VOL. 29 ISSUE 28 ISSUE #1279
VOICES / 3 NEWS / 4 THE BIG STORY / 6 ARTS / 14 SCREENS / 16 FOOD / 17 MUSIC / 19 // SOCIAL
What’s your favorite thing that’s over a century old?
Hugh Vandivier
Amanda Wolf
Holly Hooper
The Monon Bell game with its 124th contest between Wabash and DePauw.
Jazz
My grandmother. She’s 106.
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The Good Catholic
IN THIS ISSUE SOUNDCHECK ......................................... 21 BARFLY ....................................................... 21 FREE WILL ASTROLOGY.................... 23
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GIVE HILLARY A BREAK M BY JOHN KRULL // VOICES@NUVO.NET
aybe it’s time to cut Hillary Rodham Clinton some slack. When What Happened, her new book about the 2016 presidential campaign, came out, so did the knives. Followers of Bernie Sanders and other progressives in the Democratic Party complained that she blamed Sanders for her defeat and contended that she just should shut up and go away. President Donald Trump and his amen chorus said she was blaming everyone but herself for her defeat and that she just couldn’t accept responsibility for her own failures. Then, in his typical classy, gentlemanly way, the president tweeted a GIF of him hitting a golf ball that then strikes Clinton in the back, knocking her down. (I don’t know about you, but I can’t tell you how proud it makes me as an American to know that we have a commander-in-chief who finds humor in attacking and knocking down a much smaller woman. And from behind, at that.) These folks must not have read the same book I did. In fact, I doubt they read it at all. While Clinton does chide both Sanders and Trump within the book’s pages, the most scathing criticisms are directed inward, toward herself. What Happened reads less as a tell-all or an indictment than it does as a kind of cross between therapy and expiation. Perhaps the title should have had a question mark at the end, because one senses in reading that Clinton is trying to answer that question for herself. What happened? Perhaps the most poignant section is when she writes about her late father, who told her when she was growing up that, even if she did things he didn’t like, he never would stop loving her. She writes that she used to test him on that — in a teasing way — by asking how he would feel if she did this awful thing or committed that horrendous act. He always assured her he would contin-
ue loving her. “Once or twice last November, I thought to myself, ‘Well, Dad, what if I lose an election I should have won and let an unqualified bully become president of the United States? Will you still love me then?” Much of the book is written in that spirit of self-recrimination — sometimes puzzled, sometimes regretful, sometimes angry. She does note that former FBI Director James Comey’s surprise entrance into the race just days before Americans went to the polls had an adverse impact on her chances — and, given that Trump also was (and still is) under active investigation at the time, she doesn’t think that was fair. I’d say she’s got a point there. Clinton also argues that her gender played some role in the outcome. She writes lucidly about how different the expectations and challenges can be for women who seek leadership positions from the ones we have for men. None of this should be a revelation. Anyone who doesn’t believe misogyny still is a powerful force in American life is ignorant. I wasn’t thrilled with either presidential candidate last time around, in part because I was certain, regardless of who won, we’d end up right where we are — snarling at each other and unable to move forward. But I’ve always had a weakness for defeated candidates, regardless of which party they belong to. It’s because of what they must bear. Clinton writes, again and again, of all the people who helped her, who worked for her, who sacrificed for her campaign and who put their faith in her. Her message — sometimes directly, sometimes as subtext — is that she knows she didn’t get the job done. She let them down. Will you still love me then? That’s why I say it’s time to ease up. Hillary Rodham Clinton tried. She failed. She knows it. And, as her book shows, that knowledge stings. N
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BACK TALK
BEST TWEET: @SenDonnelly // Sept. 18 The latest Senate GOP health care bill would roll back pre-existing condition protections & end HIP 2.0 as we know it.
WORST TWEET: @realDonaldTrump // Sept. 15 Loser terrorists must be dealt with in a much tougher manner.The internet is their main recruitment tool which we must cut off & use better!
NO LONGER PROTECTED
Deportation fears force Haitians to flee U.S. for Canada
BY KAREN HOUPPERT // NEWS@NUVO.NET
F
rancois LeFranc, 45, lingers over breakfast in the dining room of the NAV Centre, an Ontario hotel and conference center on the banks of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, he displays only one sign that he had been detained by the Canadian immigration authorities five days earlier: a plastic, hospital-style turquoise bracelet he wears with his I.D. number on it. He slipped across the border in upstate New York and into Quebec on Aug. 15 with his wife and four kids, leaving his oldest daughter, 20, behind. Although it has not gotten as much attention as the repeal of DACA, the promised repeal of another protection to immigrants — the Temporary Protected Status offered by Barack Obama to Haitian immigrants following the 2010 earthquake — has sent LeFranc and more than 5,000 others to seek asylum in Canada since Aug.1. More than 50,000 Haitian immigrants qualified to live legally in the U.S. after the earthquake, which killed more than 220,000, injured more than 300,000, and displaced 1.5 million. It took LeFranc until 2012 to finally reach the U.S. “We are looking for a better life,” he says. “I was looking for a better education for my children.” Now, fearful of being deported back to
Haiti, he is one of 294 Haitian immigrants wandering the halls and grounds of this conference center in the sleepy city of Cornwall, population 50,000. He is part of a mass exodus of Haitian asylum seekers that are fleeing the U.S. on the heels of a letter that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent to the approximately 58,000 Haitian refugees resettled in the U.S. since the 2010 earthquake. The letter informs them that their TPS will likely be revoked in January and warns them to arrange their departure from the U.S. The Trump administration has declared Haiti’s earthquake recovery complete; its refugees must go back. The announcement was made the same day that U.S. government updated its travel warning for those considering a trip to Haiti. The Miami Herald reports that panic raced through Florida’s large Haitian community when they learned they would be sent back to their still-troubled homeland — and many of them have turned to Canada for help. The migrants are pouring over the border near the small Quebec town of Hemmingford and then turning themselves in for arrest by Canadian border officials who bring them to a series of temporary holding centers as officals begin processing the paperwork, migrants plead their asylum cases.
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The French-speaking Haitians are attracted to Quebec, which also has a sizeable Haitian community but with immigration processing centers there bursting at the seams, the federal government moved this group of nearly 300 to the neighboring province of Ontario over the course of two days in August; within a week they had a tent city prepared to accommodate 800 refugees here. It’s a curious scene. On one section of the conference center’s vast green lawn, musicians are making their way to a massive white event tent where hundreds of locals will soon pour in for the annual MusicFest, “The Barley and Hops Tour,” $40 tickets at the door. Within sight of concert-goers are 50 black army tents, erected by the Royal Canadian Dragoons (soldiers) in the last 24 hours to house the anticipated influx of 500 more Haitian migrants, according to Lt. Karyn Mazurek, an army public affairs officer. A heavy metal band warm-up is punctuated by the sounds of rapid-fire nail guns as five carpenters build tent platforms for the migrants in a garage bay nestled between the refugees’ tent city and the music tent. Inside the upscale NAV Centre (overnight golf packages run $170), patrons get wedding-planning tours, a Christian group coalesces in the lobby, soldiers in fatigues stride the halls, and
a cluster of migrants use the glass-encased miniature model of the hotel to both get their geographical bearings and pepper an official with questions about the worn documents they pull from purses and pockets to press on the glass for inspection. Soldiers share a smoke with a few refugees near an exit, one migrant asks directions to the local pharmacy; the asylum seekers are free to roam. It’s a far cry from U.S. detention centers. Still, the efficiency and kindness Canadians are displaying should not be misconstrued as welcoming the asylum seekers with open arms. Over dinner tables, at border crossings, and in the press, Canadians are having many of the same debates over immigration that Americans have been having. Back in January, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. by tweeting, “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.” But by Aug. 5, with Montreal’s Olympic Stadium temporarily housing hundreds of the arriving Haitians Trudeau cautioned, “We remain an open and compassionate country, but part of remaining that way is reassuring Canadians that we are processing properly all of these new arrivals,” he said. At the same time, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, in an interview with the CBC, warned against what Canadians politely refer to as “irregular” border crossings. Back in the NAV Center’s Propeller Dining Room, LeFranc finishes his breakfast. Since arriving in the U.S., he says, he has worked construction jobs to support his family. His kids have spent their formative years in America with his oldest daughter attending college until recently when her immigration status rendered her unable to qualify for student loans. “I am waiting to see if I can find a way for the children to go to school and to find work to help my family. The children do not know nothing about Haiti.” He doesn’t know how things will turn out for his family in Canada. “I’m just taking a chance,” he says. “We live a life of struggle,” he says with a shrug. “If your eyes are open, you will see struggle all around you. That’s the way life is.” N
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STILL DISCONNECTED A BY ADRIANNA PITRELLI // NEWS@NUVO.NET
s technology advances, it becomes more essential in everyday life. More schools use tablets rather than tangible take-home work. More small businesses need the internet to buy and sell products. And more people transform their homes into offices. Not all Hoosiers have reliable internet, and without it, they can’t take advantage of all it has to offer. “We’ve been working for several months to have more available broadband, but we still have many financial, technological and legal issues,” Scott Rudd, Nashville town manager, said. The Interim Study Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications met Thursday to discuss how Hoosiers living in rural areas can get better access to broadband internet. Passed
in 2017, House Enrolled Act 1626 added a guideline requiring broadband-ready communities to establish a plan to increase the number of broadband service subscribers in their areas. About 15,000 people live in Brown County, a broadband-ready area — which is an area that has reduced barriers to allow broadband infrastructure investment but doesn’t necessarily have faster internet access. Nashville is home to about 1,000 residents, and most don’t have access to reliable, highspeed internet. Students at Brown County High School are given tablets that have their textbooks on them and are needed for homework. However, half the students don’t have access to internet at home, meaning they have to do their homework at the library — if they do it at all. A lack of internet access can also affect
people’s desires to move to a rural area. “A homebuyer’s first question these days is how fast is the internet,” Tom Long, president of Northwestern Indiana Telephone Co., said. “And then the sale is lost when the answer is given.” John Koppin, president of Indiana Broadband and Technology Association, said if broadband width isn’t increased, fewer families and companies will want to move to Indiana. While some Hoosiers already have access to internet, it’s not strong, causing it to be unreliable. If more people in the area get internet, the broadband width must be increased to allow the service to work at a high speed. “We are competing with other geographical locations in the country,” he said. “We don’t have a Chicago, or an Atlanta, so we have to make ourselves more presentable to companies who want to invest dollars.” As Gov. Eric Holcomb traveled to all 92 counties while campaigning in 2016, one of the most frequent complaints he received was lack of internet access in rural areas, said Rep. David Ober, R-Albion.
