2011-12 SEASON
Celebrate five years of electrifying entertainment in Edmonds!
Legendary comedian Lily Tomlin brings her one-woman show to Edmonds Center for the Arts on Oct. 1. - Page 4
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ECA celebrates fifth anniversary season By Katherine Luck
The 2011–12 season marks the fifth year that Edmonds Center for the Arts (ECA) will bring electrifying performers to town, from the world famous to local stars in the making. According to John McGibbon, president of the Edmonds Public Facilities District Board of Directors, the road to establish a homegrown arts center was a lengthy one. McGibbon, who joined the board in 2001 and has served as president for two years, is a lifelong resident of Edmonds who attended high school in same building that now houses ECA. Built in 1909, the high school was converted into a junior high school in 1958. In the late 1970s, Puget Sound Christian College bought the building. They put it up for sale in 2001 and, since it was already zoned for public use, the Edmonds Public Facilities District was able to buy and convert it into a regional arts center. “Some things came together at the right time that enabled us to purchase the building and get the funding under way,” said McGibbon. “In the final analysis, it accomplished two things: It provided an arts center for the area and it preserved an historic building.” Not only was McGibbon’s old alma mater saved for another generation to enjoy as a community arts venue, the purchase preserved an important landmark building from demolition. “This is an example
of Art Deco or Art Moderne architecture that you don’t see a lot around here,” he said. Steve Shelton, too, has memories of the building both before and after the remodel. “I’m a renter, I’m a board member and I’m an audience member,” said the Edmonds Center for the Arts Board of Directors president and owner of Barclay Shelton Dance Centre in Edmonds. Shelton’s dance company performed in the old auditorium before the building was taken over by ECA. Following an $18 million remodel in 2005, the building reopened in 2006 with an elegant new theater space, as well as a gymnasium for local sports teams and classroom spaces available for community groups to rent. “The theater really is world class. … It’s 700 seats, but it still feels intimate,” said Shelton. “It’s an awesome theater, but it’s bigger than that. The whole facility is now maturing. There are tons of things going on, tons of activities.” One of the reasons for all of the activity at ECA is the organization’s coterie of dedicated volunteers. “Our volunteer base is just amazing,” Shelton said. “We’ve had some very longtime Edmonds folks roll up their sleeves and get involved. … It’s really drawn the community together, I believe.” ECA Executive Director Joe McIalwain agrees that the work done by ECA volunteers and staff has been immeasurable over the past five years.
ECA receives $1 million donation Edmonds-based travel writer and TV host Rick Steves announces in August that he will donate $1 million to Edmonds Center for the Arts (ECA). The funds will support and expand ECA’s performances and community programs, with a portion of the gift going to support Edmonds’ Cascade Symphony Orchestra by underwriting all of their facility costs for the next 10 years. More than 150,000 people have partici-
pated in events at ECA since October 2006. Local organizations such as Cascade Symphony Orchestra, Olympic Ballet Theatre, Sno-King Community Chorale and Edmonds Community College perform in the state-of-the-art venue. Education outreach programs play an important role in the work of ECA. The same world-class performers who appear on stage also perform for, or work directly with, stu-
“I don’t know if I can put into words how excited I am about reaching the fifth anniversary milestone,” said McIalwain. “It’s a great feeling to be walking through that ‘fifth anniversary door’ to what I know will be a great and exciting phase for Edmonds Center for the Arts.” The 2011–12 season is marked by a blend of nationally known performers and local favorites that has become a hallmark of ECA programming. “We’re opening this season with Lily Tomlin. She’s a star and a great way to start off the season,” said Shelton. Both he and McGibbon are looking forward to seeing the legendary comedian, as well as the locally produced “Sweeney Todd in Concert” and ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro. “Jake has been here a couple times and he’s always sold out the house,” said McGibbon. “We have an excellent jazz duo, Bill Charlap and his wife, Renee Rosnes, coming through. ... We try and present a broad range of progvrams that will cater to the various tastes of the region.” “Diversity is very important to us — having something in the season that just about anyone would enjoy,” explained McIalwain. Each season, the overarching goal of ECA is to present two to four shows that each person wants to see. “The artists that tend to bring new audiences into the venue tend to be the big names: Lily Tomlin, Christopher Cross, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Sec-
ond City, Arlo Guthrie. These artists are a great introduction to our venue. ... My ultimate goal is that they’ll then take a chance on something that they wouldn’t otherwise see.” It seems to be working. “As we’ve gone along over the several years we’ve been in existence, we’ve built an audience. Our average audience has increased every year,” said McGibbon. “I think people are becoming more familiar with ECA every year, and I think we’re becoming an institution. It’s very important to Edmonds, not only culturally, but financially. … It’s an important part of the community.” “I feel like we’ve grown in all aspects over the last five years, from audience development to fundraising to rental use of the facility,” McIalwain agreed. “In addition to that, our experience, our connection to the community, what our role is and can be, how we can best serve our community — those are things that we have expanded our understanding of.” “The nice thing about ECA is that it’s in place. It’s not just a dream or a hope. Now it’s important that the community support it,” said McGibbon. “There’s such a huge variety of acts this year,” said Shelton. “Come on down, if you haven’t been here already. And if you have, come on back. There’s going to be something that appeals to everybody’s taste.”
For more information about Edmonds Center for the Arts, visit edmondscenterforthearts.org. dents and teachers in local schools. ECA’s gymnasium, classrooms and meeting spaces are regularly utilized by the community for a variety of sports programs, middle and high school music festivals, classes, and rehearsals. On Sept. 24, the ECA board of directors will host the fifth annual Arts Crush dinner and auction to kick off the organization’s Fifth Anniversary Season. The auction and gala will raise funds to support the 2011–12 season of entertaining and culturally diverse programs, as well as the continued development of education out-
reach programs. Art, wine, food, travel and unique experiences will be included in the silent and live auctions. Arts Crush will be held Saturday, Sept. 24, at 5 p.m. In celebration of the donation, Steves will perform “Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey” with the Cascade Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 23 and 24 at ECA. The concert will be filmed for a national public TV special. For more information, visit www.edmondscenterforthearts.org.
Special thanks to our 2011-12 sponsors: Denny and Diane Birk, Ralph and Doreen Boy, Phill and Marni Muir Butler, Leslie Foley, In Honor of Anne Gittinger, Susan Hoppe, Drs. Peter H. and Susan M. Knutson, Jack Murphys Bar, Julie Long, Jackson and Christine Loos, Bruce and Elaine Nickolson, Keith and Teresa Simanton, Jan and Benny Teal, The White Family, Barry Tharp and Kurt Brand, Sharon and Jim Wilson, Carl Zapora and Cheryl Foster, Irwin Zucker, age 9.
