Baritone John Murelle will sing songs of Duke Ellington at the West Falmouth Library on Sunday, November 13, at 3 PM. He will be accompanied by pianist William Merrill, and Mick Carlon, author of the upcoming book “Riding on Duke’s Train,” will give a pre-concert talk on Ellington.

I stopped by the library yesterday during dress rehearsal and took some videos. It promises to be a great concert. Here is the opening number, “I’m Beginning to See the Light.”

John told me a little about pianist, composer, and big band leader Duke Ellington (1899-1974), who was a major figure in the development of jazz:

 He was middle class—his father worked in the White House as a servant. He was completely uneducated as a musician; he did not go to music school. He started a band called the Washingtonians, and then moved to New York. His first big break was playing for the Cotton Club in Harlem. That’s where he really learned his craft.

What really put him on the map was that his programs were broadcast on the radio, so people heard the Duke Ellington Show at the Cotton Club on the air.

He wrote over 2,000 compositions, mostly for his orchestra, and when he decided the melody had real popularity, he set lyrics to it. He wrote lyrics himself or with Billy Strayhorn or with his publisher.

This program is a recital format showing the audience the greatness of Duke Ellington, who many believe as one of American’s greatest composers.

Here is a pairing of “Take Love Easy,” written for his Broadway show, and “Mood Indigo.”

Duke Ellington at the piano.

Tickets are $15 and may be purchased at the library in advance or at the door. The library is at 575 West Falmouth Highway (Route 28A).

Now in its second year on Cape Cod, the program seems to be working. On Wednesday, 144 students from 10 of the 16 schools involved in the program gathered at Barnstable High School’s Performing Arts Center to test their knowledge of 16 pieces of music that they have been studying since last October.

Guest conductor Joan Landry led 40 members of the CCSO and four vocal soloists in the performance of short excerpts from the pieces the students have been learning about. The students, in teams of 6 to 12 students, had 30 seconds to identify each piece–and the composer of each piece.

George Scharr, education director for the CCSO, emceed the event, and, after the students gave their answers, three judges let them know whether they were correct. As the judges repeatedly pointed out, the kids were amazing. These were third and fourth graders from elementary school and fifth and sixth graders from middle school identifying complex classical and jazz pieces: Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in d minor, “The Dance of the Clowns” from Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “12 American Preludes: No. 9, Tribute to Aaron Copland” by Ginestera, and many more.

Here are a couple of examples: 

This, the last one, was particularly challenging:

The orchestra treated the kids to a full performance of the first movement from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5–you know, it is the one that goes dah-dah-dah-daaaah. And ends with the two chords that most of the kids knew so well.

The students have clearly learned their music and had fun at the competition. More importantly, they seem to take great pleasure in the music itself and appreciate the skill of the musicians.  The program opens their ears to new music and new ways of listening to music; it should go a long way toward instilling in them a lifelong appreciation of music.

All the students received red or blue ribbons for their accomplishments.

Arts Alive, a three-day extravaganza of  local arts and entertainment activities begins Friday night with a Town Dance.

For more information on Arts Alive, and a schedule, click HERE.

For more information on the Farmers Market, pick up today’s paper. There is even a recipe for an omelet with spring herbs.

For more on the ArtMarket, see below:

Falmouth Cultural Council’s first ArtMarket is Thursday from 3 to 8 PM at Town Hall Square, on Main Street in Falmouth.

ArtMarket, which runs all summer on Thursday afternoons and evenings, features 30 local artists who create and sell paintings, greeting cards, ceramics, jewelry, fabrics, collage, glass and sculpture. Highlighted this week are galleries and showspaces and summer arts classes.

There is also information about what is going on around town: events, art shows, classes, performances, and festivals.

Musical entertainment this week, June 18, features, from 3 to 5:30 PM, the Duckham Duo, a clarinet and guitar duo playing swing era standards and jazz. From 5:30 to 8 PM, Manny and Linda Dias sing and play folk acoustic music on guitar and fiddle.

Sounds like fun to me!

The weather was, miraculously, wonderful. I did bring my warm winter coat, just in case, but the large tent (with sides) remained comfortable. There were people of all ages and a lot of warm camaraderie.

The music was invigorating, innovative, and impressive. Some of it was too loud for me–that’s when I wandered out to check out the vendors, but most of it was well-balanced, which must be difficult to achieve in a tent by the harbor. All in all, it was a great day. Here are a few highlights:

The high school jazz band started things off, at least for me. I arrived too late to see the jazz ensemble from Falmouth Academy.

The Kate McGarry Trio. Kate sang nice mix of jazzy folk and pop.

The Black Eagle Jazz Band whooped it up with New Orleans jazz and other improvisations.