The Connect America Fund works to expand high-speed internet to millions of consumers throughout the country. It gave $7 million for the next six years to AT&T Indiana to expand broadband to rural areas. William Soards, president of AT&T Indiana, said the company is currently working on ways to bring broadband to rural areas. It starts with mounting a small antenna to a home directed toward the nearest cell tower. He said he hopes to launch the package toward the end of the year and pricing plans and data usage will be on par with other services. Though Indiana is behind, Joni Hart, executive director Broadband Innovation Group, said the broadband issue is starting to get better. “In 2017, 74 Indiana communities across 20 northern counties got access to higher speeds,” Hart said. Hart said the internet will be deployed to four other areas soon. Since cable broadband has increased, speeds have also increased by 12,000 percent and the price has dropped nearly 80 percent. N
NUVO.NET // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // NEWS // 5
ALL THAT JAZZ
INDY JAZZ FEST HONORS OUR PAST AND CREATES OUR FUTURE BY KYLE LONG // KLONG@NUVO.NET
OUR ELLAS, YVONNE ALLU AND BRENDA WILLIAMS // PHOTO BY HALEY WARD
D
oes any other musical subject draw more debate and heat than the announcement of the line-up for a major festival? Over the years Indy Jazz Fest has taken on a variety of shapes and forms, from large-scale, outdoor, all-day, all-star marathons, to its current incarnation, which favors intimate venues and important players drawn from the local scene. And you won’t have to search long to
find an Indy resident with strong opinions on the festival’s metamorphosis. And while I truly appreciate having had the opportunity to see music icons like B.B. King, Eddie Palmieri and Al Green at Indy Jazz Fests of the past, I really love where the festival is at today. Where’s that? Like Chreece in Fountain Square, the present day Indy Jazz Fest is built around the people, players and venues that drive the scene 365 days a year.
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It’s become a cliché to see regional music festivals sprinkle on a layer of local acts as an afterthought in programming. This is always done with an insincere promise that the festival organizers truly care about promoting the local scene. What grand benefits does the dearly loved local artist reap? Maybe 50 bucks — if they’re lucky — and the pleasure of performing to an empty venue just moments after entry time, and the joy of
seeing their name in microscopic print on the bottom of a massive list of text. But at this fest, the local players are a significant and indispensable component of the festival. At Indy Jazz Fest, Indianapolis music is the headliner. As it should be. A good example of this principle in action was Randy Brecker’s concert Sunday at the Jazz Kitchen. Brecker, a superstar trumpet player, was featured fronting a
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band composed solely of Indianapolis always famiplayers. Local jazz fans got to see a bigly-friendly, and name player in a club setting, and signifisome of the cant players here in the Indy scene got to best concerts I’ve experienced in Indy. spar with one of the genre’s greats. Educational events like this have beI love where our jazz fest has gone. It’s come an integral component of Jazz Fest. gone away from the “let’s drag a masThis year also featured a program explorsive herd of people who don’t really care ing the history of the Hammond organ about music to a giant outdoor stage and the Leslie Speaker. Last year featured in an abandoned cornfield and pray it a superstar guitar summit dedicated to doesn’t rain or we’re all fucked,” to a Hoosier hero Wes Montgomery, with a model that caters to the people who truly series of historically focused panel discuscare about the music, and people who are sions on the side. invested in the music’s past and future. So, yes, Indy Jazz Fest is engaging Another feather in IJF’s cap can be fans in the music’s history in unique and summed up with that ever-present buzzunprecedented ways. But the festival is word: “diversity.” But Indy also looking toward the Jazz Fest doesn’t dabble in future, and the inclusion At Indy Jazz Fest, of electronic music prothe diversity of tokenism. This is a festival rich with Taylor McFerrin is Indianapolis music ducer diverse music and diverse a perfect note to end this is the headliner. people. That point was year’s festival. McFerrin demonstrated beautifully is part of the Brainfeeder As it should be. at Pavel and Direct Conlabel, a loose aggregation tact’s tribute to Colombia of artists including names last Sunday at Central Library. like Flying Lotus, Thundercat and Kamasi Fronting a group of folkloric musicians Washington. These are musicians explorfrom Colombia, Pavel lifted the spirits ing the outer frontiers of jazz, mixing of an over-capacity Clowes Auditorium hip-hop and electronic influences with crowd to the high vaulted ceilings. The post-bebop and fusion sounds. Dominican-born Pavel Polanco-Safadit is If you haven’t made it out to an Indy one of the great heroes of our local music Jazz Fest concert this year, you have scene, a gifted and charismatic player caa few days to remedy that error. And I pable of inspiring joy in a crowd of even strongly encourage you to do so. This is the most cynical of spectators. not a festival built around [insert name Pavel has hosted these educational of the most famous generic headliner musical programs for Indy Jazz Fest over we could afford]. This is a festival built the last few years. Last year, Pavel and around a real music scene, the real mucompany explored the influence of West sicians who inhabit it and the real fans Africa on jazz. That program featured a who make it possible. local choir of Congolese refugees, and Indy Jazz Fest is telling our story. It’s Sweet Poison Victim’s Ghanaian drum talking about our past. And it’s pointing champion Kwesi Brown. These Sunday us to the future. afternoon extravaganzas are always free,
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The Big Story Continued...
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PREVIEW
template and footprint I go to when I approach,
tell about why we chose that song and how we put our own personal stamp on it.”
research, present a song. The quality of her voice
At the Sept. 14 program IJF 2017 kickoff, Allu
and true melody — not so much how it’s sung for
presented Fitzgerald’s iconic Summertime with
any song, but for bringing out the story.
the IJF Band, particularly partnering with Ernest
“She was the first lady of song; her music is beyond jazz. This is a tribute to the woman who
Stewart on trombone. “Ernest thought it was magical; I thought it was
represented so many styles. As a group we will
magical,” confessed Allu, “An audience member
cover that broadness and depth. She was not afraid
told me, ‘I heard you sing in a way I never heard
to step out of being ‘queen of jazz;’ she nailed that
before.’ It was everything I wanted to represent
and explored other genres; she explored fully.”
about Ella. She was not just upfront, she was part
Brenda Williams and Yvonne Allu are part of
of the weaving on stage with all the players; she
the foursome, with the IJF Band, bringing forward
was part of the music with each player, feeding
interpretations of the songs most associated with
each other.”
the artistry of Ella Fitzgerald. The 4:15-5:30 p.m. set on Sept. 23 is at the
“Ella is essential to my own artistry; women performing in this world of mostly male musicians
Jazz Kitchen. I spoke with Brenda and Yvonne on
have to take on a certain quality,” said Williams.
the phone, on Sept. 15, to learn how they have
“I wake up in the middle of the night and think
been preparing for the tribute.
about how I presented a song and how I can do
“We have already done the groundwork for
more with it. I’m a performing artist, not just a
this tribute, following in her footsteps from the
singer standing in front of a band. I can walk out
start of our careers,” said Brenda Williams. “From
on any stage with any band, with a rehearsal or
Ella, I learned how to command my audience; it
not, [like Ella] I’m making everyone comfortable.”
has been my role not only to honor it but pass
“We all bring something different to the pro-
it on. Ella shed her shyness and fears when she
gram; we bring something different every time we
stepped on stage. The audience fed her. The more
step out on stage. I’m learning every time I work;
you feed, the more energy comes forth.
I’m a student of the work,” added Allu.
“I am living the life she led as a performer, to
“I just would like everyone to come out and
hold you and tell a story. Her abilities as a story-
experience us doing Ella in our own way; discover
teller are at the forefront. Audience members have
something about being Ella at different points in
told me, ‘When you sang that song I’ve heard for
your life,” Williams says. “It’s a privilege to be part
years, a new aspect of the story came out.’”
of working with all the players [of the IJF Band].”
Williams added, “We all chose our songs, researched them and have our personal stories to
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Taylor McFerrin grew up a hip-hop head in a jazz house BY KYLE LONG // KLONG@NUVO.NET
A TRIBUTE TO ELLA FITZGERALD BY A FEARSOME FOURSOME CARRIES ON HER LEGACY
Yvonne Allu says, “Ella Fitzgerald is the
BEAT BABY
— RITA KOHN
T
aylor McFerrin will (literally) close out this year’s Indy Jazz Fest as the last act at the Sunday Block Party, McFerrin goes on at 11:45 p.m. inside the Jazz Kitchen. I couldn’t think of a more poetic way to end this year’s festival than to nod at the future possibilities of jazz music which has shape-shifted through 100 years of musical evolution and revolution. Taylor McFerrin grew up a hip-hop head inside a jazz house. His father is the famed jazz vocal wizard Bobby McFerrin and Taylor’s music both reflects and challenges that background. Mixing live instrumentation, samples, beats and beatboxing in a thoroughly individual sound. It’s no surprise he was signed to Brainfeeder, home to forward-thinking artists like Thundercat and Flying Lotus. If you love innovative electronic sounds, don’t miss McFerrin’s debut Indianapolis performance. KYLE LONG: Your debut EP Broken Vibes came out in 2006, I love that record, and I used to play the track “Georgia” in my DJ sets all the time. At that time, I knew nothing about who you were, or how this music was made. But I’ve since learned that all the rhythms on that project were created through your own skills as a beatboxer. Has beatboxing played a significant role in your music making? TAYLOR McFERRIN: It did at that point a lot more. It was a really big part of live show. When I was in high school I really wanted to be a hip-hop producer and beatboxing was just something I did in my circle of friends.
