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Contents 9

FEBRUARY 2014

Filling the hunger since 1992

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

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Benin-born Angelique Kidjo is a Grammy Award-winning artist who struggled through and overcame hardships to emerge as “Africa’s premier diva” (Time magazine) and one of the world’s “100 most inspiring women” (The Guardian). With the release of her memoir, Spirit Rising, President Bill Clinton said, “The only thing bigger than Angélique Kidjo’s voice is her heart…Kidjo chronicles an inspiring life of music and activism, and raises a passionate call for freedom, dignity, and the rights of people everywhere.” Her 2008 album Djin Djin won a Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album and she has collaborated with a long list of contemporary pop and jazz stars, including Dave Matthews, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Alicia Keys, Branford Marsalis, and composer Philip Glass.

COLUMNS City Beat | 5 Backstage | 5 Sally Friedman | 36 Jim Delpino | 37

A THOUSAND WORDS El Dorado | 7

EXHIBITIONS | 8 William Daley.

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Baum School of Art Delaware Art Museum Arthur Ross Gallery / UPenn

ART In a Relationship: Art, Science & Medicine | 9 William Daley: 14 for 7 | 10

FILM

1-800-354-8776 • 215-862-9558 fax: 215-862-9845

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ANGELIQUE KIDJO | 20

Dr. Richard Goldberg, Poppy Fields.

The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, opinion and mad genius

KERESMAN ON DISC | 28 Robert Wyatt; Harry Nilsson Nox Boys; Mutual Benefit Mandy Barnett; Billy Branch JAZZ LIBRARY | 29 Paul Gonsalves NICK’S PICKS | 30 Helen Sung; Amy Cervini; Nir Felder Dianne Reeves; Pat Metheny Unity Group

FOOD Anton’s at the Swan | 32 FridaySaturdaySunday | 34

ETCETERA L.A. Times Crossword | 38 Agenda | 39

CINEMATTERS | 12 The Invisible Woman KERESMAN ON FILM | 14 I, Frankenstein BAD MOVIE | 16 Her

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Assistant to the Publisher

Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com Raina Filipiak filipiakr@comcast.net

ADVERTISING 800-354-8776 Entertainment Editor Bruce H. Klauber / drumalive@aol.com City Beat Editor Thom Nickels / thomnickels1@aol.com Fine Arts Editors Edward Higgins Burton Wasserman Music Editors Nick Bewsey Mark Keresman / shemp@hotmail.com Bob Perkins Tom Wilk Food Editor Robert Gordon / rgordon33@verizon.net Wine Editor Patricia Savoie Contributing Writers A. D. Amorosi Robert Beck Jack Byer Peter Croatto James P. Delpino Sally Friedman Geoff Gehman Mark Keresman George Oxford Miller R. Kurt Osenlund T. J. Reese

Ralph Fiennes in The Invisible Woman..

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IT / Audio Consultant Andy Kahn

REEL NEWS | 18 Mother of George; Wadjda All Is Lost; Dallas Buyer’s Club FILM ROUNDUP | 22 Her; The Wolf of Wall Street 12 Years a Slave; The Act of Killing

PO Box 120 • New Hope, PA 18938 (800) 354-8776 Fax (215) 862-9845 ICON is published twelve times per year. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. Subscriptions are available for $40 (shipping & handling).

MUSIC THE JAZZ SCENE | 24

Danai Gurira in Mother of George.

SINGER / SONGWRITER | 26 Rosanne Cash; Michael Bloomfield The Wood Brothers; Dan Penn California Feetwarmers

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ON THE COVER: Angelique Kidjo.

Interview on page 20.

Copyright 2014 Prime Time Publishing Co., Inc.

City Beat

THOM NIICKELS

ThomNickels1@aol.com

STRAIGHTENED OUT Our friend, South Philadelphian Frank Brancaccio, author of Ephemeral Nights, called to say that his name was splashed across the pages of the National Enquirer and Midnight Globe. While Frank is no publicity hound, his American Bandstand story is making the rounds.

As a misfit teenager, Frank says he found solace hanging out (and dancing) with the Bandstand “in” crowd, which eventually made him an on-air celebrity. With his 1960s Ricky Nelson-style good looks, it’s hard to think of Frank as ever being a misfit, but in those days if you didn’t want to play baseball, people looked at you funny. Frank told me a while ago—way before Perez Hilton picked up the story—that most of the good looking (and masculine) Bandstand male regulars were not straight. Dick Clark had three rules for dancers: No camera hogs; no close dancing; and no dancing with someone of a different color. To filter out the show’s pansies, Clark sent spies to Rittenhouse Square to see if any of the male regulars were conjuring lavender spirits. Frank, who regularly hung out in the Square when he wasn’t dancing with Arlene Dipitro, says he survived the witch hunt because Clark liked him and probably never suspected that a macho South Philly kid could be cut from the same cloth as…Liberace.

I LOVE LUCY - LIVE ON STAGE The Merriam brought us face to face with Fred and Ethel Mertz, Ricky Ricardo, and of course, Lucy. Fred (Kevin Remington) was a curmudgeon, Ethel (Joanna Daniels) just as clueless as the television original, Ricky (Bill Mendieta) just as patriarchal and macho. All eyes were on Lucy (Sirena Irwin), however, to see how closely she resembled the original. She came very close, especially when she went into cry-baby mode. What affected us most were the redos of 1950s and early ‘60s television commercials preformed live with dancers. “See the USA in your Chevrolet” became a fleshed-out dance number with Dinah Beach (not Shore), although we would have preferred Shore, fresh from a rendezvous with (archival hunk) Burt Reynolds. Vitalis and Vaseline hair tonics were famous lotions for men in those days, but the featured commercial was Brylcreem (“A little dab will do ya”). We also anticipated Canoe and Jade East cologne commercials, but instead got a big blast of Mr. Clean. Enjoyable, but heavy on the cheese is how we would sum up the evening.

ALL ABOUT SIRIUS, SERIOUSLY At The Print Center on Latimer Street, we watched as our friend Regina crawled through an oversized dog door in a silo-like paper column into a dark womb-like space to see the planet Sirius, a la Fels Planetarium. After Regina was swallowed up, we moved into the Center’s chapel, a darkened space with benches facing an eight-channel installed video featuring multiple close-ups of artist Demetrius Oliver’s 2011 kinetic sculpture Orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system, best viewed from one of the aforementioned benches. We sat (in the dark) chatting with Frank Luzi of the Philadelphia Opera Company, while trying to figure out the meaning of it all, since the installation art exhibit had more in swirling symbols than a game of Candy Crush. “It’s like a traveling Rosicrucian road show,” we exclaimed, after which we also thought of the puzzles in James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. We’re sorry that we missed the opening lecture by Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at The Franklin Institute, on the mystery of Sirius, although we liked the fact that everyone present was an integral part of the show. Regina told us, “I’m not sure what this all means, but I’m sure it means something.” Why does everyone say this? The Print Center is a venerable “best of ” Philly institution, that’s why it seemed odd to us that this Pew Charitable Trust-funded exhibit was Spartan when it came to reception fare: two small bowls of miniature pretzel nuggets and one person to pour carefully measured wine for the 100-plus people seemed a paltry nod to the wonders of the cosmos.

ROYALTY OF THE THRIFT STORE SORT In the 1960s, Aunt Dorothy loved the fact that Princess Grace, a Catholic, seemed to be getting more press than the Queen of England, a Protestant, despite the fact that English roy-

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Journalist Thom Nickels’ books include Philadelphia Architecture, Tropic of Libra, Out in History and Spore. He is the recipient of the 2005 Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Architecture Journalism Award. thomnickels.blogspot.com

Backstage

BRUCE KLAUBER

drumalive@aol.com

CHAZZ PALMINTERI: AN OFFER YOU CANNOT REFUSE Fans of organized crime—make that “alleged organized crime”—loved A Bronx Tale, the 1993 film directed by Robert De Niro based in part on the life of the film’s writer and star, Chazz Palminteri. In 1999, the actor and writer brought A Bronx Tale, subtitled The Original One Man Show, to the stage. It’s received raves since it first hit the theater, and the production will be returning to Prince Music Theater on February 14 and 15. For details on what Palminteri is up to, and he’s up to a lot, visit chazzpalminteri.net. princemusicthater.org.

SOME ENCHANTED THEATER(S) Since 2000, Philadelphia’s non-profit Enchantment Theatre Company has produced original theater for school groups and families. What makes Enchantment unique is that the company presents only original projects based on classic stories from children's literature, using a blend of masked actors, pantomime, magic, life-size puppets, and original music. Though housed in the Arts Bank Theater on Broad and South Street, the company’s works have toured all over the country and the Far East. The operation has recently revised and revitalized it’s mission statement—“We believe that theater has the power to illuminate, transform and heal” is just one of their beliefs—and Enchantment is busier than ever, especially in the touring area. Newest project, coming this spring, is what they call “portable theatrical works,” geared to travel to local arts councils, venues, community centers, retirement communities, and schools. The show is the famed Brothers Grimm tale The Fisherman and The Flounder, and the company’s goal is to play the show before 12,000 children in the Greater Delaware Valley. enchantmenttheatre.org.

More kid’s stuff: The Wynnewood-based Wolf Performing Arts Center, opened in 2005 by Bala-Cynwyd Middle School teacher Bobbi Wolf as a registered non-profit, has been presenting and producing four full-scale family-oriented productions each season, offering yearround classes and lessons, two successful summer camp programs, and an outreach program that touches over 8,000 people a year. In Wolf ’s educational department, weekly classes for students ages three to 18, running through March 13, are being offered in acting, singing and dancing. Students can also take private lessons in voice and acting. Spring classes begin March 14. For details on the important work being done by Wolf Performing Arts Center, visit wolfperformingartscenter.org.

ATLANTIC CITY: STILL A GAMBLE It happened in Atlantic City twice before: About a dozen years ago, the ancient Claridge Hotel, which tried to make a go of it as a casino, closed up shop. Eight years ago, The Sands disappeared Sadly, it’s happened again, with the bankruptcy and the closing of The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel last month. In its previous guises as Steven Wynn’s Golden Nugget and later Bally’s Grand, this was the place to be for many years. There is the possibility of a future for the property, perhaps as a hotel or condo. The Tropicana is buying the Club’s gaming equipment and data base, and Caesars is buying the actual real estate. Caesars emphasizes that they have no plans to resume gaming at that locale. Industry experts are hard at work trying to predict which casinos could close next. Trump Plaza and Resorts are possibilities, they say, and the future of Revel remains uncertain. The party here, which A.C. gaming movers and shakers thought would never end, is now over.

OUTTA HERE! Though ICON does not cover sports, pro sports can certainly be classified as entertainment and those who broadcast such things are entertainers. We would therefore be remiss not to mention the shameful, unceremonious dumping of Philadelphia Phillies’ broadcaster Chris “Wheels” Wheeler, after serving a remarkable 37 years in the broadcast booth. Those in the know are reasonably certain that Comcast, which just signed a 25-year, $2.5 billion contract for Phils’ broadcast rights, just wanted “Wheels” and his long-time booth partner Gary Matthews, “outtta here,” as the late Phil's broadcaster Harry Kalas would have said. No reason given.

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Bruce Klauber is a published author/biographer, producer of DVDs for Warner Bros., CD producer for Fresh Sound Records, and a working jazz drummer. He graduated from Temple University and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Combs College of Music.

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alty thought of Monaco royalty as second rate, “thrift store royalty.” When traveling with Aunt Dorothy in her Chevrolet Impala, she’d drive up to the Kelly home in East Falls, slam on the breaks, and exclaim, ‘There's where Grace Kelly grew up! Her father was a common brick layer!” Together we’d examine the grounds of the house as if hunting for tell-tale signs: a lock of Grace’s hair or a mash note from Alfred Hitchcock on the lawn. Aunt Dorothy’s penchant for the living legend came to a head when the Princess herself appeared at a special Mass at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. Aunt Dorothy extended her gloved hand, apparently touching the Princess’ tweed jacket. Her well meaning, “Hello, Princess,” was greeted with a Medusa stare. “I gathered from that,” Aunt Dorothy reminded us years later, “that it is not permissible to touch royalty—ever!” Even, of course, royalty of the thrift store kind.

PHILADELPHIANS NEED NOT APPLY In her book Philadelphia: The Place and the People (1898), Agnew Repplier wrote, “[Above all]…The Quaker City lacks that discriminating enthusiasm for her own children… which enables more zealous towns to rend the skies with shrill paeans of applause…If mistaking geese for swans produces sad confusion…the mistaking of swans for geese may also be a serious error. The birds either languish or fly away to keener air.” Repplier meant those Philadelphians who left the city for more welcoming environments.

Repplier’s writing career lasted 65 years and attracted the admiration of both Henry James and Edith Wharton, yet in order to experience her reading public’s appreciation she had to travel to Boston. Her biographer, George Stewart Stokes, notes, “…If her head had been understandably turned by Boston, it was swiftly unturned again by Philadelphia. Back home, she was merely Agnes Repplier, a relatively insignificant writer living quietly west of the Schuylkill. Here she found no open-arms reception, and this in spite of her ‘triumph’ at Boston. Here she found only obscurity, the obscurity, she felt, that is Philadelphia itself.”

This reminds us that in The Perennial Philadelphians (1963), Nathaniel Burt lays the blame for the city’s failure to be driven by literature to the effects of colonialism. “Philadelphians were slobbering over Tennyson and Thackeray,” he writes, “while they condescended to Emerson and Hawthorne.” While Repplier may have admired Thackeray, she had no aversion to sharing a drink of whiskey (in a china toothbrush mug) with Walt Whitman even as most Philadelphians, according to Burt, considered Whitman and Melville “rude barbarians.” Burt concludes: “In later years, colonialism became provincialism, and Philadelphians waited for the accolade from Boston or New York.” We think that’s a little bit changed, but not enough.

THE OLD MUMMERS PARADE WAS BETTER We didn’t expect to attend the 114th Mummers Parade, but there we were with friends Tamara, Walt and Matt, walking up Broad Street to the Union League, practically the only place where the string bands stop and play during their strut through Center City. In prior days, the bands were generous when it came to the number of tunes they belted out. If they saw enthusiastic crowds, they’d offer a song and a strut. But those crowd-pleasing days are over, thanks to Mayor Nutter’s 2009 “October Revolution” in which he made the bands cut down on the number of playing sites, reduce props from 16- to 12-feet, and then stop marching at 5 p.m. as if ordering church ladies home ahead of a storm. This has made the Nutterreformed parade about as exciting to watch as a 4th of July parade in Utah. Before 2009, not only did the parade end around midnight, but there was an exhilarating feeling on Broad Street, an atmosphere of revelry as people camped out or huddled curbside, staying late into the night or until the last Mummers marched past. It was the one day of the year when you could be a public Party Monster, drink on the street, or sit on a lawn chair by an alleyway dressed in Mummers glitz. This healthy venue for letting go gave the city a New Orleans feel.

A real life Mummer agreed with us when he said—on condition of anonymity, of course— that the Mayor really hates the Mummers and that he made this fact clear to the string bands and to the Mummers Association. “He sucked the life out of us making the changes he did.

But trust me…we will never give up trying to make the parade as it was before.”

THE OLD BARNES AND NOBLE WAS BETTER, TOO Strolling through Center City on a Sunday afternoon usually reminds us of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, especially when we linger near Rittenhouse Square. On a recent Sunday we headed over to Barnes and Noble, the only remaining big chain bookstore in Center City, and were shocked by what we saw: Familiar book nook areas—literature, history, religion, etc.—had been revamped or downsized. We rode the escalators hoping to spot the new nooks but wound up in the poetry section where we spotted the usual suspects (Plath, Ginsberg, etc.) but no tomes by local poets (who can also be international), such as CA Conrad (who was once a clerk at B&N and who took great pains to give prominent shelving space to local writers). It was the same in the fiction area (sans the work of Jennifer Weiner, who is everywhere like Trident gum). We asked a clerk if there had been an “October Revolution,” because the place seemed so different,” and she told us that “corporate” had reorganized and downsized, meaning that entire populations of books now only get into the store if a customer orders them. Corporate began this trend years ago when they made it a rule that only books with publishers willing to shell out ad money can be placed in the front window. ■

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NO TALKING Katie Couric is “quitting” her two-year old ABC talk show. Evidently, no one tuned in.

