SEPTEMBER 2017

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SEPTEMBER

6

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS HERBIE HANCOCK | 20 Master blaster and genre jumbler, Herbie Hancock rocks it.

JOHN DOYLE | 22

Henry C. Pitz, Pomp and Circumstances at Sketch Club

8

5 | Model

FILM 26 |

REEL NEWS The Big Sick

6 | EXHIBITIONS I

16

Certain Women Heal the Living

157th Anniversary Gala Philadelphia Sketch Club 2017 Design Philadelphia The Art of Richard Cleaver Delaware Art Museum

Like Crazy

29 |

FOREIGN Superstar

29 |

DOCUMENTARY Minimalism: A Documentary About Important Things

8 | EXHIBITIONS II Faculty-Student Invitational Show AOY Art Center Steven Van Zandt in Rumble- The Indians Who Rocked The World (2017).

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MUSIC 30 |

JAZZ, ROCK, CLASSICAL, ALT Jon Langford

Bucks County Inspired Philadelphia Calligrapher's Society Silverman Gallery

Ben Hunter & Joe Seamans with Phil Wiggins Omri Ziegele’s Where’s Africa Trevor Babb

Riverside Festival of the Arts 21st year

Isabel Leonard/Sharon Isbin

FOODIE FILE 10 | To aMuse and Amaze

Chet Doxas

32 |

POP A Little Lititz, A Little Gaga

ENTERTAINMENT 12 | Valley Theater

33 |

JAZZ LIBRARY Mickey Roker

34 |

SINGER / SONGWRITER

12 | City Theater Herbie Hancock.

14 | The List

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39 | Agenda

Rick Shea & The Losin’ End The Nighthawks

FILM

Shawna Russell Randy Newman

16 | Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World

ABOUT LIFE

18 | The Great Wall 24 | FILM ROUNDUP ON THE COVER: “Geografía de la faz,” Acrylic on Canvas, 60 x 48, By Rigo Peralta. Bethehem House Contemporary Gallery, 459 Main Street, Bethlehem.

BethlehemHouseGallery.com. Through October 7.

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“The most resourceful Sondheim interpreter of his generation” — Ben Brantley, The New York Times

ART

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ICON

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Living Beyond the Death of a Loved One

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Harper’s Findings & Index

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L. A. Times Crossword

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ESSAY AND PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

art

MODEL WHEN I PAINTED WILLIS last year he was busy preparing a couple hundred traps for lobster season, which I thought was unusual because he is widely known as a boatbuilder. Willis Beal lobster boats are sought out for their style, strength, and attention to detail, and they bring a premium if you can get your hands on one. I was surprised that he was going to be fishing instead.

Willis is not as young as he used to be, in fact he’s older than me and I haven’t been as young as I used to be for years. Boatbuilding is hard work, but hauling traps is, too. If I had to do that for a living I’d be dead in less than a week. Which reminds me: you’ll remember Willis as the guy who built a coffin for his friend, who has since put it to use. You don’t see that much around here. Willis is also the guy who uses pencils until they can’t be sharpened any more, then puts them in a special drawer just in case.

I stopped by Willis’ shop again this spring to say “Hi,” and found him building a model boat—one of his own designs, naturally. The model was about four feet long, and he was constructing it in the same way he makes the real ones.

Building a full-size wooden lobster boat is pretty complicated. One thing that fascinates me is how (warning: naïve oversimplification) they build it twice. First, a precise internal framework is constructed and covered with wood strips. That defines the shape, and at that point it looks just like the boat. Then they remove the framework a little at a time to attach permanent ribs inside the skin of strips. Then they replace the strips with planks. A lot of handwork is involved in all of this but it gets you to a good boat.

That’s how Willis was building the model—making it out of oak and cedar left over from a real boat, cut down to small sticks trimmed and beveled with a blade. He was steaming the thin pieces in his wife’s electric frying pan and bending them into place using small clamps and tiny screws, the same way he would construct a boat ten times as large. The waiting list for his models stretches out years, not just because they take a long time, which they do, but also because he goes out all day to catch lobsters when it’s that time of year, and has work to do on the boat when it isn’t. But the models are worth waiting for, same as his big ones.

There are other model makers who approach the job with the same obsessive doggedness as Willis, and some

go even further overboard in pursuit of authenticity and detail, but there’s no contest here. It’s the difference between an airplane model of the Spirit of St. Louis built by a superb craftsman, and one made by Lindbergh. Which are you going to take?

I set up my easel close to Willis so I could talk with him while we both worked. Willis has a lot to say and it’s all worth listening to. I couldn’t get the view I wanted, though, so I decided to move to the far end of the shop and dragged my stuff over there. That put me too far away to hear him clearly, so Willis had to settle for talking to himself. Every time he pinched a piece of oak out of the frying pan he would shake his hands in the air and make a gosh and goodness fuss about getting his fingers burned. I could hear him going on and knew I was missing a lot of good stuff.

Willis takes the concept of not wasting anything a little further than most people, because for him everything is something. His lobster boat was on stands in the shipyard between seasons and he had fastened small cardboard squares to the hull in areas prone to drying out over the winter, such as where end grain is exposed. I rarely see anyone else do that but Willis is old school, and he learned a lot there. I noticed that each patch was cut from a grocery store carton and had its hull location written on it with a Sharpie, such as “waterline stem,” or “port transom top,” with an arrow for up. I asked one of the guys working in the yard if Willis labeled the cardboard scraps because he uses the same ones every year.

The guy nodded his head. “Uses the same staples too,” he said as he lifted a new rudder out of his truck. “Probably the same holes.” n

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EXHIBITIONS I

Photo: Chris Kendig Mildred Sands Kratz, AWS (1923-2013), “Open Season on Decoys,” watercolor, 21.25” x 28.75”

157th Anniversary Gala Philadelphia Sketch Club 235 South Camac St., Philadelphia Saturday, October 21, 2017, 6:00 to 10:00 PM A couple of decades ago the Sketch Club decided to enhance its Annual Gala Anniversary celebrations by presenting medals to artists who have made significant contributions to art. This year's awardees are Alan Fetterman, Al Gury and Signe Wilkinson. Artists that have been honored at this event in the past have included Tony Auth, Jan Baltzell, Robert Beck, Moe Brooker, Diane Burko, Vincent Desiderio, Cindi Ettinger, Eileen Goodman, Garth Herrick, Alex Kanevsky, Liz Osborne, Bill Scott, Zoe Strauss, Jamie Wyeth, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Edmund Bacon. The medal to be presented is a three-inch bronze showing the Club’s corporate seal. It was sculpted by Joe Winter, a PAFA alumnus, after the corporate seal designed in 1889 by Henry T. Cariss. The Gala will be a fun affair and your participation will certainly make it a meaningful event. The Gala will include a catered dinner, open bar and a live auction of works by the honorees and other nationally known artists. Auctioneer will be David Weiss, vice president at Freemans and specialist on the Antiques Road Show. Tickets: sketchclub.org or 215-545-9298.

Alan Fetterman, “Color in Carversville,” oil, 12” x 14”

2017 Design Philadelphia Events happening in multiple Philadelphia locations DesignPhiladelphia.org October 4–14 Kick-off Party, 10/4, 6–10pm The 2017 DesignPhiladelphia Festival highlights some of the best designers Philadelphia has to offer, while also celebrating some of the world’s greatest designers. Tyler Hays of BDDW is both. His company, BDDW, is a world-renowned furniture design company with its headquarters right here in Fishtown. Millésimé, an Old City staple, is bringing Guilio Cappellini to highlight the Italian furniture company’s work, and also to moderate a discussion with local designers about a project for Bok Bar in South Philly. Jefferson, now merged with Philadelphia University, has an impressive list of events on its East Falls and Center City campuses. Additionally, the Center for Architecture and Design will host FitCityPHL 3, a one-day conference that challenges designers and the public health community to work together to solve public health issues. The first weekend of the Festival, the Center will transform into the Art Star Market, while on the second weekend, NextFab will host their Maker Market, providing opportunities for local makers to sell their wares.

Photo: Chris Kendig (detail)

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House on Fire V, 2014. Richard Cleaver (born 1952). Hand-built ceramic, wood, freshwater pearls, quartz, Swarovski crystals, metal, gold leaf, painted in oil, 22 × 8 1/2 × 6 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Photograph by Dan Meyers. © Richard Cleaver.

Tableau: The Art of Richard Cleaver Delaware Art Museum 2301 Kentmere Parkway Wilmington, Delaware 302-571-9590 delart.org September 16, 2017 – January 7, 2018 Richard Cleaver creates elaborate figurative sculptures full of hidden compartments to capture the lives and secrets of historical figures and personal acquaintances. Cleaver received his bachelor of fine arts degree from Maryland Institute College of Art and completed a master of fine arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The artist is fascinated by monarchies, mythology, and religion and these themes form the subjects of his work. Constructing the sculptures in clay, Cleaver then paints meticulous patterns and applies precious and semi-precious stones to create the sumptuously decorated surfaces.Tableau: The Art of Richard Cleaver surveys the artist’s most recent sculptures and the private worlds they reveal.

EXHIBITIONS II

Four Ladies In A Window, Barry Koplowitz, 24x36, oil on linen (detail)

Faculty-Student Invitational Show AOY Art Center 949 Mirror Lake Road, Yardley PA artistsofyardley.org October 6 - 22 Fri, Sat, Sun 12-5PM Opening Reception Friday, 10/6, 6:00 PM It is often said that a good teacher brings out the best in their students. The Artists of Yardley Faculty/Student Show showcases just how much talent has developed from classes taught in our Art Center. We are proud to exhibit several works by Students who continue their creative studies by returning back to classes as well as works from our Faculty.

This is an invitational show that is intended to demonstrate the skills and talents of AOY students and our talented and skilled instructors. Our students’ stories are of new beginnings, of people who have discovered anew their artistic self, and people who found a passion after concluding a career. Their displayed work must have been started or been inspired during the AOY 20162017 calendar session. The AOY Faculty are all teaching artists in their own right who opt to share their talents and training with the aspiring.

Steady By The Sea, by Anne Gannon, 8x10, encaustic

Rhonda Garland, Fraktur with Cockatiels.

Bucks County Inspired Juried Exhibition - Philadelphia Calligrapher's Society Silverman Gallery 4920 York Road, Holicong, PA Buckingham Green, Rt. 202, 5 mi. so. of New Hope September 10-30 Philadelphiacalligraphers.org Silvermangallery.com Opening reception, September 10, 1-4pm Calligraphy demos, September 17, 1-4pm Bucks County Inspired, draws from the words and influences of the long tradition of artistic greats who have called Bucks County home.

The PCS is a non-profit association which seeks to advance the knowledge and appreciation of calligraphy and to encourage the exchange of ideas among our members and the art community. Established in 1976, the Society’s purpose is to promote the study and practice of calligraphy and allied arts and to focus public attention on its use and beauty.

Membership is open to anyone regardless of calligraphic ability. Whether you are a professional artist, a student, a hobbyist, or a calligraphile, PCS provides information, workshops, creative opportunities, and a community of colleagues for scribes throughout the Delaware Valley.

At the Silverman Gallery, the theme for September is “giving back.” Gallery owner, Rhonda Garland has loved and practiced calligraphy since she was in high school. New to the Philadelphia area in 1999, she joined the Philadelphia Calligraphers’ Society (PCS).

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Riverside Festival of the Arts 21st year Scott and Riverside Parks Larry Holmes Drive, Easton, PA 631-455-2195 Eastonriversidefest.org September 16 & 17; 10–5 Over 70 fine artists and artisans, crafters, free demonstrations and workshops. Juried arts gallery and plein air contest up to $4,000 in cash prizes. Food trucks, libations, live music, performance dance, theater, children’s poetry, special needs interactive youth area, Crayola arts tent. After Riverside: The James Supra Band and Sarah Ayers, September16, 5:30–7.

New this year: Native American grass dancer/flute/hooper, Freddy Theatre Group, stilt walkers, sculptured hair as art, skin art, open mic onstage, taco contest, performance, free Yoga & Tai Chi, calligraphy & parasol crafting, more.

YouTube: Riverside Festival of the Arts Easton.

Instagram & Twitter: EastonRiversideFest. #eastonriversidefest @eastonriversidefest

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A.D. AMOROSI

FOODIE FILE

To aMuse and Amaze

WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF seeing September menus—a new thing as top tier restaurants treat advance menu items like Trumped-up state secrets—discussing the fresh autumn season will take a moment. So, hello, and thank you for waiting. With that, however, there are enough late summer entries and events to crow about throughout the region.

First and foremost in terms of charity is Feastival, the September 28 food frenzy in support of the 2017 Fringe Festival. The premise, as always: you’ve seen the two weeks’ worth of weird live shows, now have a cocktail and some of the best couture cuisine in Philly with hosts and co-creators Nick Stuccio, Steven Starr, Michael Solomonov and the (still) new(ish) kid on the culinary block, Nicolas Elmi. The party is at FringeArts, 140 North Columbus Blvd.

