pt at large

A Honky Tonk Merry Go Round at the ARTmosphere in Lafayette

Honky-Tonk Merry Go Round
ARTmosphere
902 Johnson Street
Lafayette, Louisiana

Thursday, December 30, 2011

Last night was the closest I've felt to being bowled over by a dry land tidal wave, a benign force of nature in keys of A or C or D-flat, that washed over a room full of spectators at a little bar called ARTmosphere in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Joel Savoy decided to organize a celebratory end of the year jam. A talented musician and producer for his label Valcour records, the guy knows just about every up and coming singer, songwriter, and musician in the Cajun community surrounding Lafayette. Tonight, Joel had a honky-tonk merry-go-round in mind. What ensued was a kick out the doorjambs night of honky-tonk, country, rockabilly, and certified rock 'n roll.

With the exception of fiddler David Greely, everybody else who paraded to the stage hasn't seen much of this side of 30. Joel Savoy (fiddle), Chas Justus (guitar), David Greely (fiddle), Wilson Savoy (piano), Rose Sinclair (steel guitar), Eric Frey (bass), and Glen Fields (drums), got the show rolling and then it was, ”Move the chaise lounges back from the shore, mama, this wave is coming on strong.”

Rose Sinclair, David Greely, Eric Frey, Chas Justus, Glen Fields, Joel Savoy, Wilson Savoy

Every one of these musicians could carry a show all by her/himself. They play in bands like The Red Stick Ramblers, The Pine Leaf Boys, Bonsoir Catin, Steve Riley and The Mamou Playboys, Girl Howdy, The Savoy Family Band, Lafayette Rhythm Devils… the list goes on.

Although they know each other, they rarely have the chance to rock out together. The result was playful, pedal to the metal, full bore performances.  They let it loose like kids at recess.

Traditional Cajun music may course through their veins but doesn’t limit their inspiration. Local radio stations across south central Louisiana play an astonishing variety of country, rock n roll, swamp pop, rockabilly, blues, and rhythm n blues. The fire these performers breathed into the songs they covered showed that they’ve been paying attention.

Yvette Landry rocks out

From time to time Kelli Jones, Joel's fiancé, and Emma Young, who often sing with The Mamou Playboys, and JP Harris stepped onstage to solo and backup. Singer Linzay Young, country singer extraordinaire Yvette Landry, mandolin player Daniel Coolik, fiddler Courtney Granger and several more whose names I didn’t get stepped on to the crowded stage when Joel shouted their names.

ARTtmosphere was jammed with friends and relatives of the musicians, regulars from town and, since New Year is two days away, visitors who learned about if from the grapevine – in my case from my friends Bernard Ussher and his wife Rubia, who have their fingers firmly on the pulse of the vibrant music and dance scene here. Dancers had a field day with every style of two-step you can imagine, Mamou jitterbugs, waltzes, swing, Cajun gigs, and steps they made up on the spot. It was that kind of night.

This short list of songs I could remember are a fraction of those performed tonight… from honky-tonk to country to rhythm ‘n blues…  for this reporter, a New Year never got a better jump start than this.

“Don’t Stop The Music” Cajun waltz
“Let’s Fall To Pieces Together” George Strait
“It Won’t Be Long Before It’s Crying Time” Ray Charles
“My Shoes Keep Walkin’ Back To You” Ray Price
“She Thinks I Still Care” George Jones
“I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink”   Merle Haggard
“Hand Me A Bottle” George Strait 70s
“Let’s Have A Party” Wanda Jackson
“Hallejullah I Just Love You So” Ray Charles

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr - Photos of pt by Bernard Ussher

 

The musicians were feelin' it...

and so was pt, dancing with Michelle Kaminsky of Magnolia Cajun Band

Horace Trahan and The Ossun Express Rock The Blue Moon Saloon

Blue Moon Saloon
215 East Convent Street
Lafayette, Louisiana 70501

Horace Trahan and The Ossun Express
December 29, 2011
10 PM

Horace Trahan and The Ossun Express are in the midst of their first set. The dance floor is the size of a baby wading pool. About sixty people want to dance on it.  Newton’s Law of Physics - you know... the one about 2 things not being able to occupy the same space at the same time, appears to be disproved as well over 60 people are dancing shoulder to shoulder and are surrounded like a second skin by another sixty pressed against the perimeter. You dance real small, and occasionally tight, which suits me fine. Nothing like a crowd of intense dancers at close range to charge up a band.