It was hard to get a shot of Esperanza Spalding in focus–she kept moving: singing, playing, dancing.

The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All Stars

Esperanza Spalding, warming up after the show. She told me she was very impressed with Falmouth’s first Jazz Fest, coincidentally, her first jazz festival too.

She had begun her studies at Berklee at 17, with a full scholarship, and began teaching there when she was only 20. She also taught herself the violin when she was 4 or 5, apparently thinking it was a small cello–she had been inspired by Yo-Yo Ma’s appearance on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

Since her November performance here, her career has really started to take off. When she was on the David Letterman show, Dave said she was “the coolest person” they ever had on the show.

She is very cool, and I am looking forward to seeing her perform. For now, though, here is a link to a Youtube video about her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZI7iPynrEM&feature=related

and her performance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show (I couldn’t find the Letterman appearance): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC21nP8yFX0&feature=related

Once, though, as I was wandering through an art fair with a cello/case on my back, I just said, “thanks.” The cello-lover said, “I didn’t necessarily mean you, personally.” (He hadn’t yet heard me play, but it was a little disconcerting, nevertheless.)

If you also love the sound of the cello, you may want to attend one or more of these events:

Improvisational cellist Eugene Friesen will play with his jazz trio, Tre Corda, at Highfield Hall in Falmouth, on September 14 at 4 PM.

Bo Ericsson and Elizabeth Schultze, husband-and-wife cellists, will play at the Cape Cod Conservatory in West Barnstable on September 19 at 5:30 PM.

Savely Schuster will play with pianist Sharon Mann on September 26 at Falmouth Academy.

And Denise Djokic will play with the Cape Symphony Orchestra in Hyannis on September 27 at 8 PM and September 28 at 3 PM.

Posted in: Entertainment

By MARILYN J. ROWLAND
Apr 25, 2008 – 5:07:35 PM
Digg this story!
Email this article
Printer friendly page

Contemporary improvisational cellist Eugene Friesen made his annual trip to Falmouth recently to perform at the Fishmonger’s Café Coffee House, entertain young school children, and teach some elements of jazz to a group of 25 student cellists of all ages and abilities.

Mr. Friesen, who lives in Vermont and teaches at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, is a master of the cello. He has recorded numerous solo and ensemble CDs. He has won Grammy Awards as a member of the Paul Winter Consort, and has performed all over the world. He blends traditional classical music with Brazilian folk melodies, wild improvisational jazz, and his own original compositions, demonstrating that there is no limit to the music that can be created with a cello.

One of Mr. Friesen’s missions is to make great music of all kinds accessible to audiences of all ages, especially children, and he has created an entirely different persona for this purpose, that of CelloMan. It was as CelloMan that he performed for children in kindergarten to third grade at the East Falmouth Elementary School last Wednesday morning.

Mr. Friesen opens each CelloMan show by playing the prelude to the first Bach cello suite, and concludes each performance by donning a mask of Pablo Casals and playing Bach’s “Air on a G String.” In between these tributes to the classical masters, he offers a wide variety of innovative, contemporary, and improvisational music to give students an introduction to the types of music that can be played on the cello.

In one amusing bit, Mr. Friesen wore a squirrel mask, becoming the squirrel that he claims broke into his house and discovered his cello. Using rapid, darting squirrel-like movements, he plucked the cello, tentatively at first, and then with abandon, as he (the squirrel) fell in love with the sound of the instrument.

One of the most memorable moments was “Humpback Harmony,” a duet between Mr. Friesen playing an electrified cello and a recording of the song of a humpback whale. The other-worldly sounds of the whales were echoed by the haunting sounds of the cello harmonics and Mr. Friesen’s unique reverberating plucking technique. The whole effect was mesmerizing, holding both children and adults spellbound.

That afternoon, Mr. Friesen joined 25 cello students of Nikki Garcia-Renart at the Woods Hole Community Center for a workshop on playing one rhythm against another. The students ranged in age from 5 to 60, including some who had been playing for only a few months and others who were quite accomplished musicians. Mr. Friesen easily adopted his teaching to make the workshop inspiring for all.

“He expands the horizon for all of us,” said Ms. Garcia-Renart. Mr. Friesen has been teaching these annual workshops for Ms. Garcia-Renart’s students for 10 years or so, and focuses on a different aspect of playing each time. In the past, they have improvised using the pentatonic scale, played 12-bar blues, studied different types of rhythm, and worked on improvisational ensemble playing.

At 8 PM, Mr. Friesen joined guitarist Freddie Bryant and pianist Tim Ray at Fishmonger’s Café in Woods Hole to become “Cello Nova,” a dynamic trio of outstanding musicians who effortlessly (it seemed) and passionately blended classical music, improvisational jazz, and Latin American rhythms and melodies.