But don’t worry about the ex-network anchor. She is now a $6 million per year Yahoo “global anchor.” Whatever that is.

WHO MAKES FLIX TICK Netflix Chairman/CEO Reed Hastings loves movies. He loves them so much that his company’s earnings have quadrupled to an all-time high. In recognition of this, Hastings will receive a 50 percent pay increase this year. His annual earnings will now be three million rather than two million and his yearly stock option allowance will rise by one million to three million. Reed Hastings evidently adheres to the belief that Jerry Lewis set down 50 years ago: “Movies are your best entertainment.”

CHANGE OF VENUE Folker Ani DiFranco had a June songwriting workshop scheduled, but was pressured into canceling. Fans were not happy that the location of the workshop—Nottoway Plantation and Resort in Louisiana—was supposedly one of the largest slave plantations in the South.

DON’T THAT BEAT ALL? Well, if this doesn’t “beat it” all. First, Whoopie Goldberg turned to Kickstarter to raise funds for a film on legendary comic Jackie “Mobs” Mabley. Now, it’s Katherine Jackson who is going the online, begging-for-funds route in order to raise bucks to release a documentary film on her son, in conjunction with the five-year anniversary of his death. Remembering Michael, if it ever is released, will feature interviews with mom, dad, and all of Michael Jackson’s children. Nothing wrong about a good documentary film on the pop legend, but trying to get it done via internet donations is just plain creepy. Is no major—or minor studio—interested in this? Obviously not.

DESERVING OF WIDER RECOGNITION For more years than anyone remembers, the tireless, husband and wife songwriting team of Henry and Bobbie Shaffner have been composing, writing and promoting cleverly charming, original songs for famous institutions, famous people, special occasions, and wherever they deem a singular and out-of-the-ordinary song is needed. They are ASCAP members, have been honored by the U.S. Congress for being “two exceptional composers,” wrote the Pennsylvania State Song, and have written ditties for the likes of Ted Turner and Hillary Rodham Clinton. On the deeper side, the Shaffner’s wrote a musical tribute to World War II holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg, which was featured during official ceremonies marking the first day issue of the long awaited Wallenberg stamp. We hadn’t seen the dynamic duo for some time, until quite recently. It’s great that they’re still on the scene and still promoting. It’s easy to figure where their son, the talented jazz pianist Scott Shaffner, first got the music bug.

Andrea Green is one incredibly versatile and charming talent. She’s a singer, pianist, educator, composer, lyricist, music therapist and playwright who has received national acclaim for creating Broadway-style children’s musicals that inspire positive change by teaching tolerance and building self-esteem. These musicals, and there have been a lot of them—many published by the prestigious, 180-year old Samuel French company—have played all over the country. Green is particularly proud of Homeroom: the Musical, a contemporary, teen, Broadway-oriented production that focuses on the emotional messes and successes that underlie adolescence. With book/lyrics co-written with Selma Tolins-Kaufman, music by Green and musical arrangements by jazz giant Dean Schneider, Homeroom has become a popular choice of directors in theaters and schools across the country, which included a run at the National Performing Arts Festival at Walt Disney World, and an upcoming New York City debut. andreagreenmusic.com.

Lorraine Anderson has been a wardrobe mistress, dresser, costumer and stitcher (her word) for most of the theaters—large, small and otherwise—in the tri-state area. An interesting sideline to this career began quite by coincidence some 22 years ago, when she started working for a friend who later revealed himself to be a cross-dresser with an entire other identity as a woman. Anderson started doing alterations for him, and that morphed into a business called The Occasional Woman, which specializes in making custom outfits for TG customers. Now Anderson is writing a regular column for TG Forum (tforum.com) a site dedicated to the transgender community. Anderson’s column offers tips, advice, updates on styles and other issues. The transgender community is more public one than it has ever been.

TG Forum, online since 1996, is dedicated to supporting those in the TG community and the issues they face. Those interested in Anderson’s creative and unique services should visit occasionalwoman.com ■ Send items to DrumAlive@aol.com.

A Thousand Words

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EARLIER THIS YEAR I was asked to paint a retirement gift for a man who has a passion for automobiles—in particular those from the era of tail fins. That was part of my era, too.

When you are in an era you don’t see it like you will fifty years later. A new style is fresh and daring, and arrives with uncertain expectation about what will follow. Once you know what that will be, it’s over. What was at the forefront is relegated to the status of way station, and at best it’s considered a design influence; at worst, a curiosity. Looking back, you can see how it contributed to the future and what didn’t hold up to time. But while it’s hot it can be very seductive.

There were many historical steps that brought us to tail fins. Deco and Modern style was a big factor—the mechanical age was at its peak. World War II pushed advances at a dizzying and ominous pace. The following economic boom mixed with disquiet.

The emergence of jet aircraft was a huge influence on style. Jets appeared on the scene with a sonic boom, and it wasn’t just a case of something faster. They redefined transportation so thoroughly as to demote trains and steamships from elite means of travel to cargo haulers. For a generation whose parents likely grew up on farms that used workhorses, and who themselves lived through a time of incomprehensible struggle, the sleek shape of a jet represented security, fortune, and escape. We were looking skyward.

The early principles of flight style were cast in slower, nautical terms. Planes were called airships. The first tail fins

STORY AND PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

El Dorado on cars were small, smooth and fluid, like keels and rudders for middle class land yachts. They spoke of a return to normal grand pursuits, which was a very attractive notion in the early ‘50s. But things were still changing fast and after a decade finding our feet we started thinking in terms of the future. The iconic symbol for that was the jet.

For years, Detroit waged a tail fin war. Each new model would sport larger and more outlandish fins. Some looked as if they had been hastily stuck onto the back of an automobile out of marketing necessity, but with others there was astounding integrity to the overall design. I don’t think you can find an example of sculpture that better describes the American psyche of the time than these vehicles leaning into the winds of change.

There were many automobiles associated with jet-age design cues, and the one I am most partial to is the Cadillac Eldorado. The name alone puts it at the forefront with claims of preeminence. Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac was the founder of Detroit—the center of the automotive universe—and Eldorado was the city of gold. Long live the King.

The 1957 Eldorado is from the last period in which American cars had strong human features. You and it were of a kind. Today an automobile is more likely to resemble a cartoon character or a robust kitchen appliance.

It all ended suddenly and the cars and design ethos from the tail fin era were dismissed. Taste moved on, as it does,

looking for new spirits to indulge. But revisited from a distance, that period was a remarkable waypoint in our moral, emotional, and aesthetic evolution. A thing unto itself. A time of exuberant passion and design, both good and bad.

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours searching various keywords and looking at cars from that extraordinary period of cultural explosion—the late 1950s into the ‘60s. It’s a great way to spend an evening. The jet-style influence could be found in trends well beyond automotive appearance. The ads. The architecture. How we dressed. How we pretended we were as family and individuals. (The Jetsons!) Designs and images that mapped our emergence from decades of fear and grief into one of wary promise. A testing of limits that grew into a creative celebration.

When I accept a commission it has to be with freedom to explore, because I do it for myself as well. I chose a view of the El Dorado that highlighted the gorgeous posterior and fins, and I posed the car in front of a building that has meaning to the painting’s recipient. The image has the feel of some of the period ads I came across. I got as much a boot out of creating this painting as the guy who ended up with it. n

Robert Beck maintains the Gallery of Robert Beck. The Gallery will host the Lambertville Historical Society/Coryell show February 9–March 23, at 204 No. Union St., Lambertville, NJ robertbeck.net (215) 982-0074

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The Angel of Victory Triptych, 1941

Blessed are the Peacemakers Violet Oakley’s “The Angel of Victory” February 8 – May 25, 2014 Delaware Art Museum 2301 Kentmere Pkwy, Wilmington, DE (302) 571-9590 Delart.org Wed.–Sat.10-4; Sun. Noon–4. Free Sundays.

Violet Oakley (1874–1961) was one of the first American women to find fame in the field of public mural painting, in addition to success as an illustrator and stained glass designer. During World War II, she created portable altarpieces for use on American battleships, military bases, and airfields. The first of her 25 wartime altarpieces, The Angel of Victory was completed just two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

This exhibition also reunites the altarpiece with its preparatory studies for the first time, allowing an exciting exploration of Oakley’s creative process.

Jill Peckelun, Sheltered Cattle.

Danish Youth, 1930. Courtesy Morgan State University

William H. Johnson: An American Modern Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Penn 220 South 34th Street, Philadelphia (215) 898-2083 upenn.edu/ARG M-F 10-5; Sat, Sun 12-5 Through March 23 A new exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service features rare paintings by William H. Johnson, from the collection of the James E. Lewis Museum at Morgan State University. An essential figure in modern American art, William H. Johnson (19011970) was a virtuoso skilled in various media and techniques, and produced thousands of works.

The pivotal stages of Johnson’s career as a modernist painter are assembled in this group of rarely seen paintings. Every step of his artistic development is conveyed— from his post-impressionist and expressionist works of the 1920s, to vibrant vernacular paintings from the end of his career in the 1940s, in which Johnson articulated his distinctive vision as an American modern artist.

The Artwork of Isidro Con Wong and Women’s Work: Five Painters The David E. Rodale/Rodale Family Galleries The Baum School of Art 510 West Linden Street, Allentown, PA (610) 433-0032 baumschool.org M-Th 9-9:00; Fri-Sat 9-3; Sunday closed February 19-March 14 Opening reception 2/19, 6-8 Born in Costa Rica to a Chinese family of farmers, Isidro Con Wong was raised among the beautiful, wild pastures, mountains, and volcanoes of Central America.

His work reflects a special bond with nature. Con Wong uses light and color to create a world of dreams.

Women’s Work: Five Painters includes Sandy Corpora, Donna Haney, Donna Needs, Jill Peckelun, and Bebe Traylor who have been painting together en plein air for over 20 years in the region. They are skilled direct painters and respond to their subject matter each in their own unique way.

Study for The Angel of Victory Triptych, 1941

Isidro Con Wong, La Isla.

Detail from The Angel of Victory Triptych, 1941

Aunt Alice, 1940. Courtesy Morgan State University

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Bebe Traylor, In the Pink.

Art

BURTON WASSERMAN

In a RELATIONSHIP: Art, Science and Medicine

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GENERALLY SPEAKING, FOR PRACTICAL purposes, people employ two significant approaches to dealing with reality. The first, based on the joint use of entirely logical, impersonal reason and absolutely rigorous techniques of observation, is called objectivity. It serves as the guiding light of the sciences. The second, undergirded by emotional responsiveness and personally creative expression, takes shape as subjectivity. Typically, it provides a foundation for the various ways remarkably gifted individuals seek to pursue the arts. Together, the complementary relationship between these two approaches brings wholeness to human experience.

Combined with each other, they provide reasonably sound methods for confidently coming to terms with events, objects and circumstances in the surrounding world.

Now, proceeding from such premises as these, a profoundly rewarding exhibition has been assembled at the James A. Michener Art Museum. It brings together an especially striking group of artworks for connoisseurs to enjoy. Collectively, the show, which opens on February 8 and closes on April 13, presenting the work of three distinctive personalities, is titled In a Relationship: Art, Science and Medicine. In its own special way, it celebrates the universal impulse embedded within humankind’s ever-present search for meaning in depth. The installation is potent with intellectual insights and emotionally charged visions that bring profoundly credible incisiveness to one’s awareness of being alive, spiritually and physically.

The overall program for the exhibition constitutes the ninth Creative Spirit Symposium, offered regularly by the Museum. It includes a related group-discussion, consisting of offerings by distinguished speakers who will amplify on ideas and observations relative to various artworks installed on the gallery walls and the dedicated lives of the artists who brought them to realization. This event is scheduled on April 5, 2014 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The art and craft of working in stained glass reached staggering heights of accomplishment back in Dr. Richard Goldberg, Silence. Photo: Gary Donnelly. the medieval era. Talented artisans brought aestheticsubstance and religious glory to the architecture employed in the design of the great stone cathedrals built and still standing in Western Europe. This approach to contemporary creative expression is represented in the show at the Michener with examples by J. Kenneth Leap, artist-in-residence at the Glencairn Museum and Bryn Athyn College associated with the famous Cathedral Church of the Swedenborgian faith at Bryn Athyn, PA. Showing work in photography, Howard Schatz of New York City is a renowned artist with examples of his work in constant demand for many different applications and in dozens of books dealing with explorations of assorted subjects. It is fascinating to observe how he manages to breathe especially fresh new light and age-old shadow into the human form in all its

Dr. Burton Wasserman is a professor emeritus of Art at Rowan University, and a serious artist of long standing. His program, Art From Near and Far, is on WWFM in NJ and Bucks County and WGLS in South Jersey.

Howard Schatz, Boxing Study #1805, Sergio Martinez, 2011. Archival Pigment Print, 57"x48" Collection of the artist

extraordinary variety. Incidentally, it is also rather interesting to know that long ago, early on in his adult life, Schatz was a vitreo-retinal surgeon.

The third participant in the celebratory exhibition at the Michener Museum, Richard E. Goldberg, is also a retired eye surgeon. But unlike many other professionals from non-art fields, for whom painting is a playful hobby—good for filling otherwise idle hours—Goldberg is a sincerely committed, self-taught and highly serious painter with an impressive record of significant exhibitions and awards to his credit.

In a world where bombarding events explode with upsetting frequency, Goldberg releases visions of peace from the depths of his being. They are set free by forces pulsing within him, directing the making of compositions in color on canvas. His choice of hues and tones is guided by his senses, obeying sources of control determined intuitively. By exercising such an intra-personal process, functioning from within himself, he transforms internal impulses into visions that are alive with balanced harmony and a rare touch of unified order. Using subtle spreads of buttery paint, he mines feelings of the heart. Made with shifting strokes of pale blue or shimmering sweeps of golden yellow, each composite has an artistic character true to its own individual nature, pure in the structure of its distinctive being. When you look at his paintings, the watch on your wrist may say, “3:45 p.m. or 11:30 a.m.” But the image on the surface of his work always reads “Now,” so immediate is the existence of his art. ■ James A. Michener Art Museum, 130 South Pine St., Doylestown, PA (215) 340-9800. michenerartmuseum.org

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Art

EDWARD HIGGINS

William Daley: 14 for 7 IN A RECENT DOCUMENTARY about William Daley and his work, Tom Porett, a colleague at the University of the Arts, called him a “mud architect.” Architect, sculptor or ceramic artist, it’s all the same to Daley, who at 89 is marking 70 years of making art with an exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance through March 9.

The exhibition, William Daley: 14 for 7, is less retrospective than a history that displays art from seven decades of work.

The work is instantly recognizable as unglazed ceramic vessels that look for all the world like they were lifted from a Mayan religious ceremony. In the documentary, Porett refers to Daley’s work as referencing “a wide variety of religious and cultural concerns that reflect his deeply abiding interest in the history of pottery in all cultures.”

Daley has been a mainstay in the Philadelphia art world for decades. He was born in Hastings-on-Hudson, and because he was the son of a house painter who happened to be a lover of poetry and art, Daley grew up in a creative environment.

After the war (he was in a prison camp) Daley went to the Massachusetts College of Art under the GI Bill and married a classmate, Catherine Stennes.

They moved to New York when Daley took a graduate degree at Columbia and then launched a teaching career. After stints in Iowa and New York he arrived at the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts. He would stay there nearly 40 years until his retirement in 1990.

Daley’s statement about his art does little to clarify his working protocol, but rather emphasizes the mystery of working with clay. “Clay, like all primal materials, has personae,” he says. “It holds secrets, embeds traditions and feeds the boundaries that nurture change. Consequently, materials hold the inherent structure of ‘the possible beginning.’”

It’s clear, however, that Daley sees pots in clay. By pots we are talking about unglazed stoneware embellished with architectural elements from either long ago cultures, or cultures that never were.