This is just another normal night of dancing around here.

“Well, we have a couple here from Washington DC, first time in Lafayette, first time at the Blue Moon. Where else you from?” says Mr. Trahan.

An avalanche response. Washington, Oregon, San Diego, Philadelphia, Florida, Missouri, Wisconsin, and of course, Boston. New Year's Eve is two days away. Once you have a Cajun or zydeco bug, you will travel great distances to dance to the real deal with people who drink the same Kool-Aid.

It is true that some people love the music but keep their feet planted. Their butts wiggle, their heads bob and they listen to the music as if it were a concert. But most have come to dance. Horace puts on a great mix of traditional zydeco, bluesy slow drags, waltzes sung in French, and a couple of hip-hop tinged zydeco numbers. The dance floor stays packed.

Whatever woes might be going on in your life, problems, challenges, fiscal woes, are booted out of your consciousness as soon as the music takes hold of your psyche and your feet. The blues will come back into focus about an hour after you leave the Blue Moon Saloon, but while you're there, honey, they have retreated underground like crawfish on a cold day in January.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello,Jr.

Pont Breaux Cajun Restaurant and Dance Hall

Pont Breaux Restaurant
325 West Mills Avenue
Breaux Bridge, LA
December 29, 2011

Thursday night, December 29, 2011

“Let's do waltz across Texas in the key of D,” says Lee Benoit to his band. The shiny wooden dance floor fills up and here we are, in another universe, on a planet with music at its center, with a sun that nourishes, heals, blows cares away, or sings about them in a way that turns heartbreak into soothing poetry. That planet, of course, is southwest Louisiana, Breaux Bridge, to be specific, tonight at The Pont Breaux Restaurant.

Gen X, Y, and Z are in scant attendance but there is plenty of Gen AARP. They’re rocking, but not in chairs.

Lee Benoit and The Bayou Stompers have a request for the Beatles “Love, Love Me Do,” and they play it in a two-step cadence! It didn’t draw many people to the dance floor but it does give you the idea that the music sensibility here does not stop at the borders of Louisiana - or of the USA for that matter.

The band plays “Jolie Blonde” (considered to be the Cajun National Anthem) - that fills the dance floor in a jiffy. I can't believe this. The next song they play is “I Want To Put On My Boogie Shoes” to a cha-cha beat that one couple manages to dance to with a jig. Arthur Murray would tear his hair out here.  No gold, bronze, and silver levels of dance lessons. Men and women hit the floor and channel the music in whatever way twitches their synapses.

Next comes a waltz sung in French. Damn, these seniors have some of the smoothest moves I've seen on any dance floor. When Mr. Benoit gets into a good ol’ Louisiana Swamp Pop song, “Why Should I Call Your Name,” I wish I had come here with a date.

I digress to the subject of dance halls. In some, like Randol’s and Pont Breaux, if you don't come with a date, the chances are 90% that you'll spend most of the evening in your chair. Go to a place like Grant Street or the Blue Moon Saloon, and you’ll find a partner for every dance all night long. The place is filled with singles and couples but even the couples switch off and dance with others. My kind of place.

A ruggedly built middle-aged man approaches my table. “How you enjoying yourself tonight? My name is Randy LeBlanc, I’m the new owner here.” A man scribbling in a notepad and taking photographs is  someone to check out.

“This place was closing down last October and I decided to buy it. When he was six years old my son Blazien, who’s always loved music, got invited up to the stage by Lee Benoit. The kid had never stepped foot on a stage. I had taught him how to play Mary Had A Little Lamb on his accordion and he did it perfectly. I never forgot that.”

Blazien is 17 now and in high school. “Tonight he’s playing in the band for about 1000 people, and soon he’s going on a cruise to play for a few hundred people.”

Family dance halls like this are where youngsters learn to dance. Don't be surprised to see a teenage boy dancing with his grandmother at places like this.

“I just could not let this well-known family restaurant disappear or maybe become some kind of chain franchise. I wanted to buy this place because of that experience with my son and because I wanted Cajun tradition to thrive. Business picked up since October. Lots of locals have come back and Lee’s band is here every Thursday and Friday for nearly twenty years–it's a very big draw.”

Next thing I know the band is playing a Creedence Clearwater revival song, a souped-up version of “Lodi”. This little quartet of accordion keyboard guitar and drums can cover songs like gravy over grits. Lee Benoit and The Bayou Stompers tonight - Lee, his wife on guitar, daughter on drums, and an electric piano player sitting in for their regular fiddler. They do know how to have fun.