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Lily Tomlin opens 2011–12 season at ECA By Katherine Luck
Legendary comedian Lily Tomlin is coming to Edmonds to open ECA’s fifth season with a full arsenal of wit and wisecracks. Loosely based on her stand-up show “Not Playing With a Full Deck,” which Tomlin created for her Las Vegas debut in 2009, her appearance at ECA will feature topical comedy, appearances by classic characters she created for the TV show “Laugh-In,” and plenty of audience interaction. “Largely it’s similar, because I do a lot of characters and use a lot of multimedia. It’s going to be very intimate, and I’ll talk to the audience. I’m going to try to talk about Edmonds if I can,” said Tomlin. At its core, it will be stand-up comedy at its finest. Tomlin has a lot to say about the madness of the modern world. “There’s so much that’s out of whack, you don’t know where to start,” she said. “You might have a line that you think is ‘of the moment’ that has a shelf life. But sometimes it turns out to be funny for two years!” From plumped lips to politics, Tomlin’s live shows take on pop culture with humor that’s both pointed and insightful. “You want to be perceptive. It’s not just to make a joke. You want it to feel like there’s
some kind of illumination behind it. I don’t know what a plain old joke is. I wonder if there’s a joke out there that doesn’t reveal anything?” she said. If nothing else, according to Tomlin, a joke reveals something about the person telling it. This teller of jokes was born in Detroit and grew up in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of one of the city’s most wealthy areas. Although she claims she wasn’t funny as a child, Tomlin said that she “knew who was, and lifted all their material right off the TV screen.” Her favorite performers as a child included Lucille Ball, Imogene Coca, and Jean Carroll, one of the first female stand-up comics ever showcased on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Tomlin made her television debut in 1966 on “The Garry Moore Show,” then was featured several times on “The Merv Griffin Show.” In 1969, she joined the cast of “Laugh-In” and quickly gained a following for her memorable characters, such as Edith Ann, a devilish 6-year-old, and Ernestine, originally an irritable telephone operator. “Ernestine the phone operator has had many different [jobs]. ... [Today], she’s working for a big health insurance corporation and she’s denying everyone,” Tomlin laughed. “She gives everybody a hard time. She can comment on almost everything. … She’s a
communications visionary!” In addition to these popular characters, Tomlin will portray Lud and Marie, Mrs. Beasley, and The World’s Oldest Beauty Expert. Tomlin may have made a name for herself on TV, but it was in films that she honed her comedic chops. She made her screen debut in 1975 as Linnea in Robert Altman’s Nashville, a performance that earned her an Academy Award nomination. Other roles in The Late Show, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, All of Me and Big Business gave her the chance to try out a range of comic styles. In 1980, she joined Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton in Colin Higgins’ 9 to 5. She recalled that she learned from Higgins how to be a better “editor” of her comedy. He taught her that less is sometimes more and to give the audience time to appreciate the joke. During filming, “It’s as if he knew where every laugh would be. He knew his stuff,” she recalled. Recent big and small screen roles have included I Heart Huckabee’s, A Prairie Home Companion, Pink Panther II, the NBC series “The West Wing” and ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.” She’s currently co-starring with Lisa Kudrow in “Web Therapy” on Showtime, where she plays the mother of Kudrow, a therapist who gives three-minute sessions online. “That’s been great fun, because it’s all
Seattle International Comedy Competition returns to ECA By Katherine Luck
Photo courtesy of Tomlin and Wagner Theatricalz
Lily Tomlin as Ernestine.
improv,” she said. You can also see Tomlin on the HBO show “Eastbound & Down,” as well as an episode of “NCIS” airing Oct. 4 on CBS. Even with all her success on television and in Hollywood, simply getting in front of an audience still tickles Tomlin’s fancy. “I just love to perform live on stage. It’s like going on a blind date. The audience knows me better than I know them. It’s just about the fun of making them laugh,” she said. Don’t miss Tomlin in her only West Coast performance of 2011 on Saturday, Oct. 1, at ECA.
On Wednesday, Nov. 16, Edmonds Center for the Arts will be transformed into a comedy club for the 32nd annual Seattle International Comedy Competition. “Believe it or not, stand-up comedy lends itself well to a theater like that,” said Ron Reid, producer of the comedy competition. “It’s not a stuffy evening. ... It’s worth staying up for.” The idea for this popular comedy showcase and showdown came from the First Annual San Francisco International Stand Up Comedy Competition held in 1976 — an event in which the legendary Robin Williams came in second. Last year’s Seattle International Comedy Competition, which had a stop at ECA, was won by Auggie Smith, a Portland comedian, who also won the 2010 San Francisco competition. It was the first time that a comedian won both regional competitions in the same year. Though out-of-town comedians dominated last year’s Seattle-based competition in its early stages, Northwest performers outflanked them in the finals, with Seattle’s Billy Wayne Davis coming in second, Portland’s Dax Jordan taking third place and Seattle’s Drew Barth winning fourth place. Reid has been producing the competition for nearly two decades. “I started out looking at VHS tapes, then it evolved to DVDs,” he recalled. “It’s gotten to the point where I watch the clips on YouTube.”
Of the dozens of applicants for the 2011 competition, just a handful will make the cut to compete. They will be split into two groups, each of which will perform at venues large and small around the Puget Sound. The audiences tend to be diverse, and the atmosphere can be a noisy, alcohol-serving club one night and an upscale theater the next. This is good practice for the comedians, Reid said. “Ultimately, the people who succeed in this business are the people who can please the greatest cross-section of the audience and still maintain their artistic integrity.” The comedians will be rated by a variety of judges. “We try to always have a comedian as a judge, as well as people from the media and the entertainment business. ... They will be judged every night by a minimum of three judges,” Reid explained. “It’s as scientific as you can get when you have a contest where you’re judging an art form.” After the initial round of competitions, “the comedians with the highest scores will move on to the next round,” Reid explained. “The week that we go to the Edmonds Center for the Arts, we will have 10 semi-finalists.” The comedians will perform on stage at ECA for 10 minutes each. “Those are great shows. They’re the cream of the crop. In terms of how power-packed and laughpacked these shows are, they’re exhausting to watch. What’s amazing is how much variety there is in these shows, in terms of style and content and attitude. It’s just got great texture to it,” said Reid. “It is as much comedy as you can get for your dollar.”
Kenya Safari Acrobats will share African culture with Edmonds By Elizabeth Griffin When members of the Kalama family moved to the United States from Kenya, they brought their culture with them. Now, instead of keeping it to themselves, they spend most of the year sharing it with others. Jacob and Karen Kalama founded and produced their first show with Kenya Safari Acrobats 23 years ago. They traveled throughout Europe and Canada for 11 years before touring the U.S. Today, while Jacob travels with the troupe and performs at fairs and festivals, Karen and the couple’s daughters perform in theaters. Along with five acrobats from Tanzania and two from Kenya, Karen and her daughter, Krystina, will perform the show titled Lost in Africa, A Marriage Story for ECA audiences on, Friday, Feb. 24. The show is about a tourist (Karen) who
travels to Africa and gets lost. She finds a tribe and learns many things about its culture, including how men and women look for a marriage partner. Woven into the action, which is performed with narration, are traditional dances, music, and acrobatics. “It is very cultural and entertaining,” said Karen. “We try to do it as if you were in Africa.” Being an acrobat is not an uncommon profession in Kenya and Tanzania, according to Karen. Because of tourism, there are many who perform on the beaches and in the towns. The Kalamas spend several weeks in Kenya each year, auditioning potential members for their troupes. Based in North Carolina, the family travels and performs for much of the year. “We enjoy it,” said Karen. “We are in a new city every day.”
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Reduced Shakespeare Company presents The Complete World of Sports (abridged) By Katherine Luck The Reduced Shakespeare Company, a trio of performers who refer to themselves as the “Bad Boys of Abridgement,” will bring its one-of-a-kind comedy show to ECA on Saturday, March 24. The group has created seven stage productions to date that take complex (and often dull) subjects and reduce them to concise and interactive sketch comedy. After condensing all of literature into the 90-minute All The Great Books (abridged), and much of history into Western Civilization: The Complete Musical (abridged), their latest show, The Complete World of Sports (abridged), makes a bold claim. “We’re going to cover every single sport ever played anywhere in under two hours,” said writer/performer Reed Martin. This includes sports from all seven continents. “Antarctica was a little tough. The main sport we found there is surviving,” he admitted. Before taking the stage at the White House, the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center, and prior to becoming London’s longest-running comedy show with more productions in the West End than Andrew Lloyd Webber, the Reduced Shakespeare Company was itself a condensed version of a theater group, according to Martin. “We started in 1981 as a pass-the-hat show at renaissance fairs,” at which they performed shortened versions of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, he said. In order to engage the crowd at these events, “Our style developed as fast and funny and physical.” These abbreviated versions of two of Shakespeare’s most renowned plays evolved into the group’s first original show, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), which debuted in 1987. Then they started reducing all kinds of subjects, creating The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged), The Complete History of America (abridged) and All The Great Books (abridged). Reed, who grew up in Sonoma, Calif., joined the Reduced Shakespeare Company in 1989. His entrance into the world of professional sketch comedy was unusual. After college, “I ran away and joined the circus,” he recalled. In 1987, after attending a “clown college” training program, he joined Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as a clown. He performed all over the U.S., including Tacoma. “It was a great experience. I lived on a train and made $180 a week. I didn’t know what to
Photo courtesy of Reduced Shakespeare Company
do with it all!” he said. The Complete World of Sports (abridged), written and directed by Martin and Austin Ticheno, made its debut in 2010. Martin said that he and the other company members learned a lot while creating and performing the show. “In Washington, D.C., we learned that the state sport of Maryland is jousting. Who knew?” They also discovered the national sport of Afghanistan, buzkashi, which has highly unusual rules. “They take a decapitated animal and they throw it into a circle and chase around trying to grab it on horseback,” he said. The show has evolved since it debuted, thanks to audience input. After playing several college shows, “We’ve actually put ultimate Frisbee in,” Martin said. Though the Reduced Shakespeare Company has performed around the world, including in Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Malta, Belgium, Singapore and Bermuda, Martin acknowledges that they have probably missed a few of the world’s more unusual sports. However, part of the blame is to be found in the age-old debate over the difference between a game and a sport. For the show’s purposes, “If there’s physical prowess involved, then it’s a sport, but it’s kind of a fuzzy line,” he said. “Candy Land is a game, though that can be argued when there’s fighting involved.” Audience members can expect plenty of crowd participation, so come prepared to step up to the plate. “If we need a few extra people to help us play the sport, that just might happen,” Martin warned. The show ends with the “Olympish Games.”“The International Olympic Committee is known for being very litigious,” he explained. In the end, the emphasis is on humor rather than sportsmanship. “I’m a pretty big sports fan,” he said. However, “You don’t have to be a fan of the subject matter to enjoy the show, because it’s really about how dumb we are for trying to cover so much material in as short a time as possible.”