I was the designated beatboxer, if there was a freestyle or anything like that. It was something I did out of habit, it was never something I tried to perfect. When I ended up moving to New York at 19, it was my introduction to being a performer. There were a few bands I would play out with, and I realized I could beatbox onstage and that was something people would be into. Whereas my whole life up to then I was just a shy kid making beats. So beatboxing introduced me to the stage. When I did that Broken Vibes EP it was during the height of my beat boxing onstage. So it was a natural way for me to build rhythms on a track. I did try to layer them in a certain way to make them sound more like a production and less like beatboxing. I thought it was cool when that EP came out that people didn’t listen to it as a beatbox project. I thought that was something of an accomplishment for me at the time. KYLE: Do you still incorporate beatboxing into your live performances? TAYLOR: I usually do some things that incorporate it. Since most of the time I do a straight-up solo show, I try to start tracks in different way so it says interesting. I’ve been to a lot of shows with electronic music producers and there can be a disconnect with the audience because it feels like the artist is just pressing buttons and you’re not quite sure what they’re doing. Usually at my shows, in the first two or three songs I do a beatbox thing to create a live song and that helps break the ice with the audience.
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TAYLOR McFERRIN //
KYLE: You started out making music as a beat producer. Did you want to be a DJ Premier who was producing tracks specifically for an MC to rhyme on, or did you always picture your music standing on its own merit?
TAYLOR: I really just wanted to be a straight up hip-hop producer. It’s funny, there were a lot of subtle things that opened up and led me into a different direction. I wasn’t really up on researching stuff, so when I decided I wanted to make beats I just went to Guitar Center and asked what was NUVO.NET // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // THE BIG STORY // 9
The Big Story Continued...
REVIEW
SHOWING OFF THE HAMMOND B3 IN FULL RANGE
Tony Monaco is a brand an unto himself. I heard
worldly sounds to me.” Indeed, the first offering is
him at the Indy Jazz Fest fundraiser at the Stutz a
witnessing the world at its birth — every day — and
month or so ago and again on Sept. 15 as part of the
our strut into its midst as we find our place within
IJF Organ Summit package. He’s critically tagged as
the milieu.
“burning” the iconic Hammond B3 organ, robustly
With Jonathan Kreisburg on guitar and Xavier
described as a “monster” instrument embraced by
Breaker on drums, Dr. Lonnie treated us to the
the select clutch of jazz organ aficionados spinning
better parts of ourselves. I was hearing his
off from the legendary renditions of “Fats” Waller
forward momentum arm-in-arm with the newest
taking the pipe organ in a strident path from its
generation — most recently I was touched by the
original roots as the church instrument of choice.
thoughtful approaches by Nick and Joel Tucker
Waller, in the 1920s, interwove gospel with the up-
and by Charlie Ballantine, so I felt the kinship with
and-coming secular idioms, getting folks on their
this icon, who is respecting what’s coming up,
feet not necessarily for “amens.”
giving momentum to what has been.
Monaco’s forte is rhythmic invention, bringing
Using every aspect of the organ in unison as a trio and solo, Dr. Lonnie gave play to gospel,
the electronic Hammond B3 to its
blues, jazz, essaying 1950s bossa nova
fullest capacity as an impetus to
into the 21st century for a new beat
get moving.
where melody and rhythm con-
With Tony Gayle McClung
front, go for the kill and equally
on drums and Joshua Hill
claim the groove.
on electric guitar, Monaco
the newest beat machine I could obsess over. They convinced me to get a Roland SP-808. It was a sampler that wasn’t really great for making hip-hop beats. I really should’ve gotten an MPC. If I would’ve gotten an MPC I probably would’ve gone in more of a hip-hop direction over my career, because the MPC is the definitive beat making machine. So, on the SP-808 I ended up chopping up all these samples that were meant to be played live with a live band. That really opened me up to playing with other musicians live. So I became a weird combination of beat maker and live musician. I was slowly learning to play keys, but I had all these sounds and samples I could play in a band context. I think that opened me up to being more of a live performer than I would’ve if I had bought an MPC.
Smith rolled a new song out
is free to roam, skirting in and out of wisps of melody,
from the one just concluded,
flying high, zooming in, dig-
testing waters, holding back, and this time teasing us into a
keeping a listener on alert. He
ballad emanating from a singerly
LO
.
can be oh-so-subtle and within a
LD
DR
ON
ging down, zagging around, NN
blink, bounce you off the wall. The aha moment for this penchant
IE
SM
MA ITH / / P H OTO B Y
RK
SH
E
source within him. He held us breath-
less with single notes and pregnant spac-
es, whooshed out breath with a glissando and
hit me when I learned Monaco started playing the
then layered on a dash of picaresque roguishness.
accordion when he was eight years old. With the gift
He lead us into dreamy as easily as into whimsy —
of a Jimmy Smith album, Monaco became immersed
little cat’s feet or a cacophony of thundering hooves
in jazz organ and never looked back. Jimmy Smith is
asserting territorial supremacy.
recognized as popularizing the Hammond B-3 elec-
Witnessing something akin to wizardry, it
tric organ as the bridge between 1960s soul and jazz
came to me that Dr. Lonnie’s relationship to the
improvisation. The National Endowment for the Arts
Hammond B3 is as a lover; Tony Monaco as its
named Jimmy Smith the NEA Jazz Master in 2005.
conquering hero.
A dozen years later, on April 3, 2017, Dr. Lonnie
The history of the Hammond organ seminar on
Smith was designated Jazz Master, to add to just
Saturday afternoon rolled out the experiences of
about every other top music award. According
Don Leslie, inventor of the Leslie Speaker, as relat-
to his biography, Lonnie Smith affectionately
ed by his son, Jim Leslie, and the ups and downs of
received the “Dr.” title from his fellow players
the Hammond company by Lonnie Smith – not to
“because he likes to ‘doctor’ up the tunes with his
be confused with Dr. Lonnie – VP of George Smith’s
unique improvisational stylings.”
Music Center, Inc. located in Anderson, Ind., where
Unique and transforming are what we experienced Sept. 16 in the back-to-back Jazz Organ Summit programs at the Jazz Kitchen. Atmospheric seems inadequate as a descrip-
the Hammond organ lives on. I admit to taking a moment to recall Melvin Rhyne, the jazz organist most remembered for his work with Wes Montgomery. Mr. Rhyne was
tion for what Dr. Lonnie Smith birthed musically
born in Indianapolis on Oct. 12, 1936 and died on
from the Hammond B3. He has said, “The organ
March 5, 2013.
is like the sunlight, rain and thunder. It’s all the
10 // THE BIG STORY // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET
— RITA KOHN
KYLE: I love your debut album Early Riser, which came out in 2014. The record is filled with some fantastic guest appearances including Robert Glasper, Thundercat, and Nai Palm of Hiatus Kaiyote. I wanted to ask about “Invisible / Visible,” which features both your dad Bobby McFerrin, and the amazing Brazilian jazz pianist César Camargo Mariano. In 1977 César and his band Cia made a brilliant record called São Paulo • Brasil. I know that record is a big influence for you, how did you get the chance to work with César? TAYLOR: He’d become one of my heroes. My old roommate, who is a producer under the name Hayden, he put me on to a lot of great music. He played that São Paulo • Brasil record once when we lived together, and I was like, “Oh my god, what is this?” It quickly became my most played album of the year. It was one of those albums I played so much that I knew all the parts and moments and sounds. César really accomplished something on that record that is one of my ultimate goals, to create something that sounds and feels so amazing the first time you listen to it, but it doesn’t feel like they’re trying to be overly showy or complex. But then
the more you listen to it, the more you can discover all these amazing little flourishes. He immediately became one of my musical heroes off that record. I actually ended up working with César because I would always talk about that record in interviews. There’s a lot of interviews where I’ve referenced how much that record meant to me. His son told him that I was doing that, and sent him an interview I did. So he reached out on Facebook to say thank you for showing props to that record, and then he was like, “Oh, by the way, I live in New Jersey now.” So he invited me over and I hung out with him and his wife. I played him a bunch of stuff off my record. At that point the track was just a loop that I let him do a long solo over. So I had this crazy long solo, probably a ten minute solo. Then I did the same thing with my dad, I brought the loop over to him and let him solo over it for like 20 minutes. So both of their solos are in there, I think César’s are at the beginning and end. My dad’s is all chopped up, he was being super goofy at the studio that day and kind of ADD. His solo was all over the place. So I chopped it up quite a bit. It was a complete honor to get César on the record. Obviously, I wanted my dad to be in the record. I always want him to be part of my projects. I don’t know if you know, but my dad was the one doing the vocals on “Georgia.” KYLE: Yeah, I figured that out eventually. You’ve been on some of your dad’s albums too. Your even credited on his first album Jubilee, which came out in 1982. TAYLOR: I was technically in the room when they recorded it, but I was like one year old. There was a chorus of people on one track singing the hook, and my mom was holding me while they were doing that. So, I was there. KYLE: Early Riser was released on the Brainfeeder label, which is home to artists like Kamasi Washington, Thunder Cat, Flying Lotus and other musicians working in this space where jazz, hip-hop and electronic
NUVO.NET/THEBIGSTORY REVIEW music are kind of freely circulating together. I’m curious if you view your music as existing within the within the continuum of jazz music? TAYLOR: I have a hard time saying I’m a jazz musician. I never really focused on mastering an instrument in a jazz context. Keyboard players put in over 10,000 hours easily just to be a decent jazz player. I couldn’t really sit in on a jazz gig on keys and be like, “Hey guys, let’s do this standard in this key. Let’s go.” The part of jazz that’s ingrained in me is that I grew up around a ton of jazz and improvisation through my dad. Then the music that got me interested was the fusion era with Herbie Hancock and George Duke and Stevie Wonder. They all started using Moog synthesizers and ARP Odyssey and all those early analog synths. That era of sound and sonics is what really got me into music. Almost all the hip-hop I loved growing up was from producers who were sampling that era of jazz. So, it’s the sonics of that era that has really influenced me the most. I’ve spent my life trying to collect analog synths and getting my studio to the point where I can have that vibe. I think on Early Riser you can hear the sonics of that era. I feel like I’m part of that lineage in the sonic range, but I couldn’t jam with any of these jazz cats for real. Though I do fit in with a lot of amazing jazz musicians. Someone like Robert Glasper has incorporated this feel where it’s like he’s playing hip-hop loops live. I can definitely vibe on that level, but there are so many degrees of mastery when it comes to jazz. I’ve got my foot in the door, but I’m doing my own thing with the production.
