB with Wing Young Huie over his right shoulder
Photo by John Whiting

As Steven Berg, he worked in the fashion industry, designing for Monsanto and Versace. He had learned to knit from his mother at age three and was making clothes for his friends' Barbies by age eight. Educated at Parsons and the Fashion Institute of New York, he saw the world on the corporate dime.

Today, as StevenBe, aka the Glitter Knitter, he owns a yarn shop in an old firehouse on Chicago Avenue and is an outspoken, charismatic part of the area's artistic renaissance, along with the Pillsbury House Theatre, photographer Wing Young Huie, and others who are taking a chance in a neighborhood many avoid. (Steven calls some of them "the ladies in their Mercedes.") He believes that gentrification might as well start with him; that there are no mistakes, only variations; that no continuous strand should go unknit.

The night we saw him, he was knitting multiple strands of yarn, plastic tubing, and long strips of clear plastic on custom-made needles that might have doubled as Louisville Sluggers. He was seated on a throne, which suited him perfectly. 

One of StevenBe's creations
Photo by John Whiting

At an event billed as "a live action knitting performance," hosted by Wing Young Huie at his gallery, The Third Place, StevenBe held court for the 60 or so people who came, some with their knitting, some wearing garments they had made under his loose tutelage. Steven himself wore a sweater he called (if memory serves) "Home Movies," being knit in part from 35mm film. Arranged around the perimeter were other StevenB creations: sweaters knit from fabulous yarns and materials including pull chains and hemp (that one an homage to Willie Nelson). 

He regaled us with stories of his life, introduced his staff, and made everyone in the room believe they could knit, should knit, or (if they already do knit) would go home resolved to knit differently, more creatively, perhaps with a bit more flash and pizzazz, and have more fun. 

We talked about whether knitting, specifically StevenBe's creations, were art or craft. No one really cared that much, but the general consensus seemed to be art. 

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About The Third Place, from the gallery's website: 

"The third place is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. Ray Oldenburg ("The Great Good Place," 1989) argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place. Oldenburg calls one's "first place" the home and those that one lives with. The "second place" is the workplace, where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are "anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.... Oldenburg suggests these hallmarks of a true "third place": free or inexpensive; food and drink, while not essential, are important; highly accessible: proximate for many (walking distance); involve regulars  -- those who habitually congregate there; welcoming and comfortable; both new friends and old should be found there.

The StevenBe knitting night took place on Saturday, March 23. The suggested donation was $5-$10. Boxed wine and simple snacks were plentiful. Afterwards, people hung out upstairs or went downstairs for karaoke and pingpong. 

Tattooriffic shows at Light Grey Art Lab

The crowd was inked, pierced, studded, gauged, leather-clad and friendly. The rooms were small. The art was sweet, dark, and highly detailed: skulls, bats, kittens, snakes, pin-up girls. The beer cost $5.

The event was an opening reception on Friday, March 22 for "Blowout" and "Beautiful Forever," two shows running concurrently at Light Grey Art Lab a block off Eat Street in Minneapolis, each a benefit for Uptown Tattoo artist Tom Strom.

"Fate" by Jared Tuttle

Strom was badly injured in a biking accident, needed surgery, and now faces big expenses. For "Blowout," 40 tattoo artists donated work from outside of their usual day job: drawings, oil paintings, and personal statements. For "Beautiful Forever," illustrators, designers, and artists (e.g. people who don't tattoo) created flash-art inspired temporary tattoos.

"The Kitten Startlets"
by Lillian Joan Duermeier

Pieces from "Blowout" are available as giclee prints in two sizes. We're waiting for our print of "Fate" by artist Jared Tuttle.

You could buy temporary tattoos on the spot, even have them applied if you wanted; helpful people were waiting with sponges and bowls of water. The "Kitten Startlets" by Lillian Joan Duermeier sold out by the time we reached the front of the line. Lindsay Nohl, Light Grey's co-owner with husband Chris Hajny, wore them well.