An inside look at the songs of Los Lobos By Elizabeth Griffin
ECA audiences will be given a rare opportunity to hear the stories behind the music of the renowned Latin rock group Los Lobos when the band’s songwriting team, David Hidalgo and Louie Perez, come to Edmonds on Friday, Jan. 13. “It’s a fun night, with a lot of conversation, laughter and cool songs,” said Perez. “We put together a set list of songs that go back through our whole catalog of the past 40 years. Some have never been heard before, because they are songs that weren’t recorded by the band. The audience gets to hear songs they are familiar with and songs they’ve never heard before.” Hidalgo and Perez met in 10th grade, in an art class at James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. “We started talking and he mentioned a record, and I said, ‘Yeah!’ Then I mentioned a record and he said, ‘Double yeah!’” Perez said. “[As an artist], very often you don’t have anybody who speaks that common language, so how can you communicate when you’re deeply passionate about some-
thing? You just want to burst. You want to go out and grab your neighbor and tell them about it, but they don’t understand. It was like traveling through the desert for months and not seeing another human being. Then you see someone and you want to just jump all over them with excitement. “We struck up a friendship from mutual love of music and beyond. So I went over to his house one day for about three months,” Perez joked. “We played records and started writing songs together. As of last year, it’s been 40 years.” Los Lobos maintains a rigorous yearround touring schedule, but a couple of years ago Hidalgo and Perez began doing their show as well. Originally called “Stories and Songs,” it’s now just called “The Dave and Louie Show.” “It’s really a celebration of all the years we’ve been writing songs and our friendship,” Perez said. “We play a couple of acoustic guitars, and we talk about songwriting and our own personal history, and how the songs came together. It amounts to the audience being a fly on the wall as we invite them into the process, talking about anything and everything. It’s a very inti-
2011-12 Program | Edmonds Center for the Arts | 7 mate evening, and that is very important to us. We present the songs in the way they were originally conceived, before going into the studio and becoming a band effort.” The stories behind the songs of Los Lobos are rooted in Hidalgo’s and Perez’s childhood neighborhoods and families. They involve dynamics that are universal, according to Perez, yet Photo courtesy of David Hidalgo and Louie Perez specific to their experi(L-r) David Hidalgo and Louie Perez. ences. “Saint Behind The Glass,” for example, is a look at Perez’s home through the point years doing what he is passionate about. of view of a statue of a saint that was in a “I was excited about music and I couldn’t glass container on his mother’s dresser-top think about anything else. That’s when altar. “It’s about all the sights and smells you know that somehow you were put that went on in my house growing up,” he on this earth to do it. All of us have one said. “Every line is another focal point of thing like that, and you’re fortunate when something in the house — the curtains, the you find it,” Perez said. “Many are pushed smell of the coffee, the window. All these along with a prescription of what they elements are included.” should be doing and it’s not until after a The show is an opportunity for audiences lot of hair pulling that they finally realize, to hear a lot more about the incredible jour- ‘This is what I really love to do and should ney the members of Los Lobos have taken be doing and am really good at it.’ I’m during the past 40 years than what is con- grateful every day. What better job could densed into their songs, according to Perez, I have than traveling around the world who feels very blessed to have spent those and playing music with my friends?”
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One night, four guitarists By Sam Bennett
The guitarists who comprise International Guitar Night are experts at making it look easy. Technicians on the guitar, they convey stories through music without revealing just how difficult their guitar feats are. “What is really good about this show is that the guitarists are not so absorbed in the technical challenges of the guitar that they forget how to play music,” said Brian Gore, founder of International Guitar Night. “We happen to be rendering compositions.” International Guitar Night comes to the Edmonds Center for the Arts on Saturday, Jan. 28. Although International Guitar Night showcases impressive guitar work, the performances don’t involve any singing, Gore said. The focus is completely on the guitar work and multicultural interpretations. “The show originally was founded to give the world of guitar more exposure — specifically for people who make their own music on guitar,” said Gore. “The show has a lot of cultural diversity in the world of guitar.” International Guitar Night will feature Gore, who hails from the Bay Area and plays
California finger style; Lulo Reinhardt, performing flamenco and gypsy jazz; Brazilian guitarist Marco Pereira; and legendary finger-style performer Adrian Legg, from the United Kingdom. “Adrian is a very unique player,” said Gore. “He plays acoustic/electric and designs his own guitars. His songs can go into different tunings while he’s playing. Marco is a classically trained Brazilian guitarist and Lulo plays a gypsy jazz style. It’s something really special to see all these different genres and cultures coming together.” Self-taught, Gore has been described by critics as a “poet of the guitar” because of his ability to render moods, feelings and settings through his intricate finger picking. In his recent composition, “Strawberry Universes,” Gore said he wanted to convey the mood of a late afternoon he once spent watching his son on a play date with friends with the sunset casting a reddish glow across the sky. “Behind the Blinds,” another new composition, is a “high-energy piece that involves percussion and has an intense drive and rockin’ edge to it,” he explained. “For me,” Gore said, “the main thing is connecting emotionally. I really enjoy being able to frame my emotions through music and guitar. It helps me get a better sense of how I
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will jazz up your holidays By Katherine Luck
photos courtesy of International Guitar Night
Lulo Reinhardt.
Brian Gore.
feel about things, in a very intimate way.” Gore said he took up the guitar at age 11, but “I started getting decent (as a guitarist) in my 30s.” He uses the guitar to convey melody and rhythm, which is a feature of the guitar that makes it unique among instruments, according to Gore. In addition to touring with International Guitar Night, Gore plays solo gigs and double bills around the world. He’s also been featured on NPR’s “Echoes Radio” program. His latest CD is titled Legacy. It features solo material and duets with Peppino D’Agostino, Andrew York and Marco Pereira. One reviewer described Gore as “a musical romantic.”
Marco Pereira.
Adrian Legg.
“I guess I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to convey a sense of emotion through guitar,” he said. “I’ve had to work hard at my technique over the years.” While many guitarists would cite Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix or classical guitarist Andrés Segovia as heroes or idols, Gore said his highest respect goes to members of International Guitar Night. “There hasn’t been a player in International Guitar Night that is not one of my guitar heroes,” he said. “I’m kind of a strange character because I’m really into the people I play with, so my frame of reference is a little different. These guys, as far as I’m concerned, should be in the pantheon of the greats.”