Sept. 28, 7 p.m., Tickets: phillyfeastival.ticketleap.com

O

ne of the heights of suburban dining springsummer 2017 has been the new-ish Farm & Fisherman Tavern on Horsham Rd. in Horsham, PA, a strip mall respite from downtown Philly. From the same chef that brought us the quaint and tasty, muchmissed, aptly-named Pine Street Farm & Fisherman BYOB (Josh Lawler) and the heady aromas and flavors of Tangerine in Old City (Todd Fuller), these former Philly guys partnered for F&F Tavern in May and immediately began spotlighting local growers and producers from Bucks and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania distilled spirits (PA wines to tap, too) and Pennsylvania-honed craft beer and cider. The chefs’ sandwiches are to die for (Triple Stacked BLTs starring molasses thick bacon and tavern-made aioli), but it’s the large diner plates you’ll make the drive for, such as Chicken in Hay with a lovely fennel pollen flavor in the crust, and its surprisingly hearty Roasted Atlantic Cod with crackling, local grit cakes. Big yum.

N

estled in—or rather, part-and-parcel of—its towering, dark lobby, the sexy hideaway of Le Meridien Hotel in downtown Philadelphia is one of this city’s secret treats, aMuse. From the base of the bar’s glowing, changing color palette to the dining room’s stately crème and navy, the look of aMuse (which shifted its décor from dusky to ever-so-slightly brighter this spring) is a sensual delight. That’s what a reported million-dollar renovation to the 202-room Le Méridien will do.

But what was once a French brasserie with traditional bistro fare (no more escargots and frisee aux lardons) is now a theatrical Franco-Philly restaurant…wait for it…inspired by the notion of muses, and the glamorous toast of local society, Jacqueline LaBelle. Yes, she’s pure fiction, a 10 n I C O N n S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V

wild, sexy, stately figment of imagination that allows the bar its handcrafted cocktails dedicated to realistic (yet still heavenly) muses such as the “Audrey Hepburn” (with St Germain elderflower), the “Frida Kahlo” (with Monkey Shoulder Whiskey) or our personal fave, “Georgia O’Keefe” (Absolut Citron with Simple Syrup and champagne) and gives aMuse its overall femme sense of finesse.

I love a good made-up backstory.

Not so fictitious is Executive Chef Andy Matulaitis’ honest-to-goodness menu, a solid and varied selection that shares a spiritual inspiration with the curated cocktails’ muse theme, but with a little more guts in its rendition. For instance, the Lancaster Farm Chicken Provencal with Pommes Puree and the classic Steak Frites (the latter, a holdover from aMuse’s brasserie days) were hearty and rich, but with enough finesse in the spicing to maintain its delicate fussiness (I heard similar raves about the Chicken Milanese with Bufala Mozzarella and Caramelized Lemon).

The Tuna and Crab Tartare Tower (sushi grade Yellowfin and Chesapeake Bay Jumbo Lump Blue Crab) was handsomely spiked by the citrus ginger soy reduction it sat in.

While there were “sharables” such as the Alsatian Tartes Flambes and the artisanal cheese and charcuterie boards, we chose to make our own romantic share with the Vermont Cheddar & Ale Fondue—a lovely sculptural ceramic pot in which to dip d’Artagnan sausage, slivers of Granny Smith apples and house-made pretzel. For a quick, stillshared dessert, the Pear Helene with two red wine poached pears, sweet marscarpone and port sauce was just the way to end the rich meal—a little tart, a little sugary, a little creamy, and port. Yes, finish anything with port and you’ve won a friend for life.

T

hinking about the switcheroos of French to French-American dining reminds me of the longtime (20 years) classical French menu of the restaurant within the Golden Pheasant Inn in Erwina, PA. The Faure family chefs (with credits at the fabled Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena) and Chef Jon Ramsay have done their own (con)version of French fare with New Gen American influences and fresh, locally-sourced foods. A Wild and Cultivated Mushroom and Ricotta Ravioli dish is gently touched by a Fulper Farms crème sauce. A Grilled Lancaster County Sirloin with chorizo sausage, quinoa, broccoli rabe, Dijon mustard and a chimichurri sauce is both too much and not enough when it comes to its muskiness and spice. The Seared Maine Day Boat Scallops with Tuscarora Farms celeriac puree, roasted carrots, parsnips, and a lemon thyme yuzu white wine sauce takes a meal I normally don’t bother with—scallops—and makes it zesty, rootsy and transcendent. n

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theater VALLEY

CITY

No Man’s Land. Two strangers become friends and enemies over two days as their stories, accusations and lies become increasingly strange in Harold Pinter’s sublimely menacing dramedy. Old pals Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, stars of stage and sci-fi film, square off in a live telecast from the National Theatre in London. (Sept. 10, Lafayette College)

Tommy and Me. This football sports play by former Philadelphia Daily News columnist Ray Didinger played to packed audiences at the Fringe Arts Building on Columbus Blvd.

Theatre Exile’s production about Philadelphia Eagles legend Tommy McDonald and Didinger’s long struggle to get McDonald into the NFL Football Hall of Fame brightened up a theater-zero August. Tommy and Me audiences applauded wildly as if the Fringe Arts stage had been transformed into Franklin Field. Directed by Joe Canuso with script input by playwright Bruce Graham (Minor Demons, Coyote on a Fence, Desperate Affections), Didinger’s play captured McDonald’s (Tom Teti) elfin quirks. Ned Pryce as Young Tommy (in football gear) had the right macho attitude, and Matt Pfeiffer was believable as the always sensible, eternally patient Didinger who never lost faith in his childhood sports hero. Seventh-grader Simon Kiley as the young Didinger—children don’t always come across well on stage—had a maturity that made you forget that he was a child, except when he leapt into the air to give or return a high five. The post-play panel discussion erupted into howls of laughter when the moderator told an inordinate number of politically incorrect jokes.

Waiting for Godot. Two tramps play, pontificate and ponder in Samuel Beckett’s savagely funny, woundingly philosophical vaudeville/farce inspired by his admiration for Charlie Chaplin’s silent clowning. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart once performed Didi and Gogo in repertory with Spooner and Hirst in No Man’s Land. (Sept. 29-Oct. 1, Oct. 4-7, Lehigh University) Jekyll & Hyde. Broadway audiences attended 1,500 performances of this cult musical revolving around a Faustian doctor whose darkness-eradicating formula backfires, transforming him into a murdering monster. Lucy, the tragic prostitute, was christened by Linda Eder, a State Theatre favorite. (Star of the Day Event Productions, Sept. 15-17, 2224, 29-30, McCoole’s Arts & Events Place, Quakertown) The Three Musketeers. Performers jived to the Jackson 5 in the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s unusually playful version of Ken Ludwig’s unusually playful version of Alexander Dumas’ novel about unusually playful swashbucklers. Director Rick Sordelet, a renowned fight choreographer, turned verbal battles into comic tennis matches and sword battles into wickedly inventive ballets. I particularly enjoyed Porthos dispatching a circle of five rivals by swiping a sword across their shins. As D’Artagnan. the musketeer rookie, Sean Patrick Higgins was engagingly bumbling and bull’s-eye. Stephanie Hodge brought a chipmunk spunk and whiplash zest to Sabine, D’Artagnan’s combative sister. Ian Merrill Peakes’ Athos was suavely sly, Zack Robidas’ Porthos mooned like Malvolio, and Alexander Sovronsky’s Aramis quoted the Bible with comic flair. Even a show-stopping blackout became a joke, with one actor quipping: “Why couldn’t the lighting have gone out during my scene?”

As You Like It. “Three Musketeers” principals alternated in the PSF’s lusty, lavish staging of Shakespeare’s most physically fit, verbally deft comedy. Dan Hodge led the parade as Touchstone, making the fool a lanky, lacerating loon. Wearing a black-and-white jester’s jumper, he nailed the new rhyme: “Have you heard of Frankenstein? He’s got nothing on Rosalind.” Marnie Schulenburg gave Rosalind a flinty intelligence and an earthy loftiness.

Zack Robidas gave Orlando, Rosalind’s naïve love student, the sturdy joshing of Chris Parnell, a former Saturday Night Live cast member. Stella Baker elevated Celia, Rosalind’s often overlooked conspirator, with winking glee. Ian Merrill Peakes elevated Jaques, the often overly melancholic killjoy, with natural humor and viscerally poetic gestures. His “Seven Ages of Man” recitation was welcomingly balanced and surprisingly spontaneous.

Esau Pritchett ennobled the brotherly dukes, lending one a Macbeth nastiness and the other a Prospero kindness. He sparked a company sing-along by wailing on sax with the rogue authority of Clarence Clemons, Bruce Springsteen’s late partner in musical mischief.

Ragtime: The Musical. Northampton Community College ended its first summer season with a robust, rich rendition of the tale of a nice suburban family united and divided by revolutionaries during America’s turn-of-the-century tumult. Justin Boyd and Shannon Dionne displayed a stereophonic, operatic, Porgy and Bess magnetism as the pianist/terrorist Coalhouse Walker Jr. and Sarah, a maid and mother of his baby. Caleb James Grochalski was vividly funny and vitally touching as Tateh, the immigrant silhouette cutter/silent filmmaker. Director Bill Mutimer and his crew did a marvelous job of arranging complex three-group choruses and dances, including a delightful simulation of a Ford assembly line. n — GEOFF GEHMAN 12 n I C O N n S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V

Fishtown: A Hipster Noir. Do hipsters consume cool, rather than create it? Here we have obscure music, a blinding blast of social media, stuffed turkey backpacks, detached discontent and pumpkin spice lattes. Tribe of Fools presents this virtual reality conspiracy when “a new app allows you to live out your wildest fantasies.” The play’s pop-up question is: What really constitutes reality? Director Peter Smith says, “We wanted to tell a story about social media and how status, tweets and photos make the Internet a stage for the world to see us; but you can't tell the story of tech and social media without grappling with sexism.” You be the judge. Caitlin Weigel’s play is a Fringe Festival offering at the Louis Bluver Theater at the Drake, Sept. 8-23.

Leaps of Faith and Other Mistakes. Diner en Blanc meets Cirque du Soleil at the Painted Bride Arts Center when weirdo acrobats dressed all in white sit on a sofa and attempt to be “exceptional in every moment.” Sometimes the forced comedy of slapstick and barb trading can lose the most attentive observer. I hope that’s not the case with these zany couch potatoes when they sit and fantasize about sailing on the high seas. Don’t forget to bring Dramamine. Presented by the Almanac Dance Circus Theater and directed

by Annie Wilson, Sept. 6-23.

The Bald Soprano. Called an anti-play, this Eugene Ionesco work was first produced in 1950. Unlike Ionesco’s Exit the King, this absurdist work does not call for humans to put off lusts and desires in order to be free. What it does do is begin all over again as soon as it ends, making one think of the endless circles of Ravel’s Bolero. It’s a conversation between two couples, a maid and the maid’s fire chief lover. Ionesco wrote the play when he was learning English. In the best tradition of the French avant-garde, it’s full of non-sequiturs and mutilated aphorisms. Ionesco hated strict realism in theater (he had a special contempt for Bertolt Brecht). The production stars Tina Brock, co-founder/producing artistic director of The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium. Sept. 5-25, Bethany Mission Gallery, 1527 Brandywine Street, 215-285-0472.

