If any of you readers out there had the chance to see the dancers of Cedar Lake perform this past Saturday in the FAC’s Concert Hall, let us know what you thought of the performance. Was it the music that wowed you the most? Did you like the style of choreography? What didn’t you like? Would you ever want to see it again?
Feedback is a main way of gauging the success of our events so all of your comments are greatly appreciated.
Chucho Valdés and the Afro-Cuban Messengers performed at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on Tuesday, October 19th.
Hailed as “one of the world’s greatest virtuosic pianists” by The New York Times, perennial Grammy Award winner Chucho Valdés has recorded over eighty CDs and performed with countless jazz masters. In his first US tour in eight years, he appeared at the FAC with the fabled Afro-Cuban Messengers.
Chucho’s music is deeply influenced by the African spritual rites that thrive to this day in Cuba. Chucho is himself a devotee of the Santeria pantheon: Chango, Babalu-Aye, and others. Many—if not most—of the vocals you’ll hear during a Chucho performance are in the Congolese Lucumí language, straight from Dahomey, Côte d’Ivoire, and elsewhere in west Africa. And in the midsts of these paens to African Orisha spirits you’re likely to hear snatches of Brahms and other classical composers. Chucho represents the main streams of influence in Cuban music: the African and the European, and his be-bop background is well attested in recordings with Dizzy Gillespie and others. He’s truly an eclectic musical treasure.
If you attended the show and want to hear more of Chucho’s fire-eating, classically-tinged technique, check out this amazing video. (Buried in this incandescently played Cuban son [a rural song form] is C.P.E. Bach’s Solfeggietto!) And this video of Chucho’s duet with his father Bebo playing a traditional Carnival tune titled “La Comparsa” is priceless.
Says All About Jazz, “he can [play] with the soft grace of Bill Evans and dazzle with the thunderous dexterity of Art Tatum.”
Three outstanding artists from India’s most prestigious dance academy The Kerala Kalamandalam present a lecture demonstration bringing to life the mythic characters from the story of Ramayana. Be enthralled as the dancer C. Shanmukham portrays the role of Hanuman (divine Monkey), Ravana (demon king) and other beings with vividly painted face and in an incredible costume by traditional artist Mr. Sukumaran. The accompanying narrative by KalaMandalam scholar Vishwanath Kaladharan will relate the incidents in the story.
Kathakali is a spectacular combination of drama, dance, music and ritual that is rarely seen in the West. This will be a first time presentation of this art form in the Five College area.
Legendary South African Trumpeter Hugh Masekela is an innovator in the world music and jazz scene and is an active performer, composer, producer and a defining force in the struggle for human rights in both Africa and around the world. If you are a child of the 60s, surely you remember his hit “Grazing in the Grass.”
“Hugh Masekela is a musician with a real soul. He has a genuine warm, charismatic, and simple way of building special relationships, both with his fellow musicians and with an audience” (London Jazz).
Barakat! (Enough! ), Djamila Sahraoui, Algeria/France, 2005, 95 minutes, in French and Arabic) In this beautifully observed drama set during the Algerian Civil War, a doctor sets out, with assistance of an older woman (and no help from the authorities), to find her missing journalist husband.
Check out one person’s opinion here
I work in a neobrutalist building. I hate it. I look out my window at what would easily be the most-hated building in all of Massachusetts if it weren’t for the fact that the UMass Amherst campus is too far from Boston to be known statewide. This would be the Fine Arts Center (see above), a gigantic nightmare of concrete slaps that look to have been salvaged from the Berlin Wall. It compensates for ugliness by also being leaky, drafty, damp, and soulless. Seeing a performance at the Fine Arts Center has all the intimacy of making love in Aisle Three of your local Wal-Mart, except that Wal-Mart has better lighting.
Preserve this junk? I think not.
What do you think?
Free public screening of “Umlando – Through My Father’s Eyes” featuring legendary South African musician Hugh Masekela and his American-born son Salema, an ESPN reporter for FIFA World Cup. Together they explore the people, culture and inspiring landscape of South Africa and the nation’s history. This 10 part series was featured during 2010 FIFA World Cup.
45 minutes
Co-sponsored by UMass Fine Arts Center, The Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series and the Department of Sports Management.
Then come experience Hugh Masekela in concert on Wednesday, October 13 at 7:30pm in Bowker Auditorium. $30, $20; Five College/GCC/STCC students and youth $10. 1-800-999-UMAS or www.fineartscenter.com
The 38-member troupe of dancers, musicians, and singers performs “Bahian” folkloric dances of african origin that features slave dances, capoeira (a form of martial arts), samba, and carnival dances.
“You could call it the Brazilian ‘Blast’ or the Bahian ‘Riverdance.’ With them one speaks in superlatives: the operative tempos are frenetic, the movement furious, the colors hallucinogenic…” (The Boston Globe).
Hailing from West Africa, this rising star guitarist delivers African and Brazilian flavors on top of downright wicked jazz.
“His ear-friendly melodicism draws both from traditional African sources and a lifetime of closely studying the likes of Jim Hall and George Benson, and his rhythmic shifts come quickly and packed with surprises” JazzTimes.
Through a series of compelling drawings and paintings, this show honors the promising artist who received his MFA degree from the UMASS Art Department and died suddenly in 1982 at the age of 29 while studying to receive his doctorate at the University of Illinois.
John Anthony Kendrick was born on November 6, 1952 in Roanoke, Virginia. During his early elementary school days his art talent became known, especially during the art talent shows that displayed many of his works from the fence of the school yard. After intermediate school, he decided he would attend the High School of Art and Design. There he studied painting, exhibiting tremendous creativity.
John Anthony Kendrick completed carvings, sketches, oil on canvas and portraits, and used his talent to mentor those who were incarcerated, as well as the students he mentored as a doctoral candidate. While growing up in Harlem, his vision would walk with him to sketch the surrounding life on the streets. He also used comic books, magazines and photography to help pull his vision into the art world.
With an enormous talent, he was always such a serious young man, taking in all he could during his short life to learn about art and its history. Dedicated to his work, he never stopped to take a break. He set goals and was determined to succeed. While working to achieve his goals, he bartered many of his works in return for services (such as dentistry). He also sold one of his earlier works to Earl Monroe former NBA player.
His sister Gay Chestnut, who is the curator of this exhibit attests: “After his death, many of his works of art were left behind, diminished into the unknown from his last known residence. Many others were displayed and protected by the love of our mother prior to her death. John Anthony Kendrick is ‘an artist at rest.’ As the works of art he left behind continues to be displayed, the silence of his talent now opens up to the world.”