An afternoon of favorite things, beginning at Edmonds Center for the Arts By Elizabeth Griffin
For those who are weary of shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, Edmonds Center for the Arts is offering a pleasant reprieve. ECA will host a sing-along to The Sound of Music on Saturday, Nov. 26, at noon. The date was chosen to coincide with the annual Edmonds Christmas tree lighting ceremony, which will take place at 4:30 p.m. “We’re making it a community event,” said Beth Braun, marketing director at ECA. “We will serve hot cocoa and coffee to people as they leave the theater after the show. Then Photo by Elizabeth Griffin they can walk a few blocks to Centennial (L-r) Marjery Pentland her daughter, Plaza and watch the lighting of the tree.” Jessica. Singing along to The Sound of Music is a wildly popular activity that has gained a nearly cult-like following, according to on Broadway, this is your chance to belt out Braun. Whether an early Christmas present, tunes with full orchestration and hundreds a friendly escape, or a family outing, people of backup singers. It’s like karaoke without all over the world join Julie Andrews and the pressure to sing on tune — you just can’t Christopher Plummer, along with the rest sound anything but terrific. of the cast of this beloved musical, as they Attendees are encouraged to wear costumes, croon about home, true love and raindrops and goodie bags will be provided so each paron roses. ticipant can fully enter into the experience of For anyone who has ever wanted to sing the sing-along. Tickets are $15, with a family of four price of $10 per person.
Just in time for the holiday season, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will swing into Edmonds. One of the most popular bands of the swing revival of the 1990s, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy gained notoriety when their original songs “You & Me and the Bottle Makes Three (Tonight)” and “Go DaddyO” were featured in the movie Swingers. Today they’re touted as one of the most popular touring bands in the U.S., following in the footsteps of legendary groups like the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Benny Goodman, and the Count Basie Big Band. Founded in 1993 by Scotty Morris and Kurt Sodergren, the band got its name from an autograph that blues guitar legend Albert Collins inscribed to Morris, calling him “the big bad voodoo daddy.” Trumpet player Glen Marhevka joined the fledgling band in 1995. “They wanted to do music in a swing/jazz style, so they added a horn section,” Marhevka recalled. “It was a great time to join the band. They were playing small clubs and getting a following going.” Morris and Sodergren had backgrounds in punk and alternative rock, so they looked to Marhevka, whose musical background
was in traditional big bands, to help them tweak their sound. “The style of what the band was doing was exactly what I liked playing. ... I’ve been doing [big band music] since junior high school,” he said. “The band wasn’t super polished in that genre. I was the only guy who had training in that style of music.” Today a seven-man group, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy tours nonstop, performing more than 100 concerts each year around the world. The band sold more than 2 million copies of the albums Americana Deluxe and This Beautiful Life, and its music has appeared in dozens of movies and television shows, including the Super Bowl halftime show, “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, and “Late Night” with Conan O’Brien. “It really is a great band live. We have a lot of energy. It’s a really fun, uplifting band to hear in person,” Marhevka said. “I think if I saw this band playing, I’d say, ‘Wow, that was really, really cool!’” On Wednesday, Dec. 7, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will bring its one-of-a-kind yuletide show to ECA. The Christmas show is one that the band has been performing for several years. “We’re really excited to be up that way, especially at the holiday time,” said Marhevka. “We mix a lot of stuff from
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our regular albums with songs from our Christmas album.” The Christmas album, titled Everything You Want For Christmas (Big Bad/Vanguard Records, 2004), is the band’s first full-length album of holiday songs, including Christmas classics like “Blue Christmas,” “Jingle Bells” and “We Three Kings,” along with original songs like “Zat You Santa Claus” and “Rock-A-Billy Christmas.” They even throw in a few curveballs, like “Mr. Heatmiser” from the 1970s Claymation TV special “The Year Without Santa Claus.” Photo courtesy of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy “We try to do covers of more obscure songs,” Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Marhevka explained, especially those with a swinging sound. — they just spontaneously stand up and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Christmas shows start dancing.” are very high energy — and not just for Dust off your dancing shoes and bring the band. “We have people dancing in the your jingle bells. It’s going to be a swinging aisles sometimes,” Marhevka said. “It’s fun time at ECA.
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Gaelic Storm rises from Titanic depths to top of charts By Cydney Gillis
In the 1997 movie Titanic, they played the foot-stomping Irish band that helped Leonardo DiCaprio sweep Kate Winslet off her feet in the lower decks of the ship’s steerage class. Since then, Gaelic Storm has topped the world-music chart with its folk/rock fusion of traditional Celtic sound and original lyrics. The five-member band now headlines Irish festivals the world over, and its last two albums, What’s the Rumpus? (2008) and Cabbage (2010), both debuted at No. 1 in Billboard’s World Album category. Not bad for a group that started out just a year before Titanic as the house band at O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Santa Monica, Calif. Staying true to the raucous, working-class irreverence of old Irish pub musicians — a few pints go down with Gaelic Storm’s songs and stories — is what led to the casting in Titanic and keeps the band’s audience growing, said Steve Twigger, guitarist, singer and lead songwriter for Gaelic Storm, which will perform at ECA on Friday, May 18. Instruments such as the accordion, fiddle and Uillean pipes make Gaelic Storm’s music sound as if were written 100 years ago, Twigger said, but the compositions are original and reflect a range of influences from African to Latin music, particularly in the rhythms that percussionist Ryan Lacey provides on doumbek, surdo and cajón drums. “It’s a world-music sound with a basis of Celtic,” Twigger said. But, “We’re not the virtuous, ‘sit in silence and watch’ types. We’re an uproarious bunch.” Originally from Coventry, England, Twigger had already tried his luck with several rock bands and was making his living as a graphic designer in Santa Monica when O’Brien’s Pub opened down the street from him in 1995. Patrick Murphy, a new arrival from Cork City, Ireland, and Gaelic Storm’s lead singer, managed the pub and formed the group within the year. He asked Twigger to join when the band’s first guitarist left. The band’s lineup has changed a number of times since then. So have its songs. In its early days, Gaelic Storm largely played traditional jigs and reels, performed with an authentic, hard-charging passion that caught the ear of Titanic music supervisor Randy Gerston. Gerston and Titanic director James Cameron had already decided to set the steerage party to Irish music and were scouting for bands when Gerston discovered Gaelic Storm at an Irish fair at the Santa Anita racetrack. After two hours of listening to bands at the event, Gerston and his wife had given up and were walking back to their car when Gaelic
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Alpin Hong, master pianist By Sam Bennett
photo courtesy of Gaelic Storm
Gaelic Storm. Storm struck up its deep, loud drums. All the music the couple had heard that morning had been too polite for the tough, beerswilling musicians that Gerston envisioned in steerage. But not Gaelic Storm. The two immediately returned to the stage, Gerston later told Taxi, a music industry website. “I’d found it,” he told Taxi, “these young guys playing all traditional Irish instruments ... going crazy.” Gerston not only booked a recording session with the band, he convinced Cameron to cast the group in the film as the Irish immigrant musicians. Gaelic Storm’s career took off, in part, Twigger said, because it followed on the heels of Michael Flatley’s wildly successful Riverdance and because millions of Americans take pride in their Irish heritage. Three CDs followed on Virgin/EMI: Gaelic Storm (1998), Herding Cats (1999) and Tree (2001). The band wanted to do more than sing traditional numbers, however, so Gaelic Storm left Virgin/EMI and founded its own label, Lost Again Records. A truly indy operation, Gaelic Storm has released five CDs since then, not only producing and constantly touring with its music, but designing the album art, posters, ads and merchandise, most under the creative direction of Twigger, an art school graduate who once designed Hollywood movie posters. Going independent was a risky move, but it turned out for the best, according to Twigger. “There was certainly a learning curve involved, but the rewards are much greater,” he said. “You can afford a few lean years.” Cabbage continues Gaelic Storm’s worldmusic evolution with a combination of original Celtic-style drinking songs such as “Rum Runners,” a short lesson about where the term “Real McCoy” came from, and Twigger’s favorite, “Green Eyes, Red Hair,” a rocking but not-so-feminist ode to a woman of many moods. Two photos inside the CD cover show band members gazing reverently at cabbages. The imagery is whimsical, but there’s a point to it, Twigger said. When he had little money as a young man, he said he often lived on fried cabbage and grilled cheese.
