Toe-tappin' tunes & swingin' lessons in jazz history: 2015 Isthmus Jazz Fest highlights

Esperanza Spalding with her instrument 

Madison (Wisconsin/USA) music fans were treated to several groovy events during last weekend's Isthmus Jazz Fest on the Terrace.  Here are my quick takes on the four most memorable events & gigs that I attended.

ONE

The Girls in the Band:  finally, a documentary film about some key women in jazz history

Ever heard of saxophonist Roz Cron?  Trumpeter Clora Bryant?  Jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi?  Regretfully, neither had I.  This 2011 documentary film, produced & directed by Judy Chaikin, schooled me in a long neglected subject, namely women players (as opposed to singers) who made a mark in the history of jazz.  It covers the topic comprehensively, from the big band-based Swing era to today. 

The audience at the Friday evening (June 19th) screening in the UW Memorial Union's Frederic March Play Circle was - to put it kindly - select.  Serious fans of American music must see this engaging blend of interviews & live performances. Moving from the grainy, black & white 1930s into the digital-color 21st century, these ladies could swing hard.  And many of those profiled, including Diana Krall & Esperanza Spalding, still do.

With the new Nina Simone documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? by filmmaker Liz Garbus, hitting theaters this weekend, the subject (female innovators & civil-rights heroines in jazz & soul music) remains timely.

TWO

Pop & Jazz - When Worlds Collide, a performance talk by Dave Stoler & friends

Yet another substantial treat for a non-musician music-writer like me, this lecture by professorial pianist Dave Stoler was both enlightening & fun.  Joined by sax-playing singer Al Falaschi, bassist Jon Christensen & drummer Jamie Ryan, Stoler offered six songs as exemplars of the happy collision of the usually divergent pop & jazz genres:

1. "I Got Rhythm" - this 1930 show tune by George Gershwin soon transcended Broadway with its lurching rhythms & catchy chord changes.

2. "Caldonia" - a jump blues (proto-rock 'n' roll) sensation for Louis Jordan & the Tympany Five in 1945.

3. "Nature Boy" - a breakthrough hit for Nat King Cole in 1948 (written by Eden Ahbez).

4. "Yesterday": The Beatles' 1965 smash hit that Stoler said shows Paul McCartney's jazz influence.

5. "Moondance" - Van Morrison's 1970 album chestnut, with a modal sound derived from Miles Davis's "So What?" 

6. "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" - Stevie Wonder's 1973 chart-topper features jazz-based harmonies by one of the coolest cats on record.

Stoler holds a Masters degree in jazz-piano performance & he plays with several jazz outfits, including his own trio as well as the Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Band & Madison's Donald Fagen tribute band Steely Dane.

THREE

Meet Freddy Cole, Gentleman Jazzman - Stories & Jokes in the Play Circle

Nat King Cole's younger brother isn't too hip to admit that he digs "toe-tappin' tunes."  In other words, he prefers dance music, as jazz primarily used to be.  Cole became an international star by virtue of the baritone singing & piano playing on display in his funky Freddy Cole Sings orchestral album (UK, 1976).  The 80-something gentle, elegant Grammy nominee entertained a small audience in the Play Circle with his stories & jokes for nearly an hour. 

Looking sharp in a dark blue pinstriped suit, Cole chided musicians who disrespect their audiences by not dressing well for the occasion. Cole was interviewed by the musically gifted & genuinely curious host Chris Wagoner, president of the Madison Music Collective. A jazzman who understands the value of measured pleasures, Cole released his first album in 1952 (a 78-rpm record). 

"My first big break was being born," Cole said.  "I made it because I earned the respect of my peers."  A resident of Atlanta since 1972, Cole was raised in Chicago, where his mother sang gospel & his father preached.  After the talk I thanked him & shook his hand.  It was an intimate conclusion to a heartwarming event.  I only wish I could've attended his Saturday evening concert.