When I return, I’m bringing a date. And I’ll bring the Lee Benoit Band CD that I bought and ask him to autograph it.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

I've met dozens of people who've been so taken by the spirit of southwest Louisiana that they've picked up stakes and moved here... like Janet Wilson, who left Highlands, North Carolina, and closed on a house in Breaux Bridge two days after this night!

Visit with Herman Fuselier at KRVS, Opelousas

Thursday afternoon, December 29, 2011

Louisiana hospitality...Herman Fuselier, on air host of "The Zydeco Stomp" on Opelousas station KRVS, has invited me to visit him after I emailed him during his December 24 show. The St. Landry Parish Visitor Center, on a small parcel of land just off I-49 at exit 23, where he has an office, is one of the "greenest" buildings in the state.

I'm welcomed at the front desk by Miss Gloria. Cheryl Castille (pictured below with pt), on air host of the singer/songwriter/folk roots program "The Exchange", and Celeste Gomez, Director of The St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission, pop out of their offices and greet me warmly.

Herman Fuselier, is as easy going in person as he sounds on his radio program. Thanks to Herman, after our half hour conversation, I've drilled down one more layer into the fascinating history of the music in this part of the country. I would venture to say that south central Louisiana is the most fertile territory for cross-pollination of music genres in the entire world.

Story to follow... 

 

Sustainable features of the center include a water cistern, wind turbine and photovoltaic panels.

 

But the best feature is the people who work inside!

The Huval Family Band rocks The Cafe des Amis

Café des Amis
Wednesday December 28, 2011
http://www.cafedesamis.com/
140 East Bridge Street
Breaux Bridge, Louisiana 70517


The Huval Family Band holds court Wednesday evenings at the Café des Amis in Breaux Bridge. With Brazos on fiddle, Jebb on bass, Luke on guitar and vocals, and Chad on accordions, the family (twelve in number and most of them musicians) must make up their own voting block in town.

By the time I arrive at 8 PM the place is packed with the usual suspects, mostly local folks, including a big table with Wilson Savoy, his brother Joel (members of another celebrated Louisiana music family), and a bunch of their music loving friends.  Breaux Bridge octogenarian Floyd LeBlanc, who has an official chair in the place, is leaning against the bar. Then there’s Elsbetta from Denmark, Jennifer from Texas and Mary Lou from Arkansas, Bart from down the street who invites me to a New Year’s Party at his house around the corner, and others I recognize from previous trips here.

The Huval brothers are playful presences. A roomful of people are tapping their feet, smiles spread across their faces. A little boy pulls his auntie to the dance floor to try out his steps.  

There’s something about this place that makes strangers feel at home. Tourists who are clearly envying the men and women having such a grand time are asked to dance by local dancers. In a Breaux Bridge minute, they ease into the rhythm, their tentative grins widen with each two-step they try.

Of all the experiences they’ll talk about when they arrive home, none will be told with more passion than the moments on the Café des Amis’s worn wooden dance floor and the generosity of spirit that permeates the music here.

For this Yankee, it’s hard to beat dancing a waltz with a woman singing the French lyrics softly in my ear as we navigate carefully around the packed tables. Café des Amis, indeed.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.


Dancers find places to dance between tables, three generations enjoy the music...

and Floyd LeBlanc is right at home on is "official" chair.

St. Landry Parish: Opelousas, Birthplace of Zydeco

St. Landry Parish
Louisiana

OK, we take history seriously around Boston. The thousands of tourists who visit here can visit Paul Revere’s house, the Old North Church, the USS Constitution, Bunker Hill and scores of historic sites in Lexington, Concord, and other places that feature prominently in history books.  The temporary seat of government for the infant United States of America is a quarter mile down the street from my house in Watertown, twenty minutes from Paul Revere's house in Boston.

My impression that we have a corner on the market of American history hit a speed bump when I began researching St. Landry Parish in advance of meeting Herman Fuselier at the St. Landry Visitor Center in Opelousas, Louisiana.

The Poste de Opelousas, an outpost of the French government, was one of the first European settlements in Louisiana. Contributing to its rich cultural history is that the outpost was subsequently governed by the Spanish and was later settled by English, Irish, Scots, and Germans. The fertile prairie land was a godsend to these pioneers who farmed (rice is a big crop here) and raised cattle on the 933 square miles of the parish.