As a pianist, Alpin Hong has mastered Mozart and Rachmaninoff. But when it comes to playing the video game “Guitar Hero,” Hong admits he comes up short. The fault, he says, lies in the game and not the player. “I was bad at that game,” said Hong. “There is a slight quarter- to a half-second delay to me pressing the button and having the note play. For a trained musician, I need to be on the beat.” When he sits down to play piano, Hong’s timing is perfect. The critically acclaimed classical pianist comes to the Edmonds Center for the Arts on Friday, April 27. Always hoping to ignite an audiences’ passion for classical music, Hong said he infuses his playing with a high level of emotion. “My approach is to open up the world of classical music to those who may be unfamiliar with it,” he said. “To approach music you need to be a communicator. I enjoy conveying my emotions.” At times, Hong said, his emotional state dictated the composers he chose to play. Recently, his love life has ignited a passion for more romantic composers. “Now I’m playing the Romantics (Beethoven, Schubert) because I’ve just been married and life is beautiful,” he said. Born in Michigan, Hong made his orchestral debut with the Kalamazoo Symphony at the age of 10. He moved to Los Angeles and won the Stravinsky Piano Competition in 1989 and the Los Angeles Spotlight Awards in 1994, and then went on to graduate from The Juilliard School. In 2005, Hong was praised for his intricate finger work, playing Brahms and Stravinsky on his first CD. With his 2007 release, the New York Times deemed Hong a “pianistic firebrand” with “remarkable breadth.” Hong’s hunger for new horizons in music makes him explore areas outside the classical genre. He said he’s exploring jazz rhythms and new technology that allows keyboards to make almost unlimited sounds. Electronic keyboards, he said, are “really an orchestra at my fingertips. There are so many types of sounds I can explore.” But the basis for his exploration is classical music, Hong said, and his ability to tackle the intricacies of J.S. Bach allows him to search for new sounds in other
photo courtesy of Alpin Hong
Alpin Hong. genres. “Movie soundtracks are a little exhausted now [as a genre],” he said. “I think, right now, that video game soundtracks are one of the most creative musical genres. Companies realize how closely tied music is to creating the emotions that are contained [in video games].” Hong’s performances in the foreseeable future will remain classical, however, while dabbling in classic American composers as well. His concert selections usually include an American master such as George Gershwin, allowing Hong to put his signature touch on pieces such as “Rhapsody in Blue.” “Gershwin wrote the piece in two weeks, under duress. That’s unbelievable,” he said. “It’s almost our national anthem. We all have it in our soul, somewhere. Regardless of what state I play it in, it touches people.” Always hopeful that he can inspire audiences to love classical music and to feel the emotions of the composers during his shows, Hong said he toys a little with audiences when he first takes the stage. “I start concerts by not saying anything,” he said. “Then [after the first composition] I say hello and welcome to the show.” His goal is to show audiences who may not know him that he is not a standoffish, stuffy performer. Rather, he hopes to open all lines of communication with audiences, like Victor Borge did. Whether he’s working with young piano students or playing to adult audiences, Hong said he hopes to encourage people to “listen and analyze what they take in.”
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MOMIX: Expect the unexpected By Katherine Luck
Known for presenting inventive and startling stage shows, dance company MOMIX will bring its latest work, Botanica, to ECA on Friday, Nov. 4. Using lighting effects, stunning props and the human body, MOMIX has been wowing audiences on five continents for 31 years. The name of the troupe has an unexpected backstory. “Momix is a type of cattle feed. I used to feed it to my calves when I was a farm boy in Vermont,” said the group’s artistic director and founder, Moses Pendleton. Pendleton, too, has an unexpected backstory. Born on a dairy farm in Northern Vermont, he was sent as a youth across the country to Mount Hood’s Timberline Lodge to train for a career as a competitive skier. While skiing and studying English at Dartmouth College, “I broke my leg and took a dance class to recuperate,” he recalled. Though he had no background in dance — “I was a frustrated writer,” he said — Pendleton was hooked. He gave up skiing and became a founding member of Pilobolus Dance Theatre in 1971. After choreographing the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980, he founded his own company, MOMIX, the following year. MOMIX consists of 40 performers, often referred to as “dancer-illusionists,” who perform in casts of 10 in each of the troupe’s six shows. “We’re known for physical, visual theater. It’s not just modern dance,” Pendleton said. “We change the image of the body to make it into a bird or a dinosaur or whatever surreal image we’re after.” MOMIX has performed Pendleton’s unique brand of choreography all over the world, thanks in part to the lack of a language barrier between the group’s theatrical form of dance and the audience. Botanica, the show MOMIX will perform at ECA, is the group’s latest creation. Pendleton describes it as “not unlike walking into a botanical garden and being surprised by whatever appears in front of you, like statuary or a strange plant.” The piece gives an overall impression of the passing of the four seasons, with individual dances offering the audience a visual and musical connection with the plants, animals and minerals in the imaginary garden. Botanica evolved out of work Pendleton did in Las Vegas, a Mercedes Benz promotion he helped create, and his own garden. “I grow tens of thousands of sunflowers.
Journey to Ireland without leaving Edmonds By Elizabeth Griffin
Photo by Max Pucciariello, courtesy of MOMIX
A scene from MOMIX’s new show, Botanica.
An ‘avant gardener,’ they call me these days,” he said. An avid photographer, stills of his sunflowers have been featured in numerous books and articles on gardening. “I see the connection between growing things and creating art,” he said. The show was developed in a collaborative effort between Pendleton and the MOMIX performers. “I gather things like an alchemist, throw them in the retort, spin them and hopefully they come out as a golden idea,” he said. “It’s a collective thing [with] dancers who take ideas and images and try to translate them into their bodies.” Pendleton explained that he likes to create an atmosphere of play during the early days of creating a new work, encouraging the dancers to create their own movements, which he videotapes, rather than dictating what they should do. This freedom of interpretation extends to the audience as well. “Part of the aesthetic of MOMIX is we don’t tell people what they should see, but stimulate their imagination,” he said. When creating a new work for the stage, including Botanica, “I spend lots of my long country walks with headphones on,” Pendleton said. The result is an eclectic score for the piece that ranges from birdsong to Vivaldi. The performers employ elaborate costumes, puppetry, projections and custom-made props to create the illusion of a garden evolving through the seasons. One of his favorite scenes from Botanica is titled “The Marigold.” In it, five female dancers take the stage dressed in elaborate tutus that they use to create the illusion of a flower with spreading petals. “You couldn’t make that dance without the costume first,” he said. “It’s like putting a movie together for the stage.” Above all, Pendleton emphasizes the experience of beauty and theatrical surprise for the audience. “Escapism is relevant. I always offer MOMIX as an escape from the modern world,” he said. “Come expecting the unexpected. Sit back and let MOMIX take you on a little trip. ... It may take a little rust off your dendrites.”
On Friday, Oct. 14, ECA audience members will take a journey to a spot few people have visited: the village of Knockananna in County Wicklow, Ireland. The village has about 300 residents and, according to world-renowned harpist and vocalist Órla Fallon, it was the ideal place to grow up. “I always sang at church and community concerts, and it built my confidence. That’s a good thing about growing up in a small community,” said Fallon. “I actually don’t remember a time when I didn’t sing. I nearly sang before I could even talk. I used to drive my parents crazy. I have a memory of standing when I was about three in the back of the car. They cut down some trees for forestry every so often, and I remember that I was disgusted and I made up a song about ‘trees all broken, they’re my trees.’ I would never stay quiet, I was always singing and I was just encouraged to do it,” she recalled. It is the music rooted in her upbringing that has taken Fallon all over the world. Her concerts, first with Celtic Women and now as a soloist, are based on the traditional stories and songs she learned in her grandmother’s kitchen as a child. “She was constantly singing when she was working in her kitchen. It’s a great way to grow up, because we were never bored,” Fallon said. “I have such lovely, lovely memories of all the times we were singing or telling stories, and [my family] passed on their love of the culture to me. This great love of the Irish culture and the language and heritage — they were just steeped in my growing up. I’m so happy that I’ve been able to use the love that I got as a child and bring it to people all over the world.” With thousands of televised appearances on public television, and performances in the Vatican and the White House, Fallon has shared her talent and her culture with millions of people. “I never dreamed that I would perform in such places,” she said. “I never, ever take any of these experiences for granted. I love each and every one of them and I really relish and savor every moment. They’re all so special. Every venue I go to, people go to such trouble to come to the concerts. It’s just a dream come true to get to do what you love doing and for
photo courtesy of Órla Fallon
Órla Fallon will perform at ECA on Oct. 14. people to enjoy it so much. People tell me that the music gives them so much pleasure and they love it so much, and that means the world to me.” Though well traveled, Fallon admits that she often misses her home. “I am such a home bird and I love the simple things. I’m not into highfalutin things,” she said. “I’m so well grounded from where I come from and my upbringing that I carry that with me when I travel.” Audiences take a trip to Ireland with Fallon as she tells stories and shares traditional music, as well as her own compositions, on the harp and vocally. “It’s a really lovely, intimate show,” Fallon said. We go through a lot of emotions, sometimes laughing and then moving on to poignant songs. It’s the kind of show that you can bring your [grandchildren] to, and your grandparents as well.”