5-TIME GRAMMY WINNER RANDY BRECKER AT THE JAZZ KITCHEN
RANDY BRECKER // PHOTO BY MARK SHELDON
Randy Brecker’s trumpet rolls out with sumptuous clarity. He nails each note with precision and fulsomeness. There’s nothing skimpy or pinched with Brecker, and that’s what we got in equal measure from every other player on stage with him, including Rob Dixon, Steve Allee, Nick Tucker and Kenny Phelps on Sunday night at the Jazz Kitchen. There’s never any doubt about the evocative playing by the Indianapolis Jazz Collective, but partnering with Brecker they were up a notch to truly inspired. Brecker’s compositions upfront feel so very approachable and then comes the complexity powered by his expansive curiosity about worldwide locales and cultures. As a session player in New York City recording studios in the 1960s and ‘70s, before hitting the road with his own band, Brecker developed deep roots in the history of each genre growing in groves of their own. The gift from Brecker is the ease of rock, the groove of funk, a tinge of bop, tease of soul and blues melded with the harmonic vocabulary and improv of jazz in all its manifestations. The easy fusion belies the intelligence behind every tune. Opening with the happy-go-lucky “Dirty Dogs,” Brecker shared front of stage with Dixon at his wailing best, followed by whimsical takes by Allee and Tucker and leaving Phelps to bring it all to happy closure. What’s not to feel joyful about “The Marble Sea”? The beat is infectious with a reappearing tune that circles in your head with staying power into the next morning — and maybe thereafter.
KYLE: I know you’re working on a new LP. Any idea when we might see that? TAYLOR: I don’t have a release date, but it’s not going to be too far off. I’m getting pretty close. So, I would expect people to hear something very soon.
The swing of “Ebony,” the modality of “Moontide,” and the craziness of an encore tune that’s a bit of a Brecker signature showcased five players fusing together and stretching off each other for a session that’s as intimate as being in the moment of something you’ll hold in your head and gut. I came home hoping someone recorded the happening. — RITA KOHN
NUVO.NET // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // THE BIG STORY // 11
The Big Story Continued...
REVIEW
WITH LOVE TO DIZZY AND ELLA
A FRIEND’S TRIBUTE
Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie received a virtuoso 100th birthday trib-
Ignacio Berroa honors friend and mentor Dizzy Gillespie
ute at the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center at UIndy on Thursday. The IJF
BY KYLE LONG // KLONG@NUVO.NET
band — Rob Dixon, saxophone; Mark Buselli, trumpet; Ernest Stuart, trombone; Steve Allee, piano; Nick Tucker, bass; Kenny Phelps, drums; and vocalist Yvonne Allu — matched spoton the distinctive styles of the two performers most associated with bringing to the fore a new vocabulary leading to the modern jazz era. They became household names by the mid1930s, and were affectionately referred to as Ella and Dizzy. This pair were part of cauldron bubbling up the popular era of swing with the surprises inherent in bebop articulation and the exotic Afro-Cuban, Afro-Latin American rhythms enriching the landscape of dance halls, music clubs, radio and the recording industry. The night opened with Gillespie’s 1945 bebop mainstay and now jazz standard, “Groovin’ High.” The IJF players showcased their moxie, spinning off intriguing textures in groupings and solos. It’s a classic example of what is described as Gillespie’s “strange and difficult” relation to the melody, and yet it’s precisely that elaborate configuration of complexity imposed on the chordal scheme we typically expect, that intrigues. Allu equally brought us into Fitzgerald’s inimitable reconfiguration of well-known songs. Listening to Allu bring us into “How High the Moon” — Ella’s signature tune along with “Lady Be Good” — I was reminded of Gershwin’s comment that he didn’t know how good his songs were until Ella sang them. That became patently clear with “Summertime,” a standout rendition by Allu and the IJF players working in unison and off each other, with scat-singing in unison with horns impeccable. Ditto for renditions of “Night and Day” and “Blue Skies.” The rafters rattled with the band cutting loose with “A Night in Tunisia.” The battle of drums, with Buselli shedding his jacket to take on the bongos against Phelps, showcased the sheer delight of “Manteco.” — RITA KOHN
I
gnacio Berroa will host a centennial salute to jazz icon Dizzy Gillespie at the Jazz Kitchen on Wednesday, September 20. In many ways the Cuban-born jazz drummer’s career has been defined by the decade he spent manning the drum kit in the bebop pioneer’s band. An oft-cited quote from Gillespie praises Berroa as the only Latin drummer to master both Afro-Cuban music as well as jazz. “Dizzy Gillespie was my mentor and friend,” Berroa says when we speak. “I spent 10 years with Dizzy and we became friends. He was like my father, so I’m happy to have this opportunity to be at Indy Jazz Fest to pay tribute to his music. That’s what we’re going to do since this year would’ve been his 100th birthday. “I love Dizzy a lot. I learned to speak this terrible English while I was in his band. He helped me a great deal in learning to speak English.” Jazz was Berroa’s passion as a young man in Cuba, but in Castro’s post-revolution society his music of choice was contraband. So when the Mariel boatlift of 1980 presented an option to exit the island, Berroa quickly jumped on board – literally. He arrived in the U.S. with no formal jazz training, and relatively limited direct contact with the music. But quickly, Berroa worked his way into the highest echelons of the music. Berroa has accumulated an incredible discography of music, performing on classic discs from McCoy Tyner, Paquito D’Rivera and a host of other jazz luminaries. Berroa also carved out an impressive recording career during his time in Cuba, “In 1975 I became the first call drummer
12 // THE BIG STORY // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET
for EGREM, the only studio in Cuba. I played on 90 percent of all the recordings made in Cuba between 1975 and December of 1979.” Berroa told me. Indy Jazz Fest will offer Hoosier jazz fans a unique opportunity to hear one of Cuba’s greatest jazz players pay tribute to one of the key figures in the development of Afro-Cuban jazz in the United States. KYLE LONG: You were born into a musical family. Your father played violin in some of of the biggest charanga orchestras in Cuba during the 1950s, including one of my favorites Fajardo y sus Estrellas. I understand that you initially followed in your father’s path and studied violin. IGNACIO BERROA: Yeah, my first instrument was the violin. Mainly because my mother wanted me to be like my father. KYLE: So you studied the violin to please your parents? IGNACIO: That was exactly the situation. When I was eight or nine-years-old my mom gave me a little violin and I started taking lessons from my dad. But my mom passed away when I was 10 years old. My father at the time was a violinist for the radio and TV orchestra in Havana, and he used to take me every day to the recording studio. I was always hanging out with the rhythm section. Why? Because one day after my mother passed, my father brought home an album by Nat King Cole. It was Nat King Cole that got me into jazz. When I heard Nat King Cole, something struck me that I can’t explain. I knew that jazz was my passion. A few days later I heard an album with
the Glen Miller big band featuring Gene Krupa on drums. When I heard that album, I said to myself, “I want to be a drummer.” So Nat King Cole got me into jazz, and Gene Krupa made me switch from the violin to the drums. KYLE: I’ve read that you were also a Beatles fan growing up. You know, there’s a lot of propaganda going back and forth between the U.S. government and Cuba. I’ve always heard that in the early days the revolution, rock and roll and jazz were not permitted by Castro. IGNACIO: That is true, and a lot of people have tried to hide that. For people in my generation, jazz music was kind of prohibited. During the ‘60s if you got caught walking on the streets with a Dizzy Gillespie album, or a Rolling Stones album, you would end up in jail. At that time the Cuban revolution thought that music was promoting the enemy. Yes, it was prohibited, and you could get in trouble if your neighbor heard you listening to jazz. Playing anything from the United States was considered promoting the enemy. That’s something that new Cuban generations don’t know about, but it happened. It has changed a lot. Now they have a jazz festival every December. As a matter of fact, the first time I want back to Cuba after I left in 1980, it was in 2002 when I went to the Havana Jazz Festival to play with Gonzalo Rubalcaba’s trio. That was my return to Cuba. KYLE: You began your professional career in music in Cuba around 1970. You played on some amazing records during that time, and you were part of an interesting group called Grupo De Experimentación Sonora. Tell us about your time performing music in Cuba. IGNACIO: I began my career playing with a jazz group. This is something that is controversial. There used to be a pianist in Cuba named Felipe Dulzaides. He was a political prisoner who got in trouble during the revolution. He served three years as a political prisoner. When he got out they allowed him to put his band together, but they put him in a place called Varadero Beach, which was a couple hours away from Havana.