Adding to the mix were black slaves arriving with European settlers in the early 1700s. To further spice things up, people who became known as Creoles, blacks with Caribbean or Haitian roots, blacks who were free people of color, and others with mixed Spanish or French blood, began to settle in the area in the late 1700s when the Spanish were granting land rights to all comers. Less is known of the Attakapas Indians who lived in the area.

Creoles and Cajuns stamped the region with their music. Opelousas is considered the birthplace of Zydeco. Vermillion Parish on its southern border is often credited with being the birthplace of Cajun music but neighboring parishes contest that. Many credit Amadee Ardoin, a native Creole from Opelousas in St. Landry Parish, as the father of Zydeco music. In true Louisiana style, both genres borrow from one another and both have loyal dance followings.

Louisiana might just be the musical crossover capital of the world. Listen to contemporary Creole and Cajun music and you'll hear influences from blues, country, rhythm n blues, honky tonk, and swing along with traditional songs carried forward from generations past. Creole and Cajun - the ultimate koan: they are different and they are the same. Trying to separate them cleanly is like trying pick bits of okra from a good bowl of gumbo.

Opelousas, let alone the other 12 cities and towns in the parish, has a ton of attractions.

Here’s a starter list:

• The St. Landry Parish Visitor Center to see Herman
• Le Vieux Village where the old train depot was located and now houses the •Louisiana Orphan Train Museum.
• Opelousas Museum & Interpretive Center.  The Center is comprised of a Main Exhibit Room, The Civil War Room, The Geraldine Smith Welch Doll Collection, and The Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival Archives.
• The Creole Heritage Folklife Center
• The Evangeline Downs Track and Casino where my friend Bill Ives took in some good music shows.

Gee, I won't have time to do more than a sliver of this itinerary during this holiday week…what a shame. I’ll have to come back.

Photo by Paul A.Tamburello, Jr.

Herman Fuselier's Zydeco Stomp: A Gumbo of Music, Culture, and Community

Zydeco Stomp radio show –A Gumbo of Music, Culture and Community
Hosted by Herman Fuselier
“Zydeco, Blues and You and Me from 12 to 3…”
KRVS 88.7 FM University of Louisiana, Lafayette, Louisiana

Herman Fuselier is the entertainment editor for the Lafayette (La.) Daily Advertiser newspaper and a music columnist with The Times of Acadiana in Lafayette and Offbeat Magazine of New Orleans. He broadcasts Louisiana music shows on KRVS 88.7 FM in Lafayette and KDCG-TV 22 in Opelousas.

Friday, December 23, 2011

“Herman Fuselier does a great radio show every Saturday. You can listen to it online,” my friend Bill Ives told me as he recounted a 9-day whirlwind pilgrimage in which he crisscrossed highways and byways from New Orleans to Eunice. Bill’s visit with Herman at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Information Center in Opelousas was one of the many highlights of his trip.

A New Orleans native now residing in Cambridge, MA, Bill planned his trip around visiting restaurants, dance halls, and cultural attractions. Judging by the stories he told me at lunch, he packed it in tighter than shrimp in a po boy from The Taco Sisters restaurant in Lafayette. I take his advice.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Listening to the Zydeco Stomp on December 24th was a revelation for me. “Zydeco, Blues, You and Me, From 12 to 3” is Herman’s tag line. With his playlist of Zydeco, Swamp Pop, Rhythm ’n Blues and straight up Blues, he didn’t disappoint.

By the time his show is over, I have a good a feel for the charm, history, and pride that animate music that echoes around parishes (counties) in southwest Louisiana.

Zydeco and Cajun music are played all over southwest Louisiana. They have evolved from two distinct cultures. Herman has written (May 2004) that Zydeco emanates from a Creole culture that stretches back nearly 300 years from descendants of slaves, Creoles mixed with Spanish, French or American ancestry, and free people of color. Zydeco became recognized as a distinct genre of music in the 1950s.

Cajun music began to flourish in Louisiana when French speaking people migrated to the bayous in southwestern part of the state in the mid 1700s after being expelled from their homes in Acadiana in Canada by the English.

Zydeco and Cajun each have their own dance styles (that's another story). It can get complicated, yes, but the great thing is the way the musical cultures have borrowed from each other. Listen to Herman’s Zydeco Stomp program and you’ll get a sense of the luscious intermingling of blues, rhythm ‘n blues, swamp pop, with a pinch of Cajun.