"Blowout" and "Beautiful Forever" run through April 12. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 12-7 p.m., Sundays 12-5 p.m., and by appointment.

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Gallery photos by John Whiting. Art courtesy Light Grey Lab and the artists.

Eldar breaks through with a new "Point of View"

Courtesy In Touch Entertainment

Eldar, wunderkind. His name does not, in fact, mean "aged person." In Hebrew, it means "God resides," and in the Norse languages, "warrior who fights with fire."

Eldar Djangirov started playing piano at age three in Kyrgyzstan. He loved jazz from the start (his father is a jazz fan), but the first live jazz he heard was of his own making. In 2006, when Eldar was nine, the influential and well-connected Charles McWhorter heard him play at a jazz festival in Siberia. Realizing they had a genius offspring, Eldar's parents soon moved the family to Kansas City, believing they were going where the jazz is.

Now 26, Eldar lives in New York City, with seven (soon to be nine) albums to his credit and a long list of accomplishments: a scholarship to Interlochen, an appearance with Marian McPartland on "Piano Jazz"at 12 (thanks to McWhorter, who knew McPartland), catching the ear of Dr. Billy Taylor, who booked him on CBS's "Sunday Morning," performing live on the 2000 Grammys telecast, winning top prizes at the 2001 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival and the 2002 Peter Nero Piano Competition, signing with Sony Classical at 17, playing jazz festivals all over the world, earning a Grammy nomination for his fifth release, "Re-Imagination" (2007).

While Eldar is a virtuoso with preternatural dexterity, he's not a machine. While he plays with strength and power, he's not a pounder. He can deliver a lot of notes and chords flawlessly and at superhuman velocity, but they're not just precise and plentiful, which can be boring and cold. He brings intelligence and deep emotion to his playing. Hearing him live is both dazzling and moving.

At his advanced age, Eldar is already revisiting his earlier efforts. The soon-to-be-released "Breakthrough," a trio album with Armando Gola on bass, Ludwig Afonso on drums (and special guests Chris Potter and Joe Locke), includes a new version of "Point of View," a song he recorded on his first CD for Sony, "Eldar" (2005), with the beloved saxophonist Michael Brecker. The original is an all-out race to the finish for both men (Eldar was then 18, Brecker 56). It's a great tune, a lot of fun to hear, full of fat chords, rapid-fire runs, breakneck unison passages, and playful back-and-forth. Brecker is the more imaginative improviser. Listen here. P.S. That's John Patitucci on bass, Todd Strait on drums.

"Point of View Redux" (2013) seems twice as fast. The rhythms are more complex, the improvisations more interesting. There's no horn; this is a classic piano trio, on speed. The song is also more muscular. Can you improve over an outing with Michael Brecker? Probably not, but you can take a different direction. This, too, is fun to hear, but for a whole new set of reasons. Here it is.

Another track from "Breakthrough" is available to sample in advance: Eldar's cover of Radiohead's "Morning Bell." (BTW Potter recorded this on his album "Underground," which came out in 2006.) It's surprising Brad Mehldau didn't get to this first. Passionate and shimmering, it signals Eldar's willingness to record more contemporary pop and rock tunes with a jazz sensibility, a smart move for a young musician these days.

The rest of "Breakthrough" is mostly originals by Eldar, who is also a fine composer, and songs by Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Redd Evans ("No Moon at All"), and Ervin Drake ("Good Morning Heartache").

"Breakthrough" comes out April 9. A little over a month later, on May 14, Motema will release Eldar's classical solo piano debut, "Bach/Brahms/Prokofiev." ("Three Stories" from 2011 is a combination of jazz standards and classical pieces; "B/B/P" is all classical.) Both "Breakthrough" and "B/B/P" were recorded in the same week at different studios; both were self-produced for Motema. (So Eldar isn't with Sony anymore?) One track, the Sinfonia from Bach's Partita #2 in C minor, can be heard on Motema's website; go here and click on "mp3 - Classical Solo." Will he transform any of the other pieces on "B/B/P," as he did "Air on a G String" on "Three Stories"?  Or will he play them straight? Either way, it seems that Eldar will inhabit both the jazz and classical worlds, something few musicians can do.

