Jay Harvey Upstage

Among theater people, there might be reasonable suspicion of  English majors, particularly when it comes to evaluating productions of classic plays. With Shakespeare, literary study of the texts threatens to treat theatricality as secondary. I have fought against this tendency in me because understanding the Shakespeare canon as literature is the overwhelming focus in the classroom. I never had a teacher who concentrated on Shakespeare as theater. It's  always helpful to remember that the Bard was a man of the theater who never took the trouble to have definitive texts published, necessitating the First Folio and keeping centuries of scholars occupied ever since. That's enough throat-clearing to get into this account of how I took in "King Lear" on opening night in an IndyShakes production at Taggart Memorial Amphitheater in White River State Park .   It's clearly the job of anyone seeing a new production who has read the play to interpret production decisions. T...

A treasured album's cover, not much worse for wear You don't have to be a trombone player except in fantasy to enjoy a trombone-heavy jazz band, especially if your record collection includes "Jay & Kai + 6."  That's a Columbia LP from the 1950s with a marvelous cartoon by the great Arnold Roth on the cover and co-leader Kai Winding's name spelled two different ways, because "Kai" is not really pronounced "Kay," but publicists must have liked the rhyme cementing  the Danish trombonist's hit partnership with J.J. Johnson. It was Johnson who of course was the greater innovator on the brass instrument in jazz, and it doesn't require being from his hometown of Indianapolis to proclaim this. But whether as a duo or in this record's assemblage, Winding was a simpatico partner in tandem with J.J., and an excellent arranger as well.  At the Jazz Kitchen Sunday evening,   Naptown Trombone Collective paid tribute to the trailblazing ...

As with many  who exile themselves with distinction from a provincial upbringing, the curiosity that fed Janet Flanner's writing career was nurtured in the world she left behind. Before she was dubbed "Gen ê t" by New Yorker magazine founder-editor Harold Ross, she carried the prestige of a well-established Indianapolis family, a talented daughter who got a brief start in journalism here as movie critic for the News. She came out as a lesbian after a likewise brief marriage, then settled in the French capital, where her "Letter from Paris" was a regular feature in the well-written and -edited, and eventually well-heeled, magazine. "They Call Me  Gen ê t ," D. Paul Thomas' lively, variegated interpretation of the New Yorker' s European correspondent for a half-century,  takes Janet Flanner off the glossy page as so much more than a prestigious byline. As an extended "au revoir" to Paris set in 1975, it brings the thorough, exacting rep...

 "We Walk Beneath a Patient Sky," the substantial new work opening Dance Kaleidoscope' s final program of the current season, shows the result of a rare collaboration between a choreographer and a composer both active here. Jordan Munson blends his affinities for electronic music and the Appalachian musical tradition in the new work, against which Joshua Blake Carter has set his arresting choreography. He's tamed his characteristic abruptness of movement to focus on how a community establishes ritual and secures a common acknowledgment of meaning and values. Seen Saturday night at the Toby, the four-part work embraces a fresh vision of the hero's journey theme, but applied collectively more than individually. Robed, hooded, backs to the audience and unindividualized at first, the company of a dozen dancers comes to grips with the forces they must contend with, reaching up, arms sometimes hooping the air above them, also thrusting downward at an angle with motion...

Trumpet Mafia in full cry, with leader Ashlin Parker second from left. An open weekend date on the Jazz Kitchen schedule is not easy to find, especially on short notice, so John Raymond was grateful to have nailed one Friday night while Trumpet Mafia, an ensemble from New Orleans, was nearby and open to a further opportunity for its high-powered blare. Raymond, professor of jazz trumpet  on the faculty of Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, spoke proudly of his impresario role in securing the gig, in which the mafiosi included some of his students plus young Indianapolis trumpeters of professional stature Sam Butler and Kent Hickey, plus a well-established jazz educator and trumpet guru, Scott Belck of Cincinnati.  Anchoring the front line were New Orleans trumpeters Ashlin Parker and Bijon Watson. All told, there were 11 trumpeters ranked along the front of the Jazz Kitchen bandstand. It became a decent dozen at the end, when Indianapolis native Pharez Whitted was in...