"Glad you enjoyed the show. I try to make it fun and informative. Zydeco has always been influenced by mainstream music, especially blues and R&B. So I'm just trying to connect the dots," Herman says in an email.

"Clifton Chenier is heralded as the King of Zydeco and rightfully so. Listen to his music and you'll hear Ray Charles, Fats  Domino, Sam Cooke, Glen Miller and lots of other mainstream pioneers. Some of their songs he simply changed to French and made local hits out of them."

Herman's on-air style is warmly personal, evokes a strong sense of place, and demonstrates a deep understanding of how genres of music are interconnected (Fusilier played local artist Lynn August singing a zydeco-style cover of Bobby Blue Bland's "Lead Me On"...amazing!).

Herman occasionally zips amusing voice overs into the songs in his wide ranging playlist and gives shout outs to listeners emailing into him today from North Dakota to Houston. "Merry Christmas to you, your lovely wife and those two awesome boys of yours," texts one of Herman's listeners. (Herman gave me a shout out at the 2:11 mark on his December 24 show!).

It felt like he set aside three hours to put together a puzzle. Song by song I began to get the picture of the roots of zydeco music, the men who played it, and the way their music influenced other musicians.

Down here, if a man sings or plays an instrument, the chances are his brothers or sons or cousins or uncles are in a band somewhere. Herman plays John Delafose, Geno’s late father; Jude Taylor, Curley Taylor’s dad; Clifton Chenier, C.J. Chenier’s late dad…you get the idea. I’ll bet that the only sense of competition musicians here have is who can have more fun playing.

“Zydeco is the blues and the blues is zydeco,” says Herman, “and it doesn’t have to be played at 900 miles an hour to be good zydeco, Boozoo knew that” as  he cues up “Driftin’ Blues,” by the legendary Boozoo Chavis. I was thrilled. I knew the man’s name but had never heard him sing. Great introduction.

Today, Herman plays several songs as a salute to James Brown, ‘The hardest working man in show business,” who died on Christmas Day 2006. Herman got into JB’s slow drag, “Try Me,” and “Santa’s Got A Brand New Bag,” and a handful of other James Brown classics that demonstrated his enormous versatility and surprising range.

The gem of the afternoon for me was the godfather of soul’s bluesy rendition of “Let’s Make This Christmas Mean Something This Year” - as heartfelt as any carol I’ve ever heard, with a powerful message deserving of wide circulation.

Thank you, Herman, Merry Christmas!

Robert B. Parker's "Double Play": An Audio Book Tour de Force

Double Play, a novel published in 2004
Robert B. Parker
A five CD audio book produced by Phoenix Records and read by Robert Forster (audio book link has sample of Forster's reading)

The combination of the late Robert Parker’s tight prose and Robert Forster’s laconically graceful interpretation has the poetry of a well turned double play. Parker invents one character, WWII veteran Joseph Burke and spins a yarn about a very real Jackie Robinson who breaks the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947.

Ex-Marine Burke, shot up at Guadalcanal, comes back to the states on a hospital ship with a body that can be repaired but an emotional life drained of hope and aspiration by his experience of war. After a short-lived boxing career, he’s taken on as a bodyguard for the 25 year-old spoiled daughter of a New York crime boss. He survives using his wits, strength, and lack of fear of dying.

Burke is let go after too zealously protecting Lauren and is recommended to Branch Rickey, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey hires him to be bodyguard for Jackie Robinson, whose presence on the baseball team will certainly provoke antagonism, and perhaps worse, amongst racist fans.

The conversations between Robinson and Burke, who keep each other at arm’s length as they travel and room together, deepen as the season progresses. The surprise of the book is Parker’s ability to have his finger on the pulse of race relations in the late 1940s and bring it to the surface in the dialogue between Robinson and Burke, two tough men who at first don’t seem to share much else than a desire to succeed at the job they’re paid for. 

Burke is the center of a matrix involving a historic moment in American history and a world filled with gang bosses who fight over turf and nurse dangerous beefs with each other. The scrapes with cops, criminals, gang bosses, a headstrong woman – all are imaginatively overlaid with the day-to-day drama of Robinson’s first year in the big leagues.