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Four Bitchin’ Babes: Crying never felt so good
Jake Shimabukuro, ukulele virtuoso
It’s 10 o’clock in the morning and Sally Fingerett is rushing around the house when the phone rings for her press interview. She starts by asking if she can put the phone down for a second. She’s finished the blow-drying, she says. She just needs to do the hair spray. And, oh, she needs to microwave her cup of coffee. Her coffee maker, she says with a sense of wry disappointment, just doesn’t make it hot enough for her. When she comes back, Fingerett starts to explain the musical comedy of The Four Bitchin’ Babes. But in a way, she just has: The banter was disarmingly personal, oddly funny and a window on one woman’s hectic life. Set that day-in-the-life moment to fourpart harmony, guitar and piano and you have the Babes, a band of singer-songwriters who’ve spent the past 20 years turning the ordinary into hilarious social commentary about women’s lives. In 2005, with age creeping up on them, the Babes debuted a touring stage show on a topic that most women don’t think is so funny: middle age. It hit a niche, Fingerett said, that draws women to the show with their friends,
It is not uncommon for a preschooler to pick up a simple instrument, such as a ukulele, and strum for an imaginary audience. For most, that is where playing the four-stringed instrument, technically classified as a plucked lute, ends. But for Jake Shimabukuro, it was only the beginning. Twenty-nine years later, he’s still strumming. “Everyone plays [the ukulele] in Hawaii. I immediately fell in love with it,” Shimabukuro said. “The ukulele is probably one of the easiest instruments to play. Anyone can pick it up for the first time, learn a couple chords, and immediately start strumming songs. It’s so relaxing. I always tell people that playing the ukulele is like an entire yoga session in one strum.” It may be easy to play, but no one plays the way Shimabukuro does. The complexity of the music he produces, and his lightningfast skills and dexterity, are hard to believe. Edmonds Center for the Arts audiences will be thrilled when they witness it live on Thursday, Jan. 19. Growing up surrounded by Hawaiian music, Shimabukuro soon expanded his
By Cydney Gillis
mothers, daughters and, yes, their men. The Babes will bring Hormonal Imbalance: A Mood Swinging Musical Revue to ECA on Saturday, May 12. It’s a loosely knit collection of songs that delights and surprises, from Deirdre Flint singing about hanging her bra on the mailbox as a girl for “The Boob Fairy” to a rousing chorus about an overturned truck that leaves a town with “Viagra in the Waters.” “Down at the courthouse coffee shop / they stared in disbelief / as a pack of thirsty lawyers started filling out their briefs.” Other songs are odes to the real push-pull, longing and hope of women’s lives in today’s society. “We work, we go home. (But at home) we have still twice the work to do and half the time to do it in,” Fingerett said. It’s an exhausting life. Hormonal Imbalance provides a “girls night out” that lets women laugh through the tears, she said. But it’s not just for women. “Men the love the show,” Fingerett said. “It’s a chance for them to get the whole truth (about women’s lives) in a loving way. There is no man-bashing.” The Babes have shared their comic truth since 1990, when founder Christine Lavin, who had just released her own CD, On a
photo by Terry Jordan
(L-r) Deidre Flint, Sally Fingerett, Debi Smith, and Nancy Moran from The Four Bitchin’ Babes. Winter’s Night, put together a group of singersongwriter friends for a multi-city road tour. The tour started in Chicago, stopped in Seattle and ended in Alexandria, Va., where the group recorded its show. The live recording turned into Buy Me, Bring Me, Take Me, Don’t Mess My Hair: Life According to Four Bitchin’ Babes, the group’s first CD. Since then, the group has released seven more CDs and, in 2009, rolled out a second touring revue, Diva Nation ... Where Music, Laughter and Girlfriends Reign. Members have come and gone over the years, including, at one point, Suzzy Roche of The Roches. Fingerett, the last original member, said the current Babes — herself, Debi Smith, Nancy Moran and Deirdre Flint — started playing together in 2004 and have reached a sort of perfect alchemy as a group, all while managing their own careers.
Flint is a comedian who has appeared in the TV show “Nip/Tuck.” Smith’s bodhrán drumming was part of the soundtrack of the Ken Burns documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, and Fingerett said she’s very proud that folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary recorded one of her songs in 1995. It helped pay for her divorce, she said. It hasn’t been easy keeping the group on the road for 21 years, said Fingerett, who has a daughter in college now. But she said the Babes are living a dream that they hope to inspire in others: Don’t let life happen. Make it happen. Even after all these years, Fingerett said, she still can’t believe how she makes her living. “I love my job,” she said, “standing on stage in pretty clothes with my three best friends, singing and playing music, and eating candy backstage.”
Christopher Cross, crooner of ballads By Elizabeth Griffin
Anyone who was close to being a teenager in the 1980s remembers slow dancing to a Christopher Cross ballad. But there was nothing slow about the musical success that Cross enjoyed right from the start. One year after appearing on the music scene, Cross earned five Grammys, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for “Sailing.” He garnered an Academy Award for the theme from the movie Arthur, “Best That You Can Do,” creating a new genre category, “yacht rock,” with the hit single. And he received a Golden Globe Award. Unshaken by the success that catapulted him into the limelight, Cross has continued
Photo courtesy of Christopher Cross
Christopher Cross. to create intelligent, artistic music for the past 30 years. He has produced eight albums, with 9 million album sales worldwide. With Continued ON page 18 >
By Elizabeth Griffin
musical interests beyond traditional island tunes. “I’d turn on the radio and just play my ukulele along to pop tunes. Since the ukulele was the only instrument I had, I had to figure out how to bring out the melody and make it recognizable, which is hard to do because it’s just a four-string, two-octave, instrument. And I’m a horrible singer, so I couldn’t fake it with vocals, either!” Shimabukuro said. Inspired by musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Yo-Yo Ma and Pat Metheny, Shimabukuro really credits Bruce Lee and Bill Cosby for creating the foundation of his art. “Bruce Lee’s philosophy on martial arts was that it’s a form of human expression,” he said. “And he didn’t believe in having one ‘style.’ He studied all forms and was open to everything. That really stuck in my mind as far as music goes. And Bill Cosby — here’s a performer who can just sit in a chair with a microphone, tell stories, and enthrall millions of people. I wanted to tap into that energy of just performing alone and connecting with an audience.” Content to play at local Honolulu venues and coffee shops, Shimabukuro began to take his musical career seriously when Sony Music Japan showed interest in sign-
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ing him. His career really took off during a TV appearance in New York, where the producers of a local show called “Ukulele Disco” asked him to play a cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in Central Park. The performance went viral in 2005, with 6-million-plus page views on YouTube. “It was supposed to air once, but it somehow ended up on YouTube — which had just started out at the time — and suddenly people started asking about the Asian guy who plays the ukulele,” Shimabukuro said. As his stature grows in the music world, Shimabukuro continues to impress and stretch boundaries with each new release. While all the tracks on his latest recording, Peace Love Ukulele, were arranged as solo pieces, he utilized a band for the majority of the songs, adding some orchestral touches on songs like “Five Dollars Unleaded” and marching drums on “Go for Broke,” a stirring tribute to Japanese-American soldiers in World War II. Despite his success, Shimabukuro remains humble and awestruck that his love of the ukulele has propelled him to such heights. He gives full credit to the instrument he’s played with a passion since he was 4 years old. “The ukulele is the instrument of peace,”
Jake Shimabukuro.