Daley holds honorary doctorates from the Maine College of Art and the University of the Arts. He is the recipient of awards from the College Art Association, the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, the Northern Clay Center and Watershed, and the American Craft Council. Museums owning his work include the Philadelphia, Houston and Metropolitan Museums of Art, the Smithsonian Institute and a number of international venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Back in the day, ceramics were damned with faint praise. It was the work of people like Daley who brought the level of craft into the fine art world. He partnered with Helen Drutt English and others in the 1960s to champion craft—particularly American craft. The Helen Drutt English Gallery was one of the first in the country to feature craft. English and others, including Daley, were responsible for the prominence of Philadelphia in the craft movement. English’s group, the Philadelphia Council of Professional Craftsmen, sponsored the 1964 Art Alliance show of Daley’s work.

William Daley: 14 for 7 includes sketches made by Daley, forms, molds and hand tools he’s made, as well as intricate drawings from his studio, and a viewing of Mud Architect, the Tom Porett documentary on Daley which concentrates on the creation of a single item. The show also coincides with the publication of a book on Daley’s life and work with an essay by Ruth Fine, curator of Special Projects at Washington’s National Gallery of Art, as well as essays on crafts by Daley and English. ■ Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S 18th St, Philadelphia. (215) 545-4302. philartalliance.org

Edward Higgins is a member of The Association Internationale Des Critiques d’Art.

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Cinematters

F

FILM BIOGRAPHIES—I’M RELUCTANT to use the word “biopics,” which makes me feel like I should slick back my hair and talk endlessly about box office receipts—work best when you explore a sliver of time or see the subject through someone else’s eyes. I feel like I’m engaged in a conversation when that happens, which is better than a big-budget Wikipedia entry.

The actor Ralph Fiennes’ directorial effort, The Invisible Woman, takes the more enlightened route in tracing Charles Dickens’ (Fiennes) real-life romance with young actress Nelly Ternan (Felicity Jones). But there’s a key detour: The lives of me and you and everyone we know can be just as interesting—if not more so—than the famous people we follow with such devotion.

It’s 1883 when we first meet Nelly, a schoolteacher in the beach town of Margate, England. Nelly arrives at a student rehearsal of Dickens and Wilkie Collins’ No Thoroughfare after the kind of long, brisk walk that doubles as makeshift therapy. She looks distracted and tense.

And so we learn the problem that sticks with her at every step. Some 20 years earlier, Nelly, then 18, is cast with her mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and one of her sisters in the London staging of Wilkie Collins’ The Frozen Deep. It’s a small role, but Dickens, the star and director of his friend’s play, notices Nelly. “She has something,” he remarks.

It isn’t acting ability. We see her during another play

PETE CROATTO

where she fumbles her lines and can’t project. But Nelly is blonde and beautiful and an admirer of her obvious gentleman caller. When Dickens begins spending time with Nelly and her family, everyone knows why, including his wife, Catherine (Joanna Scanlan).

Fiennes and screenwriter Abi Morgan (Shame, The Iron Lady), working from Claire Tomalin’s book, spend their time examining the hard realities of this abrupt romance. Dickens and Catherine have been driven to indifference; when he enters the bedroom to find Catherine undressed, she immediately covers up. As she tells Nelly, Catherine now shares her husband with everyone. And Dickens is a different person when the blinds go down and the doors are locked. The charisma fades since no one is around to feed his ego. Dickens’ pursuit of Nelly does just that. But she knows that as soon as any whiff of domesticity arises the rules will change.

Nelly matters because she is part of Dickens’ world of adulation. Once she’s part of his everyday life, she’ll be another obstacle in him being Charles Dickens, public treasure.

The chase allows Dickens to exist between the public and private worlds and be himself. Nelly is aware of this, but she’s stuck between need and want. With her acting prospects dimming, her only shot at success is to be a man’s woman. Dickens is an awful choice. She can never be first in his life—even if marriage were possible. And as Dickens and Nelly grow closer, which we follow with keen interest thanks

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to Jones and Fiennes’ excellent performances, it’s hard not to envision a bug flying straight toward a windshield.

As a director, Fiennes devotes attention to Nelly’s story, which is familiar—the influence of the past on the present; the never-ending obstacles life introduces—and strangely empowering. Nelly matters more than Dickens, who if he were on TMZ would be an urbane celebrity douchebag. She has to live with the memory of Dickens and how he steered her life. And Dickens’ status as a literature heavy hitter means he can leap from any conversation or bookcase at any time. She can’t escape him.

By the end of The Invisible Woman, present-day Nelly breaks free in a way that may displease those who admire the work of Nancy Meyers or sassy, mascara-caked housewives with reality shows. Nelly has to emerge from her heartache one heavy step at a time. On the surface, The Invisible Woman is about Charles Dickens. Really, it’s a story about us. That’s one we need to see more often, especially when it’s done this well. [R] n

Pete Croatto also reviews film for The Weekender (Scranton, PA) and blogs about pop culture daily at EntertainmenTell.com. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Grantland, Philadelphia, Publishers Weekly, New Jersey Monthly, MAD, and The Christian Science Monitor. petecroatto@yahoo.com

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Keresman on Film

A

AFTER BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein has inspired more movies (and movie and TV parodies) than even The Bible (the book, not the movie).

The story is one nearly everyone knows: A scientist decides to “create life” out of bits of corpses and lives to regret it—his own creation, practically a twisted parody of a human, out of rage and frustration makes his creator’s life a living Hell. It’s become a classic figure of speech since: A “Frankenstein” is almost universally accepted to mean a “creation,” product, project, etc., that proves to be the undoing of its creator.

I, Frankenstein begins where the original story left off: The monster (Aaron Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking) is reluctantly burying his creator’s body when he is set upon by a few demons who decide this monster could be of some use to them. Yes, demons, as in Hell-spawned creatures doing the Devil’s work on Earth. This fight is interrupted by flying gargoyles—yes, those classic gothic-type sculptures seen on buildings—who we soon learn are essentially deputized Angels-on-Earth whose never-ending duty is to vanquish and destroy the demons. The monster, christened “Adam” by the head gargoyle Leonore (Miranda Otto), is basically uninterested in either side and humanity itself for that matter. True, Adam sends some demons back to Brimstone City, not for al-

MARK KERESMAN

I, Frankenstein truistic reasons—but because they want him and his experience with Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who left Adam with a distinctly “nobody’s using this kid as a science project” mindset.

Fast forward a couple of hundred years and Frankenstein’s monster, seemingly immortal, still wanders our world. The demons have a respectable “front” in Naberius (Bill Nighy), a big corporate cheese of some vague research lab who’s working on a project to reanimate dead creatures, a project headed by the lovely scientist (you knew there had to be one, right?) Ms. Terra (Yvonne Strahovski, Chuck, Dexter, here doing a mystery accent). Adam is caught between these factions—some of the gargoyles, despite their Heavenly bent, would just as soon see Adam dead and thus out of the demons’ reach forever—and Terra, the only truly “human” major character here, becomes his only connection to, well, anything.

This movie consists of a lot of CGI—computer-generated imaging for when the demons and gargoyles transform from their human guises, battle scenes, and the like. If one were to “subtract” the CGI, I, Frankenstein might be the shortest movie ever. This is one of those movies in which buildings are destroyed by flying creatures yet there are no police, firemen, witnesses, or collateral damage to be seen. But if you

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look at this movie as a Saturday monster matinee creaturefeature offering, it’s actually somewhat entertaining. Eckhart makes for a stoic yet darkly appealing monster, a not-quite-antihero who’s ambivalent about darn near everything. Nighy is the touch of class, bringing a bit of icy charm to his demonprince role, and it turns out he has a good reason for wanting to put the snatch on Adam. (Not to give anything away, but it involves a confluence of science and the supernatural.) It’s refreshing that there is no contrived romance between Adam and Terra, no big “Oh, to FEEL! So THIS is what emotion feels like!” scene. The pacing of the movie is brisk and efficient.

True, there’s not a lot of depth here, but it’s a monster-oriented story, not a character-driven one.

Yes, it’s easy to see why this movie was dumped, er, released in January, the film industry’s repository for movies they don’t know what to do with. But not every movie has to be a classic, and I, Frankenstein, a future entry on Count Floyd’s Monster Chiller Horror Theater, is OK. ■

In addition to ICON, Mark Keresman is a contributing writer for SF Weekly, East Bay Express, Pittsburgh City Paper, Paste, Jazz Review, downBeat, and the Manhattan Resident.

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Bad Movie

I

NDIE FILM DARLING SPIKE Jonze takes the Collective Us into the world of…Artificial Intelligence. Her is about Theodore, a moping fellow (albeit with good reason—an impending divorce) that finds “love” with an Operating System designed to mimic human interaction. She’s Samantha, intelligent, sweet, considerate, and speaks with the honeyed tones of Scarlett Johansson (who voiced the OS)—she “gets to know” Theodore by going through his emails. That’d work, I guess. Naturally, Theodore is flesh and blood and Samantha exists only in cyberspace—we realize this is likely not going to end well, but will both Samantha and Theodore gain insights about themselves and Life in the process? What do you think?

The good: Joaquin Phoenix is good as the gentle, emotionally vulnerable, socially awkward (is there any other kind of guy in movies that deals with AI?) gentleman that relates to technology better than he does with carbon-based lifeforms. The cinematography is bright and engaging. The bad: The pacing. This movie is slow—it’s mostly talk and computer imaging, and more talk and computer imaging, interrupted by moping and awkward conversation, then lots more dialogue and imaging—plus, lots of close-ups of Phoenix’s sensitive countenance. The OS that is Samantha gets to relate to a human being perhaps a little too easily, and an obvi-

MARK KERESMAN

Her ously intelligent fellow such as Theodore becomes a little too easily wrapped-up in his affair. I just wanted to say to the screen: “Dude, she’s a program!” Also for a bright fellow, he far too easily dismisses the attention of a real live lady with whom he’s been set-up on a blind date. What guy with half a brain and a working libido is going to reject a gal that looks like Olivia Wilde (who indeed portrays the blind date) simply because she wants to know if he plans to see her again?

Why couldn’t—or wouldn’t, as they were having a swell time until this point—Theodore postulates, “Well, I have a commitment this weekend, but Sunday and next weekend are wide open. Let’s get together then.” Another thing: Theodore works what appears to be a techie-type corporate job—a worker bee in Cubicleland—but he lives in a beautiful and spacious apartment with a panoramic view of the city—how does he afford that? Only in the movies, Dear Readers, only in the movies.

Further, love may mean never having to say you’re sorry, but it does mean that any relationship with a woman that has no corporeal form is doomed to be fairly…limited. Ah, but Samantha has a solution—she “finds” via the InterWeb a human woman she likes (Portia Doubleday), and gets her to act as a sexual surrogate with Theodore. See, Theodore wears an earpiece to hear Samantha, and so does Isabella the Surrogate, so she does what Samantha tells her. Theodore

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takes Samantha on a double-date with two of his human friends—who are not only okay with this, but none of them think it’s at all peculiar that he’s become deeply involved with a somewhat virtual, non-human woman.

This is not a new concept—in science fiction films and literature, humans often become emotionally involved with robots and androids. But at least those have physical presence—Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Data, the android that yearns to be as close to being a human as he can possibly be, for example. Samantha is, at the end of the day, a voice—perhaps if the science fiction aspects had been ratcheted up a notch there could be a way around that. But after a while, Theodore comes off as a terminally self-involved dope and Samantha develops rather predictable and contradictory “emotions.” As in: “I love you but not only you—there are over 400 others. Why aren’t you okay with that?” So this Artificial Intelligence, despite her virtually unlimited encyclopedic knowledge of the human condition, never came across the concept of devotion?

I get the likely subtext of this movie—people use technology to substitute for actual human interaction. (I recall going to some social and musical events where people are seemingly unable to put down their palm-top computers.)

But does a movie satirizing this—if it is indeed satirical— have to be so drag-y, sappy, and painfully absurd? ■

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Reel News

REVIEWS OF RECENTLY RELEASED DVDS BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club.

★=SKIP IT; ★★=MEDIOCRE; ★★★=GOOD; ★★★★=EXCELLENT; ★★★★★=CLASSIC

Mother of George (2013) ★★★★ Cast: Isaach De Bankolé, Danai Gurira Genre: Drama Rated R Awards: Sundance; Excellence in Cinematography.

English and Yoruba with subtitles Cultures often clash when immigrant communities thrive in foreign lands. When Ayodele (De Bankolé), who runs a successful African restaurant in Brooklyn, marries Adenike (Guria), Nigerian tribal tradition demands that they produce a son asap. The couple’s parents even name the anticipated child George. But no George, or even Georgina, appears. After a year and half, Ayodele’s mother demands Plan B. She suggests the traditional solution that her son take a another woman on the side. He refuses. So mom urges Adenike to get pregnant with Ayodele’s brother.

Equally unacceptable. Trapped in a dilemma, the modern couple refuses the traditional solutions, yet they can’t escape the ancient cultural expectations. Inspired acting, lush colors, and dramatic camera techniques create a masterpiece of storytelling and cinematography.

Wadjda (2013) ★★★★ Cast: Reem Abdullah, Waad Mohammed Genre: Drama Rated PG Arabic with English subtitles.

This Saudi feature, the first ever produced by a woman, presents another culture-clash dilemma, but here it’s

women’s rights in a modern world vs. conservative Islamic traditions. Wadjda (Mohammed), an offbeat 10-year-old girl, is approaching the time in life when she will no longer be permitted to interact with any male but her husband. She desperately wants a bicycle so she can race with her best friend, a boy whose companionship she must soon forfeit. She gets her chance when her school offers a cash prize for memorizing verses of the Koran. Director Mansour avoids a heavyhanded indictment of the restrictive socio-religious customs and instead explores how a vivacious child at the cusp of adolescent and her family struggle in one of the most gender-biased societies on earth.

All Is Lost (2013) ★★★★ Cast: Robert Redford Genre: Drama Rated PG-13 Awards: Nominated Golden Globes for Best Actor.

In this existential drama we know nothing about the lone character: no backstory explains why he’s alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean, no insight suggests his personal history, not even his name. So we have only one reason to care about Our Man—his struggle for survival against unconquerable odds armed only with his wits and will. Trapped on a sinking ship beset with storms, sharks, and failed equipment, he never gives up. Minimalist to its core, the metaphor of life forgoes dialogue and focuses on how Our Man faces each onslaught of calamities. Redford has a lot of water to bail, but he carries the drama and engages viewers in a cerebral, if not at times visceral, level.

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Dallas Buyer’s Club (2013) ★★★★ Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner Genre: Drama Rated R Running time 117 minutes.

Awards: Golden Globes Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor.

In another survival drama, Ron Woodroof (McConaughey) is addicted to living life to the fullest. From his party-animal perspective that means bull riding, hookers, booze, and cocaine. Then his doctor (Garner) tells him he has that “gay disease” and 30 days to live. Everything the cowboy once valued is up for grabs, except his will to live. Few options exist in 1985, so he travels to Mexico and finds a cocktail of medications that stabilizes his condition. Ever the opportunist, he partners with Rayon (Leto), a drag queen with connections in the gay community, to form a buyer’s club.

With a high-price to join, members can get the drugs doctors cannot legally prescribe. Both McConaughey and Leto deliver knockout performances that avoid stereotypes and expose the heart of tortured souls trying to cope with a hopeless disease in an unforgiving world. Don’t expect likeable characters or a feel-good ending, just highly empathetic, true-to-life people who have the courage to face adversity and live life on their own terms. ■

George Miller is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and believes that travel is a product of the heart, not the itinerary. See his webmagazine at www.travelsdujour.com.

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Exclusive Interview

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Angelique Kidjo wants you to get up and dance

ITHOUT TRYING TO (OVER-)compliment Benin-born vocalist, lyricist, and activist Angélique Kidjo, it simply does not seem as if she has been releasing albums since 1988, or, in regard to the bigger picture, that she is going to be 54 this year. Age is just a number, but Kidjo—ten albums into her career before 2014, to say nothing of her tireless work for humanitarian charities of all stripes—has the exuberance of a teen to go with a wisdom of the ages.

Once based in Paris, a living situation that gave her haunting brand of Afro-soul, samba, zouk and reggae, an even greater international feel, Kidjo relocated to New York City two years ago. This move (and the inclusion of session men such as drummer Steve Jordan and Philadelphia bassist Christian McBride) has given her sound a punky, funky boost—and an even greater jazz lilt—to the airy proceedings of her newest album, Eve. Kidjo can’t just rest on the laurels of a new album or an accompanying tour that will bring her to Philly’s Prince Theater (Feb. 18) and the Musikfest Café at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, PA (Feb. 19).