Cabaret. The stage of the Arden Theater will be transformed into Berlin’s notorious Kit Kat Club that novelist Christopher Isherwood wrote about in his 1945 book, Goodbye to Berlin. The 1972 film, described as “gay and gender bending,” starred Michael York as the bisexual Brian Roberts who has an affair with Sally Bowles while dating men on the side. How will the Arden ever duplicate Joel Grey’s majestic performance while wearing a corset, fishnets and stiletto heels? Directed by Matthew Decker and written by Joe Masteroff, Cabaret will usher in the Arden’s 30th anniversary season. Sept. 21-Oct. 22. n — THOM NICKELS

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the list

7 SHABAZZ PALACES Digable Planets’ Ishmael Butler has an intense other gig as the Sun Ra of rap— Shabazz Palaces—with two new albums on Sub Pop (“Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star” and “Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines”) both with a host of big name guests such as Thundercat, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas and the bosses of Philly International Records, Gamble & Huff. (Union Transfer) 7 MATTHEW MORRISON The head teacher from “Glee” can always wow audiences with his multi octave range and list of illustrious Broadway-credited tunes. (Steelstacks, Bethlehem)

SEPTEMBER together with Steelstacks for an interactive evening of drawing, boozing and listening to faux Thom Yorke. I’ll try anything once. (Steelstacks, Bethlehem) 8 DANZIG The prince of semi-darkness returns to metal rock out with his devil horns in full effect. (Electric Factory)

10, 11 LADY GAGA The splashy mistress of little monsters everywhere plays the WFC for two nights

15, 16 BOZ SCAGGS Scaggs will take the stage at the State for the first time in his long career, one that stretches from his Texas blues and San Francisco folkie start, through the disco 70s, and back to the blues where he’s

9 7TH ANNUAL HAVERFORD MUSIC FESTIVAL WITH MATTHEW SWEET The ultimate suburban soiree this year embraces the man behind the power pop

7 QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE Just back from its tour (and ensuing documentary) producing and backing Iggy Pop on his latest excursion, Josh Homme

classic “Girlfriend,” Matthew Sweet (his new album, “Tomorrow Forever” is lovely, too), along with NJ’s Merseybeat conglomerate The Weeklings, blues-rocker Danielle Miraglia and, from NBC's “The Voice,” Delaware soul-pop singer Nadjah Nicole with 25 local and regional artists. (info: haverfordmusicfestival.org) and Co. head back into the dessert for the brutal yet poppish new album, “Villains.” (Festival Pier)

about that which is current and caustic— and, surprisingly, he’s always funny while doing so. (Steelstacks, Bethlehem)

CURATED BY A.D. AMOROSI

10 HENRY ROLLINS The one-time leader of hardcore legends Black Flag and the muscular Rollins Band mostly talks now in lengthy monologues

8 LOW CUT CONNIE The metal rockabilly toast of Philly/Brooklyn/Birmingham, UK celebrate the first chapter of its newest recording, “Dirty Pictures (part 1),” with a hardcore hometown gig. Well, at least one of its homes.

(Union Transfer) 8 DRINK 'N' DRAW: THE RADIOHEAD EXPERIENCE W/CLIMBING UP THE WALLS The guys from Start Making Sense and Strange Coincidence got together to form a Radiohead cover band, then got 14 n I C O N n S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V

filled with tunes from her new “Joanne” album. PLEASE hope that she does other songs, because that record was terrible.

(Wells Fargo Center) 12 ROKY ERICKSON Long ago, Erickson all but invented psychedelic garage punk with his Texan outfit, the 13th Floor Elevators, before going mad (the haze of acid), going solo, getting healthy (see the 2006 documentary “You’re Gonna Miss Me”) and continuing on with a primal, howling, lupine-like sound. (Underground Arts) 15 BARRY MANILOW I genuinely thought that the man who wrote the songs (not all, it turns out) was retired and married. Oh, well, either way, Manilow—the singer, the pianist—is charming, talented and entertaining as all-get-out. (Wells Fargo Center) 15 ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES Birmingham, Alabama-based Paul Janeway and Co. do the Southern soulrock thing better than most, with a hard Stone-sy edge to go with its rough-hewn vocal frippery. (Zoellner Arts Center)

nestled for the last several years. Scaggs will also do likewise at Glenside’s Keswick the next night, so that your weekend of Boz is complete if you have a good car.

(State Theatre, Easton and Keswick Theatre, Glenside) 17 ARCADE FIRE Nobody likes “Everything Now,” the new album by the acclaimed Canadian artrock unit, fronted by the husband-andwife union of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. Uh oh. (Wells Fargo Center) 24 RANDY NEWMAN For the first time in his illustrious career (his new album, “Dark Matters”), one of America’s pre-eminent storytellers uses multiple voices and dialogue-like narratives to tell his tales of the Brothers Kennedy, Vladimir Putin and several other ornery sorts. Splendid. (Keswick) 26 WIRE Celebrating the 40th anniversary of its start in the fray of Great Britain’s first wave of punk (the 1977 album Pink Flag), Wire releases what is one of its most stellar efforts in “Silver/Gold,” and play Union Transfer at maximum volume.

(Union Transfer) n

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PETE CROATTO

film

O

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World

ONE OF THE GREAT things about America, which is easy to forget in the blindingly white conformity of the Trump administration, is that its endeavors don’t belong to one group of people. Someone may create a movement, a sport, an art form, whatever, but others arrive to add their own perspectives and abilities. Membership is not closed because you come from somewhere else.

The downside is that earlier contributions tend to fade—or, worse, get ignored—because we’re swept away by the current innovations. The past can surprise and educate us. In Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, director Catherine Bainbridge accomplishes both in chronicling the influence of Native Americans in popular music.

There’s an undeniable link. Diversity is not just empty talk from human resources. Charley Patton, the blues guitarist, was likely an Indian—listen to how he uses the guitar like a drum, notice the guttural singing.

He taught Howlin’ Wolf, who shaped the Rolling Stones’ early sound. Link Wray, who performed 1958’s fuzzy gui-

tar anthem “Rumble,” served as a muse and instruction manual for rockers, including Iggy Pop. “[The song] had the power to push me over the edge,” he says. Jazz singer Mildred Bailey (half Coeur d’Alene Indian) took her stretching style from her reservation’s songs and influenced Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Rumble shines a light in pop culture’s crevices. We learn about guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, who provided the memorable solo in Jackson Browne’s “Doctor, My Eyes” and counted John Lennon and Eric Clapton as admirers. There’s Randy Castillo, the frenetic drummer for Ozzy Osbourne. Both found significance in their heritage, even as their lives darkened. Remember Buffy Sainte-Marie? You ever wonder what happened to her?

There’s enough here to fascinate music fans and history buffs, even if some of the connections are a bit tenuous. Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas, who is profiled, wasn’t even the most influential member in his own group; you can practically hear Wayne Kramer from the MC5s overdrawing his memory bank to praise Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love.” Regardless, that

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a Native American group, which dressed up in the regalia to boot, can claim a big hit is remarkable. And it’s cool to hear the song’s fingerprints on the Black Eyed Peas’ ubiquitous “Let’s Get It Started.” Talent survives. It just may lay dormant when it’s not being squelched.

Previous generations pay a cost, whether it’s SainteMarie getting blacklisted (the FBI and CIA had files on her) or Native Americans having to hide their ethnicity for simple survival, such as the Choctaws in New Orleans. Things are better, but there’s always a long way to go, especially when ethnic cleansing is now a slogan for hats.

Good news exists. Bainbridge and co-director Alfonso Maiorana load up on the sources—musicians, academics, intimates of the subjects being profiled. Rumble doesn’t give us a storyline as much as it builds a case: Native Americans play a vital role in the country and its culture beyond the mournful mentions in a history textbook. Rumble infuses this group with color and nuance and soul. It turns out these men and women were part of the soundtrack of our lives. [NR] n

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MARK KERESMAN

film

The Great Wall MATT DAMON IS WILLIAM, a European mercenary, who, along with his friend Tovar, Pedro Pascal, is traveling through 11th century China in search of a fabled black powder (gunpowder). Seeing as this is the spear, sword, bow & arrow epoch, black powder is practically this era’s nuke. However, the hill people of Mongolia have other ideas for these travelers and then there’s a mysterious unseen creature that impedes their progress (and takes off with a couple of their friends). They see the Great Wall and throw themselves upon the mercies of those on the wall’s vantage point to get some food and lodging (and perhaps some black powder, too).

While enjoying Chinese hospitality, creatures known as the Tao Tie attack. The Tao Tie are strong, swift, clever, and carnivorous, and there seem to be thousands of them. For reasons unclear, William decides to stick around to help the Chinese. Tovar and Ballard (Willem Dafoe), another Westerner who is both guest and pris-

(2017)

oner of the Chinese, just want to take off. What takes place is a people vs. lizards battle against a backdrop of Chinese majesty. The Chinese appreciate William’s fighting prowess during the creatures’ attack, and he is grudgingly accepted, especially by the lovely Commander Lin May (Tian Jing).

What happens is a clash—of avarice and duty, of cultures, of monsters and humans. What also happens is lots of bland, wooden acting, silly and flat dialogue, scarce character development, and monsters that are so obviously generated by CGI that they look more silly than scary. We never know exactly why William transformed from a brutal mercenary to a hero—the Chinese army numbers in the tens of thousands and he thinks he’s going to make a difference because of his bow and arrow skills? (Slight spoiler: He does.)

Tian Jing is beautiful, but appears to be more of an ingénue than a battle-hardened officer. The other Chi-

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nese officers have pretty much one attitude: gruff, while Damon is stoic throughout, hardly changing his facial expression. His accent vacillates between vaguely Celtic and vaguely American. Pedro Pascal is mainly comic relief, and Dafoe’s devious Ballard has as much gravitas as Jonathan Harris’ Dr. Smith on the TV show Lost in Space. With a Power Rangers-like color scheme the army’s shiny armor looks like something we might see at a Cosplay convention in L.A. The dialogue is mostly cliché. At one point the monsters simply stop attacking even though it appears they were winning.

Why? The Great Wall looks good—the cinematography during the scenes of Chinese forces readying for battle is indeed impressive. But if it weren’t for Damon and a huge budget, The Great Wall feels like something that would be seen on the Sci Fi Channel on Saturday night at midnight. n

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Herbie Hancock 20 n I C O N n S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V

INTErview

W

hen Herbie Hancock plays the Kimmel Center with his small, tight ensemble on October 4, not only will it be a rare opportunity with a master—the soaring show case will test the limits of musical imagination, as Hancock has been absolutely everywhere: classical, jazz, avant-garde, funk, electronica, hip hop, world, he’s done it all with equal daring and embrace of its parameters then breaking down those barriers—whether as a keyboard/piano virtuoso or as a programming and sequencing whiz.

Considering the genre-jumping that you’ve done in your career, are you composing now with a particular mode, working with arrangements and instrumentation before notating melody and rhythm?

I’m very much in the moment. It all depends on what I’m thinking at that time, on that day. That’s what makes what I do now so exciting, because nothing has to be etched in stone. I may have a melody in mind, but that’s not necessarily the be all and end all of a work, historically with me. It’s something I see and hear, not something I am.

Sometimes it’s about a bass line. Actually, very often it’s about a bass line. Sometimes it’s just an idea that has no overt connection to music, or even art. It could be a philosophical idea that I need to translate or get reaction to—whatever stimulates me.

That’s the engineer that you studied to be in college talking. Were you always transcending the piano, trying to go beyond 88 keys?

Well, I first started at age seven and synthesizers weren’t invented yet.

You’re funny. Synthesizers are a means to an end. I was curious to see if you were always looking to go beyond?

Man, you’re tough. As a seven-year-old I took good old-fashioned classical piano lessons. I wasn’t interested in or paid attention to jazz, even though my parents were playing Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie albums in the house. I really didn’t pay attention to all that. I was listening to 1940s rhythm and blues records and classical albums because my mom wanted her kids to have culture, and that meant classical music. What I learned to love about jazz was that so much of it was improvisational. The other thing I loved was seeing the pianist interact with the bassists and the drummer; they looked like they were having fun. The audience and the kids around me seemed to be enjoying that, too. I wanted to do that. I had to transition from classical to swinging.

You said you were a kid when you started, but were you really ever much of a kid?

Well, I always had an analytical mind, so I tried to use that to help speed up the transition from classical to jazz, from straight playing to improv. I do things with a microscope at the ready. I analyzed records phrase by phrase—why one note was louder than another, why one tone different from the next. I figured how they did what they do. I’d heard a Neil Hefti arrangement for the Count Basie Band and I dissected that.

What is going on with the Juno Project you were doing with NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Apple Music?

I’m not sure about all of it at this point, but the Juno will be crashing into Jupiter this year or next. How I got involved is that I got a call from Ken Kregan—manager and producer of the whole “We are the World” thing with Quincy and Michael—about this Juno project for the Jet Propulsion Lab, that has many direct components that have to do with music. They’re always trying to engage children, get them interested in science, technology, astronomy and space flight. One of these elements

A. D. AMOROSI

that connected the project with music is harmonics. That’s what a trumpet player does with all those valves—harmonics allow you to make sense of that. The plan was to have the Juno spaceship make thirty-three and a third revolutions around Jupiter—like a record, with Jupiter being the supposed godfather of the solar system—before it crashes into the planet. In space, there’s sound, maybe not air, but sound and mysteries. Kregan thought how great it would be to bring musicians into this project, so he brought me and I brought Pharell Williams and Bono.

It’s an ongoing project. They even sent me some sounds from space to inspire me…if I can ever find the time to do it.

Is the new or next album is nearing completion?

It’s not, but I’ll incorporate many of its elements into the new live show. There’s a lot to be made of this album still—there’s singers, rappers, people playing ethnic instruments from other cultures, with lots of tabla and oud. It’s very worldly in that way.

THE PLAN WAS TO HAVE THE JUNO SPACESHIP MAKE THIRTY-THREE AND A THIRD REVOLUTIONS AROUND JUPITER—LIKE A RECORD, WITH JUPITER BEING THE SUPPOSED GODFATHER OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM—BEFORE IT CRASHES INTO THE PLANET. IN SPACE, THERE’S SOUND, MAYBE NOT AIR, BUT SOUND AND MYSTERIES.

Other worldly; but that’s you all along though. This just happens to be 21st century Herbie Hancock.