Robert B. Parker was 15 years old in 1947. You can visualize him hunched over a radio to hear history unfold. If you remember the way you cherish memories from your childhood, the kind that transport you with emotional clarity when you recall them, you have an idea of the well from which he drew to write this story. He seamlessly inserts play by plays of hits, errors, pitchers, and batters through Burke's eyes as he sits near the dugout, peanuts in one hand and his .45 tucked in his belt. Forster’s reading is elegant. He channels Burke as perfectly as Parker has drawn him.

Parker usually paints the inner life of his characters with a broad brush but here, perhaps thinking about the story from his teenage obsession with Jackie Robinson and what he endured in 1947, Parker takes the time to penetrate Burke’s incapacity to access his feelings and to illuminate his upbringing (perhaps reminiscent of Parker's) that instilled his egalitarian values.

The beautifully imagined intersection of the lives of Burke, Robinson, and Lauren Roach paints a picture of three characters with universal appeal and an era now remembered in sepia tones. The enormous power of Parker’s prose and Forster’s reading drives this story right out of the park.

Three Pianos: A Contemporary Take on Franz Schubert

THREE PIANOS
Loeb Drama Center (American Repertory Theatre)
64 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA, 02138 (617-547-8300)
Writers: Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy, Dave Malloy
Director: Rachel Chavkin
Sets, Andrea Mincic; Lights, Austin R. Smith; Costumes, Jessica Pabst; Sound, Matt Hubbs; Video, Dave Malloy.
Tickets $25-$55 with discounts for WGBH and Mass Teacher Association membership
Through Jan. 8

There are some delightfully goofy scenes in the current American Repertory Theater production of "Three Pianos". I’m not saying it’s enough to make an evening of rewarding theater but it has its moments.

The play is based on a gathering of Franz Schubert's Viennese friends in which he presents them with his final work, “ Winterreise”   (Winter Journey), a cycle of 24 songs Schubert composed to the poems of Wilhelm Muller.

Franz Schubert led the charge of the Romantic Movement in early 1800s. He was at ease writing opera, symphonies, and sonatas but it was with lieders, songs he composed to contemporary poetry, that he outdistanced his peers. He is credited with elevating the idiom of song into a much more subjective and emotional genre and breaking traditional rules of form with abrupt changes in tempo and poignant melodies.

The Winterreise songs are about as bleak as one could expect from a young man dying of syphilis and a broken heart to boot. During this evening’s “ Schubertiade,” as the gatherings were called, history and fiction collide.

At this point, it’s hard to tell exactly what kind of play writers and arrangers Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy, and Dave Malloy (who also happen to play all the roles of Schubert and his loyal band of friends) want to create.

If the Marx Brothers were to write a play about Franz Schubert, this is sort of how it would turn out. Plenty of puns, running jokes (“Is there anything left to drink?”), a few sight gags and lots of non-sequiturs. 

It’s deliciously goofy when the actors refer to texting and youtube while giving us the picture of 1827 Vienna, with its strange combination of censorship from the King and serious partying by the intelligentsia. It’s hard to keep track of fact vs. fiction especially when the dialogue speeds up and has to be understood over the Schubert’s music in the surround sound theater system.

Then there’s the matter of the three pianos. During the one act 120-minute play, the three actors simulate playing Schubert’s lieders on the pianos that they keep do-si-do-ing around the stage. The dynamic is an effective counterpoint to the rapid fire dialogue.

Schubert, “The Wanderer” in the songs, is truly a bereft soul and embodies the despair in Muller’s poems.  The three actors sing a handful of Schubert’s Winterreise lieders. A huge LCD screen hanging over the set displays the song’s number in the cycle and translates the lyrics from German to English. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but if you close your eyes, the impact of their voices and Schubert’s music still packs a punch.

After a while, the strategy of trying to lighten up the proceedings with broad humor describing the personalities of Schubert’s increasingly inebriated friends and a few minutes of straight biographical narrative feels like Sesame Street has gone high-brow and is trying its hand at music education.

For the life of me, I couldn’t find the core to the play. The joking around, imaginative set, and clever staging trumped an experience of Schubert’s struggle to survive and his compulsion to create. I could read the gloomy words of his songs on the LCD screen but by evening’s end, had no idea what drove him to write them.

Music and lyrics about love lost have never gone out of style but this play needs more than a score sheet to keep us interested for an evening in the theater.