Mr. Friesen opened the concert with a long, slow note, leading into a jazzed-up Brazilian version of Bach’s “Air on the G String,” joking afterward that it came from Bach’s “Brazilian period.” This was followed by three lively folk-style Brazilian pieces, a song he learned in Siberia, music from Colombia and Venezuela, and music by Brazilian composers Antonio Carlos Jobim and Ernesto Nazareth.

Playing the cello with a quiet elegance, Mr. Friesen often closed his eyes, as if transported by the music, but also provides whirlwind displays of cello virtuosity. Using an incredible array of original techniques, such as an earthy multiple-finger, double-handed pizzicato string plucking, a range of percussive techniques, visually and aurally expressive bowings, and dramatic slides up and down the fingerboard, Mr. Friesen produced both gorgeous slow warm tones on his cello, sometimes doubling them with his voice, and blurringly fast explosions of sounds, showing there are no limits to the types of music that can be created with a cello, at least with his practiced hands.

Mr. Bryant and Mr. Ray played brilliantly as well, each taking solos on their instruments, as well as playing duets with Mr. Friesen. Mr. Bryant recited Maya Angelou’s poem “Alone” (“Nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone”) while playing a guitar accompaniment he had composed for it. Mr. Ray played a catchy version of Duke Ellington’s “In a Mellow Tone,” on the piano.

Two of my favorite pieces were “Remembering You,” a beautiful, slow melodic tune written by Mr. Friesen, and one of the final pieces on the program, a piece called “Maracaibo,” after the city in Venezuela, because “we borrowed some of their rhythms.” This piece was electrifying , involving an incredible array of sounds and techniques, and extraordinary music.

Fishmonger’s Café was a perfect location for the concert, warm and intimate, like the music. Food and drink are available during the concert, and several tables are set up on either side of the chairs that make up the main part of the seating. Most seats have a good view of the musicians, and also of Vineyard Sound, out the windows.

The next concert in Tom Renshaw’s series of coffee houses at Fishmonger’s is on April 29 at 8 PM (doors open at 7) when the jazz group Downstreet Review will perform a blend of swing, blues, folk music and jazz. Members include Tom Renshaw, Joe Sutton, John Cullity, Bruce Millard and Geordie Gude. Tickets are $15 and are available at Under the Sun in Woods Hole and Eight Cousins Books in Falmouth.

I was happy to be one of those cello students (I started cello lessons well into adulthood), and Eugene is one of my favorite cellists. The annual workshops with him are always fun and challenging. He introduces us to a different aspect of nontraditional cello playing each time. This year it was a lesson in rhythms. We learned a short series of notes by ear (always a challenge for me), and then played it as a round, and then with a rhythmic accompaniment that Eugene taught by building on a combination of notes.

Later, Eugene performed Brazilian jazz at the Fishmongers Coffee House with guitarist Freddie Bryant and pianist Tim Ray (as a group, they are known as Cello Nova). All of them are outstanding musicians, but, of course, I am partial to the cello and in awe of the way Eugene manages to get such an incredible assortment of sounds, moods, and emotions out of the instrument, showing there are no limits to what types of music can be played on the cello. Very inspiring!

Theater:

“Inventing van Gogh” at the Cotuit Center for the Arts

“Enchanted April” at Cape Cod Community College

“Little Women, the Musical” at Harwich Junior Theater

“Wizard of Oz” at Barnstable High School Performing Arts Center, Hyannis

Music:

Mastersingers by the Sea, with members of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s “The Creation,” at St. Barnabus Church, in Falmouth, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon

Falmouth High School Evening of Jazz, Lawrence Junior High School, Saturday evening

Cape Cod Symphony’s Young Artists’ Competition, Barnstable High School, Knight Auditorium, Hyannis, Sunday afternoon

Festivities:

“Open Spaces II” art exhibit, Highfield Hall, Falmouth, through May 1. Opening reception Sunday, April 6, 2:30 to 4 PM.

Clownfish Rapper Sword Dancing fundraiser, Liam Maguire’s, Falmouth, Sunday afternoon, April 6, 3 to 5 PM at Liam Maguire’s, 273 Main Street, Falmouth.

By MARILYN J. ROWLAND
Originally published in the Enterprise on March 28, 2008

Sandwich can be pretty quiet in the wintertime. Four years ago, Mark Wiklund and his friends decided to remedy that situation by providing a place for people to go—in Sandwich, in the off-season—to hear good music and enjoy an evening out with friends. They decided to start an informal coffeehouse, and the result is the very successful Grange Hall Coffeehouse, which brings diverse styles of traditional and contemporary music to the appreciative residents of Sandwich and surrounding towns. Concerts are held once a month from September to May (except for December, January, and February, when the weather is just too unpredictable).