Related: Live concert review from 2008.

What Jessye Norman will sing at the Ordway on April 30

The Schubert Club has announced the program for its 130th Anniversary Celebratory Concert featuring the great American soprano Jessye Norman. Mark Markham will accompany her on piano. You know she'll wear something fabulous. Other than that, there will be no distractions: no set, no scenery changes, no cast. Just the diva (Norman inspired the character in the famous French film "Diva") and her pianist, alone on stage. Think about that. FYI and tickets.

PART 1: AMERICAN MASTERS

A CELEBRATION OF THE AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATER

Falling in Love with Love – Rodgers & Hart

You’ll Never Walk Alone – Rodgers & Hammerstein

But Not for Me – George & Ira Gershwin

I Got Rhythm – Gershwin

The Man I Love – Gershwin

Oh, Lady, Be Good! – Gershwin

A Sleepin’ Bee – Harold Arlen

House of Flowers – Arlen

Climb Ev’ry Mountain – Rodgers & Hammerstein

Lonely Town – Leonard Bernstein

My Man’s Gone Now – Gershwin

PART 2: A CELEBRATION OF THE AMERICAN MUSICAL MOSAIC

A TRIBUTE TO THE GREATS

My Baby Just Cares for Me (for Nina Simone) – Donaldson/Kahn

Stormy Weather (for Lena Horne) – Harold Arlen

Another Man Done Gone (for Odetta) – Traditional

Mack the Knife (for Ella Fitzgerald) – Brecht/Weill

Meditation for piano (from Second Sacred Concert) – Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore – Ellington

I’ve Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good – Ellington

It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) – Ellington

Terje Isungset's Ice Music at the Cedar: Concert review

When: Monday, Feb. 25, 2013 • Where: The Cedar Cultural Center • Who: Terje Isungset, ice instruments; Marie Kvien Brunvoll, voice, ice chimes, electronics

Terje Isungset by John Whiting

He played instruments made of ice; chimes, a xylophone, drums, and horns. She vocalized, mostly wordlessly, her voice rising high and sweet, looped and layered and reverbed. Both wore hooded parkas indoors; he wore gloves or mittens. Many of the more than 200 people who came to hear them kept their coats on.

Norwegian musician Terje Isungset and singer Mari Kvien Brunvoll may never play a music festival in Havana or Trinidad, but Minnesota was a good place for them to come; it’s winter here, and Bill Covitz, the ice engineer who carves and crafts Isungset’s instruments (a new set before each concert), was able to find the ice he needed in one of our local lakes. Lake ice sounds better than machine ice, and some lake ice sounds better than other lake ice. “There is only some lakes that have sound,” Isungset told NPR earlier this week, “and even if you find the lake there might be just a few pieces that will have a good sound.” All of the instruments are temporary. They melt, crack, and change shape during the performance. Pieces break off and fall to the ground. Even when played outdoors in the cold, the ice horns are changed by the warmth of Isungset’s breath. Trained as a jazz musician, Isungset can improvise, which is probably Thing One when ice is your medium.

Mari Kvien Brunvoll by John Whiting

Is it music? Yes. Maybe not for everyone; a few people at the Cedar left after half an hour. (Perhaps because the concert started late; setting up instruments hell-bent on returning to a liquid state is a challenge.) It's ethereal and otherworldly music, arctic and hypnotic. Most is percussive, ice hit by ice sticks or mallets. Careful miking catches and amplifies what begin as delicate sounds. Icebergs boom while calving, but small blocks being struck don’t have a lot of volume. It must be fun to be Asle Karstad, Isungset’s sound man.