NUVO.NET/THEBIGSTORY REVIEW When I got out of the army, someone told me he was looking for a drummer and I went to play with Felipe Dulzaides. He was a big fan of George Shearing, the English pianist and we used to play every style of music from samba to the music of Blood, Sweat & Tears. The reason we were allowed to do that is because it was in a place where only tourists would see us. We never did a TV show, and we were never played on the radio. I spent two years with that band. One good thing about Varadero is that it’s very close to Key West, Florida. We were able to listen to all the radio stations from Key West and Miami. So it was great being in Varadero, and being able to listen to that music everyday. From there a pianist named Emiliano Salvador, who was a great influence on the development of Afro-Cuban jazz, he invited me to be part of the group you mentioned. The original idea of that group was that it would make the music of all the documentaries and films in Cuba. The group used to belong to the film department in Cuba, which was called ICAIC (Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos). So the group was called Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC. In the ‘70s that band was
IGNACIO BERROA //
also allowed to play some jazz and fusion, but always with an Afro-Cuban element. We weren’t allowed to play too many concerts. We were a group that existed, but at the same time we really didn’t exist. [laughs] KYLE: You voluntarily emigrated from Cuba to the United States in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift. I read an interview you did with Ted Panken in 2014 where you said, “the main reason why I left Cuba was because I always wanted to be a jazz drummer.” IGNACIO: That was the main reason in a sense. I wanted to come to the United States because of my passion for jazz. But the main reason I left is because I didn’t want to waste my life living under a dictatorship. I did want to find my place in the jazz world, but the main reason I left is because I wanted to find freedom. I’m not a politician and I don’t like to talk about politics. So I always said I came to this country because of my passion for jazz. I know the Leftists don’t want to hear that I came here looking for my freedom. KYLE: You risked a lot coming to the United States. How did that feel landing that gig with Dizzy so quickly? IGNACIO: How do you think? Many times I thought I was living in a dream. I remember one day a friend of mine who is a painter asked me that question and my response was, “Could you imagine what it would mean to you if Pablo Picasso was alive and he called you to be a part of his team?” That’s what it meant to me being Dizzy Gillespie’s drummer. Most importantly, I understand the role I was playing, because I was a Latino and I was playing trap drums for Dizzy. I was an example for musicians in different countries who were thinking at that time, “Can I go to New York and make it?” I demonstrated to everybody that you can. If you are prepared, you can. I came from a tiny island in the Caribbean with no opportunities to play jazz, and I arrived to one of the biggest
countries in the world and became Dizzy Gillespie’s drummer. A lot of ignorant people think I was Dizzy’s conguero. No, I was his drummer for 10 years. Not conga drums, trap drums. KYLE: On this subject of jazz trumpet, you also played with Freddie Hubbard. Freddie is one of our great jazz icons here in Indianapolis. IGNACIO: [laughs loudly] Listen! He’s the greatest trumpet player I have ever played with. Freddie Hubbard is my favorite player. You can write that. Dizzy Gillespie was the father of bebop. Dizzy was my friend, my father, my everything. But if I had to pick one trumpet player that I loved playing with? Freddie Hubbard. It was an amazing experience playing with him. Freddie is closer to my generation. When I started playing with Dizzy Gillespie I was 26, and Dizzy was 65. When Dizzy was famous in 1957 when I was four years old. Dizzy started his career in the ‘40s. I was more attuned with Freddie. I’m not saying who is best, but my favorite trumpet player is Freddie Hubbard.
YEAR FOUR FOR AVENUE INDY
ORIGINAL FOUNDERS OF AVENUE INDY //
Avenue Indy Jazz Quintet, celebrating its fourth year, continued its momentum with their signature nod to the heritage of Indiana Avenue’s storied past on Sept. 13. Bassist Jon Block and Jake Richter, subbing on drums, joined original founders, trumpeter Jeff Conrad, saxophonist Rich Cohen and pianist Gary Potter to deliver a mix of standard and new arrangements and new compositions. A May IU Jacobs School of Music graduate, Richter bears watching. The promised premiere of Conrad’s arrangement of “La Fiesta” surfaced half-way through the first set, treating us with spirited solos by Block, Conrad and Cohen, definitively joining the pantheon of composer Corea, followed by signature personal takes by Ferguson and more recently Diana Haddad. A Corea standard since 1972, Conrad’s arrangement artfully extends the flamenco modes as a celebratory tune, with the quintet as
KYLE: Your new album is titled Straight Ahead From Havana. I understand the concept was to take classic Cuban standards, and as the title says interpret them in a straight jazz style. IGNACIO: Man, some people have been writing some things about this album that are not correct. Somebody wrote that I took Afro-Cuban tunes and interpreted them straight ahead. First of all, the tunes on this album are not Afro-Cuban. These tunes are melodies that I heard during my youth in Cuba. Most of the tunes are famous boleros. My intention was to do a straight-ahead jazz album, because that is my passion. But I didn’t want to do an album playing tunes that other drummers have done on their jazz albums playing American standards. So for years I’ve been working to put together a list of Cuban tunes that would fit what I wanted to do. That’s what the record is all about. N
a whole raising the bar of cohesive playing. No room for misery here. Potter’s original “Starless” provided a changeup to a balladic mode. And, as if on cue from my 2015 first anniversary review, Conrad’s jaunty original “Yat’s Blues” returned as a tribute to the indefatigable Joe. Totally delightful was the take on “Wonderful World” complete with growls and reverbs. Louis Armstrong never left the room; neither did Sinatra when “It Was a Very Good Year” wafted across us. And guess who else showed up? Oh yes, the suave Everett Greene, tuning our hearts to his with “Autumn Leaves,” and linking caring with “God Bless the Child.” Even though Conrad explains, “Our goal is to engage our listeners and keep the music interesting and accessible to them, not to “educate” them,” this listener felt intellectually as well as emotionally fulfilled by program’s end, especially in this year of turmoil when anything hopeful is welcome. — RITA KOHN
NUVO.NET // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // THE BIG STORY // 13
SEPT.
READ THIS
21
EVENT // Colson Whitehead WHERE // Butler, Schrott Center for the Arts TICKETS // FREE but ticketed
SEPT.
24
EVENT // Opening of Banned Books Week WHERE // Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library TICKETS // FREE, RSVP
WE LIKE BANNED BOOKS AND WE CANNOT LIE
KVML’s Banned Books Week includes a prisoner from #Tralfamadore BY REBECCA BERFANGER // ARTS@NUVO.NET
T
he Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library will introduce its prisoner, Dr. Greg Bravehorse, at a reception on Sept. 24 as part of its opening night for Banned Books Week. Bravehorse is a time and space traveler from a moon called #Tralfamadore and Deputy Director of the #Tralfamadore Memorial Micro-Library. His spokesperson is the eerily similar-looking and sounding Craig Brandhorst, senior writer for the Office of Communications and Public Affairs at the University of South Carolina. Okay, so they are the same guy. Probably. Just go with it. While imprisoned at the Vonnegut Library between a wall of books and the front window throughout the week, Bravehorse will type his observations of Earth. He will also occasionally take breaks to type 140-character micro-novels, common on #Tralfamadore. Tralfamadorians are a fictional race mentioned in several Kurt Vonnegut novels. The good doctor will use the antiquated 20th century contraption known as a typewriter — a Smith Corona — as he is a typewriter enthusiast. The Smith Corona isn’t one that Vonnegut actually used, but it comes from the museum’s collection. Bravehorse will feel at home, says his spokesperson and not-at-all-the-same-person Brandhorst, because Smith Corona is also the name of the bar he frequents on his moon where writers and other misfits have found a sense of community not unlike the regulars on Cheers. (Vonnegut once told TV critic David Bianculli he wished he had written the iconic 1980s show.) According to Brandhorst, on #Tralfamadore, a cyber-cerebral language virus flourished where man and machine merged. The virus, called ICE-140, limited all communica-
tion to 140 characters, including entire books. Kurt Vonnegut’s classic novel Cat’s Cradle, is known on #Tralfamadore as #CTS CRDL. according to Brandhorst. “Somebody tried to write a book about somebody who invented a bomb,” he said, providing his nutshell description of Cat’s Cradle. “Somebody else invented something that freezes water: It’s sad and funny.” Bravehorse has recovered from ICE-140 and now suffers from Type 2 Verbosity, allowing him to speak and write unlimited words. In addition to hosting Bravehorse, the Vonnegut Library will celebrate the release of Kurt Vonnegut Complete Stories at the Indiana State Library on Sept. 28. Dan Simon of
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Seven Stories Press, who edited and published Vonnegut’s final three books, will interview one of its editors (and occasional NUVO writer) Dan Wakefield. The reception for the book release will then take place at the museum. The Vonnegut Library is still located at 340 N. Senate after a projected move earlier this year. The Library was set to move to a new location at 646 Mass Ave, but significant structural problems were found in the building at that address and the move was aborted. They are currently in search of a new location. This year’s celebration of Banned Books Week, Sept. 24-29, is also part of the Year of Vonnegut events around the city that will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the author’s death.
GREG BRAVEHORSE //
Vonnegut’s books make frequent appearances on the American Library Association list of banned and challenged books. So it comes as no surprise that the Vonnegut Library has continuously championed free speech. As part of Banned Books Week, the museum will host daily events, including book readings; public discussions about First Amendment issues; the release of Kurt Vonnegut Complete Stories, which includes five previously unpublished pieces, and of course, an opportunity to interact with Bravehorse. (Each year the Vonnegut Library takes a different person prisoner to celebrate Banned Books Week, and that prisoner lives in the Library during that period.) Of Kurt Vonnegut Complete Stories, Simon said, “Kurt was our good friend at Seven Stories for about 30 years: a deep friendship. And in different ways that was true with each of the parties who had a hand in this book.” Those parties include Wakefield and the book’s other editor, Jerry Klinkowitz and Executive Director, Julia Whitehead; the Lilly Library at IU Bloomington, which houses Vonnegut’s archive of papers; and Dave Eggers who wrote the forward. “We did not re-edit the stories that had been published already, and with the previously unpublished stories we kept the editing to an absolute minimum,” Simon said. “In fact, even though The Atlantic made small edits to the version of “The Drone King,” those changes are not in this anthology.” “Kurt saw the world darkly, and yet could also create and laugh,” Simon said. “I think more and more people today are willing to face the world darkly, and so the notion that you can do that and still laugh and create, well, perhaps there’s nothing more important than that complex vision.” N
SEPT.
GO SEE THIS
26
EVENT // Lienzos Americanos art exhibition WHERE // Circle South Gallery TICKETS // all-ages
STILLS, TRAVELING
THRU SEPT.
