April 2: Today’s events
Here’s what’s going on today (Monday, April 2): Pianist Kevin Cole, tap dancer Ryan VanDen Boom and vocalist Sylvia McNair bring “Here to Stay – The Gershwin Experience” to the Morris Center at 5 and 7:30 p.m. This all-Gershwin cabaret show is, in fact, part of the Savannah Music Festival – as is the sold-out…
SMF: Bach & Beethoven @ Trinity UMC
One of the great things about the Savannah Music Festival is not only the music, but the venues. Chamber music aficionados are accustomed to enjoying the Festival’s chamber offerings in the beautiful and artistic setting of the Telfair Academy. An even more sublime delight is in hearing music in the often-acoustically excellent conditions of local…
Rhapsody in Gershwin
Savannah Music Festival organizers like to plug a cabaret show into the last week of the event, something that settles in for a little residency at the Charles H. Morris Center. The times are staggered daily so that everyone who might want to will find a way to attend. Between Monday and Wednesday, April 2-4,…
April 1: Today’s events
Here’s what’s going on today (Sunday, April 1): No fooling … the 3 p.m. matinee of November will be the David Mamet comedy’s very last performance at Muse Arts Warehouse. The Savannah Music Festival moves into its final week with a 3 p.m. recital (in the Telfair Academy) featuring violinists Daniel Hope and Lorrenza Borrani,…
SMF: The Hallelujah Train at First African Baptist Church
Pastor Brady Blades Sr. dabbed a handkerchief to his sweaty forehead and gazed across the pews inside First African Baptist Church. “I can’t believe this many people showed up to hear the gospel music,” he said, and added a little joke: “There’s something wrong with you people.” Saturday night, the historic sanctuary held a capacity…
March 31: Today’s events
Here’s what’s going on today (Saturday, March 31): One of the most unique presentations of the 2012 Savannah Music Festival is tonight at 8, at historic First African Baptist Church: The Hallelujah Train, a gospel performance from Pastor Brady Blade of Zion Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., with his church choir AND a band that…
2012 Savannah Music Festival
All photos courtesy of Savannah Music Festival
March 30: Today’s events
Here’s what’s going on today (Friday, March 30): B.J. Barham, the energetic frontman for American Aquarium, returns to the Jinx for one of his famous solo shows. As for the Savannah Music Festival, the Swing Central Jazz Finale’s at 7 p.m. at the Lucas Theatre, and the Morris Center becomes a Louisiana dancefloor as Nathan…
Mirror Mirror, Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie
MIRROR MIRROR *1/2 It’s long been established that the emperor has no clothes, which explains why Tarsem Singh Dhandwar can usually be spotted sporting nothing but a strategically placed fig leaf. Dhandwar, who in the past has billed himself as Tarsem Singh or, when he’s apparently channeling Prince or Madonna, simply Tarsem, clearly has an…
SMF: Pink Martini @ Lucas Theatre
Even though Pink Martini’s Lucas Theatre show opened with something from left field – Ravel’s erotic classic “Bolero” – it wasn’t until the fourth song in that the “Little Orchestra of Good Cheer” from Oregon struck a pitch-perfect balance between the beautiful and the bizarre. Pianist, arranger and bandleader Thomas Lauderdale introduced “Song of the…
March 29: Today’s events
Here’s what’s going on today (Thursday, March 29): Another big Savannah Music Festival day: Pink Martini oozes and schmoozes at the Lucas (8 p.m.), the Israeli rock band Acollective makes its local debut at 8:30 at the Trustees (with Athens’ Futurebirds), and jazz trumpet great Jon Faddis has shows at the Morris Center, at 6:15…
SMF: Wycliffe Gordon & Friends @ Morris Center
It’s not always easy living in Georgia, what with the crazy politics, corruption, heat, and mosquitoes and all. But we’ve always got Wycliffe Gordon! The Waynesboro, GA, native, world-class trombonist/horn player of all trades, and Savannah Music Festival favorite for ten years running led a ridiculously talented ensemble in a raucous and spirited tribute to…
Can static electricity kill you?