She’s penned an autobiography, Spirit Rising: My Life My Music, that came out in January, and the day after we spoke left for Luxembourg to perform with composer Philip Glass on a series of songs he composed in accordance with several of her poems. A charming thing about our chat is that Kidjo laughed easily throughout the interview, as if she simply could not contain her joy at every aspect of her life.

Q: Before we commence in earnest, I should ask: aren’t you a little young for an autobiography?

A: For me, I do not see this as an autobiography. It is me telling stories as if in chapters—how coming from a poor family, then a middle-class family, starting to sing at age six, to selling out Carnegie Hall, felt. I wanted to tell that story. To tell the story that everybody’s story deserves to be heard—that you can learn something from everybody’s life.

If A.D. Amorosi can’t be found writing features for ICON, the Philadelphia Inquirer or doing Icepacks, Icecubes and other stories for Philadelphia’s City Paper, he’s probably hitting restaurants like Stephen Starr’s or running his greyhound 20 ■ I C O N ■ F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 ■ W W W . I C O N D V . C O M ■ W W W . F A C E B O O K . C O M / I C O N D V

A. D. AMOROSI

Q: What was the tipping point of your life’s experience where you thought you had drawn a line of demarcation, where a chapter had ended and another had begun?

A: I think it unfolds rather than ends somewhere with a finality.

Q: Floats onward so to speak.

A: Yes. Growing up in Benin, in a large family, is about trying to find your space.

In a family of ten, you have to find ways to learn to be heard, to be seen among the pack. So when I left home in 1983 I knew that I was going to be alone, that I couldn’t run crying to my mom at every turn. I didn’t want to do that, my mom didn’t want me to do that, so it was about growing up. That’s crucial. Every move that I’ve made throughout my life, my career, is a step for me to bring to the world the philosophy in which I was raised. That is this: you got to give every human being the benefit of the doubt. You cannot prejudge anything about anyone. Don’t just preach to the choir. Engage people in conversation; use your brain. The “[My mother said], ‘You spend your day in brain has no color, right? No one language. Music is like that house, killing our ears, screaming, singing, that. It speaks to people no matter what the words or the telling stories, come here, come and do it on chords. The cultural connecstage.’ I'm like, ‘I can't do that!’ She goes, ‘All tions in one country may make it so that some are poor right, go.’ So the first time she put me on and unschooled and others stage, I was like, shaking! She pushed me, and are wealthy and educated.

Still, the one thing that is the she goes, 'Now you go. Just do it. Just think bedrock of any conversation them is music and you're home. Just have fun for yourself first. If between art. Beauty is beauty. No matyou have fun, people have fun.' That's how I ter what language you speak.

started being on stage."

Q: Two questions in relation to the book—and dig deep beyond the obvious pain and tribulation. What section was the most pleasurable to recount, and what was the most difficult, the portion you considered leaving out?

A: The most difficult part was the start. I know how to write music, not a book.

Beyond that, I wanted to dig deep down into my childhood to tell my story in a way that people would understand, that it would be universal. Also, I wanted to maintain my privacy and the privacy of my family. My mother is still alive, and most of my brothers and sisters are still alive. Things that have been painful in my family should remain between us. It’s not up to me to talk about it. You got to keep your family out of it while still talking about the things that were and are important. One thing that was hard to show was how I found my place where everybody was good in school. I had the presence of a good father and good brothers who were very protective. My one brother used to attend karate class and he would come home and teach me certain moves to defend myself. I remember, too, how so many of my girlfriends dropped out of school because they got pregnant, and I asked myself why I didn’t out that way. I suddenly realized that I grew up with seven brothers who would have kicked the heck out of anyone who tried that with me. I grew up and I took [those things] for granted—but when I started thinking about the book, these ideas came back to me.

Q: Is there a sense of catharsis now that your story is down on paper?

A: Yes. Now I can let go of my father [who passed away several years ago]. I can still hear his voice. Every time I would travel away from him, I would be sick. I had to have something of his near me at all times. My mother gave me a shirt of his to travel

with, which is now falling apart. [laughs hard] I think of him, and I shiver. That shirt of his is now safe in my house.

Q: But what about your mother? You named the new album after her, and have dedicated it to the spirit of womanhood. What made this material worthy of your mother’s name?

A: She was the backbone of my father’s life. She made a house full of joy for everybody. I have a very different relationship with my mother than I did with my dad. My mother has been my counselor when it comes to womanhood, and thus the broader topic. She always told me to measure who I wanted in my life, be careful and to say no when I didn’t want someone or something in my life. She taught me to stand my ground. Before my father passed away, he used to tell me to watch out for my mother, that she seems soft, but that she is not. My mom was the one who used to tell me when I was a girl—you want to sing, you want to do anything in the arts, whatever you do, you have to touch people, that you have to be naked on the stage in order to make it real. She would tell me that we need men, but that we must not be their possessions. This is very relevant in Africa where women are often secondclass citizens. The men are in charge up front, but women are the backbone.

Q: Was this album written and recorded differently than your others?

A: Yes. I wrote these songs thinking about the women in my life. I thought about marriage and consenting marriage and violence against women, how women around the world think. This was not so much a concept, as it was me just following my intuition. As an African woman I had to show all the world how we can be dressed poorly but our hearts are never poor. We are humble. We cannot be silent about the wrongs, but we must be joyful. We are the women who seek peace, who strive for peace.

Q: I ask because you sound like a woman unbound and unrestricted—free.

A: Yes, it’s true. I felt free. The trip I made to Kenya before the album triggered something in me. I had permission to tell all these stories and of my father. I have their blessings. I could barely touch the ground. I was like a bird. Also, let’s face it, having the band that I did—Steve Jordan, Christian McBride—we cut everything in two days. It was just ridiculous. There was so much energy in there. Dr. John came in to play with us one day, and he said, “I don’t understand your language, but it’s spirited in here.”

Q: You just mentioned Christian, who most us know from Philly.

A: He’s my buddy, my brother. I knew of his playing, but had never met him until the New Orleans Jazz festival. His manager was once mine. I had just come back form my father’s funeral, wasn’t feeling great, and my ex-manager could tell. He tried to lift my spirits and told me he had someone that he wanted me to meet. It was Christian. He was a very sympathetic guy. I saw him after my show and for some reason I wanted to cry. He said that I had to let it go, but that for now, cry. My father once told me something similar, to continue what I was dong because that is what I was here to do. Christian and I became instant friends. When I told him I was coming to NYC, he wanted to be there for me whenever I wanted him.

Q: What do you think turning 50 did for you and your art?

A: Wow. I grew up considerably. I became more mature. But I was never conscious of my age—ever. Neither is my mom. It’s an African thing. I’m not bothered by getting older at all. Turning 50 means that now I’m just starting to reach the full potential of being the woman I’m going to be. ■ Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St, Philadelphia (215) 569-9700 princemusictheater.org Musikfest Café, in the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, PA artsquest.org

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Film Roundup

OSCAR NOMINATIONS WERE ANNOUNCED on January 16. The ceremony isn’t until March 2. That makes February a wonderful time to explore the nominees you may have missed. In fact, I recently did the same thing myself.

Her (Dir: Spike Jonze). Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pratt. Sad and rudderless, divorced personal letter writer Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) seeks a little clarity. In the not-too-distant future that means buying a Computer Operating System to help organize his life. The superlative secretarial skill of Samantha, the COS, come with a twist: the system is as close to a person without possessing the corporeal assets. She—anthropomorphizing feels right—has thoughts, feelings, and a personality, all of which expand by the second. Samantha and Theodore’s professional rapport deepens. He’s literally her window to the world and she is the good listener he craves in a plugged-in world. A relationship between the two is inevitable as are the ensuing difficulties. Jonze (Adaptation), who also wrote the Oscar-nominated original screenplay, goes way beyond a quirky romance, offering an enriching, beautiful story on how love and loss define us. Yes, technology is swell. It will make our lives easier and antiseptic, but emotions will remain messy and raw. And they will make life worth living.

Phoenix and Johansson (as the voice of Samantha) are terrific. [R] ★★★★ The Wolf of Wall Street (Dir: Martin Scorsese). Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler, Jon Favreau. Riveting, brilliantly acted account of stockbroker Jordan Belfort’s

PETE CROATTO ★=SKIP IT; ★★=MEDIOCRE; ★★★=GOOD; ★★★★=EXCELLENT; ★★★★★=CLASSIC

sickeningly hedonistic rise and fall in the 1980s and 1990s has a dangerous, addictive momentum in Scorsese’s hands.

It had me hooked, though some may view WoWS as a tribute to an antihero, complete with historically explicit language and debauchery last witnessed at Bob Crane’s bachelor pad. Look closer and you’ll see epic sadness. Belfort (DiCaprio) is a caricature (some of his lines are recycled from Wall Street) whose meaning is defined by the endless, empty pursuit of living like the world’s greatest asshole. He has one skill: making large amounts of money. That keeps him relevant. How did Belfort do it? At least twice, he stops midway through an explanation, adding that we only care about the cash, so why bother? He’s right: only the results matter.

Still, DiCaprio, Scorsese, and writer Terence Winter turn Belfort into a pathetic soul so deep into his role as American Dream Warrior that a rational person ceases to exist. I kept hoping Belfort saw the light. Whether we ever will is another story. [R] ★★★★1/2 12 Years a Slave (Dir: Steve McQueen). Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Alfre Woodard, Paul Giamatti. McQueen’s starry historical epic, based on the memoir of free man-turned-slave Solomon Northup (Ejiofor), had been praised by the masses and feted by critic associations. The film’s nine Oscar nominations surprised absolutely no one. Now it’s time for me to play bad guy. As you would expect, the acting is excellent and Northup’s story—the touring Saratoga, NY-based violinist was drugged by his employers, sold to a slave trader, and sent to a plantation—is unsettling. But I fear McQueen (Shame) either confuses gloss as substance or is too com-

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placent to stir us beyond the expected route of brutal whippings, deplorable plantation owners, and the occasional flicker of hope that is dampened by cruel antebellum reality.

I never felt this was Northup’s story or even why I should care about his struggle. 12 Years a Slave is too emotionally exhausting to be inspirational and too impressed with its own “ain’t-history-awful?” somberness to convince us to reexamine our past. [R] ★★1/2 The Act of Killing (Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer). Nearly 50 years ago, Indonesia’s government was overthrown by the military, which recruited gangsters to help kill more than a million citizens in the name of extinguishing Communism.

One of those thugs was Anwar Congo, who is now revered as one of the fathers of modern-day Indonesia, where “gangster” is the embodiment of a free man. Instead of relying on interviews, Oppenheimer gives Congo and his cronies an opportunity to dramatize their own memories. Their version of events is fascinating, an irony-free Hollywood epic—musical numbers, torture scenes as police procedurals—filmed through a cracked lens that prompts harsher truths to emerge. The victors, no matter how horrid, we learn, write a country’s history. It’s not good or evil, it just is. Winners define what a war crime is, a past colleague of Congo’s tells Oppenheimer. Congo can’t file away the past so easily, even when it’s being glamorized for posterity. The Act of Killing ultimately becomes a real-life morality play, as Congo struggles to align his truth with the story of glory and heroism he wants to believe. When we realize that Congo and his friends have been playing the same roles for years, Oppenheimer’s masterful and daring history lesson rattles our souls. [NR] ★★★★ ■

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The Jazz Scene MORE HONORS FOR B.P. ICON columnist/WRTI Radio broadcaster Bob Perkins was honored by the The Somers Point Jazz Society, which celebrated the career and birthday of this very special member of the jazz community. The event, held at Clancy’s On the Bay—with jazz entertainment by the swinging Tim Angello Quartet— celebrated Perkins’ 50 years in broadcasting and his 80th birthday. This column or any column cannot say enough about B.P. If we agree that the jazz scene in this region is a healthy one, a good deal of it can be credited to his tireless and selfless contributions. Deservedly, this is not the first honor awarded to this giant and most gentle of men. He’s received a Kal Rudman Milestone in Radio Award, a Mellon Jazz Community Service Award, and even had a “Bob Perkins Day” proclaimed by the City of Philadelphia. And this business about being 80 years old? Don’t believe it. Keep swinging, Bob. JAZZ IN A JAM Unless there is a change of heart, which is doubtful, the Ortlieb’s Tuesday night jam sessions—a Philadelphia fixture under the aegis of tenor saxophone player and one-time Ortlieb’s owner Peter Souders since 1987— will be no more by the time this is published.

Orlieb’s Jazzhaus, as it was once known, was the city’s spot for jazz until Souders sold it in 2007. It limped along under new ownership and seemingly closed for good three years later. The jazz community was happy and surprised when Four Corners Management brought the place back from the dead in 2012 and reinstalled Souders and the Tuesday night jam, though they made it clear that other than Tuesdays, the “new” Ortliebs was to be no jazz club. Musicians came, and they were the best players in the area, but not the Jazzhaus customer base who jumped ship when the “original” closed in 2007. There were other issues, including management’s lack of commitment to jazz, virtually no promotion by the venue itself, and changing neighborhood and demographics. Souders, who plans to bring other jams to this region, saw the writing on the wall: “It’s complicated,” he commented. “Lately they have been playing country music before we start and during breaks. I guess you could say that I sensed a waning commitment to jazz.” But Tuesday nights are not all together dead ones for jazz jams. The 23rd Street Café jams, Ortlieb’s rival in the “jam session longevity” sweepstakes, continues to soldier on, despite a legendary lack of commitment to anything, maintenance issues, the departure of house bassist Kenny Davis, and the death of house pianist “Father” John D’Amico.

LARRY MCKENNA: NUMBER TWO WRTI Radio has announced their “2013 Top 100” new releases. Coming in at Number Two, is “One Falling Tree” composed by saxophonist Larry McKenna and Melissa Gilstrap, and sung beautifully by Joanna Pascale on his new CD, From All Sides. Pascale is a fine singer who appears regularly in this area and in tandem with world-class accompanists.

This month, she appears at The Side Door in Old Lyme, CT, with pianist Orrin Evans’ Quartet on February 14; Chris’ Jazz Café the next evening, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art on February 28. JoannaPascale.com.

PRIME PRIMERANO “Imagine a smoky saloon and a singer who brings back the mood of Frank, Dean, Tony and Jimmy Roselli, and you’ve got John Primerano,” says author David Evanier, writer of acclaimed bios of Bobby Darin and Tony Bennett, among other. Primerano, who hails from this region, has a nifty new CD out called Somewhere South of Heaven, a tasty mixture of originals and standards. The keyboard work of Prmerano and drumming of Sal Centola are first-rate. For ordering information, visit JohnPrimerano.com.

MINAS: JAZZ MEETS BRAZIL The Brazilian jazz group known as Minas is one of the longest-lived bands—and most popular bands—in the area. For more than 20 years, these world music pioneers have effectively combined Brazilian music and jazz

to create a moody, fresh and often innovative sound. Minas will appear at World Café Live at The Queen in Wilmington on February 9. queen.worldcafelive.com.

NO JOSHING Trumpeter/bandleader Josh Lawrence is an extraordinary talent who manages to seamlessly combine respect for the jazz tradition with cutting edge creativity. It’s nice to hear that others are getting word. His Fresh Cut Trio has a coveted residency at the Kimmel Center, and appears frequently at the Sunday, “Homegrown Gatherings” within the Painted Bride Arts Center. Fresh Cut, featuring bassist Jason Fraticelli and percussionist Anwar Marshall, will appear at the Bride on

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BRUCE KLAUBER

February 16 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Admission is $10 ($5 for children/seniors) to this great series. In addition to the music, there’s food, drinks, good fellowship, and art activities for

children in a casual setting. Advance tickets via paintedbride.org. And watch this space for updates on Fresh Cut’s eagerly anticipated CD, now set for a May release.

MILES OF HERBIE Pianist/composer/Kennedy Center honoree Herbie Hancock, has been named the 2014 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard. This jazz giant will give six lectures on the ethics of jazz beginning this month.