29
EVENT // Contemporary Glass from the Heartland WHERE // Gallery 924 TICKETS // all-ages
Thanks to Nathan Foxton, there’s more on this table than fruit
BY DAN GROSSMAN // DGROSSMAN@NUVO.NET
T
ranscending the Tabletop, in the Harrison Center for the Art’s Underground Gallery until Oct. 30, isn’t your typical Harrison Center group exhibition. Curated by Harrison Center artist Nathan Foxton and Dayton, Ohio-based Julie Anderson, it’s set to become a traveling exhibition this year, one of the first times an exhibition has gone on the move after opening at the Old Northside venue. Foxton came to the Harrison Center after receiving an MFA in painting from Indiana University Bloomington in 2014. He can be credited for bringing some fresh ideas to the sprawling nonprofit arts center with its plethora of galleries that feature new work by both beginning and well-established artists. Foxton has curated several shows at the Harrison Center before this one including the Summer Landscape show in July, 2016. This show featured a wide array of landscape paintings by a wide array of Indy and Bloomington artists outside the Harrison Center orbit such as Indy-based Carla Knopp, whose studio is in the Circle City Industrial Complex, and Tim Kennedy, who teaches painting at IU Bloomington. But this is Foxton’s first traveling exhibition originating from the Harrison. Later this year, the exhibit will travel to Dayton, Ohio to the Dutoit Gallery. From there, it will go to the Fifth Street Gallery in Dayton. It features work by artists from five states as well as work from Harrison Center artists, including Foxton. You won’t see much in the way of traditional still life subject matter like fruits and bottles in this exhibition which features both 2D and 3D work. There, is however, a strong engagement with art history in a number of the works here, including “Cubist Sunflower” by Virginia-based John Lee. Just as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque created images in their paintings with
RHYZOMATIC PORTAL STABILIZER BY NATHAN FOXTON //
interlocking geometrical shapes in the early days of the 20th century — images that often only vaguely suggested their titles — John Lee hints at a particular form with “Cubist Sunflower (Elvis is Atlas).” A roll of electrical tape (resting in a coffee cup) is depicted as the central disc in this painting that suggests a sunflower, with a dinner plate propped behind it. Surrounding the plate are various items such as bright yellow books in the place of petals. If North Carolina-based Christina Weaver’s painting “Tenebrium” (oil on panel) has a similar engagement to art history, it’s hard to see it. Even the title is hard to pin down. When looking at the crinkled, shiny, sometimes sepia-toned
surface of the thing being portrayed against a black backdrop, definitions slip away from you. But, if you have a painterly appreciation for, say, dialogues between form and color — in this case a very minimal use of color — then you might find this particular painting very engaging. The Brooklyn, N.Y. based Amy Mahnick’s “Pink Aggregate,” is as perplexingly-titled as Weaver’s. (If you’re like me, catching yourself constructing narratives about ambiguous artwork titles, then maybe it’s best not to think too much about the titles). “Pink Aggregate” only seems like a still life in the sense that the image is frozen in time. Only some of the items that are portrayed — the fragments of items, rather — seem to be resting on a tabletop. The rest of the items (the kind of stuff you might find in a Hallmark shop) seem to be floating in the air. This painting might be the artist’s attempt to throw all traditional notions of perspective out the window. Or maybe the artist is attempting to portray the moment when some bad dude comes into a Hallmark spraying the place with an AK-47 and fragments of Christmas ornaments and condolence cards go flying. (There I go again with my narratives.) I don’t want to give short shrift to the 3D work here. An assemblage by Harri-
son Center artist Kipp Normand titled “Flying Dutchman” is something of a visual pun as it features Dutch wooden clogs on roller skates. Although using clogs as roller skates has been done before, I’d say it’s a fairly safe bet that this is the debut appearance of roller clogs in a still life show. It’s also a pretty sure bet that a painting with the title “Rhizomatic Portal Stabilizer” has never before graced a still life exhibit. This work, one of Foxton’s contributions to this exhibit, portrays mechanical contraptions and then something that resembles — save for its sleek black surface — a window built like two perpendicular sides of a box, with its frame protruding towards you at an angle. Yet the black surface of the window, if that’s what it is, appears flat. It’s like a cut-rate approximation of Vantablack — the world’s blackest material — swallowing all notions of traditional perspective — although you can just make out the vague outlines of a house in the darkness. Of course, given the title of this exhibition and his choices for it, this playing with perspective is par for the course. And Foxton, like others in this exhibition that he curated, doesn’t seem to feel that that his paintings need to be framed by explanation. In some sense, these paintings transcend words. Welcome to the language of color and form. As far as titles are concerned: let’s just say if you Google “Rhizomatic Portal Stabilizer” you’re not going to get any hits. The fact that “rhizome” means “mass of roots” in ancient Greek, is a helpful hint, however. If you ask Foxton about this title, he’ll probably tell you (because he told me) the following: “Certain plants have this web of roots and I like to think about that in terms of ideas.” N NUVO.NET // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // VISUAL // 15
SEPT.
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21
WHAT // Dead Man WHERE // Indiana University Cinema TICKETS // Prices vary
SEPT.
26
WHAT // Santo Y Blue Demon vs. los Monstruos WHERE // Circle South Gallery TICKETS // FREE
LOSING HIS RELIGION
The Good Catholic’s got humanity and local ties galore BY REBECCA BERFANGER // ARTS@NUVO.NET
S
ure, The Good Catholic, filmed in Bloomington, Ind., has Hoosier roots, just like director Paul Shoulberg’s 2015 film Walter, which was shot in Indy. But you don’t just go to a film for its local ties, do you? That is, you don’t want to just be soaking up university town ambience and hilly terrain on the silver screen. So thankfully there’s a somewhat compelling story here for you. The plot centers around Father Daniel (Greencastle, Ind. native Zachary Spicer), a young priest who has recently lost his father. While he’s experiencing a crisis of faith, he encounters a mystery woman in the confessional (played by Wrenn Schmidt, who we later find out is a barista and musician named Jane), who shares her concerns about arrangements for her own funeral. It’s unclear if she’s actually dying or just dying in the sense that we’re all going to go some day. As someone who frequents the YouTube channel, “The Order of the Good Death,” which features a mortician in Los Angeles, and as someone who has also lost a parent to cancer, I felt that the conversations about
death and dying were the most authentic parts of the film. (Shoulberg’s father also died of cancer a couple years before the film and the movie is a tribute to him.) It seems like a bit of a stretch, however, that Daniel was so willing to open about his own existential crisis with a woman who happened to walk in off the street because the light was on for Friday night confessions. Perhaps, as someone who was deep in grief, Jane was in the right place at the right time. Daniel may have also felt that he couldn’t share this with his fellow priests, parishioners or his own family. And this openness early on makes you wonder whether Daniel will wind up taking off his cleric’s collar for Jane, as it were. Daniel tells Father Victor, expertly played by Danny Glover, that there is a new woman in his life without giving too many specifics. While Victor doesn’t pull any punches in his response, he ultimately wants to help Daniel decide whether he wants to remain committed to the priesthood. His frankness made me wonder if Victor had experienced something similar when he was younger —
16 // SCREENS // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET
BUSKIRK-CHUMLEY THEATRE IN BLOOMINGTON // through Sept. 22 GEORGETOWN 14 IN INDIANAPOLIS // through Sept. 22 FLIX BREWHOUSE IN CARMEL // through Sept. 21 ARTCRAFT THEATRE IN FRANKLIN // Sept. 27 only REBECCA SAYS // e
perhaps a childhood sweetheart or platonic friend that made him think, “What if?” Then there’s Father Ollie, played by John C. McGinley, best known as Dr. Perry Cox on Scrubs. The character is basically Dr. Cox, which I mean in the best possible way. That is to say, he’s basically Cox if Cox had retired to become a priest wearing basketball shoes under his brown robe. Now imagine also if Cox had a bobblehead of Pope Francis in his car, smoked and led the church choir (played by IU’s a cappella choir Another Round). Do you get the idea? Although Victor warns Daniel he could end up like Father Cox, er, Ollie, if he gives up his morning jogs, Ollie is just living his best life.
I wouldn’t recommend this film on the romantic comedy aspect alone. This lapsed Catholic remains unsure how likely it is for a priest to contemplate leaving the life of faith for a woman he has only known for a few months. I’ve heard of widows who become nuns, and widowers who become priests or deacons. And after viewing the film, I learned that Shoulberg’s parents met when his father was a priest and his mom was a nun. So it is, of course, possible. However, I did think Daniel and Jane were likeable and real in their… courtship? Friendship? It’s unclear whether they are on the same page early on (also relatable). I would recommend this movie because the film gives humanity to the priests in their day-to-day lives. You get a sense of them giving baptisms, administering last rites, watching ball games, eating breakfast, and giving each other honest feedback on their homilies. It wasn’t overly emphasized or dramatized, just natural. And, of course, even if you didn’t go to IU, you can’t beat Bloomington as the backdrop. N
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23
FOOD EVENT // Indianapolis Chinese festival WHAT // A huge celebration of Chinese culture WHERE // Wood Plaza at IUPUI
EATING ‘ROUND THE WORLD
Savor the International Marketplace takes diners on a culinary journey
GENERAL TSO’S CHICKEN FROM LUCKY LOU’S //
PICADITA SALSA DE TOMATE FROM LA MESTIZA //
BY CAVAN McGINSIE // CMCGINSIE@NUVO.NET
H
ave you ever felt the desire to travel the world? To experience different cultures? To meet people who have lived an entirely different life than your own? To share a meal with these people? Wanderlust is a real and common human emotion, and while we may feel it nagging at our souls, we can’t all just up and leave Indianapolis and go on an endless journey around the world. But that would be nice, wouldn’t it? Luckily, there is an area of our city where we can experience something close to this odyssey without ever leaving the Hoosier state: the Northwestside’s International Marketplace. And there’s a brand new event coming to this bustling strip of eateries and shops that will take you on this journey while keeping your wallet full. Savor the International Marketplace runs from October 1 through October 15. The
event will highlight over 20 restaurants with cuisines spanning from Mexico and Peru to Ethiopia and Guinea to China and Vietnam, and many more countries. This event will coincide with another International Marketplace event, Taste the Difference Festival and Sister Cities Fest, which is a single-day event on Sept. 30 that will allow diners to get small bites from many of the same restaurants involved in Savor. “We are so fortunate as a city to have an area like Indy’s International Marketplace that represents so many different cultures,” says Susan Decker of Susan Decker Media, the group that devised the concept with the help of the International Marketplace Coalition. “I want to help diners feel welcome and explore Indy’s International Marketplace while experiencing a taste of the world without having to leave the city.” Working alongside Mary Clark, the execu-
tive director of the International Marketplace Coalition — a non-profit organization that according to its website has helped facilitate “economic growth and development on the northwest side of Indianapolis,” — Decker recognized the vision for this area (formerly known as Lafayette Square). “I quickly realized how a restaurant week event like Savor the International Marketplace would bring people from all over the city, state and Midwest together to explore this vibrant community,” Decker says. Her company has worked in the past with similar restaurant weeks around the city like Devour Downtown, Devour Northside, Chow Down Midtown and Devour Indy. Decker has worked diligently to get an eclectic mix of restaurants around the area to join in the event and to share their cuisines and their cultures at a discounted price. Just a few of the over 20 restaurants included are
Abyssinia, which serves Ethiopian cuisine; Apna Kitchen, an Indian restaurant with one of the best buffets you’ll ever taste; Havana Café for those who want to savor some jamón and mojo; Lucky Lou’s, the only place in Indy for dim sum; and the newly opened Oaxacan restaurant La Mestiza. “I like people to know that Mexican food isn’t just fajitas and tacos and nachos; it’s more than that,” says Elizabeth Juarez, the owner of La Mestiza. Juarez is excited to be a part of Savor the International Marketplace because it will allow her to share the culture and cuisine of her home state of Oaxaca with the people of Indianapolis. The American view of Mexican food is just that — many people think Mexican food is just Mexican food. But Juarez says we couldn’t be more wrong about that. “When you go to Mexico and you go to a different state, it’s like going to a differNUVO.NET // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // FOOD+DRINK // 17
NUVO.NET/FOOD+DRINK
THANK YOU FOR DINING WITH US. WE LOVED YOUR TENDERLOIN PICS. HERE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVES.