I hope so. A lot of times people ask, “What can we expect from you?” I usually say that whatever they think they can expect, it’s going to be nothing like that.

Speaking of artistic curiosity and innovation. How is that growing for you?

I still have the same sort of enthusiasms as I did when I was a 20-year-old. I think Buddhism has helped me have and maintain such enthusiasm, that it unlocked a door.

In fact, it helped me to regain my youth. I’ve been able to rediscover my youth. It’s made a profound difference in my life and had dramatic input on the output of my music.

When I look at the audience I see the other member of the band. I came to that through Buddhism; it revealed that to me. If I play a duet with Wayne [Shorter, a fellow Buddhist with whom he played in Miles Davis’ classic quintet], the third member is in the audience. They or you have an effect on what we do. They become part of the work, you know. They are the environment.

You should pay us then.

Funny. [Laughs] OK, so in Philly, we’ll be playing some pieces that I’m kind of known for, but in radically different ways with new approaches that act as teasers for even newer music. One piece has many different episodes and those episodes have elements of what I’ve done before, and episodes you’ve never witnessed.

So you’re decontextualizing. Or recontextualizing.

Yes, and some of those episodes, too, will have even newer elements that are part of the upcoming record, so it’s almost more of a cinematic storytelling way in to the older songs. There are new territories to lay flags in, new roads to explore in what could be a familiar landscape. That’s how you make a live performance open and new, so there’s something spacey, some avant garde stuff, some funky rock outs, something danceable, some beautiful melodic passages—all rolled up in altogether new ways. You’ll go along and start getting one thing that seems like a definitive statement then boom, it’s going to move onto something else when you least expect it. It moves. I move. The audience moves. They’ll be on the edge of their seats. That’s what makes it exciting for us in the band, and exciting for the listener. n

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JACK BYER

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john doyle

I

N THE AUTUMN OF his career, John Doyle looks back with profound gratitude to a job he would have given anything to avoid. In 2004, at the age of 54, he was asked to direct a revival of Steven Sondheim’s Sweeny Todd at a tiny 200-seat theater, located in a remote corner of the English countryside. He was aware that his career seemed to be winding down. “If someone had said to me ‘that’s it. After this you’re not going to direct anymore,’ I would not have been devastated,” he recalled in a voice gentler and more musical than most people would think a Scottish voice should be. The little theater was facing bankruptcy, so he found himself wrapped in blankets on the second floor of an unheated pie shop rehearsing Sweeney for a theater that had no backstage bathrooms, inadequate heating, few dressing

rooms, and a very limited budget. After his journeyman career of thirty-five years, directing an assortment of reps in Scotland and England, he was not expecting much more.

The rest is history. Sondheim heard about Doyle’s rather unique production and was displeased at first by the liberties he had taken—reducing the cast size, having actors double as musicians, and eschewing elaborate sets and costumes. However, Sondheim was surprised to find himself actually championing the production and helping to get it to Broadway. “Of all the productions I’ve seen,” Sondheim has said, “his is the one that comes closest to Grand Guignol, closest to what I originally wanted to do.

John’s production, for me, is the most intense.”

Instead of retiring into a rocking chair, Doyle found

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himself in a skyrocketing career. Sweeney brought him a Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical; his production of Sondheim’s Company won a Tony for Best Revival of a Musical; and his revival of The Color Purple in 2016 earned another Tony award for Best Revival of a musical.

In addition to his Broadway projects, he directs at regional theaters around the country; directs opera at some of the world’s most famous opera houses; has directed a major motion picture; and just this year has become the artistic director of the Classic Stage Company in New York City. And now, at 67, he is hailed as “the man who

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KEITH UHLICH

film roundup

Anthony Mackie in Detroit.

Detroit (Dir. Kathryn Bigelow). Starring: John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith. The latest feature from the screenwriter-director team of Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) has stirred up plenty of controversy. Is it an unflinching look at America’s racist tendencies, using the 1967 Detroit riot as a provocative prism? Or is it a bets-hedging drama that endorses liberal guilt handwringing via exploitative depictions of white-on-black violence? To this viewer it’s an engrossingly clinical film in which Bigelow once again explores and dissects toxic masculinity. The centerpiece is a nerve-shredding, emotion-deadening encounter (nearly an hour long) at the Algiers Motel, as racist police officers, led by a soullessly baby-faced Will Poulter, terrorize the African-American guests, the most prominent played wonderfully by Algee Smith (as an idealist slowly corrupted). The surrounding sequences, which depict, in the first third, the riots themselves and, in the final third, the brush-it-under-the-carpet fallout provide queasy context for the many ways in which machismo and bigotry feed into each other. [R] HHHH

Nocturama (Dir. Bertrand Bonello).

Starring: Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Hamza Meziani. A group of disaffected French teenagers plot to give the Gallic police state what-for in this alternately tense and sardonic thriller from Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent). The first half follows the lead-up to and execution of their plan to bomb an office building and set a statue aflame. (There are human casualties among the wreckage.) The second part assumes a more comical tone as they hole up in a mall to wait out the police response. It’s here that Bonello unveils a mordant edge akin to George Romero, as these purported anticapitalists wander aimlessly around a shrine of commercialism and indulge in its many vices, from widescreen TVs to a headbanging Willow Smith tune. Millennials are the new zombies? It’s not that easy if the film’s harrowing finale, in which militarized gendarmes come mercilessly calling, is any indication. Everyone has a little monster in their souls.

[N/R] HHHH1/2

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Person to Person (Dir. Dustin Guy Defa).

Starring: Abbi Jacobson, Michael Cera, Tavi Gevinson. A most minor movie, Dustin Guy Defa’s shambling ode to quirky New Yorkers moving through an uneventfully eventful day is also a most major irritation. Barely a moment rings true as the film flits between characters, the most believable of which is a vinylobsessive played by hirsute hipster Bene Coopersmith, who’s so-durn Brooklyn he can’t help but seem authentic. Pros like Michael Cera and Philip Baker Hall fare considerably worse, both of them playing wispy conceits of people involved in a (kid you not) half-assed murder mystery.

And Tavi Gevinson, as a sarcasm-prone student who’s never been in love, appears for some ungodly reason to have body-snatched Dawson’s Creek-era Michelle Williams. It’s never fun to rag on a small-goals project like this, which was clearly conceived in good intent, but comes off like a sickly puppy incessantly attempting to ingratiate itself. It might make you rethink your stance on kicking animals. [N/R] H

Thirst Street (Dir. Nathan Silver). Starring: Lindsay Burdge, Damien Bonnard, Anjelica Huston. Here’s an indie worth talking about. Nathan Silver’s beguilingly odd character study, which he cowrote with C. Mason Wells, follows stewardess Gina (Lindsay Burdge), still reeling from her husband’s suicide, as she takes up with cocky Jérôme (Damien Bonnard) during a Paris layover. Despite his chilly demeanor—he gives her conjunctivitis during their first encounter, and is clearly interested in nothing beyond a one-night stand—Gina becomes obsessed. She impulsively moves to the City of Light, right across the street from Jérôme. And she gets a job at the bar where he works, forcing his initially polite and eventually harsh rebuffs. Burdge’s performance is captivating and off-putting in equal measure. And everything about the film seems daringly infused by Gina’s very specific myopia, be it the heightened color cinematography of Sean Price Williams or the antiseptic narration (as if a cold, indifferent universe were given voice over mankind) by Anjelica Huston. [N/R] HHH1/2 n

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DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

reel news

Holly Hunter in The Big Sick

The Big Sick (2017)HHHH Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano Genre: Drama, Comedy; Rated R. This endearing romantic comedy is packed with laughs, until it’s not, then it is.

The cultural clash between Pakistani-American standup comic Kumail Nanjiani (played by himself) and his on-again, offagain American girlfriend Emily (Kazan) is upstaged by the comic conflicts with his traditional parents. His mother repeatedly tries to set him up with Muslim women, all beautiful and eager, but far from Kumail’s American-influenced tastes and lifestyle.

Yet he chooses family loyalty over commitment to Emily, and she leaves. Here the typical rom-com plot of boy-loses-girl, wins-girl-back takes an unexpected twist.

Emily gets a life-threatening ailment and is placed on life support. Though they’ve broken up, Kumail sits at her bedside and contends with both sets of parent’s fears, and his and their guilt. Written by Kumail and Emily about their real-life experiences, the story reaches a level of emotional authenticity typically missing in the genre.

Certain Women (2017) HHHH Cast: Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart Genre: Drama; Rated R. Three women, three stories, one theme: the life-defining character of each (of us) is determined not by huge, significant events, but by the small, nitty-gritty decisions and daily experiences that, unnoticed, accumulate into a lifetime. The vignettes, all set in a small Montana town, capture the complex challenges, frustrations, and submerged emotions of each woman. In their own separate worlds and ways, they struggle to find self-identity, community respect, and emotional fulfillment. Laura (Dern) is a lawyer fighting for recognition in a male-dominated profession. Gina (Williams) searches for a new identity after a fractured marriage by building a new house, and Elizabeth (Stewart) discovers teaching a night class has unexpected challenges, and rewards.

This minimalist masterpiece and deeply immersive performances turn the orbits of three women into a constellation that blazes like the starry Montana night.

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Heal the Living (2017) HHHH Cast: Anne Doval, Emmanuelle Seigner, Kool Shen Genre: Drama; Not rated.

In French with English subtitles.

We’re all familiar with the storyline of a brain-dead victim and a terminally ill person desperate for a transplant. It’s been dramatized dozens of times . So what’s significant about this adaptation? We get it in the opening scene. Before his accident, a teenage surfer is so full of unbounded energy that every act, is a celebration of the moment between one breath and the next.

Meanwhile, Clair (Doval), with a degenerative heart disease, has found her own imperative to value each thought, memory, and every moment with her college-aged sons. Through these merging narratives, viewers experience every physical and emotional process from the transplant list through the responses of the families and hospital staff, and the outlets that they use to escape the horror of deciding who lives and who dies. In the end, the story isn’t about death, or even sacrifice, it’s about valuing every minute of the wonder of life.

Like Crazy (2017) HHHH Cast: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Micaela Ramazzotti Genre: Comedy, Drama; Not rated In Italian with English subtitles.

Invariably compared to past flicks about inmates taking over the loony bin and rogue women on a road trip, this movie also echoes “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” We first meet Beatrice (Tedeschi) as a delusional force of nature who thinks she owns the asylum. Bipolar, she’s either in-your-face confident, or near-death insecure, and Tedeschi brings her to life like the bolt of electricity that energized Frankenstein. The tattooed, enigmatic Donatella (Ramazzotti), Beatrice’s diametric opposite, hides her emotion under a rock the size of Gibraltar.

Then comes the escape and laissez les bon temps rouler road trip that defines the movie’s “live free or die” spirit. Both actresses turn their characters into fully dimensional, and delightfully dysfunctional, personalities who blur the line between living in conformity and the freedom of embracing an alternate reality. n

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22 | JOHN DOYLE

changed the face of the American musical. The British genius of theatrical shorthand.”

Elaine Stritch gave you some interesting advice when you won the Tony for your revival of Sweeney Todd.

I was uncomfortable with the whole Tony thing. I come from the Highlands of Scotland. There’s a tendency for everyone to be kept in his or her place. I’ve been through the Tony experience three times now, but I had never been through it then. When the nominations came out, Patti Lupone said to me, “I’m going to look after you.

I’m going to take care of you.” I didn’t know what she meant. After a month of it, I knew what she meant. The horse race of it; the money spent on it. One-half of me felt it was all nonsense, and the other half of me desperately wanted to win it. And yes, the day after I won, there was a phone message from Elaine Stritch, God love her, who said, “John, I’m really thrilled for you. Now put it on the mantle and forget all about it.” And I did.

You dedicated the award to all the theater people “who knock on doors that don’t get answered and look for a break that they think is never going to come.” You hoped they’d remember that it’s never too late.

Touch wood. I’ve never been out of work or waited for the phone to ring. I’ve never written to anyone for a job in my life. I’ve let the work bring the work. I’ve gone from job to job. Some I didn’t want to do, but we all have to pay the gas bills. More than 90 percent of actors are unemployed at any point in time, and eight percent are repeatedly employed. It’s unfortunate and sad.

Things were a lot different when you started out in Britain.

We had 200 subsidized repertory theaters on that small island when I started. The expectation was you’d join a repertory company, be part of a family of theatermakers. I had lots of great opportunities early on. I ran my first theater when I was 28. I did my first West End show when I was 30. My aspirations then and now were to work and have the respect of my colleagues. I never expected acclaim. I never expected to—and for many years didn’t— earn good money. Now it’s a different world.

You’ve just become artistic director of the Classic Stage Company in NYC. With opportunities to direct at major theaters around the world, why do you want to run a tiny off-Broadway theater?

My soul needs it. I want to leave a body of work that can be documented and that people can come and learn from. In the way Peter Brook has done in Paris—a theater artist making theater in a particular way.