Ryan Jensen photo courtesy of Boston Globe

The Copley Society: Big Value with Holiday Small Works 2011

The vibe on Newbury Street is like no other place in Boston. Walk two blocks and you'll overhear at least three languages and see a dozen fashion statements from footwear to hairstyles. It's great preparation for entering the Holiday Small Works 2011 show at The Copley Society. It looks like Santa's sleigh tipped over and spilled hundreds of pieces of compact artwork that his elves gleefully hung on the gallery's walls. Purchasing one won't break the bank but will get you interested in making return visits to this low-key, high quality gallery.

The Copley Society
158 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116

Tuesday - Saturday 11-6 | Sunday 12-5 | Monday by appointment

(617) 536-5049

Email info@copleysociety.org

Holiday Small Works 2011 Exhibition
November 17 - December 24

At age 134, the venerable Copley Society of art could be excused for behaving like the Dowager Queen of Newbury Street. The society, created by the first graduating class of The Museum of Fine Arts School in 1879, has the breeding of a Boston Brahmin debutante. In the dawning century of social media, the dowager has upgraded from a parasol to an iPhone.

A Thoroughly Modern Millie, she’s downloaded a ton of apps on her smartphone. Her eyebrows arch ever so slightly when she spies a QR mobile code icon in the Copley Society’s front window (square image bottom left). She pauses, retrieves her iPhone from her Coach handbag, swipes open the QR app and takes a photo of the bar code.

Before you can say Henry Cabot Lodge, she’s connected to the Co/So web page that displays every piece of art in the gallery’ annual Holiday Small Works 2011 Show.

“Splendid,” she smiles to herself. She’s found the perfect place to fill her friend’s Christmas stockings. Dowager, no. Digerati, yes.

Luckily for the rest of us, we don’t need to have a trust fund to afford what lies inside the Copley Society's Holiday Small Works Show. Scores of the 450 pieces in the exhibition are in the $150 - $350 range. Modestly sized and priced, they’re the closest thing you’ll ever experience as an “impulse buy” in a bona fide art gallery.

Each of the society’s 330 current members could submit as many as five works. Several of the 450 artworks that were submitted were sold right off the walls on opening night. “I certainly hope the pattern continues in the northward trend,” Suzan Redgate, Executive Director of the Copley Society, said last week. (“We’re up to 85!” she wrote in an email on December 7.)

The cozy upper and lower galleries are loaded with watercolors, oils on canvas or linen, acrylics on Masonite, graphite on paper, archival pigment prints, platinum prints, mixed media, and hand colored etchings in styles from traditional to contemporary. If L. L. Bean were in the art business, it would feel like this, filled with the kinds of stuff you didn’t know you wanted until you saw it.

“We realize that plowing through the show can be an overwhelming experience so we try to hang the pieces by themes: architectural, marine, Boston, landscape, still life, abstract, and figurative. There's a lot to absorb.”

In lesser hands the result could resemble a garage sale. Ms. Redgate and her staff somehow manage to keep the exhibit fresh and balanced as pieces are sold, giving each little collection on the walls room to breathe.

Artwork is displayed on upper and lower galleries...a feast for the eyes

“Having the entire exhibit posted online is an enormous draw for our regular customers and newcomers as well,” Ms. Redgate said. Customers have been known to walk into the gallery, send an iPhoto or the gallery’s web site to a spouse and ask, “How about this one for the hallway by the front door?” Ca-chinnng.

Art may be a commodity but even in a pinched economy, purchasing a little piece of art that touches your heart like a puppy in the pet store window can make you feel good every time you look at it.

Internet savvy Redgate and her staff checked Google analytics and found there were more annual hits on their web site in November than December. The result? A convergence of art and science. “We realized that people were beginning their Christmas art shopping in November and wanted to maximize our exposure so this year we opened the show on November 17th.”

“Over the years, people have been drawn to favorite artists and will look to collect some of their art at these shows.  Ellen Granter, Jim Kubiatowicz, and Ralph Bush fall into that category. Another emerging favorite is Beatrice Dauge, whose style of painting with a palette knife appeals to buyers.”

The faves have stiff competition. Of the 100 applications received each year, the Copley Society admits 25 to 30 new members, whose work is juried and accepted by a credentialed membership committee. Exhibiting and selling work in this prestigious gallery is one huge perk.

Between the 15 to 20 exhibits the gallery hosts every year, including solo exhibitions, thematic group shows, juried competitions, and fundraising events, both the newbies and the veterans have a chance to rocket into an art collector’s stratosphere.

The Copley Society of Art, known more recently as Co|So, is the oldest non-profit art association in the United States, with a history dating back to 1879. One of its earliest members was John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) who became one of the most successful portrait painters of his time.