Melissa — Aristocrat Pub
Susan — Dawson’s
Josh — Union Jack Broad Ripple
SEE YOU NOV. 13 FOR INDY BACON WEEK IndyFoodWeeks 18 // FOOD+DRINK // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // 100% SUSTAINABLE / RECYCLED PAPER // NUVO.NET
ent country,” she says. “It’s totally, totally, sum meal and how they hope that focus on totally different. tradition and hard work is something people “There is a dish that we call a tlayuda that around the city get a chance to understand comes on a huge tortilla. I have to order and enjoy during Savor. those from Oaxaca. You won’t find it any “It’s hard to keep people working to make other place in Mexico that will make it, it’s dim sum,” says Pun as we share some shrimp exclusive there. Then the way we [prepare] dumplings, pork shumai, and bao along with the meat, the chorizo, it’s just so different.” some flower tea. “Our chef makes it every After one taste of the food at La Mestiza, I day. He comes in early every day. On Saturget it. The tamale is unlike any other tamale day and Sunday, he comes in at, like, 2 a.m. I’ve ever had the joy of tasting. Instead of because we open at 10 a.m.” the thick outer coating of masa I’m used to, Pun goes on to share that the dim sum La Mestiza’s tamales elotes has a thinner chef has been studying the art of dim sum for wrapping made from elotes — the popular years, “He had experience from China where Mexican street food of grilled sweet corn on he had been working. You keep doing it and the cob. The dish has a sweetness to it that is practicing it and get lots of experience to do matched by a spiciness it. It’s something we do from the seasonings, and every day, all day.” “I hope those all wrapped perfectly The popularity of the around a cube of pork dishes drives people in in our city learn that is is so tender I am from all over. Liu, who just how amazing able to slice through it gained interest for food with nothing but the side China where she made Indy’s International in of my fork. potstickers and delivered Marketplace is and Juarez explains that them to schools, says, for some visitors the “We have people from how there’s no differences on the menu all over Indianapolis, other place like it.” can be surprising and a even people from Ohio. little hard to get used to, Everybody that comes — SUSAN DECKER especially the fact that says it’s very good.” Pun a meal at La Mestiza follows up by saying,” We doesn’t come with the get 5 stars. Some people offering of chips and salsa. say better than Chicago, or San Francisco or “We give you a little bit of soup,” she says, even New York.” which is the way you would be greeted in As for Decker, she is excited to share the Oaxaca. The soups are made of “lentils or food these people are making with more peobeans, or a fideo soup — which is vermicelli ple around Indianapolis and she hopes Savor soup.” (She adds that they will give you chips brings more awareness to the incredible food and salsa if you really must have them, but being made down the 38th Street corridor, “I she hopes that people will give the authentic hope those in our city learn just how amaztradition a try.) ing Indy’s International Marketplace is and This focus on long-standing traditions is how there’s no other place like it. mirrored at another of the restaurants you “The International Marketplace is more could choose to venture to during the Savor than one building — it’s an area consisting of event. Lucky Lou is a Chinese restaurant more than 800 ethnic businesses representthat is known for its dim sum, a Cantonese ing 150 languages.” tradition that focuses on small bites of food She finishes “Developing Savor the shared around a table. Lucky Lou happens to International Marketplace has been one be the only dim sum restaurant in Indiaof the most fulfilling projects I’ve ever napolis, and it’s something any adventurous worked on in my career. I’ve felt exeater should take the time to try. tremely welcome in every restaurant and Lucky Lou’s owners, Lisa Pun and May Liu, shop and want others to have this same explain just how much work goes into a dim experience.” N
A RELUCTANT VOICE Durand Jones was finally convinced to sing BY SETH JOHNSON // MUSIC@NUVO.NET
D
urand Jones remembers exactly the first time he ever received praise for his singing voice. “I always was singing at home, and my grandmother got tired of it,” recalls the small-town Louisiana native. “So she was like, ‘I want you to sing in the choir at church.’ “The very first couple of months being in the choir, I was so nervous — I didn’t know how to sing with people. But once I got really comfortable, the choir director heard my voice and made me sing a solo, and the whole church flipped out. “People were handing me money afterwards.” It’d be years before Jones would finally make the most of this talent, however. Classical saxophone studies led him to Bloomington, Indiana, where he still lives. Once a member of Indiana University’s esteemed Kenari Quartet, Jones didn’t put his voice to work again until he
was asked to sing in the IU Soul Revue. “I had an assistantship at the IU Soul Revue, and my job was to write horn parts,” Jones says. “The director at the time asked me if I would sing with the band, to which I reluctantly said yes. I was like, ‘Man, I’m not singing anymore. I want to be a saxophone player.’” Although he didn’t know it at the time, this fateful opportunity is what led to the start of his current soul band, Durand Jones and the Indications. Having now played all around the U.S., Durand Jones and the Indications features all four members of much-loved Bloomington rock band Charlie Patton’s War — one of whom happened to be a sound engineer for the Soul Revue. “Blake Rhein (guitarist of the Indications and Charlie Patton’s War) approached me and was like, ‘Yo, I write some soul tunes with my friends, and if you ever wanna hang out, that’d be really cool,’” Jones remembers. “I didn’t have any friends at
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the time, so I thought it was a really good opportunity to make some friends. So I said. ‘Yeah!’ ” Drummer-vocalist Aaron Frazer — also of the Indications and Charlie Patton’s War — was eventually invited to join. “I got a phone call from Blake [saying], ‘Hey. Come down to the studio and meet this dude. He’s a great singer. Let’s write some songs together,’” Frazer says. These hangouts came to be called Soul Sundays. “We’d always hang out on Sunday nights,” Jones says. “Someone would come up with a riff or a melody or some chords, and we would just go off of it. It was so organic.” Eventually, the Soul Sunday crew decided it was time to play a show as Durand Jones and the Indications, so they asked promoter Dan Coleman at the Bishop about a date. “We were only supposed to play one show and just be done,” Jones says. “But, it just went so well. The room was packed out, and people were really excited about it.” After this experience, they decided it’d be in their best interest to continue on. The next step for Durand Jones and the Indications was to release some music. From their low-key recording sessions, the band already had amassed a collection of tracks. “We would just meet weekly, listen to records, and then just head down to the basement and record, jam and just mess around with ideas,” Frazer says. “I think what made the recording process really special for me was there was no expectations at all. There weren’t really aspirations
behind it. We were just making music to make music, which I think is a really healthy thing to do at any level.” “Terry Cole [founder of Ohio-based funk and soul label Colemine Records] was the one who was really pushing for this to be a project that was going to be released,” Frazer says. “When we were recording the songs, we were just doing it for fun. He was the one who was like, You know, I think there’s something here. Let’s put it out.’” As expected, Cole had little trouble selling the debut full-length from Durand Jones and the Indications, especially to independent record stores. “Digitally, there was no traction because the band really wasn’t touring,” Cole says. “But in the independent record store, we sold out the day of the first run, and that almost drove the hype.” Since the success of the record, Durand Jones and the Indications have risen to national notoriety, playing shows all across the country. “I’m from the middle of nowhere, the poorest of the poor, so for me to be on the road traveling and seeing all these different things that I know no one in my immediate family has seen…I feel blessed,” Jones says. “I didn’t expect that anything like this would happen when I moved up to Indiana.” “When we did this first album, we did it because it was something that we enjoyed doing and it made us feel good,” Jones says. “I think I can speak for the rest of the dudes when I say that that’s all we want with the next album as well.” N
OUT THIS WEEK
ARTIST // Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton ALBUM // Choir
ARTIST // Ariel Pink ALBUM // Dedicated to Bobby Jameson LABEL // Mexican Summer
of The Mind LABEL // Last Gang
WEDNESDAY // 9.20
THURSDAY // 9.21
SATURDAY // 9.23
SATURDAY // 9.23
SATURDAY // 9.23
THURSDAY // 9.28
THURSDAY // 9.28
The Weeknd 7 p.m., Bankers Life Fieldhouse, prices vary, all-ages
Gaelynn Lea 9 p.m., Pioneer, 21+
Rocky Ripple Festival 11 a.m., all-ages
Stiff Little Fingers 8 p.m., The Vogue, 21+
You’ll recognize Gaelynn
This year, 80 artists will
This marks the 40th anni-
Sylvan Esso 8:30 p.m., Egyptian Room at Old National Centre, all-ages
Irvington Halloween Festival September 28 - October 28, prices vary, some all-ages
Lea as the winner of NPR’s
stop by Rocky Ripple Fes-
versary tour for Irish punks
Lotus Fest September 28 - October 1, venues and prices in Bloomington vary, some all-ages, some 21+
Forget Rocket Man. We’ve
second annual Tiny Desk
tival, which kicks off at 11
Stiff Little Fingers. Death
We first saw Sylvan Esso
got StarBoy. Gucci Mane
Contest; her fiddle and
a.m. There’s food, yep, and
By Unga Bunga opens.
when the duo was tapped
Every autumn, Lotus Fest
tion of all things spooky
and Nav will open for the
mournful voice on “Some-
beer, too.
by Volcano Choir for an
organizers bring a carefully
has plenty of music and
R&B radio hitmaker.
day We’ll Linger in the Sun”
opening slot at the Vogue;
curated selection of the
nightlife elements, sure,
on her winning vid brought
at that point, they barely
world’s greatest musicians
but it’s also one of the best
tears to everyone’s eyes.
had an EP together, and
to the Hoosier state for a
event series in all of Indy to
Bigfoot Yancey and Achilles
we couldn’t wait for a full-
weekend full of unforgetta-
bring your kids. Don’t miss
Tenderloin will open.
length release for the elec-
ble performances. In addition
the closing weekend street
tro-pop band. Asthmatic
to the always brilliant artist
festival, the ghost tours, the
Kitty signee Helado Negro
lineups, Lotus Fest benefits
masquerade ball, the trivia
will open.
from a thoughtful approach
nights, the pumpkin carving
to the sequencing.
contests and more.