You have an affinity with small spaces. Braques said “it is the limitations of means that determines style, gives rise to new forms and makes creativity possible”?

That is exactly what I believe. I don’t make good work or I don’t make the work I want to make if I have too much resource available to me. I’ve worked where I’ve had big resources, like the Met, where I wasn’t particularly comfortable. As the years go on, I’m excited to work with less and less and less.

What are the roots of the minimalism that has become your signature?

The Highlands landscape undoubtedly reflects in my work. There is a purity, a simplicity, a barreness almost.

You see that visually in things that I’ve done. Every show I do, it’s the same thing: a need to do a lot with very little.

The Highlands affects how people move in my productions. They tend to move like water. Every day of my childhood I looked out the window and there was a mountain.

I crossed a beautiful river every day. When I go home—I still think of it as home—and I look at the landscape and that water, I know exactly who I am as a human being Your use of actor-musicians, notably in your revivals of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Company, Merrily We Roll Along, is also a trademark of your work. Didn’t even have a name at the time. Now there are programs in actor-musicianship in theater schools in England and books written about it.

My God, it’s an honor for people who don’t even know me to talk about “that John Doyle way of making theater.” I’m really happy that so many other people now do it. It’s a technique I use in everything I do, even if people aren’t playing instruments. Performer and audience openly share in the storytelling. There’s no pretense that the audience isn’t there. I want to cut through the fourth wall, to get beyond Stanislavsky.

Even before your actor/muso Sweeney Todd at the Watermill, you did a Fiddler at the Watermill Theater in England that the American lawyers for the show stopped.

Yes, it was my ten-person, klezmer Fiddler. Years later, Joe Stein, who wrote Fiddler’s book, said to me after seeing Sweeney, “Oh, you should do Fiddler on the Roof this way,” and I said, “I did. Your lawyer stopped it from happening because they thought I was vandalizing the show.”

There were similar problems with Sweeney. Sondheim was not happy when he first heard about the Watermill production, but after seing it, championed it.

You often speak about the theater as a kind of church, and you once considered the ministry as a calling. Are there compatibilities between the professions?

I went to church three times on Sunday. Bible class in the morning, then church, and then evening worship. It was very Presbyterian. In Scotland that means something different to what it means in America. Not quite hellfire and damnation, but along those lines. I was very serious about going into the ministry. A small bit of me regrets I didn’t. But I got interested in theater in my hometown, so I decided to go to theater school. I continued going to church until I stopped in my late 20s, but I re-found it in my late 40s. There is compatibility between the church and my work as a theater director. Both involve storytelling. All faiths follow a great story or series of stories.

Your production of The Color Purple proved that going to the theater could be as uplifting as church. I was in the audience and witnessed people spontaneously raising their hands to praise the Lord.

The Color Purple is the story of resurrection of a woman’s spirit, from its lowest point—its Garden of Gethsemane—to a spiritual grace that affects those around her.

That was the story I passionately wanted to convey. I’ve known hard times, life in a small community, and brokenness. Rationing still existed in the United Kingdom when I was born. There wasn’t a lot to go around. People used to be paid on a Friday and on Thursday night you got yesterday’s dinner. My father had health issues and he died in his early 50s. My grandmother was a source of strength to all of us in the family, which is typical of a Scottish family.

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It was a very matriarchal society. Strong women mattered. Church mattered. Nobody owned anything.

Early in your career, one of your productions brought you into conflict with the church.

I cast a woman as God when I did the great cycle of medieval religious mystery plays in York, England. The Anglican Church at the time was looking at its relationship with women priests. However, that was not why I did it. There were over 300 local people in the show.

Everybody was to get to be in the show. What they got to do was based on their answer to the question, “Why do you want to do it?” This particular woman said to me with great love and warmth and even humor, “My husband died last week. We were married for more than 50 years. And I need to do this.” I thought, if there is a God, it’s in that woman—she’ll play God. It was 1996, when things didn’t go viral. But it went beyond viral. It went global. I found myself having to defend my position that women hold godliness as much as men.

You’re a socialist at heart.

I am, indeed. I’m a child of the ’60s. I don’t believe in trickle-down economics. As a young man, I went out with my banner for whatever strike was going on at the time. I was enchanted with the 7:84 [Scottish left-wing agit-prop theater inspired by a 1966 statistic that 7% of population of the UK owned 84% of its wealth]. I formed a company in the Highlands that followed a similar political route. If you don’t believe that education, health, and the arts should be priorities of any civilized society, you’re not as close to God as I’d hope. I am appalled by Brexit and what is happening in this country. Everything that people fought for is being dismantled. And it’s all rooted in fear of the “other.”

Speaking of being close to God, two years ago, you arrived at John F. Kenndy and you dropped dead from cardiac arrest.

They brought me back about four times. Three weeks later, I was in a rehearsal room, on sticks, with Chita Rivera, Roger Rees, Terence McNally and Graciella Danielle working on the Broadway-bound musical The Visit. I realized I’ve come back for every day of my life, and I’m not going to waste a single one of them. My aim is to use the time I have to create more decency in the world if I possibly can. The night after Trump won the election, I said there is only one thing that I could do— use what I do for a living to help in a tiny way to make change in the world.

You directed the film Main Street, starring Colin Firth, Ellen Burstyn, and Patricia Clarkson, which sadly died at the box office. How did that film come about?

Horton Foote saw A Catered Affair, a very shortlived musical I did on Broadway. He asked that a movie script he had written be sent to me. I really liked it. It read like a play, maybe too much like a play. I was asked if I would do it. I thought these people have lost their minds. I had never been in a movie studio. Horton Foote died and I never met him. And there I was with this script and with these wonderful actors. Fortunately the director of photography was paternalistic toward me. He taught me how to see how a camera sees. But I don’t particularly like the industry. Its priorities and my priorities don’t mesh well. I don’t think I’d ever want to do it again. n

MARK KERESMAN

foreign

MARK KERESMAN

DOC

Superstar (India, 2017) WHEN AMERICANS HEAR THE phrase “film from India,” they’ll likely think Bollywood, with all the snazzy synchronized dancing and colorful spectacle that goes with it.

Superstar is only marginally and slightly such a film. The intro is pure Bollywood—the rest is Valley of the Dolls (sort of, but not as campy).

Dhruvin Shah is DK, a Bollywood star who has it all: big, ultra-modern house; a lovely wife, Anjali (Rashami Desai); an adorable son; fame; money—the whole nine yards. But (you knew there had to be a “but”) someone seemingly wants to take it all away. Bad things start to happen—a mysterious visitor to his home almost lures his child away, an on-set accident, the nanny accuses him of getting her pregnant. We see this fellow go from a cool, calm, collected celeb to a conflicted wreck, then that certain someone springs the trap. DK has to make some hard decisions to save not just himself, but his family.

Superstar is a nicely-paced upscale tale of fame behind the scenes and how the past can still bite you in the ass at the worst possible time. It’s a bit soap opera-ish, complete with a slick, Machiavellian villain, a quick-witted secretary, and a clever lawyer—in that way this movie evokes that behind-the-scenes-in-Hollywood anti-classic The Valley of the Dolls, but not nearly so over-the-top. We get to see how DK’s paternity problem becomes fodder for India’s reality-based show biz media as well as national gym and water-cooler conversation. What makes this a bit different from such movieswithin-a-movie is the chemistry between Shah and Desai—they are not your usual bickering monied couple with one half of the partnership a hero or victim and the other a swine. One can get the feeling these people genuinely care for each other, without icky romantic histrionics—and that’s rare in some movies with a romance angle. Another interesting aspect from a cultural context is the media in the film’s story makes (brief) mention of feminism--if one knows anything of India’s true-crime stories in the past few years, that country is beset by a great many sexually-based attacks on women. Perhaps because of these crimes feminism is gaining traction in Indian society.

Is Superstar a great movie? No. But there is a plot twist and it has an effectively amusing mock-serious soundtrack. Fans of Indian films that go beyond Bollywood may find this a nice diversion. n

Minimalism: A Documentary About Important Things (2015) We Americans are indoctrinated—virtually from the time we can sit upright and turn pages/watch TV—to acquire, purchase and spend. Some of the stuff we need, some we want, and some of it we want to think we need. Minimalism is a documentary about that phenomenon and how to resist and rearrange one’s life so as not to slavishly believe “I own, therefore I am.”

While some of this film touches on consumerism gone wild, and the advertising concepts that feed it, Minimalism is not an anti-capitalist tirade. It’s a collection of interviews with people who (to an extent) bought into the American Dream—the nice house, the nice cars, a six-figure income, and lots of…stuff. But instead of making or keeping them happy, they felt overwhelmed, unfulfilled, trapped, and unhappy. Then some decided that perhaps they could live without all the stuff and didn’t need an expensive home with all the keep-up-with-the-Jones accoutrements.

Minimalism is mostly camera-on-person talking and clips that demonstrate the point of possession—and image-dominated media, most notably holiday shoppers in a feeding frenzy, who shove their fellow humans out of the way to buy the toy of the year. People describe their lives, before and after going minimalistic. This is a message movie that deftly avoids heavy-handedness. Owning possessions that enhance and enrich one’s life is not frowned upon. But owning stuff for the sake of owning stuff is. In this sense, Minimalism is quietly inspiring.

Where this movie trips up a bit: The focus is on people who make six-figure incomes, and as some of us know, it’s easier to be frugal with a bunch of money than without it. Some attention could’ve been paid to working- and middle-class people who simplify their lives.

The film’s most important message is to “love people, use things,” not the other way around. That’s a message worth hearing. n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 n I C O N n 29

MARK KERESMAN

music JAZZ / ROCK / CLASSICAL / ALT Jon Langford HHHHH Jon Langford’s Four Lost Souls Bloodshot Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons with Phil Wiggins HHHH1/2 A Black & Tan Ball Self-released Here are a couple of singular and delightful mutations birthed by socio-musical scientists out of the DNA of American music. Jon Langford, he of The Mekons and Waco Brothers, embarks on a new tangent in his decades-long career by recording in near-mythic Muscle Shoals, Alabama, from whence sprang such classic Southern sounds as the Allman Brothers, Aretha Franklin, and Bobby Gentry. In you’re

thinking of socio-politically aware, heartfelt, and slightly ramshackle rock & roll, you’d be half-right. Helmed by Norbert Putnam, producer for everyone from Joan Baez to Dan Fogelberg, Four Lost Souls brims over with gospel-charged vocals (featuring Bethany Thomas & Tomi Lunsford), hard country twang, the bittersweet whine of pedal steel guitar, oldschool Memphis R&B keyboards, and mature yet restless rockin’ crackle. Langford sings in a beer-dampened yowl not unlike Steve Earle and Jerry Jeff Walker, and to hear him feels like the guy at the bar you were just chatting with ten minutes ago about the sorry state of everything. Plus Langford has a way with a captivating melody, in essence recalling The Band in that whenever you hear them it’s like a cozy, welcome-home feeling. Surely one of the best CDs of this (odd) year. (13 tracks, 45 min.) bloodshotrecords.com Hunter, Seamons, and Wiggins are three African-American gents exploring the area where acoustic “white” and “black” forms—Appalachian fiddle tunes, blues in transition from country to city, early (1920s) jazz, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley pop— intermingle, cross-pollinate, and go all

crazy-quilt—not unlike the Carolina Chocolate Drops, albeit leaning more to the blues. If you realize just how close Blind Willie McTell and Hank Williams Sr. are; that the wails of Leadbelly and Nick Cave are kindred, and/or you like the bluesier tunes in the Oh Brother Where Are Thou, pick up on what these fellows are layin’ down. (13 tracks, 56 min.) benjoemusic.com Omri Ziegele’s Where’s Africa HHHH Going South Intakt This multi-generational trio of Europeans, led by Swiss saxophonist Omri Ziegele, does their thing in a space where West and South African influences motifs, groove-oriented jazz, fusion, bebop, and

free jazz overlap. Ziegele’s alto sax carries echoes of Eric Dolphy (vocalized, jagged), Oliver Lake (slightly acidic tone), and Cannonball Adderley (rollicking, earthy, gutsy), and his flute playing evokes Rahsaan Roland Kirk (and for those unfamiliar w/ Kirk, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson) while keyboardist Yves Theiler and drummer Dario Sisera lay down all kinds of bubbling, insinuating grooves that’re liable to get your feet tapping and your head bobbing. In fact—and maybe I go out on a limb here— but this could be what Adderley might be playing now had he not passed on too young in 1975. The only downside is the bits of “today is yesterday’s tomorrow”type “poetry” that crop up throughout.