Photo by Danny Clinch
Shimabukuro said. “And if everyone played one, the world would be a better place. I hope listeners experience the same joy that I’m experiencing when I’m strumming the ukulele.”
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Riders in the Sky perform with a western flair
Cantus celebrates Christmas with All Is Calm
It’s not often adults can take both their children and their parents to a concert the elicits the same excited reaction from both. But Riders in the Sky, a group of four comedic musical cowboys who have been performing together for 34 years, seems to bridge the generation gap. Guitarist Ranger Doug explains it this way: “The older generation remembers the music, and kids will always love cowboys.” In addition to Doug, the group includes accordion player Joey the Cowpolka King, fiddler and vocalist Woody Paul, and bassist Too Slim. Doug said the group has stayed together for so long because of a commitment to the music and a willingness to be goofy on stage — and by staying in separate hotel rooms, he added with a laugh. Members of Riders in the Sky grew up listening to cowboy heroes like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Tex Ritter. Their musical style stays true to these legends while prompting the audience to laugh aloud. “The charm of that music never left us,” Doug said. “We felt like it needed to be expressed.” Besides velvety western vocals and com-
December 1914: During the first year of World War I, an unexpected Christmas miracle took place. Unplanned and unofficial ceasefires began to spread along the Western Front. Known as the Christmas Truce, soldiers from both sides of the conflict spontaneously began to sing carols together and even cross the deadly “No Man’s Land” to exchange gifts. This relatively unknown event was the inspiration for the stage show All Is Calm, which will be performed at ECA on Thursday, Dec. 1 by the nine-man vocal ensemble Cantus. The show features new arrangements of European carols and early 20th-century war songs sung a capella. “It’s one of those things that historically happened, but a lot of people didn’t hear about it. I think it was sheltered from history because, from a military standpoint, it was not a positive thing. But from a humanitarian standpoint, it was a beautiful thing,” said Aaron Humble, a member of Cantus. “Most accounts you hear about the truce credit a German soldier with singing ‘Stille Nacht,’ which was familiar to many people from around Europe.” The truce didn’t just last through Christmas Day in
By Kristina Courtnage Bowman
pelling harmonies, the Riders lighten things up with yodeling and rope tricks. “It’s a lot of fun,” Doug said. “People can expect plenty of laughter.” A recent claim to fame is the group’s appearance in Toy Story 2. The resulting album, Woody’s Roundup, won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children in 2001. For the record, according to Doug, Woody on Toy Story is nothing like Woody Paul of Riders in the Sky. “He’s not a physicist,” Doug said, referring to Paul’s Ph.D. in theoretical plasma physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2003, Scream Factory Favorites, the album of music for Disney’s Monsters Inc., earned the band its second Grammy. For about half of the year, Riders in the Sky live in Nashville and perform at the Grand Ole Opry, among other venues. They tour around the nation for the other half of the year. “Naturally we love to play in the West,” Doug said. “It’s our inspiration.” Original songs can come from any of the Riders. After one of them writes a song, the others begin to add harmonies and parts for their own instruments. The concert at ECA will include selections from Land Beyond the Sun, Riders in the Sky’s most
recent album, as well as audience favorites. According to Doug, the group doesn’t have a set list before going on stage, preferring to ad-lib during the show. Throughout
their long musical career, he said, “As musicians, we’ve gotten better; as entertainers, we’ve gotten better.” Riders in the Sky will perform on Sunday, Oct. 16.
ECA hosts “Sweeney Todd in Concert” By Katherine Luck
Revenge. Murder. Cannibalism. Who would have guessed that the bloody tale of the mythical Sweeney Todd had the makings of a Tony Award-winning musical? On Sunday, April 1, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street will come to ECA in a concert event featuring favorite songs from the musical. Created by Tacoma’s Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, “Sweeney Todd in Concert” draws on talented musicians and singers from all over the Northwest. “This is the first time we will be doing this [concert format], and we’re excited that it’s going so well,” said Executive Director David Fischer. First seen in a “penny dreadful” publication titled The String of Pearls in 1846, Sweeney Todd was introduced to the Victorian public as a barber who facilitated robberies of his unsuspecting customers by efficiently murdering them. To add to the gruesomeness of his crimes, his partner, Mrs. Lovett, disposed of the corpses by baking them into meat pies, which she sold to the public. The story took on new life in the theater, first in staged melodramas and later as a ballet. In 1979, Stephen Sondheim’s musical version, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, made its debut. Reimagined as a tale of murderous revenge, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd ran for more than 550 performances after opening on Broadway. The production went on to rack up Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score. “That program is so musically rich and complex ... we wanted to focus on the music and the story,” said Fischer. This was a key factor in the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts’ decision to perform the work in a concert format, rather
Photo courtesy of Broadway Center for the Performing Arts
than a fully fledged production. Another important reason was cost. Fischer estimates that mounting a concert version will cost half as much as a full production. “And, therefore, the ticket prices are [going to be] much more accessible for the public,” he said. Making theater accessible to the public is a focus of the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts. “The Broadway Center is a 28-year-old live performing arts center in Tacoma that operates three theaters,” Fischer explained. It’s a $4 million-a-year organization that operates the largest arts education program in the state, reaching 35,000 students and teachers each year. “Sweeney Todd in Concert” will be led by director/musical director Mark Rabe, who has worked at theaters around the Puget Sound, including The 5th Avenue Theatre. The production will make its debut in Tacoma on Saturday, March 17, coming to Edmonds on Sunday, April 1. Fischer is enthusiastic about the chance to present the work of Tacoma’s premiere theater to audiences in Snohomish County. “We really believe Stephen Sondheim is the genius of the second half of the 20th century in terms of musical theater,” he said. “This is a way for smaller communities like Tacoma and Edmonds to be able to bring in a big Broadway musical.”
By Katherine Luck
some areas, but for weeks. According to Humble, soldiers had to be removed from combat because they refused to fire on the “enemy” with whom they had celebrated the holidays. All Is Calm is Cantus’ first theatrical collaboration. Though playwright Peter Rothstein conceived the show and wrote the book for All Is Calm, the piece was co-created and workshopped with Cantus. Rothstein chose World War I era songs such as “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” and “God Save the King,” while Erick Lichte and Timothy Takach of Cantus curated period Christmas carols that include “O Tannenbaum” and “Silent Night.” After they had several musical numbers arranged, Cantus created the rest of the music through improvisation. “Being a collaborative organization, the way this piece was created really jives with our process,” Humble said. “The entire piece is sung, except for a very few poignant moments where the music cuts out.” The production features all nine Cantus members, along with three professional actors who take the parts of everyone from young German soldiers to Winston Churchill. “Most of the text that the actors are speaking is ‘found’ text,” Humble said, explaining that the scenes in the show are
drawn directly from history. “The part that has really resonated with me is a monologue from the youngest of the three actors about his best friend, Joe, and how they shared everything they had, and the experience of what happened when he was hit by shrapnel and killed. He never let himself get that close to anyone ever again.” That sense of camaraderie is familiar to the members of Cantus. Founded in 1995 as a student group at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, the group became a professional touring ensemble in 2000. They have adopted a singularly egalitarian model. “We have no musical director, we have no artistic director. Everything is done by the singers,” said Humble, who has been part of Cantus for seven years. “It really gives every singer more buy-in into the process.” This format is very unusual in a choir. “String quartets often function in this way, but in vocal ensembles, it’s very rare,” he said. Even more rare is the fact that Cantus offers its singers full-time, year-round employment and a full-time salary. The group is dedicated to creating adventurous programming that encompasses many periods and genres. All Is Calm is a prime example of its challenging repertoire. It’s a show designed to touch the audience’s emotional core, as well as make
Cantus.