WEDNESDAY // 9.20 Ignacio Berroa CuBop Quintet, Jazz Kitchen, 21+ Happy Hour at the Symphony, Hilbert Circle Theatre, all-ages NoBunny, The Cowboys, White Rabbit Cabaret, 21+ Mondo Cozmo, Flagship, Howard, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Chon, Deluxe at Old National Centre, all-ages Walk the Talk: “ Forgiveness”, The Vogue, 21+ Jamie Kent and The Options, The Rathskellers, 21+
THURSDAY // 9.21 Kim Boekbinder, Milo, The Melody Inn, 21+ Shooter Jennings, The Hi-Fi, 21+ Altered Thurzdaze, The Russ Liquid Test, Mousetrap, 21+ ZZ Top, Clowes Memorial Hall, all-ages Kublai Khan, No Zodaic, Left Behind, I Am, Hoosier Dome, all-ages Make Love Festival, The Vogue, 21+
Tops, The Bishop (Bloomington), 18+ Go Yuck Yourself, State Street Pub, 21+
FRIDAY // 9.22 Charlie Ballantine Trio, Pioneer, 21+ Trick Daddy, The Vogue, 21+ Corey Smith, 8 Seconds Saloon, 21+ Circle City Classic Cabaret, Indiana Farmers Coliseum, all-ages Sullivan Fortner, Jazz Kitchen, 21+ Bselli Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, Indiana Landmarks Center, all-ages Joan Osborne: Sings Songs of Dylan, Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts, all-ages The World Is A Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid To Die, Hoosier Dome, all-ages Local Motion, Coastl, The Hi-Fi, 21+ The Why Store, Mousetrap, 21+ Stella Luna, The Rathskeller, 21+
Complete Listings Online: nuvo.net/soundcheck
This month-long celebra-
SATURDAY // 9.23
BARFLY
BY WAYNE BERTSCH
Zepparella, The Hi-Fi, 21+ The Werks, Egi, Mousetrap, 21+ RaeLynn, 8 Seconds Saloon, 21+ Alison Brown, Ball State University, all-ages Indy Jazz Fest Block Party, Jazz Kitchen, 21+
SUNDAY // 9.24 TV Mike and the Scarecrowes, LUNA Music, 21+ Matchbox Twenty, Counting Crows, Klipsch Music Center, all-ages Pepe Aguilar, Murat Theatre at Old National Centre, all-ages Frances and The Foundation, Arc and Stones, Heartland Heretics, Melody Inn, 21+ Penny and Sparrow, Lowland, The Hi-Fi, 21+
TUESDAY // 9.26 Jonny Lang, The Vogue, 21+ Son Little, Doe Paoro, White Rabbit Cabaret, 21+
NUVO.NET // 09.20.17 - 09.27.17 // SOUNDCHECK // 21
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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Psychologists say most people need a scapegoat — a personification of wickedness and ignorance onto which they can project the unacknowledged darkness in their own hearts. That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news: The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to neutralize that reflex and at least partially divest yourself of the need for scapegoats. How? The first thing to do is identify your own darkness with courageous clarity. Get to know it better. Converse with it. Negotiate with it. The more conscientiously you deal with that shadowy stuff within you, the less likely you’ll be to demonize other people. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): If the weather turns bad or your allies get sad or the news of the world grows even crazier, you will thrive. I’m not exaggerating or flattering you. It’s exactly when events threaten to demoralize you that you’ll have maximum power to redouble your fortitude and effectiveness. Developments that other people regard as daunting will trigger breakthroughs for you. Your allies’ confusion will mobilize you to manifest your unique visions of what it takes to live a good life. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.” declared comedian Steven Wright. My Great Uncle Ned had a different perspective. “If at first you don’t succeed,” he told me, “redefine the meaning of success.” I’m not a fan of Wright’s advice, but Ned’s counsel has served me well. I recommend you try it out, Gemini. Here’s another bit of folk wisdom that might be helpful. Psychotherapist Dick Olney said that what a good therapist does is help her clients wake up from the delusion that they are the image they have of themselves. CANCER (June 21-July 22): What is home? The poet Elizabeth Corn pondered that question. She then told her lover that home was “the stars on the tip of your tongue, the flowers sprouting from your mouth, the roots entwined in the gaps between your fingers, the ocean echoing inside of your ribcage.” I offer this as inspiration, Cancerian, since now is a perfect time to dream up your own poetic testimonial about home. What experiences make you love yourself best? What situations bring out your most natural exuberance? What influences feel like gifts and blessings? Those are all clues to the beloved riddle “What is home?” LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): You’re most likely to thrive if you weave together a variety of styles and methods. The coming weeks will be a highly miscellaneous time, and you can’t afford to get stuck in any single persona or approach. As an example of how to proceed, I invite you to borrow from both the thoughtful wisdom of the ancient Greek poet Homer and the silly wisdom of the cartoon character Homer Simpson. First, the poet: “As we learn, we must daily unlearn something which it has cost us no small labor and anxiety to acquire.” Now here’s Homer Simpson: “Every time I learn something new, it pushes out something old.” VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Filmmakers often have test audiences evaluate their products before releasing it to the masses. If a lot of viewers express a particular critique, the filmmaker may make changes, even cutting out certain scenes or altering the ending. You might want to try a similar tack in the coming weeks, Virgo. Solicit feedback on the new projects and trends you’ve been working on -- not just from anyone, of course, but rather from smart people who respect you. And be sure they’re not inclined to tell you only what you want to hear. Get yourself in the mood to treasure honesty and objectivity. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The poet E. E. Cummings said, “To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight;
and never stop fighting.” On the other hand, naturalist and writer Henry David Thoreau declared that “We are constantly invited to be who we are,” to become “something worthy and noble.” So which of these two views is correct? Is fate aligned against us, working hard to prevent us from knowing and showing our authentic self? Or is fate forever conspiring in our behalf, seducing us to master our fullest expression? I’m not sure if there’s a final, definitive answer, but I can tell you this, Libra: In the coming months, Thoreau’s view will be your predominant truth. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “When you do your best, you’re depending to a large extent on your unconscious, because you’re waiting for the thing you can’t think of.” So said Scorpio director Mike Nichols in describing his process of making films. Now I’m conveying this idea to you just in time for the beginning of a phase I call “Eruptions from Your Unconscious.” In the coming weeks, you will be ripe to receive and make good use of messages from the depths of your psyche. At any other time, these simmering bits of brilliance might remain below the threshold of your awareness, but for the foreseeable future they’ll be bursting through and making themselves available to be plucked. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Author Barbara Ehrenreich has done extensive research on the annals of partying. She says modern historians are astounded by the prodigious amount of time that medieval Europeans spent having fun together. “People feasted, drank, and danced for days on end,” she writes. Seventeenth-century Spaniards celebrated festivals five months of each year. In 16th-century France, peasants devoted an average of one day out of every four to “carnival revelry.” In accordance with current astrological omens, you Sagittarians are authorized to match those levels of conviviality in the coming weeks. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Kittens made French Emperor Napoleon III lose his composure. He shook and screamed around them. Butterflies scare actress Nicole Kidman. My friend Allie is frightened by photos of Donald Trump. As for me, I have an unnatural fear of watching reality TV. What about you, Capricorn? Are you susceptible to any odd anxieties or nervous fantasies that provoke agitation? If so, the coming weeks will be a perfect time to overcome them. Why? Because you’ll be host to an unprecedented slow-motion outbreak of courage that you can use to free yourself from longstanding worries. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “The brain is wider than the sky,” wrote Emily Dickinson. “The brain is deeper than the sea.” I hope you cultivate a vivid awareness of those truths in the coming days, Aquarius. In order to accomplish the improbable tasks you have ahead of you, you’ve got to unleash your imagination, allowing it to bloom to its full power so it can encompass vast expanses and delve down into hidden abysses. Try this visualization exercise: Picture yourself bigger than the planet Earth, holding it tenderly in your hands. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I got an email from a fan of Piscean singer Rihanna. He complained that my horoscopes rarely mention celebrities. “People love astrological predictions about big stars,” he wrote. “So what’s your problem? Are you too ‘cultured’ to give us what we the people really want? Get off your high horse and ‘lower’ yourself to writing about our heroes. You could start with the lovely, talented, and very rich Rihanna.” I told Rihanna’s fan that my advice for mega-stars is sometimes different from what it is for average folks. For Piscean mega-stars like Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Ellen Page, and Bryan Cranston, for example, the coming weeks will be a time to lay low, chill out, and recharge. But non-famous Pisceans will have prime opportunities to boost their reputation, expand their reach, and wield a stronger-than-usual influence in the domains they frequent.
HOMEWORK: Imagine what your life would be like if you licked your worst fear. Describe this new world to me. Truthrooster@gmail.com
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