Where does Fela! go from here?

Posted on April 29, 2009 | Leave a comment
Sahr Ngaujah onstage as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

Sahr Ngaujah onstage as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

The off-Broadway smash muscical focusing on the life and music of Afrobeat originator Fela is inching toward a future run. Auditions were held on Monday for the three principal roles in Fela! — Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the title character, Funmilayo, his mother, and Sandra Isidore, the love interest who changes Fela’s life.

The show, conceived, directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, will audition dancers, singers and percussionists next week.

There are still more questions than answers about the future of Fela. The contract period for this Fela! developmental project runs from June 15 to July 3, with the expectation of a move to a Broadway house or similar venue in the fall.

But for now, the show’s production team is playing things close to the vest. Asked by Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? about the future of the show, a spokesman says:

“At this date, there is nothing to report about the future Fela! If/when anything becomes official, I’ll let you know.”

One key question is there’s a chance that the fantastic Sahr Ngaujah (say it Sah EN-gow-jah) will reprise his spectacular performance in the title role. Sahr talks about playing the larger-than-life Fela in this interview:

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Coming soon: Exclusive interviews and original content

Posted on April 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

Stay tuned to Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? for original content and exclusive interviews!

Coming this week: WYMMWIG chats with folk-rocker Jon Pousette-Dart, who comes to The Turning Point in Piermont, N.Y, this Friday.

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Sold: Henry Varnum Poor pottery

Posted on April 26, 2009 | 1 comment

Three beautiful pieces of craft pottery by Henry Varnum Poor were sold by Rago Arts of Lambertville, N.J., in an auction of Modern Art this weekend. Each piece sold, but at the lower end of the expected price range. Perhaps the late artist’s son, Peter Poor, underestimated the impact of the weak economy on art buying.

Based on an interview with Peter in The New York Times last week, it appeared that this was just the first phase of selling off his father’s works. I for one am hoping that results of this weekend’s sale will slow Peter’s efforts, and but enough time for to convince him that preserving the majority of the collection intact for display at Crow House, the Poor family home and studio in New City, N.Y., is the right thing to do. It’s important to preserve Henry Varnum Poor’s legacy for future generations — and where better to house it than in the place where it was made!

Here are photos of the items, with Rago Arts predicted prices and the prices at which the items sold.

075Early compote with incised pear designs glazed in yellow and green on cream ground, 1948. (Provenance: From the Poor Estate, New York.) Signed HP 48. 5 1/2″ x 9 1/2″
Estimate: $3,000 – 4000
Sale Price: $3,360

076Early cylindrical faience jar with incised bull, cow and other animals covered in cream and brown glaze with yellow and green highlights, 1951. (Provenance: From the Poor Estate, New York.) Signed HP 51. 6 1/2″ x 5 3/4″ dia.
Estimate: $2,500 – 4500
Sale Price: $3,000

077Faience plate with incised leaf design and bowl with bird, both on mottled cream, blue and deep red ground, 1970. (Provenance: From the Poor Estate, New York.) Both signed HP 70. 10 1/4″ dia. and 1 3/4″ x 8″ dia.

Estimate: $2,000 – 3000
Sale Price: $2,160

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What if Julie Doiron had become an athlete?

Posted on April 26, 2009 | Leave a comment
Julie Doiron, with Fred Squire on drums, at Union Hall in Brooklyn on Apri 25, 2009. Photo by SPM, all rights reserved.

Julie Doiron, with Fred Squire on drums, at Union Hall in Brooklyn on Apri 25, 2009. (Photo by SPM, all rights reserved.)

Julie Doiron has a secret athletic past.

The singer-songwriter (and Eric’s Trip member) from New Brunswick, Canada, says she was quite active in sports while growing up. Her mom worked in the local squash club, so Julie became quite good at that game, as you might expect after playing so many sets for free.

All that squash must account for her ability to really bash the drum kit. She proved that by taking a short stint on the skins during her set last night at Union Hall in Brooklyn, while drummer Fred Squire stepped to the mic to take the lead on songs he wrote. (Fred and Julie recently worked with Mount Eerie‘s latest album, Lost Wisdom.)

But she gave squash up for another sport — swimming, Julie says.

And not just ordinary swimming.

“Um, it was synchronized swimming,” she admits, a bit sheepishly. “I even taught it for awhile.

Julie Doiron takes a turn behind the drum kit. (Photo by SPM, all rights reserved.)

Julie Doiron takes a turn behind the drum kit. (Photo by SPM, all rights reserved.)

“It’s a really hard sport. You have to do a lot of weird stuff underwater while holding your breath for a really long time. While smiling!”

Thanks, Julie! I’m glad you didn’t choose sycnro swimming as a career path.

Julie’s set, meanwhile, was great. She rocked out with a super mix of new songs from her rather gentle new album, I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day, including Tailor (which she says she wrote almost exclusively with barre chords to celebrate her victory over barre-chord fear) and the Liz Phair-ish Consolaton Prize. But she threw in older songs, too, like Seven, for the many hard-core fans in the audience.

