Jay Harvey Upstage

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-eentury 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 ...

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...