Jay Harvey Upstage

  Mark Ortwein with his principal instrument I'm glad to finally post a review of "Stretching Boundaries," bassoonist  Mark Ortwein 's* aptly titled compact disc of works across a vast range of his bassoon-centered artistry. The timing is coincidental but revealing: He plays the national anthem on his electrified bassoon on a special day on a special occasion — Memorial Day and Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals .  The assistant principal bassoonist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has been blurring whatever boundaries are usually associated with his bread-and-butter job since coming to town in 2002. He has made a name for himself on the local jazz scene (mainly as a saxophonist) and with modifications on the double-reed orchestral instrument that initially gave him a berth in Indianapolis music. On "Stretching Boundaries," his plugged-in electrified bassoon is heard principally on the raucous "Breaking and Entering," a work driven b...

  Lynne Arriale heading a trio with Jeremy Allen and Sean Dobbins  Lynne Arriale's overriding message to audiences as she tours behind her new CD, "Being Human" ( Challenge Records) can be summed up by the two pieces with which she ended her sole set Friday at the Jazz Kitchen.  The veteran pianist joined forces with two former Indiana University colleagues — bassist Jeremy Allen and drummer Sean Dobbins — to cap her return gig with the Beatles' "Let It Be" and her own "Joy."  The recommendation on behalf of peaceful acceptance in the first of those songs is gently contradicted by the exuberance of the Arriale piece from "Being Human." It's as if to say, "Yes, we know that calming ourselves down in the face of what has to be is good, but the opportunity to lift up out of even a peaceful passivity has to be seized." Not only capturing both melodies in her readily communicative style, Arriale also drew from Allen and Dobbins ...

 It's difficult to keep from basing a post heralding Lynne Arriale 's return to Indianapolis on the artistic Lynne Arriale fixes a steady gaze on being human. credo she detailed for me in an interview 21 years ago. Let's start with one revealing quotation from my Indianapolis Star preview of her Jazz Kitchen engagement in April 2003. "Commmunication for Arriale means unabashedly reaching out to music lovers who aren't signed-sealed-and-delivered jazz fans," I wrote, summarizing what she told me while touring behind the CD "Arise," which had been recently released by her new label at the time, Motema. "Being Human," her latest CD ( Challenge Records ), doubles down on that belief with a program of original compositions, each with a one-word title identifying a human quality the pianist prizes.  On the Dutch-label release, Arriale is accompanied by Alon Near, bass, and Lukasz Zyta, drums. The rapport is evident, and very much piano-centered...

A sentence in Rainer Maria Rilke's "Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge" resonates for me on many levels, and Sunday it seemed especially applicable to Joshua Blake Carter' s new setting of one of the most durable short pieces in the classical repertoire.  The Dance Kaleidoscope artistic director's new work was one of two premieres on a program combining the modern-dance troupe and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra at their highest level of achievement. In his only novel, the German poet wrote: "The room next door is the only one that is always completely different  from what you think." Cody Miley and Julie Russel in "To Meet Again" In the capacious house of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings," the room my mind goes to is home to a celebration of erotic mystery and attraction. It sits next door to the larger room the piece inhabits for most people today: a place of lamentation, with music appropriate for bereavement.  Hanging c...

Karem Abdullah brings diversity to the table. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has put the classical part of Race Month into high gear with programming that ticks the diversity box as well as offering great representatives of the century where almost everyone's symphonic hearts still lie: the 19th. Friday night the novelty was a lengthy tone poem in symphonic form by Augusta Holmès, an ambitious Frenchwoman of Irish parentage who (incidentally) turned aside marriage proposals by Camille Saint-Saens, one of the concert's two eminent figures. The third composer was the continental favorite from Hungary, Franz Liszt. It's worth starting this account by holding up the Liszt Piano Concerto in E-flat, the program's companion Benjamin Grosvenor in a pensive pose piece to Holmès' "Roland Furieux (Symphony after Ariosto)." That's because it received an especially sparkling rendition that went well below the surface as played by Benjamin Grosvenor, a Briti...

A midcentury fixture in Chicago's Loop, the Blue Note played host to a variety of the era's brightest stars under the watchful, welcoming eye of Frank Holzfeind, who founded the club in 1947. Now, by arrangement with the proprietor's family and with cooperation from the Art Tatum Estate, comes a three-disc set of Tatum trio performances from August 1953. Resonance Records last month released "Jewels in the Treasure Box," a package with the label's usual elan of verbal and visual support in the accompanying booklet. The classiness rests on a firm foundation of worthy recordings, previously unreleased and brought to light with the tireless dedication of Zev Feldman. Tatum is the genial, relaxed voice introducing the tunes, reflecting his comfort at the jazz club — an impression he shared with many other great jazz figures who appeared there, including Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. The pianist's rapport with his sidemen, guitarist Everett Barksdale and...

"Send In the Clowns" is a rarity among modern musical-theater hits in being selectively lifted from the show by singers who simply want to do it, even though Stephen Sondheim's most popular song is thoroughly nestled in, and essential to, "A Little Night Music." A production of the sometimes blithe, sometimes sentimental operetta by Indianapolis Opera runs through today at the Toby at Newfields . Predictably, "Send In the Clowns" went over superbly as delivered by the aging actress Desiree Armfeldt in the second act. The song can best be understood in context, despite the way it has been put across by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Renata Scotto. Desiree and Frederik refresh their bond.  Here it was beautifully set up by the orchestra, under the sensitive direction of Alfred Savia, and performed within an aura of Desiree's cherished memories and indelible regret by Heather Hertling Narducci. In the reprise, she was joined by Daniel Narducci (her hu...

  now and then there is a person born who is so unlucky that he runs into accidents which started out to happen to somebody else In the golden age of newspapers last century, Don Marquis' inimitable lower-case cockroach Archy exuded bug wisdom in free verse. The insight above can be applied to the particular situation of Romeo in Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, the basis of the ballet "Romeo and Juliet." A spectacular new production debuted Friday night at Clowes Hall in the first of three performances marking an unprecedented collaboration of Indianapolis Ballet and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. What about Juliet? Well, she also runs into accidents, the product of her forbidden love across the formidable barrier of a family feud. Feuds, after all, are "accidents which started out to happen to somebody else." But her fate is bound up in the patriarchy of the Renaissance, with gender roles rather more restrictive on women than they are today.  The c...