One of the talks is called “The Wisdom of Miles Davis.” Much of Mr. Davis’ wisdom, of course, was delivered by way of words that contained four letters. No matter, this award first came about in 1925 and has been given to some major league folks, including Leonard Bernstein and Igor Stravinsky. And what would Miles have said about this? “S---!”

DEATH GREATLY EXAGGERATED The internet can work in strange ways.

Not long ago, there were “verified” posts about the sudden death of comic Harvey Korman, who actually left us 2008. Days ago, the internet was rife with postings about the death of legendary pianist/composer Horace Silver. Silver is now 86 and has been off the scene for a while, but he is not dead. These posts, apparently started by the British jazz magazine, Jazzwise, were somehow “confirmed” and spread by the media. Jazzwise Editor Mike Flynn was forced to offer an apology: “’Jazzwise’ apologizes for passing on widespread reports on jazz websites, social media and jazz radio that Horace Silver had died. We apologize for any distress this may have caused.” Horace Silver, wherever he is, is likely laughing his can off.

FINDING JAZZ ON FILM There have been a number of superb jazz documentaries produced over the past sever-

al years, but what too often happens is—despite their quality and importance—not enough people know about them. There’s a relatively recent documentary out on pianist Erroll Garner that has the participation of noted Garner fans like Woody Allen—Erroll Garner: No One Can Hear You Read—but few know about it, though the producers have just made it available via firstrunfeatures.com. Two more of these docus have been brought to the attention of this desk, and both are valuable.

Saxophonist Wardell Gray was one of the unsung heroes in jazz history, serving as sort of a bridge between Lester Young and Charlie Parker, and probably the only bopster ever liked by Benny Goodman. Gray, who died under veiled circumstances in Las Vegas in 1955, is the subject of Forgotten Tenor, a 137minute documentary written and produced

by Hampshire College educator Abraham Ravett. Gray had ties to this region, appearing often solo or with the Goodman small bop group at The Click Club. Singer with that group? A young Patti Page. As for the film itself, which has received next to no distribution, it’s an odd duck of a project that is often as much about the making of the film as it is about the subject. As for on-camera appearance of a sadly impaired Gus Johnson, a wonderful drummer who worked with Gray, it should have been cut from the picture. However, any project about Wardell Gray is important, and individuals can obtain a copy for $50 ($150 for classroom use) by writing Abraham Ravett directly at aravett@hampshire.edu.

Stan Kenton Artistry in Rhythm: Portrait of a Jazz Legend, lovingly put together by jazzedmedia.com, the outfit that produced docs on Phil Woods and Woody Herman, among others, is another superior contribution to jazz scholarship that deserves more distribution and promotion. The larger-thanlife bandleader/pianist Kenton led a sometimes boisterous, sometimes swinging, sometimes pretentious and always controversial large ensemble from 1941 until his death in 1979. The DVD, celebrating what would have been Kenton’s 100th birthday, features vintage clips and interviews with those who knew and worked with “The Man.” Kenton was a regular in these parts from the 1940s on, including stints at The Earle Theater on 10th and Market until it closed in 1953, Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, Jersey’s The Red Hill Inn, Holton Brandi’s Brandi’s Wharf, and just about every high school and college in the region. To order, visit jazzedmedia.com. ■ Join our “session.” Send your news to DrumAlive@aol.com

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Singer / Songwriter Rosanne Cash ★★★★ The River & The Thread Blue Note Records “There’s never a highway when you’re looking for the past,” Rosanne Cash sings on “A Feather’s Not a Bird,” the opening track of The River & The Thread, her first album of original material in eight years. The eldest daughter of Johnny Cash explores her Southern roots in an illuminating journey of self-discovery that took her to Tennessee and the surrounding states..

The music also carries a Southern vibe. “A Feather’s Not a Bird” opens with a Creedence-style guitar lick reminiscent of that band’s classic swamp pop sound. With its fingerpicking guitar and finger-snapping percussion, “The Sunken Lands” echoes the feel of the region. “Etta’s Tune,” written for the wife of Marshall Grant, longtime bassist for Johnny Cash, explores the ups, downs and mysteries of a relationship that spanned 65 years of marriage. “When The Master Calls The Roll,” inspired by her ancestor William Cash who fought in the Civil War for the Union, is a haunting tale of love and sacrifice featuring Kris Kristofferson, John Prine and Tony Joe White on supporting vocals.

Cash has tightened up her songwriting on The River & The Thread and the CD benefits from the conciseness.

Seven of the songs are under three and a half minutes. Producer John Leventhal, who is also Cash’s husband, helps to provide a unity of sound and vision that makes The River & The Thread a memorable recording. Cash, now a longtime New York City resident, proves you can go home again. 11 songs 38 minutes.

Michael Bloomfield ★★★★ From His Head to His Heart to His Hands Legacy Thirty-three years after his death, Michael Bloomfield is the subject of a career-spanning box set. From His Head to His Heart to His Hands pulls the influential guitarist out of the historical shadows and chronicles his contributions in blues and rock. A native of Chicago, Bloomfield developed his skills in the city’s blues clubs, sharing stages with such artists as Muddy Waters and B.B. King. Signed to Columbia Records by John Hammond, Bloomfield made his mark as lead guitarist for Bob Dylan on “Like a Rolling Stone,” heard

TOM WILK ★=SKIP IT; ★★=MEDIOCRE; ★★★=GOOD; ★★★★=EXCELLENT; ★★★★★=CLASSIC

here in an instrumental version that highlights Bloomfield’s inventive guitar lines.

Bloomfield became a key member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, lending his distinctive tone to “Blues With a Feeling” and the groundbreaking East-West, which incorporated blues, jazz, rock and Indian music in a 13-minute tour de force. As a founding member of the Electric Flag, Bloomfield was in the forefront of adding horns to a rock setting on such songs as “Texas,” and “Susie’s Shuffle,” a forerunner to such bands as Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago.

Compilation producer Al Kooper, a longtime friend of Bloomfield who collaborated with him on the Super Session album and other projects, shows the many facets of Bloomfield’s musicianship. A live version of The Band’s “The Weight” recalls the ensemble work of Booker T. & The MG’s.

“I’m Glad I’m Jewish,” a Bloomfield original taken from an acoustic show in 1977 shows his lighter side. The box set also includes Sweet Blues: A Film About Mike Bloomfield that provides an illuminating profile of him through his musical performances and interviews with family members and fellow musicians. 46 tracks, 193 minutes. DVD 60 minutes.

The Wood Brothers ★★★1/2 The Muse Southern Ground Artists From Americana to jam bands and a hint of jazz, The Wood Brothers incorporate a diverse array of influences on The Muse, but present a seamless blend of music.

“Wastin’ My Mind” recalls the rustic, back-to-basics feel of The Band’s first two albums. It’s a fitting comparison as The Wood Brothers—bassist Chris Wood, guitarist Oliver Wood and drummer Jano Rix—are all multi-instrumentalists and share vocal duties as The Band did.

Oliver Wood’s title track is a celebration of “his finest work yet”—the birth of his daughter. His understated bass work and Rix’s melodica heighten the sense of wonder over new life. “Neon Tombstones” offers the group’s view of the after life: “ When I die, I want to be sent back to try, try again.” “I Got Loaded,” a version of Lil’ Bob and the Lollipops swinging ode to drinking, is successfully recast as a slice of minimalist blues, focusing on the morning after, rather than the night before. “Sing About It” is an observation on the power of song. “Sing about your troubles/It just might pass,” the band harmonizes. 11 songs 43 minutes.

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Dan Penn ★★★1/2 I Need a Holiday Dandy Records Dan Penn established himself as a songwriter in the 1960s, co-writing hits for Aretha Franklin (“Do Right Woman”), James Carr (“Dark End of the Street”) and Percy Sledge (“It Tears Me Up”). among others. Until the mid1990s, Penn was content to let others sing his songs, but now has stepped forward as a front man. A prolific songwriter for more than half a century, Penn has released a series of his demo recordings, much like Pete Townshend has done. I Need a Holiday, the third installment in Penn’s series, is a showcase for his soulful, gritty vocals and features songs he’s written over the past four decades.

“Don’t Give Up on Me,” which served as at the title track for Solomon Burke’s 2002 Grammy-winning album, shows Penn’s talent as a pleading balladeer. “Make Somebody Happy for Christmas,” which dates from the 1970s, is a dash of holiday cheer steeped in rhythm and blues.

“Building Fires,” originally intended for a 1974 solo album that was never released, is heard in a country-flavored version and one oriented to rhythm-and-blues fans. “Peace in Poretta,” written as a tribute for a 1990s soul music festival in Italy where Penn performed, showcases Penn’s soothing vocal style, a cross between Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. At 72, Penn is gaining belated recognition for his voice as well as his songs. 16 songs 60 minutes.

California Feetwarmers ★★★1/2 California Feetwarmers Shepheard’s Records The music of the California Feetwarmers is as catchy as the group’s name. On their debut CD, the eight-member band serves up a musical gumbo of classic New Orleans jazz, ragtime, blues and a touch of folk. The songs date from the late 19th century to the group’s own compositions.

“Jazz Me Blues,” a freewheeling instrumental from the 1920s, kicks off the album in a breezy style. “France Blues,” featuring a guest lead vocal by Phil Alvin of the Blasters, is a banjopowered tune that spotlights Patrick Morrison’s string work.

“Golden Gate,” also sung by Alvin, is a celebration of the group’s home state that was co-written by Al Jolson and featured in his 1928 movie Singing Fool. On “Oozlin’ Stomp,” one of the band’s original songs, the group conjures up an instrumental that has the feel of a soundtrack for an instrumental film. “A spirited version of “Maple Leaf Rag” acknowledges the influence of Scott Joplin. A joyous “Tiger Rag” wraps up the album with a lively sendoff.

“This recording is intended for your listening and dancing enjoyment,” the band states on the CD and the music lives up to that standard. 13 songs, 48 minutes. ■

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Keresman on Disc Robert Wyatt ★★★★ ’68 Cuneiform Harry Nilsson ★★★★★ The Essential Nilsson RCA/Legacy Robert Wyatt (b. 1945) and Harry Nilsson (1941-1994) have more in common than one might think—both are singular singers/composers with a stubborn conviction to do it their way, letting the vinyl slivers fall where they may. Nilsson died rela-

MARK KERESMAN ★=SKIP IT; ★★=MEDIOCRE; ★★★=GOOD; ★★★★=EXCELLENT; ★★★★★=CLASSIC

essences rather than going overboard trying to “sound like” them. Zack Keims’ singing drips with piss, vinegar, and restless angst, with just enough self-effacing wit to keep it palatable for those over 33. The songs could be a little catchier, but Nox Boys got the goods for sure. You got to watch. (11 tracks, 31:41) gethip.com Speaking of mining classic sounds (heck, even older than six years ago), Mutual Benefit—aka Jordan Lee and all who sail with him—is a charming slide of pastoral psychedelic/baroque pop, oozing gauzy vocals (think late ‘60s Beach Boys and their

Harry Nilsson.

Robert Wyatt, 2013. Alfreda Benge.

tively young (he partied like there was no tomorrow) and Wyatt, in a wheelchair since a 1973 accident, is still active. Both gave and continue to give generations truly unique music. ‘68 is a holy grail for progressive rock fans—with his combo Soft Machine temporarily disbanded, Wyatt chilled in the USA with pals The Jimi Hendrix Experience and recorded an album’s worth of material in 1968 that’s gone unreleased ‘til now. Wyatt played nearly all instrumentation (attention collectors: Hendrix plays a bit of bass here) and it’s cheerily dreamlike and inspired. It’s all here, fans: His elfin, jazz-influenced warble, dreamy keyboards, and lyrics alternating satire, gentle wit, and the plainly daffy (he’s English, y’know). Unlike some progressive rocky purveyors, Wyatt has a light, surreal touch, leaving bombast to the hacks. Fans of prog-rock (especially the UK’s “Canterbury school”) must investigate. (4 tracks, 47:00) cuneiformrecords.com While Wyatt never had chart success (save for the UK charts), Harry Nilsson had tons, as an interpretive talent (“Everybody’s Talkin,’” from the movie Midnight Cowboy), a songwriter (“One,” a huge Three Dog

shemp@hotmail.com

Night hit), and as a singer/songwriter (“Jump Into the Fire,” used so effectively in Goodfellas). His voice was an amazing instrument, with a range that went from mellow melancholic musings to passionate high-ranged wailing (his hit version of Badfinger’s “Without You”). Essential covers Nilsson’s entire career and is not only a significant cross-section of his career but of ‘60s and early ‘70s pop music in general, stylistically rich and varied as contemporaries Randy Newman and The Beatles. (Nilsson’s songs were covered by a range of performers including Fred Astaire and The Monkees, and those Beatles were his fans.) (40 songs, 123 minutes) legacyrecordings.com Nox Boys ★★★1/2 Nox Boys Get Hip Mutual Benefit ★★★1/2 Love’s Crushing Diamond Other Music/Fat Possum One need not be a rocket surgeon to know bands are as common as blades of grass, but ‘tis rare to stumble across one that has a truly distinctive sound…and a good one, to boot. Pittsburgh’s Nox Boys fall into that rare stratum. Superficially, NBs resemble many others: Two guitars, bass, and drums with vocals—but its arsenal includes slide guitar, albeit not employed in anything resembling blues content. It’s keening, snarling, a bit feral and feverish, while the other six-stringer makes with chunky Diddley/Richards/Thunders attack.

While rich with roaring echoes of the Pretty Things, Sonics, pre-1968 Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, and pre-‘66 Kinks (even a hint of Hawkwind), Nox Boys emanate their

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Jordan Lee. Photo: Whitney Lee.

more recent acolytes The High Llamas and Mercury Rev), soothingly layered melodious textures (imagine The Left Banke produced

by Brian Eno), the lush Americana of Van Dyke Parks and Sufjan Stevens, and even the flower-y folk-rock of Decemberists and Donovan. While it’s a bit same-y as a whole, Love’s Crushing Diamond is appealing as a cool, lazy summer sunset. (7 tracks, 31:48) fatpossum.com Mandy Barnett I Can’t Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson Cracker Barrel/Rounder Some singers have voices that seem to emanate from another era yet somehow mange to sound “at home” in our time—

Chris Isaak, an heir to Roy Orbison, is one such, and Mandy Barnett is indeed another.

Barnett is such an acolyte of Patsy Cline that she played her in a stage show dedicated to Cline. Here she pays tribute to the late Don Gibson, one of the greatest country songwriters ever, his songs recorded by swells Sinatra, Ray Charles (“I Can’t Stop Loving You”), and Neil Young. In the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Cline and Gibson brought lush sophistication and pop savvy into country music, downplaying the rural and honky tonk influences without emasculating it. Barnett unabashedly, unapologetically re-creates that style, swirling ‘n’ swelling strings, tinkling piano, heart-on-sleeve torch song delivery and all. Oh, that voice—so much like Cline’s yet all hers, full-bodied, soaring, and emotive with the right touch of cool reserve with a range that, dare I say, exceeds Cline’s. Yes, this album sounds as if it might’ve come out in 1963 and I say that, in this age of processed pop-tarts that is not a bad thing. This platter sounds best spun after dark—trust me. (10 tracks, 35:44) rounder.com Billy Branch ★★★1/2 Blues Shock Blind Pig Do you crave drenched-in-tradition, deep, dark blues? Well, Blues Shock isn’t quite it, not in its entirety—but that doesn’t mean this can’t satisfy other cravings. Chicago blues harmonica player/singer Billy Branch paid his dues with Willie Dixon, Johnny Winter, and Koko Taylor, but he’s not stuck in some idealized past—Branch plays the blues, certainly, but on this outing he’s put some snazzy threads on the ol’ beast. While there be plenty of the electric Chicago style (“Dog House,” with some blistering guitar by Ronnie Baker Brooks and a brisk romp through John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom”), Shock incorporates aspects of the rougher end of the funk/R&B tradition (the title track and the Motown obscurity “Function at the Junction”). Branch has a hearty, soulful voice—in fact, he sounds like a rougher Lou Rawls on the Stax-like “Going to See Ms. Gerri One More Time”— and plays that mouth harp in the scorching Windy City tradition of Little Walter and Carey Bell. Branch is not “diluting” blues, he’s enriching them, giving the beast some new (well, new-old) blood. If you appreciate the way Robert Cray brings classic R&B into blues, go out on a limb with Mr. Branch. (11 tracks, 51:51) blindpigrecords.com ■

Jazz Library

BOB PERKINS

Paul GONSALVES

d

DUKE ELLINGTON WAS A fascinating figure—so much so that quite a number of books and shorter profiles of the man came to be during his time, and well after his passing. Writers were always peering over his shoulder, trying to get a fix on how he operated his band and made it so successful; they even attempted to poke into his personal life, which the Duke managed to keep fairly secret.