A recent concert featured the Back Bay Guitar Trio, a very impressive group of guitarists who delighted the audience with their unique blend of classical, contemporary, and Brazilian jazz music, played on classical guitars. The program began with Annika Lückenbergfeld, a young professional classical mandolin player from Germany, currently studying improvisation at Berklee College of Music, and also included a talented Sandwich High School sophomore Anna Gannett, who played classical guitar.

Ms. Lückenbergfeld played mandolin flawlessly, gracefully, and delicately, offering a range of musical styles from an 18th century French composition to a 21st century Japanese piece, a Brazilian piece, and a work by a German composer written just for her. The pieces were intricate, featuring quickly changing moods and dynamics and showing off the full range of the instrument, as well as occasional use of rhythmic, percussive slapping of the instrument. For those used to the mandolin as a bluegrass instrument, this was a wonderful introduction to the classical and modern potential of the instrument.

At this, her first concert in which she spoke English to the audience, Ms. Lückenbergfeld exhibited a wonderful stage presence, keeping her composure when a string broke while she was tuning on stage. “And now I play for the first time on a seven-string mandolin,” she smiled.

The Back Bay Guitar Trio was formed about seven years ago by David Newsam, John Mason, and Steve Marchena, three very versatile guitar players who play together with remarkable technical precision and an expressive sense of unity. Though they all began their musical lives on the electric guitar, they all gravitated toward the classical guitar, attracted by the sound of the instrument and by the music of Brazil and other lands and eras.

The trio began with three folk songs from Brazil, by turn happy, meditative, and jazzy, featuring rhythmic handslapping of the strings. This was followed by a Mozart medley, an arrangement of two pieces written by Leopold and Wolfgang for piano. The music was exquisitely played, and the good feeling was augmented by the smiles from the performers, especially Mr. Mason, a very talented musician and former student of Mr. Newsam’s at Berklee, who maintained a vibrant smile throughout much of the evening, communicating with the other musicians through his eyes, his face, and his very expressive body.

The guitar players had trouble with tuning too, on this rainy night in March, triggering a comment from one of the players: “Guitarists spend half their lives tuning and the other half playing out of tune.”

The quality of the music more than made up for these minor distractions. The concert continued with a medley of works by Argentine composer Astor Piazolla and Spanish composer Fernando Sor, and selections from Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’ studies for Segovia, the last of which was dark, moody, and contemporary. There was more Brazilian music: a gentle, soothing melody from Antonio Carlos Jobim, and a more energetic and rhythmic based on folk melodies.

Each of the three members of the trio played a solo, and there were also several duets, in various combinations. A highlight of the evening came when Ms. Lückenbergfeld joined the trio on stage. The interplay of the guitars and the mandolin was very satisfying, and I enjoyed the rhythmic handslapping of the guitar in response to mandolin phrases.

Jazz was well represented by the trio’s transcriptions of a Gershwin piano prelude and a Dave Brubeck composition. Mr. Marchena added harmonica to a couple of numbers, and all three participated in an intricate piece featuring a great variety of guitar-slapping percussion: on the strings, on the front, back, and sides of instrument, providing a whole new range of percussive effects.

The performance ended with an amusing encore: the theme from the Mario Brothers video game. It is hard to believe, but the Back Bay Guitar Trio made even this otherwise annoying theme sound like beautiful music.

Careful selection of talented performers has done much to make the Grange Coffeehouse a success, but there is more to this place than great music. The concert was made all the more enjoyable by the setting, the comfortable, friendly, and intimate Grange Coffeehouse, 91 Old County Road, East Sandwich East Sandwich. Built in 1889, the hall has been a social center for the community for years and currently hosts a wide variety of social and cultural events.

As the Grange Coffeehouse, the building is set up with rows of card tables and chairs (dating back to the 1950s), creating an authentic coffeehouse setting. The tables are covered with folksy tablecloths, in different patterns and colors. Coffee, tea, and other beverages are sold, along with tempting desserts. The stage is small, but warmly lit, and nicely decorated with artwork and plants. It is a friendly place to be, and you can tell that a lot of the audience members know each other and enjoy the congenial atmosphere.

The next concert at the Grange Coffeehouse is April 12, at 8 PM (doors open at 7:30), featuring Aztec Two-Step. The duo consists of Rex Folwer and Neal Shulman, who have been playing and singing jazzy acoustic folk music together since 1971. Known for their “intellectual lyricism” and “ethereal harmonies,” they are sure to attract an enthusiastic crowd to the Grange Coffeehouse. Tickets at $22/person. For more information, contact the coffeehouse at 508-418-0888 or visit http://www.grangehallcoffeehouse.org.