Photo courtesy of Cantus
people think. “The thing that I come away from the show wondering is whether anything like this is possible today. In a world of unmanned drones attacking people, and culture so different that we don’t share the same traditions as they did in Europe, is there something we can find as a common element that would connect us?” asked Humble. “The final message is, even the pope was making pleas to stop the war — at least for Christmas — and they wouldn’t do it. But here are the lowest ranks, who were seen as disposable, and they did it. They stopped the war. ... It’s a story of hope, but it’s not a cotton candy, sugary story, like a lot of holiday shows. I think there’s something poignant in it that’s very valuable at Christmastime.”
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Improvising with Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes
By Elizabeth Griffin World-renowned jazz pianists Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes had traveled in the same musical circles for more than a decade when they first played a duet on dual pianos in 2001. Soon after that appearance, they joined eight other jazz pianists on a
tour of Japan, and their relationship progressed beyond professional repartee. With a romance that originated in jazz music, it made sense that when Charlap and Rosnes chose to marry each other, the couple would hold their wedding ceremony at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in the Time Warner Building, a popular jazz venue in New York City that is home to the
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Along with other professional musicians, they both performed during their wedding, and they have been performing as a couple ever since. Charlap and Rosnes made the choice early in their lives to focus their musical talents on jazz. For them, it’s all about creativity and communication. “One of the unique components of playing jazz is improvisation. I have always enjoyed the freedom of expression that improvising provides, and there is nothing that compares to playing in a band where everyone is musically communicating on a high level. It is a great feeling, and further made enjoyable by the energy and enjoyment of an audience,” Rosnes explained. “Playing jazz with various musicians isn’t so different from having a verbal and casual conversation with friends,” she continued. “Depending on the personalities and the topic involved, the conversation could go anywhere. It’s the same with music, and particularly with the art of improvisation. The instruments have their traditional roles, and the goal is to support as well as direct the conversation, depending on the context.
“Many times, it is easy to see a musician’s personality come through their instrument,” she added. “You can learn a lot about a person by how he or she chooses to play with others.” Performing together is an extension of their marriage, according to Rosnes. “Being husband and wife, Bill and I know each other well and believe that the level of intimacy we have easily carries over onto the stage and has an effect on the music we make. When we play together, it is easy to read each other’s visual and musical cues,” she explained. The audience in Edmonds will enjoy the large repertoire that Charlap and Rosnes bring to the stage. Their performance will include original works, American popular songs and classic jazz pieces, as well as a few Brazilian compositions, according to Rosnes. “Our recent release, Double Portrait, features all of the above,” she relayed. “We constantly add new material, so the audience attending our Edmonds performance will be sure to hear a varied program.” Charlap and Rosnes will perform at Edmonds Center for the Arts on Saturday, Oct. 29.
The legendary Arlo Guthrie By Elizabeth Griffin
Folk singer/songwriter/philosopher Arlo Guthrie could not escape going into the family business. He might have tried, but he didn’t. He embraced his destiny whole-heartedly and has been a voice that refuses to be ignored, much like his father, Woody Guthrie, was before him and his children, Sarah Lee, Cathy, Annie and Abe, will be after he is gone. Even his grandchildren have gotten in on the act, singing with Sarah Lee and her husband, Johnny Irion, on a recently released children’s album. Growing up surrounded by musicians and dancers, Guthrie gave his first public performance in 1961 at age 13 and quickly became involved in the music that was shaping the world. He spent most of his waking hours in the venues of the “Folk Boom” era, hanging out at Gerdes Folk City, The Gaslight and The Bitter End in New York City. If there is a name of a famous musician to be dropped, Guthrie could do it, claiming many as good friends and performance partners. Guthrie’s career exploded in 1967 with the release of “Alice’s Restaurant,” a song every Baby Boomer can sing along to.
But he was not just a one-hit-wonder. Guthrie went on to write many songs that have roused some members of his generation to social activism and angered others enough to have them banned. Disregarding the opinions of others, Guthrie has always marched to the beat of his own drum. Guthrie’s musical success has benefitted others immensely. In 1991, he purchased The Old Trinity Church to house The Guthrie Center, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to providing a wide range of local and international services, according to his website. Its outreach programs include everything from providing HIV/ AIDS services, to baking cookies with a local service organization, sponsoring a walk-a-thon to raise money for a cure
for Huntington’s disease, and offering a place to meditate. The foundation also addresses issues such as the environment, health care, cultural preservation and educational exchange. Over the past four decades, Guthrie has toured throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, winning a wide, popular following. In addition to his accomplishments as a musician, which include playing the piano, six- and 12-string guitar, harmonica and a dozen other instruments, he is a natural-born storyteller whose tales and anecdotes figure prominently in his performances. Guthrie completes the ECA 2011– 2012 season with his performance on Friday, April 13.
Christopher Cross
backups that is far more complex than the typical band structure, Cross brings a depth of musicality to each composition that matches his artistic integrity. From his wellknown ballads to his upbeat tunes, his music is danceable and never grows old. Cross comes to ECA on Saturday, Oct. 8. Bring your sweetheart and be prepared to hum along.
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continued success, his songs have been chosen for television and movie scores, and used as the theme for worldwide events, such as the Summer Olympics. In fact, many familiar songs can be traced back to Cross. Using a mix of instrumentation and vocal
Lorna Luft shares songs her mother taught her By Elizabeth Griffin
In a multimedia presentation on Friday, March 9, Lorna Luft will share stories and songs that provide an inside look at her experience growing up as the daughter of a musical icon. From her earliest memories, Luft was on stage with her mother, Judy Garland. She performed at the Palace Theatre as a teenager with her mother and was regularly on Garland’s television show. So it wasn’t unusual that she would choose to “go into the family business,” as she puts it. “If you grow up in a family of lawyers, it’s pretty likely that someone will become a lawyer. My sister [Liza Minelli], who was seven years older than I was, went into it before I did. I decided to do it professionally when I realized I could get paid for it,” Luft said. The music in Songs My Mother Taught Me, A Tribute to Judy Garland includes works that Luft heard as a child. “They were part of my heritage and they are part of my legacy. I tell stories and there is film [footage], and we sing duets together [in the show]. It’s an actual, real family affair. People come to see the show and they tell me, ‘It reminded me of my mom,’ and that’s the point. It should remind you of your fam-
Lorna Luft.
photo courtesy of Lorna Luft
ily. Just because we happened to be in show business, we still went through the same things, the same ups and downs. Mine just happen to have been on the front page of newspapers,” Luft said. Audience members will laugh and cry at Luft’s show, and they will be entertained. “This is a show about a mother and a daughter. It’s about the American songbook as told by the daughter of the woman that all of these songs were written for,” she said. “It takes you on a pretty good ride.”
Laughter lives at The Second City By Elizabeth Griffin Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Alan Arkin, Peter Boyle, Bonnie Hunt, and the list goes on and on. If they make you laugh, they probably came from The Second City. Known as the world’s premiere comedy theater and school of improvisation, The Second City has resident companies in Chicago and Toronto, training centers in those cities and Hollywood, 11 full-time touring ensembles, thriving theatrical divisions, and television and film operations that have made audiences howl for 50 years. The touring company show at ECA on Saturday, Feb. 18, will follow the same structure The Second City has used in performances since opening in 1959. It is a two-act review of sketch comedy, songs and improvisation. “We see over 1,000 comedians for every one that we hire to work here,” said Kelly Leonard, executive vice president of The
Second City. “The people in our touring groups have studied improvisation for five to seven years before we hire them. There is such a great wealth of talent we aren’t always able to get our touring company folks hired on our main stage before they are hired away.” Leonard thinks touring company members are especially fun to watch because they are the next generation of great talent. “This is where it starts. They are cutting their teeth on the road and fine-tuning their skills with some of the best scenes from our archives of the past 50 years, as well as current shows and stuff they write and create themselves,” Leonard said. “Especially in comedy, seeing someone early in their career means seeing them at their apex. That first flash of comic genius is in the first few years.” According to Leonard,The Second City has an amazing legacy of talent that it continues to produce. “One reason we’re so successful is that we let the talent leave and the next generation comes through. We make celebrities, we don’t keep celebrities,” he said.
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