Some of the members of the Ellington band had interesting stories. Quite a number of these talented souls surely helped Ellington and the band reach the iconic level that the man and the band established for a half-century.

One of Ellington’s longtime bandsmen was tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, a young man from Boston, who had first played guitar, and later switched to saxophone. Gonsalves had played in the Count Basie Band for several years, and held a chair in Dizzy Gillespie’s band for about a year. When Ellington hired him in 1950, he said he had about $7.00 to his name.

Ellington, being a darn good musician, a great composer, and perhaps a psychologist, knew how to use the musical strengths of his bandsmen, and before long was writing material tailored to Gonsalves’ talent. Neither had a way of knowing that Gonsalves would not only be a band member for the next 24 years—but until the day he died.

The years with Ellington had their ups and downs for Gonsalves because he had a major problem with alcohol, heroin and other drugs. He often wouldn’t show up because he was in no shape to play, but Ellington kept him on the payroll, even though he had to hire a backup tenor player. Gonsalves’ ability to play heart-massaging ballads, and display leather lungs on up-tempo material, were valuable assets to the band, and with Ellington writing material to display such execution, Gonsalves, much like Harry Carney, Johnny Hodges and Billy Strayhorn, had become a very recognizable name in the band.

The occasion that really brought him to the fore was the Ellington Band’s appearance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. Ellington wasn’t happy with the band’s place in the schedule one evening, and some patrons had started drifting away. He called for the band to play his composition, Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue, and called on Gonsalves to take the lead and just play on, hoping to excite and hold the crowd. Gonzales played a rollicking 27 choruses, and folks went literally crazy during the solo. Sam Woodyard urged Gonsalves on with drum rolls and rim shots. A blonde female patron got up and danced to excite. Others joined in the terpsichore. The place was in a frenzy.

The next day the critics hailed Ellington’s band, saying it had been reborn. If Gonsalves wasn’t already a star in the band—and in his own right—he became one overnight.

There’s no telling what a major force Gonzalves might have become in jazz if not for his dependence on booze and drugs. The hard living finally took its toll in London in 1974, when Gonsalves fell very ill and passed away. Ironically, Ellington was in a hospital in the U.S., battling cancer. He was not informed of Gonzalves’ death for fear the news would worsen his condition. Duke died seven days after his star tenor player.

Adding further irony to this story is that former Ellington trombonist Tyree Glenn and Ellington lay side-by-side in the same funeral home prior to their burial. And several months after Ellington’s death, saxophonist Harry Carney, who was with the Ellington Band longer than any other member, passed away after 47 years with the band. When Ellington passed away, Carney said he had nothing else to live for. ■

Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Mon-Thurs.

6 to 9pm & Sun., 9am–1pm.

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Nick’’s Picks Helen Sung ★★★★ Anthem For A New Day Concord Jazz For a jazz pianist, New York-based Helen Sung certainly fits into the “deserves to be better known” category. For those who do know and appreciate her art, Sung’s club gigs are adventurous, disarming and always have an unexpected surprise or two. It was at one of these small club dates where I caught her during a late set in the summer of 2013 with much of the same band that accompany her on Anthem For A New Day, her glossy and rewarding debut record for Concord Jazz. A classically trained musician who found self-ex-

pression more fully realized playing and composing jazz, Sung is a nimble, quick-witted keyboardist partly influenced by pianist Tommy Flanagan, but the modern compositions she’s recorded here along with her wry twist on jazz covers like Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean A Thing” and the percussive bounce on Chick Corea’s “Armando’s Rhumba,” put her squarely in her own spotlight.

Anthem is outfitted with state-of-the-art production values and a band to match—the rhythm section includes two of NY’s finest— bassist Rueben Rogers and drummer Obed Calvaire—with front line duties deftly handled by tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen. On either piano or performing on Fender Rhodes for the first

Nick Bewsey has been writing about jazz for ICON since 2004. A member of The Jazz Journalists Assoc., he blogs about jazz and entertainment at www.jazzinspace.blogspot.com.

Twitter: @countingbeats

time, Sung exercises equal parts soulfulness and grace even as her sparkling originals teem with colorful solos. Sung draws you in with the mischievous turns on “Brother Thelonious,” the playfully elastic tempo of the title tune or a smoky, mysterious track called “Hidden’ complete with a star turn by violinist Regina Carter, throws open the window on Sung’s talent and thoughtful arrangements. But there’s a deeper satisfaction in hearing the unshakeable groove on her rendition of Monk’s “Epistrophy” that gives Sung and her band, especially the soaring voice of saxophonist Blake, maximum space to reimagine the beauty of Monk’s music. Anthem is an eclectic and solid listening experience and at the least, should give Sung a place at the table as one of contemporary jazz’s great pianists. (10 tracks; 52 minutes) Amy Cervini ★★★★1/2 Jazz Country Anzic Records A Manhattan backdrop substitutes for prairie land and open sky on Jazz Country, the big-hearted hybrid album from singer Amy Cervini that’s as endearing and tender as a vocal recording can be in 2014. She smartly transcends genre boundaries or anything else that gets in the way of the purity of a song.

The spare musical accompaniment by guitarist Jesse Lewis and bassist Matt Aranoff frame Cervini’s renditions of these classic American songs simply and earnestly, underscoring her candor and crystalline delivery. As an interpreter of song, Cervini never delivers a false or insincere note. More than her previous, joyful celebration of the music of Blossom Dearie, Cervini has honed these stories to perfection, incubating them in clubs for three years, particularly downtown’s Cornelia Street Café and 55 Bar where I had a chance to hear early incarnations of some of these tunes. You can hear that these are songs closest to her soul.

Jazz Country has many highlights, including tunes by Rodgers and Hart (“Blue Moon”), Hank Williams (“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”) and Neil Young’s “After The Gold Rush.” Selflessly, Cervini asked drummer Matt Wilson to produce this album for her, and their fruitful collaboration bears magnificent results, particularly with their choice of invited guests like saxophonist Anat Cohen whose delicious solo ripens “Fram Fram Sauce” and singer Nellie McKay who augments Cervini’s best tune on the recording, Dave Frishberg’s “Wallflower Lonely, Cornflower Blue” where we also get a too-brief solo from Cervini on her saxophone. There are more pleasures on Jazz Country and a minor misstep (“Calling

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riffs to soaring waves of sound (“Lights”), tight harmonic rhythms and heartfelt melodies (“Bandits”). Better still is “Code,” a power ballad with a Prince-like backbeat and a precise pace—it resonates with Felder’s distinctive chord effects that give this track its ethereal beauty. Dipping into the jazz/R&B realm, “Lover” fuses a bright groove with Parks’ intricately beautiful piano solo.

Another element Felder employs to great effect is voiceover, specifically segments of speeches from political and cultural figures.

The juxtaposition is used sparingly, but winningly on “Sketch 2,” where a sample of former NY Governor Mario Cuomo’s rebuttal to then President Reagan’s “shining city on the

You”), and though some may question whether jazz or country carries greater weight here, it’s a moot point because this knockout record from Amy Cervini is an incomparable delight. (14 tracks; 56 minutes) Nir Felder ★★★★1/2 Golden Age Okeh The lanky, unassuming young man in street-worn slip-ons and a hoodie, fiddled with cords and gearboxes on the small secondary stage at Rockwood Hall last November, a compact room in New York’s Bowery neighborhood on the gentrified lower East Side. He could have passed for one of the tech crew, but he was guitarist Nir Felder and when he turned on his axe and started to play, everybody in that room was transfixed.

Previewing songs from his debut release Golden Age, Felder interacted with his band with the casual nonchalance that comes with friendship, and pianist Aaron Parks, drummer Nate Smith and bassist Orlando Le Fleming (substituting for Matt Penman) dug into this joyous material with enthusiasm.

Felder has been a go-to sideman on many high-profile gigs, supplying superior fretwork and textures to projects by Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding, the singer José James and saxophonist Brian Landrus.

His debut scores on many fronts—the songs are modestly epic, performed by a band that’s locked tight with groove and invention, and combined with the leader’s aweinspiring gifts as a composer and player, Golden Age heralds the arrival of a fresh new voice on jazz guitar. The all-originals playlist naturally reflect Felder’s influences and aspirations, from grunge-like chords and blues

hill” speech segues into an urgent impressionistic track that nonetheless conveys an ever-present optimism that weaves through Felder’s compositions.

When Felder played on the Rockwood Hall stage that late night, he and his Mexican Stratocaster were one voice. Felder’s body was stretched tall and loose, his face aimed to the ceiling and while the music he played was amplified, it sounded as if it radiated out from his body. It turns out that the guitar is Felder’s original instrument that he bought as a teenager, putting heavy strings on it early on (“like Stevie Ray Vaughan did”) and it’s the instrument that Felder uses on all tracks but one on Golden Age, his fearless and resplendent first recording. (10 tracks; 61 minutes)

NICK BEWSEY

★=SKIP IT; ★★=MEDIOCRE; ★★★=GOOD; ★★★★=EXCELLENT; ★★★★★=CLASSIC

Dianne Reeves ★★★★ Beautiful Life Concord Records Beautiful Life is an upscale entertainment that confidently establishes Reeves as an adult contemporary R&B singer of romantic ballads and mid-tempo love songs. Producer Terri Lynn Carrington surrounds Reeves with first-rate jazz and studio players and the recording sounds deep and lush. Obviously designed for maximum radio play, with arrangements that employ up-to-the-minute grooves and after-hours rhythm, Reeves gives Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You” a quiet storm makeover, Ani DiFranco’s “32 Flavors” a funky, slam-dunk read and offers up a dazzling original, “Cold,” that features an irresistible chorus: I am better now Without you; So much better now There’s nothing left to say; Got my life back My swagger; So much better now, So I’ll be on my way Dianne Reeves is indisputably one of the world’s great jazz singers, a splendid and charismatic entertainer with a luminous voice that evokes the likes of Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington. After many fine records for Blue Note, four Grammy Awards and a bravura turn in the George Clooney directed film Goodnight and Good Luck (her companion soundtrack album is among the best examples of her vocal mastery), Reeves waited five years until this superior effort that pairs her voice with all-star contributions from singer/composer and bassist Esperanza Spalding who accompanies Reeves on the uplifting “Wild Rose,” the in-demand jazz pianists Robert Glasper and Gerald Clayton, along with vocalist Gregory Porter who clicks with Reeves on a fine duet called “Satiated.” Drummer Terreon Gully supplies notably tight beats.

And in a bittersweet turn, Reeves cousin, the late George Duke takes a final bow with a synth solo on “Feels So Good (Lifted).”

Some may find Reeves’ typical exuberance curbed somewhat on Beautiful Life. She’s celebrated for scatting and voice effects in concert and record, but apart from the improvised coda on Bob Marley’s “Waiting In Vain” and the wordless boffo original called “Tango,” Reeves plays it mostly cool. Producer Carrington is gifted in so many ways and she treats Reeves with the respect she deserves. Life remains a success and is destined to reach many new listeners not familiar with her greatness. Regardless, Beautiful Life flows easily between jazz and soul and this album is nothing less than a gift from Reeves to her fans. (12 tracks; 69 minutes)

Pat Metheny Unity Group ★★★★★ Kin (<-->) Nonesuch Among the most prolific of musicians, jazz or otherwise, Pat Metheny is far from your average guitarist. After playing more than 100 concerts with his Unity Band—their terrific 2012 debut recording netted him his 20th Grammy award—he sets about composing a new record with even more moving parts and adds multi-instrumentalist Guilio Carmassi to an already tight crew that’s comprised of saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Ben Williams and drummer Antonio Sanchez—warranting the name change.

Kin (<-->) overflows with typical Metheny touches. The grand lead off tune, the 15minute long “Day One,” covers these bases with expansive writing, remarkable solos over delicate layers of sound, complete with blazing synths, soaring wordless vocals and buzzy orchestration. Metheny has always been a musician of the world, incorporating influences and textures from cultures across the globe, and “Rise Up” bursts with his unique brand of optimism—percussive Latin rhythm, blissful acoustic guitar, percolating saxophone, deep, popping

bass—all give way to a high-flying electric guitar solo that dips and dives like a stunt plane at an aerial show. It all culminates in a blizzard of harmonic intensity and instrumentation that is as dazzling as it is complex.

“Born” is among the guitarist’s most beautiful ballads—it’s lushly cinematic in scope and feeling and the group’s simpatico interplay consistently pulls you in. Halfway through the title track, there’s an impressive trading of solos between bassist Williams and saxophonist Potter, underscored by a zippy electronic foundation that crackles and fizzes throughout. The tune’s denouement rests on the shoulders of Sanchez and he consistently astonishes on his kit. Dispatching an arsenal of percussion, he’s an ever-inventive soloist, a powerful player and leader in his own right, and as with all of Metheny’s projects, the drummer gives this music its backbone.

In the press release, Metheny states “writing this music and putting it together for this incredible collection of players and integrating all the materials at hand was one of the biggest challenges I have ever undertaken.” That could be an understatement because Metheny’s control and intuition, plus the input from the quartet of players that he’s assembled that give rise to his compositions, is what puts him in a class of his own. The groove and street-wise beats that make “We Go On” weave and bounce ultimately codifies the popular achievement that is Kin (<-->) and it further secures Metheny’s rep as among the most revered and appreciated artists in music. Essential listening. (9 tracks; 70 minutes) The Pat Metheny Unity Group plays Philadelphia at the Keswick Theater on March 22 as part of their 44-city North American tour. ■

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oops

Dining Stockton Inn, Stockton, NJ.

Thanks to our readers who pointed out that the profile of Stockton Inn in last month’s issue was accompanied by a photograph of the historic Lambertville House in Lambertville, NJ. We apologize for this error.

ROBERT GORDON

ANTON’S AT THE SWAN ECLECTIC, MESMERIZING, AND YET soothing—no matter how many visits I make to Anton’s, those impressions strike me as soon as I set foot in the main dining room.

Check out the photo of the main dining room on Anton’s

Lambertville House, Bridge St., Lambertville, NJ.

S WA N

HOTEL Modern Cuisine h Classic Comfort Corner of Swan & Main Lambertville, NJ 609-397-3552

website. You’ll get the idea—classy warm woods frame the walls, a huge mirror stretches along one lateral. The mirror opens up the room. It brightens and highlights an impressive display of treasured vintage and new paintings along with myriad nostalgia-drenched articles and appointments.

Commodiously spaced, white-linen-draped dining tables intimate the Hotel’s rich tradition and historic pedigree. Suffice it to say that Anton’s, in unique style, melds timeless elegance with a uniquely captivating quirkiness. The result is enchanting.

Notwithstanding Anton’s quirky, homey, historic atmosphere, the main attraction remains Chef Chris Connors’ cuisine—an eclectic funneling of French and other European elements into coherent, recognizable contemporary American favorites fueled by a commitment to a farm-to-table philosophy. Chris has been an active member of the local community for a number of years. He fully embraces and is growing the farm-to-table approach.

Chris taps French gastronomy with liver pâté—a silky

Email comments and suggestions to r.gordon33@verizon.net

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smooth, niftily spiced mound of pâté that’s partnered with crunchy toasted bread slices and punchy onion chutney.

The dish works either as a tapa or an appetizer. Grilled Octopus takes on a tantalizing smoky edge. Plated with German-influenced warm potato salad and spunky Spanish chorizo, the dish is a winning combination.

Spicy Black Bean Soup corrals South of the-Border comfort in a bowl. Parmigiano Reggiano give an earthy surge to a gigantic portion of delicious roasted asparagus risotto.