From Executive Director Suzan Redgate right down the line to Gallery Coordinator Alicia LaTores, Media Coordinator Sarah Adams and a handful of student interns, the gallery staff is warm, friendly, and engaging. Especially important to first time visitors, they acknowledge you when you walk in the door, might ask what you like or think of the show in an entirely laid-back way that’s interest-driven.

They want you to be comfortable. They want you to come back. And if you come back with the notion to buy some art, so much the better.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Upstairs gallery

QR barcode displayed in front window. QR Code reader app (third row right)

 
Downstairs gallery

“Aphrodite and the Gods of Love”: A Scholarly Appreciation of the Earthy Love Deity

"Aphrodite and The Gods of Love"

The curators of the MFA scoured the museum's vast collection of Greek art and artifacts and borrowed a few from Italy to assemble this comprehensive exhibit that considers the social, cultural, and religious effect Aphrodite has had on western art since the eighth century BC. The display doesn't have the  warm and fleshy impact of "Degas and The Nude," now on display in the museum's Art of The Americas Wing, but it does make a powerful statement showing the long shadow Aphrodite, her Roman counterpart Venus, and their extended families cast over the region surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Narratives of love, lust, revenge, murder, infidelities, seductions, feuds? Regional versions of Aphrodite were in the middle of them.

Museum of Fine Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
October 9, 2011 - February 5, 2012

NOTE:
Wednesdays after 4 pm, admission is by voluntary contribution (suggested donation $22. pt at large says support the arts, pay what it's worth to you. And...your General Admission ticket includes one free repeat visit within 10 days!) 

Maybe we can blame our fascination with the Kardashians on Aphrodite. Aphrodite and her Roman counterpart Venus had the effect of an explicit reality show on cultures around the Mediterranean since the legend of Aphrodite was created in the eighth century BC. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts exhibition "Aphrodite and The Gods of Love" shows that the ancients had a good appetite for sexual drama.

If you think Kim’s marriage to Kris created a stir, think about the fact that when a sculptor in Turkey got around to carving a statue of an entirely nude Aphrodite in the fourth century BC it was, according to the label in the MFA, the “first monumental female nude in western art history.” The western world of art was changed forever.

Until the third century AD, images of Aphrodite and Venus were created for public and private consumption alike. One of the artifacts of Aphrodite on display in the museum’s Torf Gallery was displayed centuries ago in the garden of a Greek baker. You want juicy gossip? Aphrodite was the daytime soap opera for Mediterranean cultures for centuries. She coupled lustily, occasionally deviously, with mortals and immortals alike providing us with Eros (Cupid), with Ares, Hermaphrodite, with Hermes, Priapos, god of garden fertility, with Dionysus, Zeus or Adonis, take your pick.  Then there was Phobos, the god of panic, Pothos, the god of sexual longing and her mortal son Aeneas, who founded Rome. She was Ms. Flagrante Delecto for centuries. The MFA exhibit explores her legend with the prurient curiosity of a highbrow TMZ.

The collection of about 160 marble sculptures, painted vases, mosaics, gems, statuettes made of terracotta and precious metals, traces Aphrodite’s history from her conception in a foamy sea in the Near East all around the Mediterranean region to Italy and Rome. Most of the artwork is from the MFA world-class collection. The rest are on loan from Rome and Naples. Every artifact and sculpture is labeled and connected to others in the same display.

Aphrodite had a brand that would make the Kardashians drool.  One of the biggest surprises is that earrings, medallions, and pendants with Aphrodite’s image were worn as accessories in ancient times. J Lo, LeBron James, Lady Gaga and a ton of other quite mortal celebrities have Aphrodite to thank for the idea of product endorsements. After Aphrodite was created, we didn’t break her mold. We commercialized it.

Aphrodite’s vibrant image has retained her sensual allure for centuries. We have Aphrodite to acknowledge or blame for our obsession with youth and beauty. In real life, we know that beauty is evanescent and every perfectly proportioned, long legged model in the Victoria’s Secret catalogue will some day be replaced by a younger model. Aphrodite never aged. We will.

The universal emotions of love and lust and the magic or destruction they can unleash are embodied in our fascination with Aphrodite and brilliantly chronicled in “Aphrodite and the Gods of Love.” Every observer, no matter what age, has a common denominator with the all too human aspect of this captivating Greek goddess.

Photos courtesy of MFA website