WMV Music Web Log

Karren Alenier is hard at work on her opera about Gertrude Stein (with composer William Banfield; see www.steinopera.com), and yet still finds time to direct WordWorks (www.wordworksdc.com) and write about what is happening in the arts, most recently for scene4.com. Here is her review of Saturday night's EVOLUTIONS concert:

You won’t want to miss the hottest music scene in DC, call now for tickets to:

Evolutions: American Chamber Music meets Jazz
Presented by Washington Musica Viva and composer John Kamman

March 20 and May 8, at 7:30 PM

St. Columba's Church
4201 Albemarle St. NW
Washington, DC

Tickets: $15
202 265-7297
http://www.owlsong.com/events/evolutions.htm

The first Evolutions: American Chamber Music Meets Jazz program took place January 24 with Carl Banner & his Musica Viva guest ensemble playing four jazz-influenced classical music compositions followed by the Afro Jazz Explosion group who played seven pieces led by vocalist Armand Ntep.

Pianist Carl Banner and alto saxophonist Rhonda Buckley opened the program with "Hot Sonate" by Czech composer Ervin Schulhoff. This composer isn’t American, but the four movements that start with mostly lyric blues, move to a strident Dixieland, then a sultry nightclub sound, and finally something big, reminiscent of Gershwin’s "American In Paris" connected the listener to American jazz. Czechs love the saxophone and once, this reviewer was stood up in Prague by an American contact who was out chasing down a special saxophone he wanted to buy because Prague has an active market for this instrument. In "Hot Sonate," Buckley produced pure honey with her horn.

"San Antonio" by John Harbison, "Dance Suite" by Walter S. Hartley, and "Four on the Floor" by Libby Larsen provided the contemporary American music promised by the series title. "San Antonio" played by Banner and Buckley was a short musical tour of Latin dance music that included a tango conclusion. Banner’s rendering of the ostinato phrasing that opens this piece provided an interesting contrast to the more melodic second and third movements. Banner, Buckley, and violinist John Hughes played "Dance Suite" which was based on Polish folk tunes but has jazz inflection.

"Four on the Floor" was enough to make this reviewer who is also an ardent swing dancer swoon with the delicious boogie-woogie beat and pizzicato plucking strummed and drummed out on the wooden bodies of violin (played by John Hughes), cello (Jodi Beder), and bass (Mark Stephenson). Carl Banner who played piano in this piece got his workout on the keys. To introduce this composition, Banner said composer Libby Larsen quoted Jerry Lee Lewis, a wild man of rock ‘n roll, but Banner upped the ante by insisting Jodi Beder play her cello named Zizi. At intermission, this reviewer saw the whimsical face up close that was painted on Beder’s cello. Beder explained that Zizi, a rescued cello, works for "Four on the Floor" but not for a more demanding classical concert.

In the second half of the program, St Columba's Church became a nightclub of African influenced jazz sounds produced by John Kamman on guitar, Alan Lewine on bass, Paul Rosenberg on piano, Marty Knepp on drums, and Ernest bland on percussion. The vocalist and leader of the Afro Jazz Explosion, Armand Ntep weaves a rich embroidery of scat, English, French, and some unidentified language that one assumes is African in origin. (Ntep is from Cameroon.) The group performed at least seven distinct compositions including a rendition of "Autumn Leaves" and Dave Brubeck’s "Take Five." Because there were no program notes, the reviewer has no way of naming most of the individual pieces. Musical styles included pronounced syncopations, beboppish jazz progressions, and salsa with Brazilian touches. Standout performers include the vocalist Ntep who reminded this reviewer of Bobby McFerrin and the bass player Alan Lewine who played with a measured passion. One unfortunate lack was the piano was not miked and, given the crowd, this reviewer did not know anyone was playing piano until several compositions into their program.

Because audience feeds this kind of performance, particularly jazz performers, one should know that this audience was filled with composers, musicians, poets, visual artists, swing dancers, and at least one dance choreographer that this reviewer was aware of. The synergy between Musica Viva and Afro Jazz Explosion is more than good entertainment—it’s out there on the edge of what’s happening in contemporary music. Read the website listed above for more information on the next two concerts. Is it necessary to say, be there or be square?