A quartet of flavorful salads is available. Mixed Green Salad and Caesar Salad anchor the foursome, but attractively plated Baby Arugula Salad is my favorite. Roasted beets add color, silky crunch, and depth, while goat cheese gently modulates the arugula-beet counterplay in this medley that rises far above the routine.

Considering its exquisite venue and bountiful portions, Anton’s prices don’t cause sticker shock. For an outstanding bargain, try the Swan Hotel Supper Club: a $35 PP (that includes tax and gratuity) prix fixe meal in the second-floor dining room that is offered at 6:30 PM on the final Thursday of each month.

On the entrée list, you’ll find more meat than fish choices. The number of selections expands nightly via specials, which generally offer additional fish dishes. A recent special, Roasted Monkfish in Red Wine Reduction with trufflemashed potatoes, is a straightforward treatment that avoids trampling the natural flavor of the meaty fish that a more adventurous recipe might precipitate. Grilled Swordfish, a staple of the regular menu, perks with savory olive tapenade that imparts complexity and depth.

Pumpkin Risotto, buttressed with fresh asparagus tips, moistens and sparks Grilled Pork Chop that’s sided with gently steamed haricots verts and carrots. But of all the entrées, I’d be remiss not to mention a longtime house and personal favorite—a dish that keeps me coming back through the ages: Pan Roasted Duck with Orange Sauce.

Sweet, moist duck slices fan across an entire half of a large plate. Golden, orange-permeated skin covers the just-right pad of fat atop each slice. The kitchen has replicated this recipe without fail for a number of years.

There’s a tempting array of house-made desserts. Flourless chocolate cake nestles against dreamy coconut ice cream. A regal, luscious pear tartin is more delectable than any tartin in recent memory. Of course, at Anton’s, dessert is more than just a tasty climax to the meal. It’s also a handy excuse to linger. At Anton’s, that’s always a treat. ■ Anton’s at the Swan, 43 S. Main Street, Lambertville, NJ (609) 397-1960. antons-at-the-swan.com

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Dining

ROBERT GORDON

FridaySaturdaySunday TO PHILLY FOODIES OF a certain age, Friday Saturday Sunday brings a smile. The now 40-year old city landmark was a pioneer, a mover and shaker in Philly’s restaurant awakening. In Philadelphia’s forgettable 1960s, there was no dormant dining scene awaiting rebirth. In preparation for the nation’s Bicentennial, which Philadelphia hosted, a wave of “maverick” (in that era) newbies like the Astral Plane, the Frog, the Commissary, and Le Bec-Fin inhabited and invigorated failing storefronts throughout Center City. They introduced European and contemporary cuisine and ushered in a vibrant dining scene that galvanized a stodgy, slumbering, city. They served dishes that, until that time, were rare, if not flat-out unavailable, on Quaker City menus. As Jamie Lilley, wife of Weaver Lilley, the original (and still) owner of Fri-

day Saturday Sunday, puts it, “When we opened, Philly restaurants were just popping lids on cans and grilling steaks. The ‘new’ chefs that came in with us actually cooked.”

Hard to believe, but that was a revolutionary restaurant concept in the Philadelphia of the ‘60s.

The march of time has seen all of the aforementioned names drop from Philly’s active-restaurant roster—along with several others—as readers remind me—like Lickety Split, Montserrat, and Le Champignon. All were instrumental in earning dining bona fides for a city maligned as a dining disaster area.

Yes, those others are gone, but Friday Saturday Sunday remains. It’s still standing, still going strong. Today, FSS is a respected and still-hip elder statesman in the thriving scene it helped create. Some foodies even accord FSS the accolade of being Philly’s oldest extant full-service restaurant.

Email comments and suggestions to r.gordon33@verizon.net

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The engine that drives FSS’s longevity is its commitment to remain relevant. That’s not to say FriSatSun is a changeling, or a never-grounded self re-inventor. True, FSS has not succumbed to the numbing lack of imagination and invention that precipitated the decline of Philly’s pre-1970s eateries. But a dish like Cream of Mushroom Soup has been an FSS menu fixture since day one. And well it should. With Kennett Square mushrooms finely and delicately diced into a consistency that is at once hearty and delicate, this outstanding soup is a dish for all the ages.

The menu taps mostly French and Mediterranean traditions. Although most items are prepared and presented in straightforward bistro style, Chef Brendan McLaughlin has a knack of giving panache and eye appeal to his creations. He doesn’t achieve it with arrangements of the components so much as their colors. Case in point: Italian Sweet Sausage Ragout ($13) is a tasty dish delivered in unembellished bistro style.

But before a forkful reaches the mouth, the eyes take in the colorful and appetizing interplay of deep royal stew braised in sausage-and olivestudded red wine set against maize-hued polenta topped with deep-green shreds of spinach. The bright, fresh, homey color spectrum notches up the appeal of a tasty dish.

The deep red of Roma tomatoes brightens Spinach and Brussels Sprout Salad shored up with pancetta and roused with blue cheese dressing. Homemade Butternut Squash Raviolis stack up like soft pillows in buttery-rich mascarpone-based cream. Slow Roasted Duck prepared with masterfully balanced orange-ginger-Gran Marnier reduction sides with potatoes and spinach for a colorful, pleasing take on this bistro exemplar.

FSS’s house-made desserts are worth the calories. A recent bread pudding was stuffed with raspberries and served in lush, creamy, not-too-sweet sauce. Desserts have long been a calling card at this cozy 50-seater. Yes, sometimes it’s a good thing when things don’t change. FSS’s $10-over-cost wine, its staff longevity and loyalty, its upstairs tank bar with the tented ceiling—all these FSS elements are embedded in Philly’s dining patrimony. And, let this eatery serve as a role model to foodies of all ages. FSS doesn’t know what slowing down means. ■ Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 261 South 21st St., Philadelphia (215) 546-4232. frisatsun.com

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Whoopee!

ICON WINNER OF DINNER FOR TWO AT THE PRIME RIB, PHILADELPHIA

Sally Friedman a belated

EDWARD KINDYA TWO WAYS TO WIN: 1. “LIKE” us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/icondv or 2. Send an email with the subject line Glorious Food.

Write YOUR FULL NAME and send to trina@icondv.com

Whoopee!

ICON WINNER OF DINNER FOR TWO AT HAMILTON’S GRILL ROOM, LAMBERTVILLE, NJ

DAVID LEVAN TWO WAYS TO WIN: 1. “LIKE” us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/icondv or 2. Send an email with the subject line Glorious Food.

Write YOUR FULL NAME and send to trina@icondv.com

Valentine

HE DIED SUDDENLY, BEFORE there was a chance to say goodbye, or thank you, to my father. It’s strange how much that still hurts—even after decades. I don’t heal easily.

I especially think of this small, bespectacled man with sad blue eyes and deep dimples—a kind of facial oxymoron—around Valentine's Day, because every year, he handed me a small red satin box of candy. My sister got that same satin treasure. I probably grabbed it out of his hands without a decent thank you.

And what haunts me, exponentially more are the thank you’s I never gave that were far more important..like the time he read me the stories of Hans Christian Andersen five times in a row until he was hoarse because I had a ghastly misery called mumps.

I’ve yearned to tell my father all the stored-up, collected things that we never covered, and I have wept bitter tears at the notion that I will never have that chance. I’ve wanted him to know that all I am, or can hope to be, is due at least in part to him. I think those of us who have lost a parent relatively early in our lives rage most at the unfinished business, the awful reality of those words left unsaid. And in my case, there are oceans of them.

I lived with a father who was difficult. Brilliant, yes. Kind, absolutely. But challenging in the tradition of a gifted and demanding teacher, even though his own profession was law.

I wanted a father like everybody else’s, not one who lectured about principles and made me memorize soliloquies from Shakespeare.

My father never cooked or cleaned or fussed around the house. Never. Those were simpler times when mothers and fathers had very defined, very distinct and different roles.

It was my father who had the mystique, the clout, the briefcase and the career. But it was also my father who was a nurturer before I knew what that term meant. Not the milkand-cookies kind of nurturer. But a good one nonetheless.

When when I was feeling brutalized by life at 11, he took me to see a mushy movie and then to get a double-dip of coffee

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to my father

ice cream. That day, I loved him so much I thought my heart would burst. My intellectual, scholarly father was also capable of knowing how to soothe a little girl’s aching heart.

But my father was gone before I could tell him how foolish and guilty I felt about rejecting him at 16, when his clothes, his jokes and his manner all made me wince.

He was not there to receive my profound gratitude for all the sacrifice and renunciation that I only began to comprehend when I became a parent myself.

On Father’s Day, I still get depressed. I wonder whether it will ever be just another day. I wish my father had seen moon shots, computer terminals, cell phones, DVD’s and his granddaughters’ faces as they graduated from high school and college.

Two of them have his eyes, and the other his chin.

And how I wish he had met his own great-grandchildren, now that there are seven of them to remind us all that continuity is the most awesome gift of all.

How wonderful it would have been for me—and hopefully for him—to have known one another as adults, when we might have bridged the generational chasm that separated us.

And I can’t help wondering what he would make of me, his younger daughter. I suspect I’ve turned out so differently from what he’d expected, because we “children” so often do.

In all these years, I don’t think a day has gone by when I have not thought of my dad, a man who loved me deeply, but in his own way. I hope he knew that I loved him back.

And in this Valentine’s season, I need to say it. Yes, I miss that red satin candy box. I loved you, dad. I miss you.

And thanks. n Sally Friedman contributes to the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, AARP Magazine and other national and regional publications. She is the mother of three fierce daughters, grandmother of seven exceptional grandchildren and the wife of retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Victor Friedman. Email: PINEGANDER@aol.com.

About Life

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

Love:

a father/daughter view

THIS MONTH, MY DAUGHTER, Deidre Delpino-Dykes, is co-author.

D: My father and I haven’t always agreed on everything. We have slightly different views on when to wear Hawaiian print shirts, he likes to grill while I prefer the oven, he drinks Pepsi and I like Coke. We’re also too similar in a lot of ways, like the stubborn streak that we share. What we can agree on without any reservation is that there are two things in life that are the most important: love and really good dark chocolate.

We also agreed that we needed to write a column together. It was a long time coming. And what better topic, we both thought, than the many types of love in the world. After all, it’s what holds us together, even if we have different ideas of how love works best. Below is a sort of dialogue between my father, James (J) and me, Deidre (D) about the nature of life’s most powerful force.

J: Love is a unitive force. Love connects and binds people together like no other feeling. Although the power of love is undeniable to those who experience it, those who experience it find that it comes in countless shades and varieties.

We love our friends. We love our children. We love our lovers and partners.

We love our pets. While we all can identify with love it has a different identity with each person that we love. In short, no two loves are exactly the same.

D: Sometimes love is compared to a candle’s flame. If you hold it close, it will keep you warm and light your way when it’s needed. Like the flame, it can be used to light other candles around you without taking away from your own warmth and light. Love can be shared readily, much the same, without the fear of losing something inside of yourself. Just because it can be an inexhaustible resource, that doesn’t mean love is easy. It can be spread and shared and enjoyed but it still takes work to feed that flame and keep it burning.

Loving one person does not “steal” love away from another. And though we may love people differently than one another, we do not always love one more than we do the rest.

Loving our friends and families, loving our children and our neighbors, loving our partners in life—we can love all of these people at once. We are incredible creatures capable of endless empathy and kindness.

Jealously guarding love does it a great disservice. Like a good meal, it’s better when shared. Meeting new and exciting people and bringing them into your circle brings a sort of rush to many of us; we long to reach out, to connect, and to bond with those around us.

Some of these connections will be friendships and some may be romantic. For some, only one romantic partner will journey with us through life. For others, there will be many loves throughout our time here. To say one of these is better than another is to fail to understand the very nature of love.

It can take on different roles in each of our lives. We can love God, our community, our family, our spouse, our friends—each just as potentially important as the others to complete

ourselves. What is a life without love? Without passion and drive? Where would we be without something we care about and are fascinated by? What would we do without the people whom we love and who love us in return?

J: Love is essential to life. If a newborn baby is not picked up, held and loved, it will literally fail to thrive. People who do not like or love themselves to some degree pay the price with lifelong suffering. Self-abasement, self-destruction and failure to accept and take in the love around them becomes their reality. Love simultaneously sustains and enriches us. Those with love in their lives tend to live longer, live happier and have fewer heart attacks, strokes and cancers.

Giving love is equally significant for living the best life possible. Mega studies (a combination of 1,000 or more studies) show that those who volunteer experience greater immunological functioning.

Imagine that! By helping others, volunteers get sick less often.

The mystics are fond of saying that “love has no form.” This allows for the flow of love to manifest in countless ways. The course of love is as unique as each kind of flower that blossoms in its own fashion. The way of love is transcendent, yet it can be difficult and painful at times. In the course of love, each person can learn the ways of their own hearts as well as the ways of other hearts. Fear of love is the most common saboteur of bonding and sustaining love between two people. These fears are illusory for the most part and often projections of unworthiness grounded in a lack of self-love.

D: The most common fears are abandonment and engulfment. Abandonment fears are based in the concerns and anxieties of losing love. Engulfment fear come from anxieties of losing oneself in the course of deeply connecting with others. The possibility of profound love is one way to calm and heal these fears and discover the territory beyond. The face of fear sometimes manifests in jealousy, and other times it may show itself in control. Jealousy and control do not show how much a person is loved, but rather the insecurities and fears of the controller or jealous person. When love is greater and stronger than fear, fears are slowly ground down and replaced with something far better—a union and communion of hearts and souls.

We enjoyed working on this piece together and had a great deal of fun watching this conversation grow and develop. It’s been going on for years over assorted lunches and cups of coffee. We hope that it might inspire you and your loved ones to reflect and talk about why we love love and how it influences our lives in different ways. After all, we all seek it in some way or another so we may as well take the time to examine its importance. n Jim Delpino is a psychotherapist in private practice for over 33 years. jdelpino@aol.com (215) 364-0139.

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The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

UNIVERSAL TRUTH

By Pawel Fludzinski Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 8 14 20 21 22 23 25 26 27 28 30 31 34 36 39 41 45 46 48 49 50 53 54 55 57 58 61 62 63 64 66 69 75 79 80 82 83 85 86 88 90 91 92 94 95

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Gene splicer’s field They have strings attached In __: sort of Astronaut Fisher, the first mother in space He played House Spreads out His number 95-Across is now permanently retired Scholar Fit to __ Habituate Move up and down Piece of cake Peruvian coin Makes bubbly It’s roughly 95-Across kilometers Busy co. on Valentine’s Day Short-lived 1765 statute Hardly virtuous Classical theater Effervesce Avoids detection Pacific archipelago In __ and out ...

Singer DiFranco President number 95-Across Gracile Dog’s age Op-ed pieces Bridge coups Tiller opening?

“Understood” Bochco series Gambler’s strategy Pedicab, e.g.

Persian Gulf land It contains 95-Across crude gallons Wine: Pref.

Sean Combs’ stage name Like some wine glasses Hosiery hue Degree of interest?

Biblical words before and after “for” Bearing Vulgar Tarzan creator’s monogram Douglas Adams’ facetious answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything Arctic blast

99 101 104 105 106 110 112 116 117 118 119 120 121

Phil Collins gear Like some landings: Abbr.

But, to Brutus Verdun’s river Den __, Nederland Aquarium favorites Its first printing had 95-Across lines on most pages Hatch, as a plot Increase gradually Kind of watch or warning Funny blunder Quakes Cheaters, to teachers

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 24 29 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 40 42 43 44 46 47 50 51 52 55

Tijuana locale Take __ the waist: alter Back in the day Parting wish Yale student Checkered start?

Legalese adverb Philatelist’s item It has 95-Across spots Mysterious character Hosp. areas Mournful mother of myth Spanish titles Stubborn one Distant traveler King who died at 95-Across Bread brushed with ghee Harmonize O.T. book Getting __ years Night fliers LAX postings Columbus Blue Jackets’ org.

Aphrodite’s love Hit lightly Taj __ Protein-building acid “The Gates of Hell” sculptor Pond ducks “The Jungle Book” pack leader Lien, say Contract stipulations Magic, on scoreboards Grandma Brunch cocktail Draft choice Farm abode Bridle part

DOWN

56 Egyptian god of the dead 59 95-Across appears on street signs near this Big Apple landmark 60 Pull 62 NYSE overseer 65 Part of RSVP 66 Painter Fra Filippo __ 67 Makeup mogul Elizabeth 68 Scottish landowner 70 Revolutions, perhaps: Abbr.