As soon as the five men of Profeti della Quinta raised their voices, something extraordinary filled the air at the Indiana History Center  Sunday afernoon as the Indianapolis Early Music Festival presented its last June concert in its 60th anniversary season.  The singers of Profeti, with theorbo player Ori Harmelin (holding instrument) The immediate blend of  two countertenors, two tenors, and one bass as "From the Synagogue  to the Palace" began, made clear the point of bringing to wider recognition the achievement of Salomone Rossi (1570-1630?) as a Jewish musician enjoying special privileges while affirming his identity in a diaspora minority group constrained by law and custom.  Formed in Israel and now resident in Switzerland, Profeti della Quinta (Prophets of the Perfect Fifth) presented a program that made a rare point: despite the  reduced status of Jews in Italy 400 years ago, Rossi was honored in both Mantuan communities, repeatedly crossing th...

Thumb's up from pianist-composer Ozone Highly anticipated reacquaintance with a guest soloist rarely presents itself to me in an Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra season. Looking forward to Makoto Ozone as this weekend's piano soloist resembled slightly a reunion with a school sort-of-friend you didn't know well but have some pleasant memories of. So, Ozone wasn't exactly an old jazz chum of mine. When he was active in this country, I never heard him live, but I have two of his recordings: an LP from 1986 titled "After," when he was in his mid-20s and just past his American education in jazz at Berklee in Boston, and "Pandora," a 2000 CD when his American career blossomed as he headed a classy trio with eminent young sidemen, bassist James Genus and drummer Clarence Penn. Listening to them again a couple of days ago, I was struck by the access of maturity and individual style in records issued 14 years apart. But the spread of his talents and artisti...

No matter to what degree you take J.S. Bach's settings of the gospel accounts of Jesus' suffering and death (the Passions) as confirmations of faith, esthetically they are shrewdly constructed to unify the narrative and spiritual centrality of the narrative and its durable meaning. The dogma of resurrection is strongly implied, of course, but the journey through the betrayal and capture of the figure Christians assert was God's anointed both raises and settles questions about the significance of his sacrifice for humankind. Straightforward leadership from McGegan Human promises of undying loyalty to the Savior are undercut by Jesus' isolation in the  Garden of Gethsemane, as the disciples fall asleep after declaring their intention to stay watchful. In a new recording conducted by Nicholas McGegan featuring Cantata Collective (issued in April on Avie Records ) , among the excellent features is the singing of bass-baritone Paul Max Tipton as Jesus. At the point just al...

Under Matthias Maute' s genial guidance, the festival mood is bound to be uppermost anytime that Ensemble Caprice graces the schedule of the Indianapolis Early Music Festival . Thus it was especially footloose and fancy-free Sunday afternoon as it mounted "Baroque Summits," starting and ending with Antonio Vivaldi in sunny Italy. Janelle Lucyk lent vocal brilliance to the concert. Particularly welcome in this return visit was the participation of Ensemble Caprice's new  soprano, Janelle Lucyk, who was showcased in a cantata and a motet by Vivaldi. In addition to a pure, focused, and resonant tone, easily filling the welcoming acoustic space of the Basile Theater at the Indiana History Center , Lucyk lent particular character to the tortured woes of love in "All'ombra di sospetto" and the equally passionate, but devout, focus of "In furore justissimae irae."  Like Ensemble Caprice, Lucyk is Canadian, and is artistic diretor of an early-music gr...

Mahler in a characteristic mood of intense focus on his work Gustav Mahler was well aware of the fragility of success  and  simple happiness, and that apprehension had to find a place in his music. No more so was it brought forward and sustained than in his Symphony No. 6 in A minor, nicknamed "Tragic," accurately if not with the composer's authority. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra devoted its next-to-last concert in the current Classical Series solely to this work, which it will repeat at 5:30 p.m. today. Music director Jun Mä rkl clearly saw the difficulty of finding a suitable program partner for the piece, whose performance lasts some 80 minutes. Preparation according to his high standards presumably also accounts for the Sixth existing in splendid isolation this weekend at Hilbert Circle Theatre. The score demands extraordinary forces, including eight horns (magnificent to see standing for the section-by-section curtain call at the end) and likewise thorough exp...