What’s also really swell is this trio (via overdubbing) pays attention to texture and ensemble playing—this isn’t solo-band in background-solo stuff. Call your local jazz radio station (if you have one) and request “The Milkman Always Paid My Rent,” as this could be a hit with its groove somewhat suggesting Lee Morgan’s “Sidewinder” and Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon.” This is an import that’s well-

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worth seeking. (9 tracks, 50 min.) intaktrec.ch Trevor Babb HHHH Warmth Innova Isabel Leonard/Sharon Isbin HHH1/2 Alma Española Bridge Here are two classical platters featuring that omnipresent instrument, the guitar, both utilized in very different ways.

Trevor Babb is a Connecticut composer and guitarist who concentrates on modern compositions for electric guitar—Warmth features works by composers not usually associated with six-stringers—Steve Reich, James Tenney—and those by some fresh composers—David Lang, Carl Testa, and Babb himself. Written by Reich specifically for guitarist Pat Metheny, “Electric Counter-

Isabel Leonard.

point” is both hypnotically minimalist and exhilarating, overdubbed/layered guitars playing bright, engaging melodic fragments, overlapping and blending in an entrancing fashion. Tenney’s “Sextet” is for unusually tuned guitars—the jangling strings vibrate and produce chiming, slightly dissonant chords with overtones to a point where it becomes an environ of colossal wind chimes and metallic crackles, mildly unsettling and spellbinding simultaneously; imagine Leo Kottke jamming on a summertime patio with Sonic Youth. Fans of creative/noisy guitar rock and tres modern classical have some swell common ground(s) here. (8 tracks, 61 min.) innova.mu Alma Española is a “tour” of 20th century (give or take a few years) Spain via the music and lyrics of Federico Garcia Lorca, Manual de Falla, Josquin Rodrigo, and more, played by guitar virtuoso Sharon Isbin and singer Isobel Leonard, the latter

having been heard on the Metropolitan, Vienna State, and Paris Opera stages.

Leonard’s operatic singing is hearty and beautifully expressive but sometimes overpowers Isbin’s sultry, delicate, flamenco-influenced six-string-ery. The lyrics are figuratively and literally poetry and the dramatic chemistry of this duo is at times magical.

(22 tracks, 66 min.) bridgerecords.com Chet Doxas HHHH1/2 Rich in Symbols Ropeadope There was a time when fusion (jazz + rock + funk + whatever) was a brave new genre, but time passes, the unusual becomes the usual, and so it goes. Cuttingedge then can be slick/watered-down now, but no need to chuck the baby with the bathwater. Montreal-born NYC-based saxophonist/composer Chet Doxas has fashioned a singular platter that’s a mélange of jazz (post bop division) technique and expressiveness (not always the same things), the density and dynamics of (progressive) rock, and the evocative moodiness of film music. Rich in Symbols, inspired by modern art of Mapplethorpe and Basquiat, lives up to its title—“Image and Nation” sets Doxas’ moody, sumptuously soulful sax against a semi-martial rhythm and some dark, ringing electric guitar (by Matthew Stevens, who betrays a bit of Bill Frisell influence but he works it instead of merely copping it). It’s got a winsome melody that ever-so-slightly recalls John Barry’s theme for Midnight Cowboy. “Orchard” has mournfully bluesy sax against slabs of guitar and an ominous, creepy descending motif that could’ve come from a 1970s proto-metal album (i.e., Black Sabbath)—the sax becomes agitated without getting free/out-there and guest John Escreet contributes some piano that’s both Rick Wakeman and McCoy Tyner while avoiding “sounding like” either. The pounding, skulking closer “We Made A Lie Together” recalls King Crimson’s “Red” mixed with film noir sax and the distant clang of factory in the distance. Rich… radiates catchy, engaging rock- and atmospheric film music-like melodies and impassioned-sans-histrionic soloing. All tunes here go on for as long as they need to and no longer, just long enough to have you wanting more. Get this and star in your own movie. (7 tracks, 40 min.) ropeadope.com n

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A.D. AMOROSI

MUSIC POP

A Little Lititz, A Little Gaga IN 2016, WHEN STORMY PHILADELPHIA skies parted in time for Beyonce to amaze Lincoln Financial Field’s capacity crowd of 69,176 with songs from her combative (then-new) Lemonade, it wasn’t just her voice or thoroughly choreographed show that dazzled. Beyonce’s Philly Formation Tour stop was awash in dazzling production frippery; all based around a minimalist, 70-foot-tall, high-definition video tower and a catwalk extending from the stage; all crafted by TAIT, a now-global, Lititz PA company that started life creating lighting effects for rock concerts back in the ‘70s. Further innovation came late in 2014 when TAIT built Rock Lititz Studio’s $7 million arena facilitywhere a tour’s technologies and staging can be rehearsed and its superstar clientele better served. “As an end-to-end provider, we have everyone from up-front creative, to design, to engineers, to building the show, to being on site to commission the show,” said Eric Grossman of a global workforce hovering around 1,000 people. “As artists increasingly relied more on touring for income beginning in the early 2000s, production and spectacle grew, and we were there to deliver on an artist’s vision,” said TAIT COO Grossman. The University of Pennsylvania grad talks about live event software and technology utilized for Beyonce’s show affecting additional markets such as theme parks, theater and television staging the likes of which turned TAIT into the go-to, full-scale tech production house for Paul McCartney, Adele, U2, Metallica, Bruno Mars and Pope Francis. “The talent in Lititz is superior and ranges from welders to engineers to software specialists,” said Mia Tinari, TAIT’s Global Head off Marketing & Communications. “We have shows on the road and active every day of the year.”

A year after Beyonce touched base in Philly, the same stage building company—who works in tandem with Clair Global (sound design), Atomic Design (scenic design), Tour Supply Inc. (crew equipment design and accommodation) and Rock-It Cargo (tour shipping)—as part of the mammoth Rock Lititz Campus, will now be joined by the Hotel at Rock Lititz.

As if mega-musicians needed another reason to utilize the completest campus’ amenities, the Hotel at Rock Lititz is a luxurious, all-needs-filled lodging with extended stay suites and lush penthouses for the likes of Lady Gaga who recently utilized the Campus for her just-started glittering Joanne tour.

S

o when Gaga touches base at Wells Fargo Center on September 10 and 11, it is as much her staging—built by TAIT—that is the soaring star of the show, as Gaga is working a kinetic main stage, three flying bridge platforms which double as projection displays (very much like what Roger Waters is currently doing with his staging on the Us + Them tour), two satellite stages and an LED integrated stage.

Beyond just being cold tech, moments such as “Diamond Heart” and “Dancin’ in Circles”—elegant and highly choreographed, performance art pieces executed on floating, dynamic stages—and her jam-packed hits package (“Poker Face,” “Perfect Illusion,” “John Wayne,” “Alejandro”) are, what Humphrey Bogart said at the end of The Maltese Falcon, the stuff that dreams are made of. Without a shadow of a doubt—and even if Joanne bored you, as it did me—Gaga is a massively talented vocalist and musician (see her work with Tony Bennett) as well as an actress (any of her work with American Horror Story master Ryan Murphy is proof). Yet, as an outsized character who likes to credit performance art avatar Marina Abramovic, Pop god Andy Warhol and David Bowie (“Let’s Dance” is part of this show, as it was with her 2016 Grammy performance) with guiding her explosive stage work, this Joanne tour promises a Gaga of immense proportions. n 32 n I C O N n S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V

BOB PERKINS

jazz library

MICKEY ROKER WHAT PRICE FAME AND fortune, or at least a fairly comfy living? Even when one is blessed with great talent, are hyperbole, eccentric behavior, and plain old bad habits necessary to help market an individual or a product? In a traditionally slow-moving commodity like jazz music, bizarre behavior has worked for in the favor of a few. If Dizzy Gillespie had not talked and acted dizzy at times, wore berets and horned-rimmed eyeglasses, would his pure talent have made him a jazz pioneer and legend?

The same question applies to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and a few other outstanding jazz artists whose questionable behavior, on and off stage, brought them as much or more attention as their artistic talent.

What about the very talented who display no such habits, and are consistently on the ball, either as leaders or as team players?

This brings to mind a jazz musician who was one of the best team players in modern jazz history. His name was Mickey Roker. For several decades, Mickey was one of the most ubiquitous jazz drummers in the world.

I asked him some years ago how many recordings he participated in, and he replied that it was hundreds, but didn’t know anywhere near the exact number. But for sure, during his more than half-century as a professional musician, he kept complementary rhythms behind Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver, Hank Jones, Milt Jackson and Zoot Sims, to name a few. During the late 1950s and through the 1960s,’70s and ’80s, he was constantly on the move, domestically and abroard, and also in recording studios.

For several years, Mickey was accompanist to singer Nancy Wilson. During an interview with him some years ago, he smiled and said that “It was the best job I ever had.” Not only did the job pay well, but he was on retainer—and thus got paid even when not accompanying Ms. Wilson.

Mickey Roker was born September 3, 1932, in Miami, Florida. He grew up in poverty. His father never lived with him and his mother. When Mickey was ten, his mother died and his grandmother took him to Philadelphia to live with his uncle, who loved jazz, bought him his first drum

kit, and introduced him to the local jazz scene.

During my interview with Mickey, he said he progressed on the drums very quickly. He chose drummer “Philly” Joe Jones as his role model. He began mixing with other already established local jazz artists like Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Oliver, Sam Reed, Ray Bryant and others. He got involved in jam sessions and, when puzzled about something musically, he asked questions. He said he found great comradeship among Philadelphia jazz musicians, and that they shared their knowledge with him freely.

In the early 1950s he joined Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. Dizzy, in assessing Mickey’s musicianship said, “Once he sets a groove, whatever it is, you can go to Paris and back, and it’s still right there.

You never have to worry about it.”

For close to sixty years, Mickey Roker, plied his craft, supported many jazz greats— and helped them sound even better.

Late last year, Mickey and I were honored with Lifetime Achievement awards by the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts. When Mickey received his award, he took the microphone and thanked all those who were responsible for it. But he genuinely seemed surprised that he’d been singled out for the honor. But that was Mickey Roker—no hype, no falsehoods, no showoff stuff to garner media attention, just humility. He was an artist who didn’t need a lot of attention; he let his strong work ethic and artistry speak for him Granville “Mickey” Roker never recorded under his own name. Perhaps he was content with his role as a supporter of talent. That’s one of the questions I neglected to ask him during our talk. But what he chose to do, he did to the satisfaction of those with whom he shared stages.

Granville “Mickey” Roker died last May at the age of 84. I believe it was Emerson who wrote, “When one does not march in step with his fellows, perhaps he hears a different drummer. Let him dance to his leisure, no matter how fast the measure.” This was Mickey Roker. n Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Monday through Thursday night from 6:00 to 9:00pm and Sunday, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 n I C O N n 33

TOM WILK

music SINGER / SONGWRITER A.J. Croce HHHH Just Like Medicine Compass Records A.J. Croce draws on the legacy of American soul music to put his own stamp on the genre with Just Like Medicine, demonstrating his strengths as a songwriter and performer. Working with legendary producer and songwriter Dan Penn, Croce finds an emotional release that has been a hallmark of soul.

“The Heart That Makes Me Whole,” cowritten with Leon Russell, spotlights Croce’s piano work and the Muscle Shoals Horns alongside Steve Cropper’s guitar.

Croce’s stirring vocal serves as a tribute to Russell, who died in 2016. “Cures Just Like Medicine” features Croce as a pleading balladeer riffing on the healing powers of love. “The Other Side of Love,” which Croce co-wrote with Penn, finds the narrator describing the end of a love affair in culinary language. “He’s all alone now/Eating his heart out/There’s very little protein/And nothing sweet,” Croce sings.

Just Like Medicine also finds Croce recording a song by his father, Jim. “Name of the Game,” with Vince Gill on guitar, is the final song written by the senior Croce who died at 30 in a plane crash in September 1973. Croce performs the song in an easygoing, conversational style that recalls his Dad with the McCrary Sisters providing a soulful counterpoint on backing vocals.

(10 songs, 31 minutes) Rick Shea & The Losin’ End HHH1/2

The Town Where I Live Tres Pescadores Multi-instrumentalist Rick Shea continues his rootsy exploration of American Music with his first solo album in four years. Shea skillfully serves up a mix of blues, rock, folk, and country with the help of his backing band, The Losin’ End. “Goodbye Alberta” starts off the album on an up-tempo note with some spirited accordion playing from Stephen Patt that provides a Tex-Mex counterpoint to Shea’s guitar. “The Starkville Blues” mixes blues and country and is a good fit for Shea’s mournful vocals.

Shea draws inspiration from his native California in the same way that Merle Haggard did. The title track is a mid-tempo lament about a town that has seen better days and left the narrator worse for wear.

“You can waste your whole life in this ragged old town,” Shea wearily observes.

He switches gears for the roadhouse rocker “Hold On Jake,” which recalls the story songs of The Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival. “(You’re Gonna Miss Me) When I’m Gone” shows Shea’s feistier side with a kiss-off song. Shea imaginatively recasts the Johnny Cash hit “Guess Things Happen That Way” with a Buddy Hollystyled arrangement that takes the song in a new direction. (10 songs, 41 minutes) The Nighthawks HHH All You Gotta Do EllerSoul Records Since the early 1970s, the Nighthawks have been performing the blues and its offshoots, to audiences across the country.