71 Arg. miss 72 High schooler 73 Iconic bull 74 Its atomic number is 95-Across 75 Lean-__: sheds 76 Jazz title 77 Cartoon stinker 78 Part of un año 80 Impressionist John 81 Honorarium 84 Adorn 86 London gallery 87 Sometime it goes 89 Explosive compounds 91 __ Butterworth 93 Brake neighbor, informally 95 Melt together 96 Mobster’s code of silence 98 Elicit 100 Hayseeds 101 Longing

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102 103 105 107 108 109 111

First-century emperor Cassoulet, e.g.

Cousteau’s milieux “This guy walks into __ ...”

“M*A*S*H” star Subj. for Euclid Sun. delivery

113 Cable co. that merged with AT&T 114 Poly- ending 115 Uplifting wear

Answer in next month’s issue.

Answer to January’s puzzle, NAME GAME

Agenda ART EXHIBITS THRU 3/1 Alex Damevski, “Paired.” Reception, 2/14, 6-9pm. Images from local and international travels, reflecting on contrast, comparison, duality, polarity, opposition and harmony.

These photographs are to be enjoyed in pairs. The Bucks County Project Gallery, 252 West Ashland St, Doylestown. 267247-6634. buckscountyprojectgallery.com THRU 3/1 Winter Exhibition of small paintings and landscapes in oil, pastel, and watercolor.

The gallery welcomes Bradley Hendershot and Brad Lethaby. Patricia Hutton Galleries, 47 West State St., Doylestown, PA. 215348-1728. PatriciaHuttonGalleries.com THRU 3/2 Winter Exhibition until March 2. The Quiet Life Gallery, 17 So. Main St., Lambertville, NJ. 609-397-0880. quietlifegallery.com THRU 3/9 Red Filter Gallery, "What Happens When We Die" by Robert Quezada-Dardon.

“Down South,” new work by Brian Lav continues in Gallery II. 74 Bridge St., Lambertville, NJ Fri.-Sun. 12-5. 347-244-9758. redfiltergallery.com Thru 3/28 “Mercury Retrograde: Animated Realities,” features animation by int’l artists, Brian Alfred, Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, Aline Bouvy & John Gillis, eteam, Cliff Evans, Jan Nalevka , and Noah Spidermen & Scott Gelber.

Williams Center for the Arts, 317 Hamilton St., Easton. M-F 11-5, Sat. & Sun. 12-5.

610-330-5361. galleries.lafayette.edu THRU 5/16 Abstract Fridays, 2 p.m., guided tour of Paul Harryn: Essence of Nature, free with Museum admission. Allentown Art Museum, 31 North Fifth St., Allentown. 610432-4333. AllentownArtMuseum.org 2/5 Noon Gallery Talk, Paul Harryn: Essence of Nature. Free with admission, Scheller, Fowler, and Rodale Galleries. Allentown Art Museum, 31 North Fifth St., Allentown.

610-432-4333. AllentownArtMuseum.org 2/8-5/25 “Blessed are the Peacemakers”: Violet Oakley’s The Angel of Victory (1941).

Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, Delaware 866.232.3714 delart.org 2/14 Art Encounters, for the 50+ crowds, 1–2 p.m. Free with admission. Allentown Art Museum, 31 North Fifth St., Allentown.

610-432-4333. AllentownArtMuseum.org 2/15-4/13 FiberNext: Fiber artists explore ingenious approaches to classic textile traditions and contemporary art and design. Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Pkwy. Wilmington, DE. 302-571-9590. delart.org.

2/19-3/14 Women’s Work, Five Painters: Sandra Corpora, Donna Haney, Donna Needs, Jill Peckelun and Bebe Traylor. Reception, 2/19, 68. The Rodale Family Gallery, The Baum School of Art, 510 W. Linden St., Allentown, PA. baumschool.org, 610-433-0032 2/19-3/14 Isidro Con Wong. Opening Reception 2/19, 6-8 p.m. The David E. Rodale Gallery, The Baum School of Art, 510 W. Linden St., Allentown. baumschool.org, 610-433-0032

2/20-2/23 Moliére’s the Learned Ladies. Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown. Muhlenberg.edu/theatre. 484664-3333 3/14 A Couple of Blaguards, celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Irish humor & storytelling. Zoellner Arts Center, Bethlehem, PA. 9 pm, free parking attached to the center.

610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org

DINNER & MUSIC 3/8-6/1 Fashion, Circus, Spectacle: Photographs by Scott Heiser. Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Pkwy. Wilmington, DE. 302-5719590. delart.org.

DANCE 2/6-2/8 Master Choreographers. A spectacular evening of ballet, contemporary dance, tap and jazz showcasing new dance works choreographed by nationally and internationally acclaimed guest artists and faculty.

Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-6643333. Muhlenberg.edu/dance

Saturday nights: Sette Luna Restaurant, 219 Ferry St., Easton. 610-253-8888. setteluna.com Thursday nights: DeAnna’s Restaurant, 54 N. Franklin St., Lambertville, NJ. Live music/raw bar. 609-397-8957. deannasrestaurant.com.

Every Thurs.-Sat., Dinner and a Show at SteelStacks, Bethlehem, PA. 5-10:00pm. Table service and valet parking. Information, menus and upcoming events visit artsquest.org Every Monday, Live guitar with Barry Peterson, 7-10pm. Karla’s, 5 West Mechanic St., New Hope. 215-862-2612. karlasnewhope.com

CONCERTS 2/16 Krasnoyarsk National Dance Co. of Siberia.

4 p.m., Zoellner Arts Center, Bethlehem, PA. Free parking attached to the center.

610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org 3/7 Exquisite Russian Dance Moscow Festival Ballet performs Sleeping Beauty, with Kirov & Bolshoi troupes. Zoellner Arts Center, Bethlehem. 8pm, $42/35. Free parking.

610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org

THEATER 2/9 The Addams Family creepy and kooky Broadway musical comedy! Zoellner Arts Center, Bethlehem, PA. 7pm. $60/50 discounts available. Free event parking attached to the center. 610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org

Some organizations perform in various locations. If no address is listed, check website for location of performance.

KESWICK THEATRE Keswick Theatre, 291 Keswick Ave., Glenside, PA keswicktheatre.com 2/8 2/14 2/15 1/21 2/27 2/28 3/2 3/7 3/8 3/21

2/15 Lisa Lampanelli. Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem, PA. Box office: 610297-7400. Sandseventcenter.com 2/19-3/2 The Diary of Anne Frank, by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett. Act 1 Performing Arts, DeSales University, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-3192. desales.edu/act1 2/20 Little Shop of Horrors. Samuels Theatre, Cedar Crest College, 100 College Dr., Allentown, PA. A skid row floral assistant becomes an overnight sensation when he discovers an exotic plant with a mysterious craving for fresh blood.

Tickets: cedarcrest.edu/stage

Transatlantic All You Need is Love Satisfaction Jim Jeffries Josh Ritter (acoustic) Dar Williams The Peking Acrobats Amy Schumer George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic EXPERIENCE HENDRIX Billy Cox, Buddy Guy, Zakk Wylde, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Dweezil Zappa, Eric Johnson, Cesar Rosas & David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Doyle Bramhall II, Chris Layton & Eric Gales

ARTSQUEST CENTER AT STEELSTACKS MUSIKFEST CAFÉ 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, PA 610-332-1300. artsquest.org 2/8 2/13 2/14 2/14 2/19 2/20

Strawberry Fields: The Ultimate Beatles Tribute Two Laugh Minimum: Jon Rineman The SteelStacks Stunner Ball: Red and Wild The Amish Outlaws Angelique Kidjo The Associated Mess

2/21 2/27 2/27

An Evening of Bruce Springsteen w/Cunningham & Associates Two Laugh Minimum: Big Jay Oakerson Cowboy Junkies

GODFREY DANIELS Original live music room since 1976 7 E Fourth St, Bethlehem 610-867-2390 godfreydaniels.org 2/1 2/2 2/2 2/6 2/7 2/8 2/13 2/14 2/16 2/16 2/20 2/21 2/22 2/28

Bill Staines Children’s Series-Robbi Kumalo Open Mike Chet Brown & Company Chelsea Reed/Fair Weather Five Eighteenth Hour Advanced Jazz Ensemble Sarah Ayers Children’s Series-Karen Maurer Open Mike Black History Concert Ritchie Parrish-Tanglefoot!

Dave Fry & Friends British Music Hall 40th Anniv.

2/7 Big Bad VooDoo Daddy. Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem. 610-297-7400.

Sandseventcenter.com 2/12 3 Doors Down Acoustic, Songs from the Basement. Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem. 610-297-7400.

Sandseventcenter.com 2/16 A Legend in Concert: Peggy King and the All-Star Jazz Trio. Rrazz Room, 6426 Lower York Rd, New Hope. (888) 596-1027. therrazzroom.com 2/20 Red Hot Chili Pipers, 7:30 p.m. Special guest Liberty HS Grenadiers. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton. $35. 610252-3132. statetheatre.org 2/22 Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra presents Invitation to the Dance. Chamber orchestra concert featuring harp soloist Frances Duffy. Music by Debussy, Elgar, Janacek, Zelenka and Hellendaal. 7:30 p.m., Christ Lutheran Church, 1245 W. Hamilton St., Allentown. $15-$35 in advance/at door. 610434-7811.PASinfonia.org.

3/1 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Family Concert, “Young Meister Bach,” a comic opera including adventures and misadventures of a young Bach. 3pm, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem. bach.org 3/7 Golden Boys. Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem. 610-297-7400. Sandseventcenter.com 3/14 Quartet Quiroga, 7:30 p.m. Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem, Foy Concert Hall, Moravian College W. Church & Main Streets, Bethlehem. cmsob.org

3/21 Arts at St. John’s, Aaron David Miller, organist. 7:30 p.m., St. John’s Lutheran Church, 37 So. Fifth St., Allentown. 610435-1641. stjohnsallentown.org 3/21 Huey Lewis & The News. Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem. 610-297-7400.

Sandseventcenter.com 3/28 The Robert Cray Band & Mavis Staples.

Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem.

610-297-7400. Sandseventcenter.com

READINGS 2/8 Panoply Books Reading Series 2014: Donna Baier Stein, poet and publisher of Tiferet, A Journal of Spiritual Literature.

6PM, Panoply Books, 46 N. Union St., Lambertville, NJ. Free. (609) 397-1145

EVENTS 2/23 Dinner with Dennis & Deb, a casual, themed dinner and “behind-the-scenes” conversation with Dennis Razze and Deb Walter, followed by multi-course dinner.

5:30 pm, Act 1 Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-3192. desales.edu/act1

LECTURES 2/9 Cultural and historical context for “The Diary of Ann Frank,” by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett, directed by Wayne S. Turney. Tea, coffee, & dessert will be served.

3:00 pm, advance ticket purchase required.

Act 1 Performing Arts, DeSales University, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-3192. desales.edu/act1 2/19 Appetite for Art, lunch and discussion of “Oxen,” 1926, by Elsie Driggs. 12-1:30. $20 /$25. 610-432-4333 ext. 110 for reservations, 48 hours in advance. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. Fifth St., Allentown. 610-432-4333.

AllentownArtMuseum.org 2/23 Barbara Schulman, whose work is included in the exhibition “Assemblage: Contemporary Fiber Art.” 1 p.m. $5/$15. Call 610432-4333 ext. 129 to reserve. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. Fifth St., Allentown.

610-432-4333. AllentownArtMuseum.org 3/2 Artist Paul Harryn talk and visual presentation that explains his process. 1 p.m., $5/$15. 610-432-4333 ext. 110 for reservations. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. Fifth St., Allentown. 610-432-4333.

AllentownArtMuseum.org

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Carol C. Dorey Real Estate, Inc. Specialists in High-Value Property (215) 766-8834 • (610) 346-8800 www.doreyrealestate.com

FRENCH COUNTRY ESTATE This custom French Country home boasts exquisite details, custom cabinetry and fabulous appointments that add character and intrigue to an artistic masterpiece.

There are three family rooms, two fireplaces, a romantic master suite and dramatic cathedral ceilings on the first floor. Two wet bars and a butler’s pantry make entertaining a breeze. With views over the Weyhill Golf Course, this luxurious property is a delight. $1,495,000

MEADOW VIEW FARM This exceptional property offers the authenticity of an historic farmhouse and 21st century amenities. A meticulous and updated home, barn, springhouse and smokehouse are enveloped by evergreens, woodlands and gardens. Wide plank pine floors, deep windowsills and beamed ceilings are reminders of its 1700s origins. The library houses a walk-in fireplace with Mercer tile and smoking doors.

Guest quarters with charming en suite bedrooms and a home office. $1,200,000

EXCEPTIONAL HOME This fabulous home is the definition of elegance, with an exterior of multiple gables and stacked stone, designed with French Country styling.

Three levels of living space, 5 bedrooms, including a 1st fl master suite, a fabulous entertaining room with custom cherry bar, exercise room, full bath and office all on the lower level. This home is an example of the best, with meticulous craftsmanship in every room. $1,095,000

SLEEK AND SOPHISTICATED

MONOCACY CREEK On a private 1.73 acre setting is this 7 BR, 4 bath home on Bethlehem’s Main St Ext. The 3 level floor plan features stunning views of the property’s lush lawn, colorful gardens and Monocacy Creek. Master suite options are found on the 1st and 2nd flrs. Formal living and dining rooms, and a high-end kitchen with access to a covered veranda are great for entertaining. This has the feel of a mountain getaway yet is within minutes of commuter routes, dining and shopping. $570,000

DOYLESTOWN Desirable end unit in Fireside with a 1st fl master bedroom and full bath.

Cathedral ceiling living room, wood-burning fireplace with Federal-style mantel, custom bookshelves, sliding glass doors and retractable awning outside. Vaulted ceiling dining room with 2-story windows. Eat-in kitchen with new appliances and pantry closet. First floor is handicap accessible with all hardwood floors. Carpeted 2nd floor has 2 bedrooms, hall bath and loft with custom bookshelves. Two-car garage with electric openers. $349,000

BARN CONVERSION This country home began life circa 1880 as a stone bank barn in rural Bucks County. Today, it stands as Dragon Hill, set on 5 well-protected acres of mature trees and meadowlands. The heart of the home is the living room with 10 ft beamed ceilings, wood-burning fireplace and 2 sets of triple windows. The sunny kitchen has glossy cherry cabinetry, soapstone countertops and stainless appliances. A separate entrance leads to a studio that can just as easily be used as an au pair/guest W W W. FA C E B O O K . C O M / I C O N D V suite. $549,000

EXPECT TO BE IMPRESSED With extensive built ins, incredible architectural and trim details, custom appointments & an elevator to access 3 flrs, this condominium invites one to experience perfection. A great room, with 18 ft ceilings, boasts quarter sawn white oak millwork, beamed trusses, and an adjacent music room of stone and glass and the custom kitchen features over the top appliances. 5400 sqft, swim-in-place indoor pool, glass conservatory, 4 bedrooms… all overlooking 500 acres of Lehigh University’s playing fields. $1,050,000

The core of this home is the magnificent great room, bathed in light through oversized windows that bring the outside in, capturing pristine hillside vistas and a kaleidoscope of seasonal colors. Designed to be open for entertaining, the kitchen has stainless appliances, slate counter tops and vistas of nearly 3 luxurious acres with breathtaking flowering gardens, stone patio and paths, mature trees and 2 pergolas, all leading to a sparkling pool. $665,000

ITALIAN STYLE VILLA This Italian Villa style home sits on nearly 12 private and beautiful acres in Upper Bucks County. A long driveway leads to this one-of-a-kind home with a hand rubbed stucco exterior and a stunning interior highlighted with 15 ft ceilings, handmade chestnut staircase and plaster walls. The master bedroom has a beamed ceiling, stone fireplace and double doors to a private balcony. A multi-level bluestone patio, pool, and wood-burning outdoor fireplace are great for entertaining on starry summer nights. $1,230,000

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