Enjoy these shots from the show. Video may come later today.

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The Box Tops take it to the streets

Posted on April 25, 2009 | Leave a comment
hobokenfest1

Washington Street is packed for the Arts and Music Festival.

Alex Chilton and The Box Tops are bringing The Letter and all the rest of their enduring rock hits to Hoboken next Sunday (May 3) for  the Spring Arts and Music Festival along the Mile Square City’s main drag, Washington Street.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

While The Box Tops will headline, members of The Feelies will represent the Hoboken scene by contributing their signature sound in three supporting bands: Wild Carnation (Feelies bassist Brenda Sauter‘s longtime band), Yung Wu (Feelies percussionist Dave Weckerman‘s recently reunited side project, which also features Feelies founder Glenn Mercer) and East of Venus (a Hoboken super group featuring Feelies members Mercer and Stanley Demeski,  Bongos bassist Rob Norris, and Michael Carlucci of Winter Hours).

East of Venus features Glenn Mercer, Stanley Demeski, Michael Carlucci and Rob Norris.

East of Venus features Glenn Mercer, Stanley Demeski, Michael Carlucci and Rob Norris.

The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and offers three stages with more than  300 acts for all ages. It also features the usual street fair attractions (or annoyances, if you’re just there for the music). But it’s a cool town and should be a great day. Here’s a slightly goofy video clip from last year’s festival:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Keep in mind that Hoboken is not hard to get to, but parking is brutal under normal circumstances. On festival days, especially if the weather is good, parking is nearly impossible. So take public transportation (PATH or NJTranst) if at all possible. You won’t have trouble getting around on foot. And you’ll thank me for persuading you to leave your car at home.

Here’s the tentative schedule. Enjoy!

Live Performances on 3 stages!

(schedules are tentative and subject to change)

Observer Highway Stage
(located on Washington St. bet. Newark & Observer Hwy)
12:00pm – Mad Happy
1:00pm – Yung Wu
1:30pm – Wild Carnation
2:00pm – East of Venus
3:00pm – Val Emmich
4:30pm – The Boxtops – with Alex Chilton

Sixth Street Stage
12:30pm – Bandwidth
1;15pm – The Verdict
2:15pm – 2nd Fiddles
3:15pm – Clueless
4:15pm – Joe Taino –
5:15pm – TBA

Kidz Stage
(Third Street)
11:15am – Hanna Valente
12:00pm – Polka Dot Pals
1:00pm – A Year with Frog & Toad* – production by The Theatre Company @ DeBaun an affiliate of DeBaun Auditorium –
2:00pm – Bonnie Bess the Pirate – http://www.after3theatre.org
3:00pm – Polka Dot Pals
4:00pm – A Year with Frog & Toad*
5:00pm – Polka Dot Pals

*A Year with Frog & Toad: Interactive excerpts from The Theater Company’s production of “A Year with Frog & Toad”. Arnold Lobel’s well-loved characters hop from the page to the stage in Robert and Willie Reale’s musical, which follows two great friends, the cheerful and popular Frog and the rather grumpy Toad through four fun-filled seasons. Performed by an adult cast of 5 playing over 15 different characters. www.debaun.org

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In C turns 45 — and the party’s tonight!

Posted on April 24, 2009 | Leave a comment
Terry Riley

Terry Riley

In C changed musical history. Composer Terry Riley so influenced The Who’s Pete Townsend so deeply that he titled his highly experimental rock classic Baba O’Riley came from a mashup of the names of Riley and Indian mystic Meher Baba.

Riley’s heavily-improvised work had a profound impact not just on Townsend, but on a generation of musicians including John Adams, Morton Subotnick, Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

At 8 tonight, Riley celebrates the work’s 45th anniversary at Carnegie Hall in a performance the brings together the original performers and a host of guests — including Kronos Quartet, rocker Dan Zanes, and One Ring Zero co-conspirator Michael Hearst. Some tickets are still available. Click here for more information.

Riley, who is 73 years old, remains quite active performing and composing. But tonight’s show will be a rare opportunity to hear In C performed by the musicians who were there at the beginning along with many whose lives were changed by the piece.

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How much of Crow House’s art will fly away?

Posted on April 24, 2009 | 1 comment
A view from inside the Crow House studio of some of the work that could soon be sold.

A view from inside the Crow House studio showing only a few of the artworks housed in Henry Varnum Poor's self-designed homestead.

The news in Thursday morning’s edition of The New York Times about what’s happening at Crow House, the rambling New City home of the late visual artist Henry Varnum Poor is truly distressing. The idea that artwork created by Poor, who is known as the father of the modern craft pottery movement, that has been in the curious and intriguing homestead for decades is being sold off by Poor’s surviving son, Peter.

While some of the items in the house were clearly the property of family members and subject to removal, many of us who worked to save the home from the wrecker’s ball and get it into the hands of the historically sensitive administration of the Town of Ramapo believed that there was an understanding that an option existed to keep the bulk of the art with the house.