The horns are especially haunting. Isungset played three at the Cedar: large and slightly curved, smaller and more tightly curved, and straight, with a wide flared bell at the end. They sounded like alpenhorns, like whales singing, like ships at sea, like the wind. The “iceophone” (ice xylophone) sounded like a kalimba/mbira (African thumb piano) on steroids. The ice chimes clinked and clanked. The small drum made a small, hollow sound, and the large one on the floor made a big sound, like a bass drum in a drum kit, like a giant’s heartbeat. Sometimes a struck piece of ice rang with a crystalline hum that hung in the air and slowly faded. Isungset is especially fond of ice that has this kind of voice, like a living thing. He also crunched ice underfoot and scraped it, rhythmically and repetitively.  

Isungset and Brunvoll performed for more than an hour, maybe longer, until they had to quit. The large blocks were dripping onto the stage and the horns had become unplayable. Afterward, Isungset handed instruments and bits of instruments to audience members. “Thanks to nature for giving us these instruments,” he said earlier. And, “It’s quite amazing that water could sound like this. You can drink this instrument.” Music sends its own powerful messages, but Isungset’s music goes deeper, telling us how precious water is, how useful and essential, how long it has been on our planet. Coincidentally (or not), the Minneapolis StarTribune published an article that day on how Minnesota is draining its water supplies.

Isungset has been making his Ice Music for 13 years, but this is the first time he has brought it to the US. He played two sold-out concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on Friday, Feb. 23, then came here. Those appear to be his only US dates. Thanks to the Cedar for giving us the chance to hear this unique and remarkable artist.

Related:

•  “Turning a Glacier Into a Tuba: Ice Music from Norway” (audio; heard on All Things Considered)

•  “Iceconcert live on TV – 2012. Terje Isungset & Mari Kvien Brunvoll” (video; similar to what we saw at the Cedar) 

•  “‘Ice Music,’ made from frozen instruments” (video from the Minneapolis StarTribune)
•  "From an ice block, musician carves his marimba" (article with video from the St. Paul Pioneer Press)

•  “For Norway’s Terje Isungset, music is carved from ice” (photos from Minnesota Public Radio of the instruments being made for the Cedar concert)

•  "Watching Terje Isungset examine ice is mystifying. Like a Nordic Stradivarius, he lifts individual pieces to his ear, taps them lightly, and listens for something none of the rest of us can hear." (an essay by Cedar intern Zach McCormick, with a video by Michael Rossetto)

All photos by John Whiting.

Buckley's hat

Here's bassist James Buckley, looking cozy yet cool in his Hats for Cats hat.

Hats for Cats. Keeping jazz heads warm since 2007.

Buckley stopped by last week to borrow ice fishing supplies from HH. Something about an Icehouse photo shoot? To be honest, I didn't know HH had any ice fishing supplies.

Wadada Leo Smith seeks funding to complete & premiere new work

Wadada Leo Smith at the Weyerhauser Memorial Chapel,
Macalester College, June 10, 2012

Today we received the following press release:

WADADA LEO SMITH SEEKS FUNDING TO COMPLETE AND PREMIERE NEW WORK TO MARK 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON

Trumpeter /composer/musical innovator Wadada Leo Smith is seeking $17,000 to complete and premiere a new work for his highly acclaimed civil rights opus Ten Freedom Summers. The new work, entitled The March on Washington D.C.- August 28, 1963, will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. This will be the 22nd composition of Ten Freedom Summers, which the trumpeter has written over the past 34 years and calls "one of my life's defining works."   To donate to the project, log on to http://www.usaprojects.org/project/ten_freedom_summers by Monday, March 11, 2013.

The new work-composed for quintet, along with string quartet and harp-will be performed by the Golden Quartet, the Pacific Coral Reef Ensemble, the Flux String Quartet and video artist Jesse Gilbert. Through the USA Projects funding, Smith plans to premiere this new work at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY in May 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of this historic event. The funding will help Smith to improve the theatrics of the performance, which would include additional high-definition screens for video projections, and to show the Civil Rights Movement in a new light. 

