Jay Harvey Upstage

Steve Allee has shown his mettle in various contexts. It's surprised me a bit for 30 years now that I still enjoy "The Magic Hour," the CD that Steve Allee co-produced with Tom Borton in California. It may be the only music approaching "smooth jazz" that I've ever been attracted to repeatedly. I didn't know that as leader of the contemporary Magic Hour Band, the veteran pianist-composer was not all about re-creating that music with new personnel. What I heard Friday night at the Jazz Kitchen was a top-flight exhibition of jazz on the cusp between the mellow, plugged-in sounds of the old CD and the more aggressive contemporary acoustic mainstream that Allee has occupied with many other musicians. The second set allowed me to set aside my residual discomfort with smooth jazz while allowing some of its vibes to resonate. The extra keyboard sounds provided by Shawn McGowan provided a lot of that, in addition to the leader's having a small electronic key...

Charles Ives: Visionary Connecticut Yankee Opportunities to sample the music of Charles Ives in concert on his 150th birth anniversary have been rare in these parts. So I was immediately interested to learn the Philharmonic Orchestra of Indianapolis had scheduled a performance of his Symphony No. 2 as centerpiece of a program excitedly titled "America! America! Music of Change!" Taking in a concert of Indianapolis' adult volunteer orchestra was itself rare for me, as I had not heard the Philharmonic since shortly after moving to Indianapolis 38 years ago, when the orchestra's home was Caleb Mills Hall at Shortridge Middle School . Sunday afternoon at the Pike Performing Arts Center, longtime music director Orcenith Smith paid Ives the honor that professional Hoosier musical organizations seem to have passed up this year.  The Second Symphony is the product of Ives' post-university formative years. He was building restively on the tutelage of the conservative Ya...

The woodwind principals of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra are among its current glories under the music directorship of Matthew Kraemer. Leonid Sirotkin shone in Vaughan Williams. On Saturday night, it was the turn of the Russian-American oboist Leonid Sirotkin to occupy the spotlight, soloing in the oboe concerto of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The orchestral repertoire is loaded with oboe solos, often vivid sketches of sorts. There has been ample opportunity to appreciate Sirotkin's  playing as ICO's first-chair player over several years. Thus, his expansive solo opportunity in this concerto conveyed a gentle irony, given the concert title of "Autumn Sketches," no doubt suggested by the work chosen to open the second half, Esquisse (Sketch), by the Swiss composer Frank Martin. This uniquely laid-out concerto — with movements labeled Rondo pastorale, Minuet and Musette, and Finale (Scherzo) — places the solo instrument against strings. Thus, the oboe is responsible ...

Hadelich's career launched here 18 years ago. Devotees of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis are used to hearing the six solo violin sonatas by Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931), the Belgian virtuoso and teacher of IVCI founder Josef Gingold , so what was bound to stand out in Augustin Hadelich's program Friday night at Indiana Landmarks Center was Ysaÿe's Op. 27, No. 3, "Ballade." What a standout it was! The 2006 competition gold medalist's performance provoked an instant standing ovation in the middle of his recital for the capacity audience. It was preordained that the inclusion of "Ballade" would generate an extraordinary reception. The well-defined progress of the piece, with its Romantic-inflected evocation of J.S. Bach, was so unified in concept that it seemed to mimic visual art. The impression of all-at-onceness, with which we take in paintings, made the fiendishly demanding coda less a virtuosic afterthought than an episode nece...

Young jazz musicians seeking composing and arranging exposure can usefully apply their skills to small Saxophonist-composer-arranger Harvey groups. Eight players on the bandstand or recording studio get multiple opportunities to display their skills. What the leader brings to the bandstand with his charts is transparently appreciable. The rapport among individuals requires a huge amount of shared focus. At the same time, good arrangements blend seamlessly with solo episodes, since the one-against-many dynamic tends to vanish. Stephen Philip Harvey is a saxophonist in his early 30s who heads a compatible group of eight associates mostly in his own compositions, working in front of a small audience through  https://www.radioartifact.com .  In Wayne Shorter's "Witch Hunt," which showcases the tight ensemble plus soloists Dan Bruce (guitar) and Reggie Watkins (trombone), the listener to this selection  from a Cincinnati gig gets initial acquaintance with Harvey's arrang...

Even though it originated as the instrumental introduction to a forgotten opera seria , the A barber of quality: Gabe Preisser as Figaro Overture to "The Barber of Seville" is likely Gioacchino Rossini's best-known instrumental composition (along with the Lone Ranger-boosted Overture to "William Tell").  It's perfect for its permanent position in the repertoire. It seems to lift up both the comedy and the intrigue that shapes the opera. Its stops and starts, its turns from mystery and tension to pure effervescence and back again, signal what's to come. Indianapolis Opera 's latest production, which concluded a weekend run Sunday afternoon at the Tarkington Theater, privileges the comedy, which is quite appropriate. But the intrigue, which is so characteristic of the playwright Beaumarchais who concocted both Figaro stories immortalized here and by Wolfgang Mozart (in "The Marriage of Figaro"), seems to tag along for the ride in this conce...