The current quartet hasn’t neglected the recording studio and All You Gotta Do confirms its commitment to the genre with a mix of original songs and well-chosen tunes by other artists.

“That’s All You Gotta Do” is a joyous slice of blues-based rock ‘n’ roll, while “When I Go Away,” written by Larry Campbell, serves as a meditation on facing the inevitability of death. “I’m gonna leave my worries in the graveyard,” Mark Stutso sings over a gospel rhythm with accompa-

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nying harmonies. A smoldering version of Willie Dixon’s “Baby, I Want to Be Loved” and Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Ninety Nine” are an acknowledgment of the band’s roots. “Three Times Your Fool,” co-written

by Stutso, branches into soul territory with a performance that builds in intensity like a classic Otis Redding track. The group adds a swampy vibe to “Isn’t That So,” while “Blues for Brother John,” penned by harmonica player Mark Wenner, spotlights the lineup’s instrumental cohesiveness.

(12 songs, 42 minutes) Shawna Russell HHH Back Around Our Land Records Music is the family business for Shawna Russell, who is joined by her father and guitarist, Keith, and her uncle and bassist, Tim, on Back Around. The result for the Oklahoma native is a mini-album that

blends country and heartland rock and spotlights her expressive vocals.

The buoyant title track finds Russell discovering a resiliency amid life on the road. “If the whole world turns against you,” she sings, “you can always come back home.” “Storm Birds,” a song dealing with the loss of a love in wartime, is a plaintive ballad that Russell delivers with a sense of vulnerability. “Slow Down in Oklahoma,” a country shuffle, explores the virtues of taking life at a slower pace, while “Learn to Live Again” finds Russell gaining

the strength to make a fresh start. “No More Water” is the album’s darkest track with its tale of betrayal and spiritual desolation. “No more water/Nothing left to wash away my sins,” she declares. “Horse Shoe Bend,” the closing instrumental, is soothing blend of guitars that provides a musical balm for the soul. (7 songs, 25 minutes) Randy Newman HHHH Dark Matter Nonesuch At 73, nearly half a century after the release of his debut album, Randy Newman remains an adventurous songwriter. Dark Matter, his first CD of new songs in nine years, is a rich smorgasbord of musical styles as he tackles topics left unexplored by many of his contemporaries.

The ambitious “The Great Debate,” which clocks in at just over eight minutes, is set up as a dialogue between science and religion over such issues as dark matter, evolution, and global warming. It has the feel of a Broadway show tune as Newman incorporates, pop, jazz, gospel, orchestral music and rhythm and blues into the mix as well as multiple characters and a backing chorus.

“Brothers” imagines a 1961 meeting between John and Robert Kennedy in the White House that starts as a discussion of segregation and the Bay of Pigs. The narrative switches to the merits of Cuban music and JFK’s admiration of singer Celia Cruz, as Newman shifts the song to a tropical beat. The theatrical “Putin” offers a satirical portrayal of the Russian leader with backing singers dubbed the Putin Girls. On the r&b-flavored “Sonny Boy,” a song about 1940s bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson who was victimized by an impersonator, Newman explores issues of artistic and identity theft that are relevant today. The foreboding but lively “It’s a Jungle Out There (V2)” finds Newman revisiting his theme for the Monk television show. “Wandering Boy,” a ballad with just Newman and his piano, ends the album on a somber note with a father wishing the best for his missing son. (9 songs, 39 minutes) n

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JAMES P. DELPINO, MSS, MLSP, LCSW, BCD

about life

Living Beyond the Deathof a Loved One A LOVED ONE HAS passed. The funeral and related services and events are over.

The sense of loss deepens and for some a numbness and disbelief become more profound. Losing a loved one may be one of the hardest things to endure. For some the pain is virtually unrelenting and for others the pain is too great to bear and denial and repression take hold. The loved one is still highly present in his or her absence. Often sleep and eating irregularities accompany a great loss. The adjustment to moving on in life is full of doubts and uncertainties for everyone.

There are what is known as complicating factors in the grief process. These include variables like suddenness of a death, an overdose, a suicide, a murder, and the younger a person is the more tragic it is.

The more factors that apply the more difficult and painful it is. Other factors include not having a chance to say goodbye, having recently fought with the loved one, guilt and regret over things said and done, having to Dtokar via Getty Images. bury a child (which is probably the single hardest thing to bear). Each of these factors deepen and prolong the sadness and fears in the process of mourning. For some, mourning can take a long time. For others, the mourning can last a lifetime. And for certain people mourning is the opportunity to take stock of oneself and redefine what life is to be. The search to understand, accept and find new meaning in life is the mission for all those who grieve.

Most people are afraid of death and tend to avoid thinking and talking about it. This fear often manifests in withdrawal. It’s common for folks to avoid subjects, people or activities that trigger anxiety. It’s no different when death is the subject. Those who grieve often speak of feeling left out or left behind by friends who they counted on previously.

This deepens and broadens the sense of loss. This is why it’s so very important for those who mourn to find support from friends, family and professionals to help them cope with the loss. Since there’s nothing that can be done to bring back a person who has passed on, developing the tools and abilities to accept and move on is necessary.

There are several things to keep in mind while mourning. First and foremost, do not make any big or life-changing decisions. Judgment is impaired in the grief process and people are likely to make decisions that are ill advised. Poor decisions can make the process even more difficult and painful. Make sure to have a team of advisers who are willing to help keep you in check and prevent harmful and hurtful choices. Turning to 36 n I C O N n S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V

drugs, alcohol, gambling and the other classic vices can become self-destructive—however the allure of distraction from the pain can become more alluring when the pain is so great and enveloping. In short, do not develop new bad habits or result to old bad habits. There are no shortcuts here. It’s better to face the pain and deal with it a little each day, because with time peace of mind and joy can return. People often think that laughter and joy prove they did not love the dead person as much as they should have.

The resultant guilt has no place in the mourning process. Joy, laughter and peace of mind are what each person is entitled to after the harshness and despair of losing a loved one.

Remembering good times and feeling grateful for what was is much better than reflecting on what will never be. A death of a loved one also means the death of hopes, dreams and expectations. Rediscovering meaning in life is a central goal for moving through grief. Having a purpose in life is one of the keys to happiness, and it’s even more important after suffering a great loss. Continuing those things that were positive and joyful before the death is another key to moving onward and upward. The depression that follows a death often causes people to stop doing the things they love and to withdraw from those who care about them. Some people find taking a vacation is a fine method for getting away from the pain. It can afford them the opportunity to gain a fresh perspective on their own lives. Since no one is guaranteed another day, finding ways to renew and refresh is significant. It’s also good for some people to hold onto their routines to help hold them together while they mourn. Each of these options are good and which one works better depends on each individual.

Although it can feel very lonely always remember that you are not alone in grief.

Since everyone must die at some point everyone must lose people whom they love.

There are numerous support groups and professionals available to help if the circumstances become overwhelming. In countless consultations with dying people I’ve learned that those who have passed on do not want us to suffer unduly over their passing. Becoming whole and happy again is a tribute to your love and respect for the departed. n Jim Delpino is a psychotherapist in private practice for over 38 years. jdelpino@aol.com (215) 364-0139.

harper’s FINDINGS

Circulation Journal published the editorial “Tolvaptan, Is It a Trump to Worsening Renal Function?” Neurosurgeons published “A Political Case of Penetrating Cranial Trauma,” Senegalese doctors compiled reports of people who had suffered penetrating chest injuries caused by swordfish swords, Hong Kong doctors described another case of attempted suicide by chopsticks to the brain, Basel doctors described an attempted suicide by yew needles, Paris doctors described a woman’s addiction to daily bleach showers that last up to eight hours, and Bombay doctors reported breast enlargement and delusional pregnancy in a seventy-year old straight-identified man following a homosexual encounter. The first American recipient of a penis transplant was optimistic about the future.

Researchers questioned the use of the SAD PERSONS scale to determine suicide risk, found that men do indeed eat more pizza in the presence of women, found fresh support for the Jolly-Fat Hypothesis, and warned that future surveys of adolescent mental health must take into account that some straight teenage boys find it funny to claim to be gay.

Medical ethicists argued for the mandatory moral bioenhancement of psychopaths and against genetically engineered life extension, which will doom people to outlive those they love.

9

States with more evangelical Christians have more Google searches for the word “porn.” Sociologists detected a secularizing correlation in pornography use. Parents who encountered their children watching pornography reported, variously, telling the child that it was yoga, telling the child that the naked lady’s shower was broken, or hitting the child.

Among adult babies, 16.8 percent said they had not been in a relationship, and few adult babies currently in relationships feel that adult-babying with persons other than their primary partner constitutes infidelity.

Anthropologists proposed that, from an evolutionary perspective, drag queens’ public presentation is a form of “costly signaling.” Greater scientific awareness of the erogeneity of the male breast was urged by L. Misery, a scientist at the Laboratory of Neurosciences of Brest. Being stroked is more pleasant than stroking. Strokes increase a preference for alcohol. People who desire to undergo an elective limb amputation are likeliest to choose the left leg. Burial decreases the concentration of methamphetamine in the thighbones of dead mice. Police made a traffic stop of a man in possession of a vial of human blood that he intended to administer to himself because he believed it contained fentanyl; it was determined to contain codeine, cold medicine, ethanol, MDA, methamphetamine, morphine, and Xanax.

9

Unattractive scientists are assumed to be better at their jobs. A study of Midwestern college students asked to evaluate women’s professional dress showed “significant interaction effects between buttons and camisoles on ratings of powerfulness.” fMRI imaging distinguished schadenfreude from fremdscham and the experience of joyful beauty from that of sorrowful beauty. Most brain diagrams face right. Human faces can be accurately predicted from the brain waves of monkeys.

Sleep-deprived people look less attractive and less socially appealing.

Smiling makes people look older; surprise, younger. Less attractive faces gain the most perceived attractiveness by rotation and inversion. Betterlooking termites cause more damage. A strong belief in a good true self was observed across several countries. A newly discovered species of glass frog exposes its heart completely.

INDEX Percentage change since last year in the arrests of U.S. immigrants with criminal convictions: +18 Of immigrants without criminal convictions: +156 Portion of children with New York Public Library cards who can’t use them because of unpaid fines: 1/5 Minimum annual amount the Palestinian Authority pays each Palestinian imprisoned for an attack in Israel: $4,368 Per capita income in Palestine: $3,090 Minimum number of civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria caused by the United States’ twelve coalition allies: 80 Number of those countries that have publicly acknowledged culpability: 0 Percentage by which a young Republican is more likely to know a millionaire than a Muslim: 27 Number of U.S. colleges that have more students from the wealthiest 1 percent than the bottom 60 percent: 38 Percentage of white working-class Americans who believe that college is a good investment: 44 Projected percentage of U.S. jobs in 2020 that will require education beyond high school: 65 Rank of “smart” among words that occur to U.S. voters when they think of Donald Trump: 28 Of “idiot”: 1 Percentage of Republicans who believe millions of illegal votes were probably cast in last year’s election: 52 Of Democrats who believe Russia tampered with the vote count: 59 Estimated number of leeches legally bred in Russia each year for medicinal purposes: 7,000,000 Number of countries worldwide with maternal death rates lower than that of the United States: 76 Estimated chance that a Texas woman has attempted to self-induce an abortion: 1 in 50 Factor by which a U.S. man is more likely than a woman to have “a lot of confidence” in the future of the country: 2 Percentage change since 2008 in the number of visits to U.S. children’s hospitals for suicidal thoughts or attempts: +101 Estimated portion of FDA-approved drugs that are found to pose further safety risks after the approval process: 1/3 Chance that an American’s tap water does not meet national safety standards: 1 in 4 Factor by which recalled Bombay Sapphire gin in Canada was more alcoholic than advertised: 2 Portion of the gin that was returned: 1/5 Percentage of American vacationers who are taking on debt to finance their trips this summer: 21 Number of private debt-collection firms that the IRS plans to use to obtain overdue payments: 4 Date on which a U.S. government agency sued one of those firms for deceptive collection practices: 1/18/2017 Amount of revenue the IRS lost the previous time it employed private debt collectors: $4,460,000 Estimated portion of U.S. employees who are bound by a noncompete clause: 1/5 Of those employees who don’t realize it: 3/10 Portion of U.S. workers who believe that having to email outside work hours is reasonable: 9/10 Percentage of U.S. adults who plan on working past retirement age: 74 Year in which every Chinese coal plant is projected to be more efficient than every U.S. coal plant: 2020 Number of years early that cicadas appeared in the mid-Atlantic this April: 4 Projected year in which cargo ships will be able to pass directly over the North Pole: 2050 Estimated percentage change in the number of glaciers in Glacier National Park since its founding: –83 Minimum number of animal species that are not officially extinct but have not been observed for at least ten years: 857 For at least one hundred years: 104 Number of years humans had last year to colonize another planet or risk extinction, according to Stephen Hawking: 1,000 That humans have this year, according to Hawking’s new projection: 100 “Harper’s Index” is a registered trademark.