FOUR

Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Band: a perfect finale on the UW's Memorial Union Terrace

Tony Castañeda is a serious conga-player & bandleader, but he loves to joke around with his audiences. He was in fine fun-loving form on Saturday evening (June 20th) at the Terrace.

"Were ya gettin' tired?" he asks a couple who'd just enjoyed a long salsa dance number.  "Sorry," Castañeda explains, "but all our songs are nine minutes long.  That's because it's jazz, man." 

The rotating lineup that evening featured guest trombone player & former TCLJB regular Darren Sterud (The Jimmys), longtime saxophonist Anders Svanoe, Roberto Rengel (also in Grupo Candela) on timbales, Henry Boehm on bass & the inimitable Dave Stoler on keyboards.

On a Saturday when storms threatened to put a damper on the outdoor gigs, the skies cleared & the sunset cast a magic glow over Picnic Point & the Lake Mendota horizon.  An appreciative crowd of several hundred listeners joined Tony in embracing that line by gonzo writer Hunter S. Thompson:  "Good people drink good beer."

Meanwhile, pianist/singer Freddy Cole was playing Shannon Hall (formerly the Memorial Union Theater) with the UW Jazz Orchestra.  Generous as ever, Castañeda plugged Cole's competing gig, noting that tickets were still available.  

Maybe next year the organizers will let Tony Castañeda's band close the Isthmus Jazz Fest.  This year that honor went instead to the impressive Stan Kenton-inspired Sixties-style Neophonic Jazz Orchestra, a tightly arranged outfit of local jazz veterans.

[© 2015 by J.C. Mrázek]

LINKS:

http://freddycolemusic.com/

http://thegirlsintheband.com/

www.madisonmusiccollective.org

www.madisonjazz.com

Tony Castaneda Latin Jazz Band (May 2014 performance - Cardinal Bar, Madison):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rIeFcBd1k4

A tale of two museums: 1915 centenaries inspire a pair of cool cultural events in southeastern Wisconsin this spring

I attended a pair of noteworthy museum events just north & south of Racine last month. Here is my report, along with some commentary. This blog-post should appeal to (1) military history buffs, (2) large-format lithograph poster aficionados, (3) old-time radio devotees, (4) classic movie buffs & (4) fans of the illustrious Orson Welles (1915-1985), a Kenosha native.

Orson Welles, 1937 (photo by Carl Van Vechten)

Part One:

Wednesday afternoon at the Charles Allis Art Museum: Marquette professor explains how French propaganda posters arose from the hope & horrors of World War I.

The Alliance Francaise de Milwaukee (AFM) sponsored another fine cultural event on May 6th. This one took place at the Charles Allis Art Museum, housed in a grand stone mansion on Milwaukee's eastside. Along with a generous buffet of bread, paté, cheese, veggies, sweets & a variety of French as well as Italian wines, AFM served its five dozen guests an informative cautionary lecture on European history & art. [Thanks to AFM executive director Anne Leplae for her exceptional hospitality & charm.]

The 15 propaganda posters on display are sepia-toned artifacts of a proud nation at war. They include two works by Théophile Steinlen (1859-1923), better known for his art nouveau cat images. For example, Steinlen's spare Journée de Regions Liberées (1919) depicts a crow resting on a crucifix overlooking a graveyard covered with spring greenery.

These 45-inch by 31.5-inch lithographs were gathered during the war by Milwaukee philanthropist Harriet Earling Fitch, whose work focused on the care & support of millions of fatherless children. They were donated by the family of Thomas Van Alyea Jr. The art is on display in the museum's Margaret Fish Rahill Great Hall.

Intended to raise both morale and money (i.e. bond-based loans) for the French war effort, these images are especially poignant in retrospect. An untitled 1917 color portrait by August Leroux (1871-1954), depicts an idealized intimate family moment: a bearded, helmeted soldier hoists & embraces a pale young girl whose almond eyes implore the viewer, while a woman nurses an infant in the monochrome background.