In winter I’ve gotten big shocks from static electricity when getting out of my car, and once saw a video where a crewman touching a race car during a pit stop was thrown back several feet from static charge. This gotten me wondering: Have there been instances of injury or death from static discharge? –…
March 28: Today’s events
Here’s what’s going on today (Wednesday, March 28): There are three Savannah Music Festival performances of the Louis Armstrong tribute “Hello Pops” at the Morris Center: Charismatic trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and friends celebrate Satchmo at 12:30, 5:30 and 10:30 p.m. And at the Telfair Academy, violinist Daniel Hope leads a recital of Russian masterworks for…
There is no ‘them’
A few years ago on a chilly morning, I looked out my bedroom window and saw a young man I didn’t know standing amongst the azalea bushes in my front yard. He was dark–skinned and wearing a hooded sweatshirt, craning his head back and forth as if searching for something. He started to walk around…
Spotlight: Daniel Hope & L’Arte Del Mondo
Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the Savannah Music Festival is aware of the phenomenal contribution each year of Associate Artistic Director Daniel Hope. The virtuoso British violinist generally also performs in the festival as well as curating the classical component. Hope is exceptionally busy onstage this year, playing nearly a dozen separate concerts…
Dubious victory
Last week, as these things tend to happen occasionally, two bits of news came out with disturbing synchronicity. First, a study by the Center for Public Integrity showed Georgia as being the most vulnerable state to corruption in America, based primarily on its failing scores on transparency, gerrymandering, legislative accountability, campaign finance and lobbying disclosure.…
Eclectic electric: Acollective
With root systems that feed from a half-dozen genres, from punk to jazz, from folk to electronica, Acollective stands tall as a singular tree in a forest of international indie bands trying to reach the sun. The eclectic Acollective, sharing a Savannah Music Festival bill with Athens’ Futurebirds March 29, is based in Tel Aviv,…
Kids got that swing
How do you make a trumpet sing? A clarinet cry? A snare drum sizzle? Practice, baby, practice. A little one–on–one wisdom from a professional helps, too. For the past seven years, the Savannah Music Festival has hosted Swing Central Jazz, a three–day workshop and competition for high school jazz bands around the country. Seasoned musicians…
Ryan’s Kidney, B.J. Barham, Leslie Jordan
RYAN NEEDS A KIDNEY At 8 p.m. Thursday, March 29 The Sparetime, 36 MLK. $8 The fellow in question is 34-year-old Ryan Nelson and yes, he needs a (working) kidney. This benefit, in the former Café 606 location (upstairs at MLK and Congress), technically starts at 6 p.m. with an art auction featuring original works…
For the girls
Try telling a human teenaged female how to live her life, you’re likely to get an eye roll. Or worse, “the hand.” But when the same sound advice comes from a face she’s seen on TV, that young woman might just listen. Dawn Baker has relayed Savannah’s news of the day for 20 years, working…
Spotlight: Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas
Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas Zydeco Dance Party At the Charles H. Morris Center/6, 8 & 10 p.m. March 30 Consisting almost entirely of brothers, cousins and sundry relatives from Creole-speaking St. Martinville, in South Louisiana, this is a high-energy zydeco band playing that proud-stepping Delta dance music for your party pleasure. In the…
Spotlight: Mike Marshall/Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile
MIKE MARSHALL & EDGAR MEYER At 6:30 p.m. April 1/Charles H. Morris Center CHRIS THILE At 8 p.m. April 3/Charles H. Morris Center Here we have, in two separate and distinct Morris Center shows, three truly remarkable acoustic musicians who’ll be acutely familiar to regular Savannah Music Festival attendees. Bass innovator Edgar Meyer’s most recent…
Spotlight: Cole in the Afternoon
COLE IN THE AFTERNOON Freddy Cole Quartet/Marcus Roberts Trio At 3 p.m. March 31/Lucas Theatre The title song to an album Freddy Cole cut in 1990 goes like this: “Now his name was Nat/And my name is Fred/Now, we look alike/So it’s been said/But I’ll stress a point to make you see/That I am not…
Mark your calendar: Summer at the Civic Center
Some new stuff has been added to the Savannah Civic Center schedule for the late spring and early summer months. Tickets for all these shows are on sale now through etix.com. The June 17 “Father’s Day Gospel Explosion” in the Martin Luther King Arena will star Pastor Shirley Caesar, and feature Lee Williams & the…
All aboard the Hallelujah Train
If unique collaborations between musicians of different genres are the heart and soul of the Savannah Music Festival, it’s shows like the Hallelujah Train that form its sturdy musculature. Jazz, R&B and rock drummer Brian Blade, and members of his Fellowship Band, are at the heart of the Hallelujah Train, making a one-off stop at…
‘A harmony partner’
Jerry Douglas, who’s in town for a concert this week, has performed as part of the Savannah Music Festival five or six times. It’s one of the Grammy-winning Dobro player’s favorite recurring gigs. This time around, however, Douglas is visiting as a member of Alison Krauss and Union Station, one of the best-loved, and top-selling,…
March 27: Today’s events
Here’s what’s going on today (Tuesday, March 27): The Savannah Music Festival continues with performances by classical pianist Sebastian Knauer (11 a.m., Trinity United Methodist Church), jazz pianist Kenny Barron (12:30 p.m., Morris Center), the “Hello Pops” tribute to Louis Armstrong, featuring Wycliffe Gordon (5:30 and 7:30 at the Morris Center), and a recital by…