SOURCES: 1,2 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; 3 New York Public Library (N.Y.C.); 4 Middle East Media Research Institute (N.Y.C.); 5 The World Bank (Washington); 6,7 Airwars (London); 8 Harvard Institute of Politics (Cambridge, Mass.); 9 Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (Calif.); 10 Public Religion Research Institute (Washington); 11 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (Washington); 12,13 Quinnipiac University Poll (Hamden, Conn.); 14,15 The Economist/YouGov Poll (Hilo, Hawaii); 16 International Medical Leech Centre (Moscow); 17 Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (Seattle); 18 Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, University of California, San Francisco; 19 Pew Research Center (Washington); 20 Gregory Plemmons, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt (Nashville, Tenn.); 21 Joseph Ross, Yale University (New Haven, Conn.); 22 Natural Resources Defense Council (N.Y.C.); 23,24 Bacardi Limited (Miami); 25 MagnifyMoney (N.Y.C.); 26 Internal Revenue Service; 27 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Washington); 28 Internal Revenue Service; 29,30 Evan P. Starr, University of Maryland, College Park; 31,32 Gallup (Washington); 33 Center for American Progress (Washington); 34 Michael Raupp, University of Maryland, College Park; 35 Nathanael Melia, University of Reading (England); 36 U.S. Geological Survey (West Glacier, Mont.); 37,38 Global Wildlife Conservation (Austin, Tex.); 39 Harper’s research; 40 British Broadcasting Corporation (London).

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The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

TOP CHOICE

By Pam Amick Klawitter

ACROSS “Dallas” was one Like much cheese Improv style They’re surrounded by agua 18 Developer’s plot, perhaps 19 Round number?

20 Dingbat 21 Ohno on skates 22 Hairdo for experts?

24 Hairdo for gadget lovers?

26 Roll at a nursery 27 Honored athlete 29 John in Dublin 30 Flier over Hawaii 31 It may follow you, but not me 32 Tricks 34 Old German leader 36 Hairdo for sportscasters?

43 Only NFL coach with a perfect season 44 Undistinctive marks 45 “No man __ island ... ”: Donne 46 “With enough courage, you can do without a reputation” speaker 50 Sounds of uncertainty 51 Household hisser 54 Enzyme ending 56 Oil-rich fed.

57 System of values 59 Hairdo for certain Germans?

63 Secretly includes in the 108-Down loop, briefly 65 Ambien maker 66 “__ gonna happen” 67 U2 philanthropist 70 Work on, as a soundtrack 74 Having less vermouth, as a martini 75 “Family Guy” creator MacFarlane 76 Footnote word 77 More work 79 Gossip 81 Hairdo for daring gymnasts?

86 Car shopper’s option 89 Andorra’s cont.

90 That, in Mexico 91 Emphasized, in a way 93 Chihuahua cheer 95 Prefix with sphere 97 “I’d consider __ honor” 100 French honey 1 5 9 13

101 Seaman’s shout 103 Hairdo for economists?

107 2017 Masters champ Garcia 110 P.C. Wren protagonist Beau __ 111 Energy Star co-creator, familiarly 112 Skunk River city 113 VMI program 115 Three-layer fishing net 119 Changeable border 122 Hairdo for wickerworkers?

125 Hairdo for burglars?

127 Words with wait or state 128 California cager 129 Painter Magritte 130 Tough test 131 Disney princess from Avalor 132 Neverland pirate 133 Binged (on), as junk food 134 Took off 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 20 23 25 28 31 33 35 36 37 38 39 40

DOWN Wise words Eight, in 14-Down Dry as dust 90-year-old mint Rhododendron variety Short title for Lee Bits of work Old-fashioned do?

Ivy, e.g.: Abbr.

Woodworking tools 1-Across plot staple Roman wrap Sevillian soy?

See 2-Down Places to see studs On one’s own Like the designated driver, by design Gymnast Kerri who performed an iconic vault in the 1996 Olympics Uncivilized Sarcophagus symbol Grain appendage NBA’s Hawks, on scoreboards Avoided on the job “__ Grows in Brooklyn” Coll. football’s Seminoles “Alas!”

Toss from office Calculator feature, for short First name in Norse navigators

41 Half an approval 42 Twisted 47 1978 Broadway jazz revue 48 Tease 49 First of the second nine 52 Grows 53 Switch positions 55 Clean and then some 58 Cold War concern 60 Much 61 Mentalist Geller 62 Selassie worshiper 64 Put a price on a flight?

67 High-end hotel amenity 68 Sussex smell 69 Logical opening?

71 1988 Ryan / Quaid remake 72 Short lines at the register?

73 Two-piece suits 78 Where to see a wake 80 Still-life fruit, perhaps 82 “Ghost Town” (2008) actress 83 Almost a ringer 84 “Joy of Cooking” writer Rombauer 85 You and me, say 87 Seriously overcharge 88 End of a threat 92 “Brat Farrar” novelist 94 Saturn drivers?

96 Deflategate concern

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98 99 102 104 105 106 107 108 109 114

Ring duo Had dessert, in a way Itinerary word Frontier protection Polecat cousin Looked to be Polecat cousin It clicks open Watch again, as a movie Hogwarts messengers

116 Start to bat?

117 ’ 60s TV talking animal 118 Go for the gold 119 Fabled favorite 120 Politico Bayh 121 Dripping sandwich, maybe 123 Bambi’s aunt 124 Symbol of peace 126 “That’s really something!”

Answer to August’s puzzle, SOMETHING’S FISHY

agenda FINE ART THRU 10/7 Summer Show, Bethlehem House Contemporary Art Gallery. Closing reception 10/7, 6-9 pm. 459 Main St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-419-6262.

Bethlehemhousegallery.com THRU 11/2 Designing for the Loom: Drawings

by William Geskes. Allentown Art Museum, 31 North 5th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-4333. AllentownArtMuseum.org THRU 11/19 Buckminster Fuller: Architect Engineer Inventor Artist. Lafayette College Art Galleries, Easton, PA. 610330-5361. Galleries.lafayette.edu THRU 2/4/2018 Revolutionizing Design: Progressive Home Decorating at the Turn of the Century. Allentown Art Museum, 31 North 5th St., Allentown, PA. 610432-4333. AllentownArtMuseum.org 9/10-9/30 A juried exhibition by the Philadelphia Calligrapher’s Society. Open reception 9/10, 1-4pm and calligraphy demonstrations 9/17, 1-4pm. Silverman Gallery, in Buckingham Green on Rte. 202, 5 miles south of New Hope. 4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA. 215-794-4300. Silvermangallery.com 9/14-10/21 John R. Grabach & Henry M. Gasser, New Jersey Masters. Guest curator, Gary T. Erbe. Opening reception 9/21, 6-8pm. The Baum School of Art, 510 W. Linden St., Allentown, PA. 610-433-0032. Baumschool.org

ART FESTIVALS / EVENTS

sign capital. More than 400 artists will be represented at various locations throughout the city. Kick off party 10/4. Multiple locations, Philadelphia. For full schedule DesignPhiladelphia.org. newhopeartsandcrafts.com

9/2 & 9/3 18th Annual Art in the Garden, at Paxson Hill Farm. Enjoy the work of over 70 local artists while walking the beautiful grounds that feature a variety of public and private gardens, THEATER water features and sculpture. 3265 Comfort Rd., New Hope, PA. 2159/19 297-1010. Paxsonhillfarm.com John Cleese live on stage, plus a screening of Monty Python and the 9/8 Whose Business is the Arts, bringing Holy Grail. 7pm, State Theatre, 453 together business leaders, members Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610252-3132, 1-800-999-STATE. of the arts community, and foundation and government representatives Statetheatre.org for a conversation on the future of the Lehigh Valley. 8am-11:30am, DeSales University, Center Valley, PA. For more information, Lvartscouncil.org/whose-business.

9/13 Clifford Owens, Performance Art, Public Speaker Series. Muhlenberg College, Martin Art Gallery, 2400 W. Chew St., Allentown, PA. Muhlenberg.edu/gallery 9/16-9/17 21st Annual Riverside Festival of the Arts, Easton, PA, 10:00 AM-5:00 PM. Juried arts gallery, plein air contest, live music, dance & theatre, spoken word, free domonstrations, food trucks, libations and much more.

Free admission.

Eastonriversidefest.org

9/23-9/24 New Hope’s 24th Annual Outdoor Juried Arts and Crafts Festival, 106pm, New Hope – Solebury High School. Located in the beautiful, historic river town of New Hope, PA. Outdoor, rain or shine event. $1 ad10/6-10/15 mission, ample parking, complimenArt at Kings Oaks, a pop-up visual tary shuttle, festival food, and music. art exhibition in an historic barn and Also visit New Hope’s business dischapel in Bucks County, featuring trict which is just a few minutes' artists from the East Coast and be- walk away. Artists will be recognized yond. Opening recep., 10/6, 6-9pm, with ribbons and cash prizes. More closing recep., 10/15, 2-5pm, for reg- info: ular hours visit kingsoaksart.wordpress.com. 756 Worthington Mill 10/5-10/14 Rd., Newtown, PA. Celebrating its 12th year, DesignPhiladelphia is the citywide festival that celebrates Philadelphia as a de-

9/27-10/8 Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Nile. Act 1, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-3192. DeSales.edu/act1 9/28-10/1 Leaps of Faith & Other Mistakes, Touchstone Theatre. 321 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-867-1689.

Touchstone.org 10/6-10/22 The Secret Garden. Civic Theatre of Allentown, 527 North 19th St., Allentown, PA. 610-433-8903.

Civictheatre.com 10/12-10/22 God Spell. Act 1, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-3192. DeSales.edu/act1 10/27-11/5 Sunday in the Park with George, Muhlenberg Theatre & Dance. Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3333. Muhlenberg.edu/theatre CONCERTS

nerartscenter.org 9/15 St. Paul & The Broken Bones. Free event parking. 8pm, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. 610758-2787. Zoellnerartscenter.org 9/15 Boz Scaggs, 2017 Tour. 7:30pm, State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132, 1-800-999STATE. Statetheatre.org 9/24 LYRA, The Russian Vocal Ensemble, 3:00 PM. Suggested donation $10 at the door. Cathedral Arts, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-8650727. NativityCathedral.org 10/4 Kimmel Center presents Herbie Hancock, Verizon Hall, 8:00 pm. Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA. Kimmelcenter.org 10/21 Pink Martini. Free event parking.

8pm, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. Zoellnerartscenter.org MUSIKFEST CAFÉ´ 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem 610-332-1300 Artsquest.org 7 8

Matthew Morrison Drink ‘n Draw: The Radiohead Experience 13 The Weight Band 15 Comedian Ben Bailey 22 Glass Blast 23 Dana Fuchs 29 Paul Barrere & Fred Tackett of Little Feat 10/6 Craig Thatcher Band pres.

Eric Clapton Retrospective 10/6-8 Oktoberfest 10/13-15 Oktoberfest

Street, Allentown, PA, for an afternoon of great beers, great food and fantastic music in our vibrant downtown. 1-5pm, tickets are $34 for unlimited sampling of 70+ beers. Tickets & more info: www.downtownallentown.com 9/10-9/16 Experience downtown’s varied restaurant scene during Downtown Allentown Restaurant Week. Enjoy chefs’ creations at special prices, three-course lunch & dinner menus.

Visit www.downtownallentown.com for more information.

9/11-10/29 38th Annual Scarecrow Competition & Display. Peddler’s Village, Routes 202 & 263, Lahaska, PA. 215-7944000. Peddlersvillage.com 9/16-9/17 The Annual Scarecrow Festival features scarecrow-making workshops, pumpkin painting, live musical entertainment and children’s activities.

10am-6pm, Peddler’s Village, Routes 202 & 263, Lahaska, PA. 215-7944000. Peddlersvillage.com 10/7 Meet the Artist, Watchcraft’s Eduardo Milieris. 11am-5pm, Heart of the Home, 28 S. Main St., New Hope, PA. 215-862-1880. Heartofthehome.com 10/8 Main Street Half Marathon of Hunterdon, NJ, 8:00 AM. Race begins in Clinton and ends in Flemington.

Help contribute in the fight against addiction. Kick-off party, 10/7, Main Street, Clinton. For more information visit Clintonguild.com and Mainstreetmarathon.com.4000. Peddlersvillage.com

9/9 NY Jazz Repertory Orchestra: Hell’s EVENTS Kitchen Funk Orchestra. Free event 9/9 parking. 8pm, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Allentown BeerFest. Join us in the Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. Zoell- 500 & 600 blocks of Hamilton

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