A kaleidoscopic, spiritually charged collection of compositions inspired by the struggle for African-American freedom, Ten Freedom Summers was released on CD on the Cuneiform label in May 2012. It has been heralded as "his masterpiece," (Barry Witherden, BBC Music Magazine), "the veteran trumpeter's defining statement," (Mike Hobart, Financial Times), "the most challenging (and emotionally rewarding) release of 2012," (Bret Saunders, Denver Post), "stirringly beautiful Š an astounding aesthetic achievement." (Michael Casper, Oxford American), "an emotional and intellectual luxury, a chance to commune with greatness," (Josh Langhoff, Pop Matters), and "the work of a lifetime by one of jazz's true visionaries. Š Triumphant and mournful, visceral and philosophical, searching, scathing and relentlessly humane, Smith's music embraces the turbulent era's milestones while celebrating the civil rights movement's heroes and martyrs." (Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery).

Composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, whose roots are in the Delta blues, is one of the most boldly original figures in American jazz and creative contemporary music, and one of the great trumpet players of our time. Born and raised in Leland, Mississippi, Smith start playing trumpet in R&B bands, encouraged by his stepfather, blues guitarist Alex Wallace. By the mid 1960s, he had gravitated to Chicago's burgeoning avant-garde jazz community where he was part of the first generation of musicians to come out of Chicago's AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Music). Smith formed the Creative Construction Company together with saxophonist Anthony Braxton and violinist Leroy Jenkins and collaborated with a dazzling cast of fellow visionaries including Muhal Richard Abrams, Richard Davis and Steve McCall. Early in his career, Smith invented an original music notational system called Anhkrasmation, which was radical for its time and remains the physical and philosophical foundation of his oeuvre. 

Since the early 1970s, Smith has performed and recorded mainly with his own groups. He currently leads four principal ensembles: Mbira, a trio with pipa player Min Xiao-Fen and drummer Pheeroan akLaff; the Golden Quartet, his highly celebrated group that now includes Anthony Davis, John Lindberg and Pheeroan akLaff; Organic, a larger ensemble that utilizes instrumentation consisting primarily of electric string instruments; and the Silver Orchestra, which explores Smith's music for large ensemble. He has released nearly 50 albums under either his own or his bands' names on ECM, Moers, Black Saint, Tzadik, Pi Recordings, TUM, Leo, Intakt and Cuneiform, among others. In addition to the 4-CD Ten Freedom Summers, he also recently released Ancestors, a duo CD with Louis Moholo-Moholo on the TUM label.

Smith has been awarded grants and fellowships from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Chamber Music America with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the FONT (Festival of New Trumpet Music) Award of Recognition, Southwest Chamber Music funded by the James Irvine Foundation and the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, the MAP Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others.  An esteemed educator and music theorist, Smith has been on faculty since 1993 at Cal Arts, where he is director of the African American Improvisational Music Program and has profoundly influenced several generations of artists.

www.wadadaleosmith.com

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The Bryan Ferry Orchestra: “The Jazz Age” CD Review

Imagine you’re digging through a dusty bin of LPs. You find one with an interesting cover, take it home, put it on your turntable (because you still have a turntable), and suddenly you’re in a 1920s speakeasy. You’re in a club in Kansas City or New Orleans. No, wait: you’re at a party on Jay Gatsby’s lawn in West Egg.

Except the songs aren’t by Louis Armstrong or Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington or Count Basie. They’re by Bryan Ferry. And you realize you’re drinking Jay Gatsby’s gin while listening to “Avalon” and “Slave to Love.”

Ferry’s latest album, “The Jazz Age,” out Feb. 12, is surprising for him and for jazz. Ferry doesn’t sing. He doesn’t play standards, which most jazz artists do (and Ferry did in 1999’s “As Time Goes By”). He doesn’t play contemporary pop songs in the style of modern jazz, which more jazz artists are doing these days, broadening the canon for those who don’t know or care about “Body and Soul” or “Caravan.” He doesn’t bring older songs forward and reinvent them with improvisation or dissonance, hip-hop or electronics. He takes songs from his own catalog, strips out the lyrics, clothes the melodies in rhythms and arrangements inspired by the 1920s, and gathers an orchestra of mostly British musicians steeped in swing to play them.