That’s clearly no longer the case, if it ever was, as evidenced by Peter Poor’s decision to sell four ceramic pieces made by his father — three of them from Crow House — at Rago Arts and Auction Center in Lambertville, N.J., on Saturday.

Certainly, Peter Poor has the right to his personal property. He can sell it, tuck it away, or smash and burn it in an affront to his father’s  memory if he likes. But he should consider the public value of his father’s legacy. To dispose of the art piecemeal would surely destroy the sense of continuity and scale that exists with the art on site where it was created. It appears that’s not something Peter Poor cares much about, given his quote about people who want to see the collection preserved: “They’re living in the past.”

It’s easy to assume that Peter Poor will simply sell a few pieces for profit, and that will be the end of it. But what he tells The Times about Saturday’s auction suggests that there is more — much more — to come.

“I wanted to put some things up with Rago to see what interest there was,” he tells The Times, adding, “This is sort of an experiment.”

That is an experiment that can only bring grief.

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Dead Poets Society: Jeff Buckley meets William Shakespeare

Posted on April 22, 2009 | Leave a comment
Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley, the tragic rocker who lost his life in the Memphis River almost a dozen years ago (May 29, 1997) is finally getting a turn onstage in a theatrical mashup of his music and William Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliet.

The result is The Last Goodbye, an adaptation by NYC-based director Michael Kimmel. It will get three nights of concert readings at Joe’s Pub in New York City: May 11, 25 and June 1.

The cast comprises 14 young actors, two of whom I know — the fabulous Jo Lampert, who is artistic relations associate at Joe’s Pub, and the fantastic Ariela Morgenstern, a San Francisco native who made her off-Broadway debut last year in the acclaimed production of Adding Machine.

Buckley’s timeless, haunting music should work spectacularly well with Shakespeare’s classic story.

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Radio Reich is now online

Posted on April 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

Check out these new Steve Reich radio interviews, conducted after his Pulitzer Prize win. This was posted today on Steve’s MySpace blog:

Reich on WNYC and NPR

Hi everybody,

Following the announcement of Steve’s 2009 Pulitzer Prize win Monday, Steve did three live radio interviews including a full-length recording of Double Sextet that you may want to check out. He shares his thoughts on Bartok, how Double Sextet almost didn’t happen, and what he thinks of all the bands and composers out there who have been influenced by “the Steve Reich sound.”

All best,
Dan

NPR “All Things Considered”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103295578

WNYC “Soundcheck”
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2009/04/21/segments/129470

NPR “Performance Today”
http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/

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Meet Dawn Upshaw and support young singers

Posted on April 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

Dawn Upshaw

Dawn Upshaw

Dawn Upshaw is living proof that great sopranos don’t have to be divas. She is the most un-divalike soprano I’ve ever encountered. She seems calm and sweet and there are no press clips or other evidence of bad behavior on her part. And she has one of the sweetest, most supple voices in the business today. (It also doesn’t hurt that she’s adventurous and willing to tackle difficult music, like Gyorgy Kurtag‘s Kafka Fragments and new works, such as Osvaldo Golijov‘s Ainadamar.)

Upshaw’s also been very generous in sharing her vast experience with young singers. She signed on as artistic director of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at The Bard Conservatory of Music back in 2004, and has been active at the conservators since the graduate program got off the ground in 2006. Next Wednesday, April 29, she’s giving even more of herself by headlining a concert that will raise funds for her program’s scholarship fund. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on the Bard College Campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.

For $75, you can hear Upshaw and other sing and meet the artists afterward.  If you just want to hear the music, you can skip the reception and get tickets for as little as $15. For tickets, call (845) 758-7900 or click here.

The Richard B. Fisher Center at Bard College.

The Richard B. Fisher Center at Bard College.

Bard’s bucolic campus is a pleasant day trip from New York City up the Hudson Valley. It’s worth the trip just to check out the Fisher Center. It’s a spectacular gem of a Frank Gehry-designed hall — virtually a miniature version of Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. And the Sosnoff Theater, the main auditorium where the program is being presented, has no bad seats and grand acoustics.

Here’s what’s on the program, according to a Bard press release:

The program features solo songs performed by Upshaw and an ensemble repertoire including works by Purcell (arranged by Britten), Schumann, Mendelssohn, Foster, and Copland performed by singers of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program, and accompanied by pianists of the Post-Graduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship and faculty of The Bard Conservatory of Music. …

The evening’s program includes songs from Orpheus Britannicus by Henry Purcell and arranged by Benjamin Britten; songs from Spanisches Liederspiel, Op. 74, and Liebhabers Ständchen, Op. 34, no. 2 by Robert Schumann; Herbstlied, Op. 63, no. 4 and Maiglöckchen und die Blümelein, Op. 63, no. 6 by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy; “Gentle Annie” and “Katy Bell” by Stephen Foster; and “The Promise of Living,” from The Tender Land by Aaron Copland, among others.

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