This year marks the centenary of several brutal battles of the so-called Great War (1914-1918). Marquette University history professor Julius R. Ruff offered a harrowing glimpse into an earlier one that afternoon at the Allis. The First Battle of the Marne lasted from September 5th until the 12th of 1914. Although it halted the alarming German advance towards Paris, an estimated 250,000 French soldiers were either killed or physically wounded in that bloody week alone. Countless others, including unlucky civilians, were psychologically damaged for life by having witnessed the loud furious gas-bomb slaughter.

Charles Peguy, French writer & combat casualty in 1915

Among the casualties was a noted poet, essayist & editor named Charles Péguy (1873-1915), who caught a bullet to the forehead. Over two million soldiers of various armies participated in the Battle of the Marne. It dampened hopes for a short & glorious war. Perhaps more ominously, the Battle of the Marne saw the first decisive use of reconnaissance aircraft in warfare. Small squadrons of those flimsy, vulnerable early bi-planes helped the Allies by discovering weak spots in the German lines.

If art can instruct as well as inspire us, we would be wise to heed the anti-war imagery of such humanistic artists as Käthe Kollwitz. Here is her simple post-war indictment in the form of of a lithograph, Mothers (1919):  http://www.kaethe-kollwitz.de/werkschau-en_14.htm.

Part Two:

Saturday afternoon at the Kenosha Public Museum: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds 1938 CBS radio broadcast discussed by Michigan author, then re-enacted by a local amateur troupe.

To commemorate the centenary of George Orson Welles' birth in Kenosha (May 6, 1915), the Citizen Welles Society of Kenosha organized several events in honor of the multi-talented artistic genius.

Mercury Theatre on the Air, a CBS version of director/actor Orson Welles & producer John Houseman's stage company, broadcast the legendary War of the Worlds radio drama on October 30, 1938. The Sunday evening (8:00 pm EST) show, an adaptation of the 1898 British sci-fi novel by H.G. Wells (1866-1946), had a vast national audience. It was such a credible fake, structured as a live-music show interrupted by increasingly scary news flashes, that it sparked a panic among listeners who missed the introductory disclaimer.

Thinking the Earth was being destroyed by creepy reptilian invaders crawling out of futuristic Martian spacecraft, people fled the cities or called flummoxed authorities for help. Michigan-based scholar A. Brad Schwartz, author of Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY: 2015), completed the picture. 

In response to my question, Schwartz said it's a myth that the radio show caused several deaths. He said that no credible evidence has yet been presented to prove a causal connection between the War of the Worlds broadcast & any listener deaths.  There followed, however, the deadly case of the February 1949 War of the Worlds broadcast in Quito, Ecuador. Enraged upon discovering that the show was merely an artistic deception, an angry mob attacked & burned the radio station, killing at least six people.

Welles painted spellbinding word-pictures. His compelling baritone voice even convinced many in his 1938 North American audience that the world was under Martian attack. On Saturday May 9th, RG Productions presented their re-enactment of that historic broadcast, starring Ed Godula as actor-director Orson Welles. It was fun to watch the sound-effects crew make auditory magic.

Enhancing the Orson Welles celebration for adults, Public Craft Brewing Co. released Public Hysteria, their refreshingly bold American Pale Ale (6.5% ABV), on May 8th. Surely Welles, a notorious imbiber & gourmand, would have approved of that tribute.

Movie Tip: Check out Me and Orson Welles (2009), directed by Richard Linklater & featuring an eerily spot-on performance by Christian McKay as the 22-year-old Welles directing & starring in his modern-dress, fascism-themed production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Kaplow, this comedic drama exquisitely captures Manhattan in autumn 1937. I found it more entertaining & artistic than Linklater's Oscar-winning film Boyhood (2014). I watched it at a special screening at the Kenosha Public Library on May 13th, followed by a live telephonic discussion with Kaplow.

Links:

http://www.charlesallis.org/exhibitions.html

http://www.afmilwaukee.org/

http://citizenwelles.org/

http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/war_worlds_quito.htm