The Hampton Sisters made the most durable link with Indianapolis jazz longevity till the end of the last century. Sisters Aletra and Virtue Hampton were the last local remnants of the family band started by their father in Ohio and reflective of the variety-show aspect of regional African-American entertainment, sometimes touring in the Jim Crow South, in the early 1900s. Clark "Deacon" Hampton brought his family to Indianapolis in the 1930s and the city became its home base. Hampton Family Band in its heyday about 80 years ago It seems it was time for an onstage recall of their stature a quarter-century or so past the sisters' prime. So Pharez Whitted, Chicago trumpeter and son of bassist Virtue Hampton-Whitted, took up the center position at the Jazz Kitchen Sunday evening to pay tribute via the Indianapolis Jazz Collective.  That ongoing "house band" for various shows in this case provided the rhythm section: pianist Steve Allee, electric bassist Jonathan Woo...

Round-number anniversaries decorated the pre-season concert of the Indianapolis Early Music Festival Sunday afternoon. The festival's 60th season counted it as an appetizer, and  Mark Cudek was marking his 20th anniversary as artistic director. But wait — that's not all, as the shopworn commercials say. The concert celebrated a half-century since Cudek made his professional debut "to showcase my insecurities," as he modestly told the audience. Mark Cittern had lots to celebrate Sunday. The Basile Opera Center attracted a capacity audience to its resonant space for Mark Cudek and Friends, a rubric that embraced the participation of soprano Mara Jaffee, baritone Michael Manganiello, and lutenist William Simms. The concert's tantalizing title and subtitle cast a wide net over the carefully cultivated repertoire: "Pastime With Good Company: Politics, Substance Abuse, and Improvisation in 17th-century England, France, and Italy." The program's breadth an...

  It's customary that symphony programs will be crowned by a work with a flashy, loud, or at least quite assertive ending, but this weekend's Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra evenings (wrapping up with today's 5:30 concert) come to rest amid phrases that subside at the en d. Moods of calm and hope prevail in two works composed amid the turmoil of World War II: Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony. Plus, the new work, generated amid the unrest of our current political era, wears its optimism unmistakably. Joan Tower, the composer of "Love Returns," a concerto for saxophone and orchestra, was on hand to lend her radiant charm to the ovation on the work's behalf. She justly praised the ISO's performance, as well as that of Steven Banks, the soloist, and guest conductor Robert Spano.  Joan Tower basked in the ISO presentation of "Love Returns."  With luck, she becomes a nonagenarian two yea...

In recent releases linked to the consequential sleuthing of Zev Feldman, a fuller picture of pianist Kenny Barron,  often in collaborative roles, has emerged. He is accountable for many of the successful aspects of Yusef Lateef's "Alight Upon the Lake" (Resonance) part of a vast trove of recordings made at Chicago's Jazz Showcase and unearthed by Feldman. The new "Live in Brecon: So Many Lovely Things" ( Elemental Music)  finds him in charge at the high noon of his career, heading a trio before a receptive audience in Brecon, Wales, in August 1995. His simpatico trio mates are two stars of their instruments who have since passed away: bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Ben Riley .  The two-disc set, recorded with revealing detail and care, shows off Kenny Barron: Mastery in a lovely setting the trio in a wealth of repertoire drawn mostly from standards freshly interpreted, plus a few originals and three jazz chestnuts by Freddie Hubbard and Thelonious Monk....

Ex-Marine's impulsive act arouses silhouettes. Two recent news events confirm the timeliness of a documentary-style new production by American Lives Theatre: Barney Frank died the other day, remembered mainly for his witty, progressive service in the U.S. Senate and his stature as the first openly gay national political figure. The other current event is among the Trump-initiated proposals for physical changes to Washington, D.C., a triumphal arch near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, a gesture of vaunting personal glory from a noted disparager of military sacrifice. Andrew Kramer's "Arlington, or Your Forgotten American Hero" opened Thursday in spectacular but far from superficial fashion in the Russell Theatre, the main stage at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre. The story is steeped in the irony of American heroism, distorted by political agendas, bias, and cultural fashion. Chris Saunders' direction allows the cast to probe the wide range of beha...