"Hey, Fred!" 10/30-11/05/2024
Goings On in Columbus, OH: Mike Smith | Jazz Arts Group Gala | OSU's Department of Dance's Autumn Concert | Riffe Center Exhibition Opening | Day Drinking for Democracy
Dance
10/31/2024
OSU Department of Dance: Up/Rising
Barnett Theatre, Sullivant Hall, 1813 N High St
October 31 through November 2: 7:30 pm Thursday and Friday, 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm Saturday
$20 tickets and more info are available at the Department of Dance site
OSU’s dance department is a too-often-overlooked gem that not only brings some of the world’s great choreographers to town but has an exceptionally strong batting average for bringing us work. Their seasonal concerts feel like performances, not desultory or de rigeur as sometimes academic-based work can.
This Autumn concert promises to be a balm, with the advance press stating that it " serves as a beacon of hope and resilience, emphasizing the importance of perseverance through our art form.” I know I can use that, and judging from conversations I’ve had at parties and bars this weekend, I’m not alone.
Nyama McCarthy-Brown’s artistic practice and pedagogy are deeply intertwined with creating a better world, including her books Skin-Colored Pointes and Dance Pedagogy for a Diverse World. Her piece “Behind the Win” uses music by local drummer Seth Alexander (Allpowerful Sungoddess, Largemouth Brass Band) and Italian film composer Ezio Bosso. Seth Alexander’s work also scores a new piece from Eddie Taketa, who came out of the Doug Varone company that also introduced the world to favorites of mine like Faye Driscoll and Netta Yerushalmy, and who the New York Times said, “Dancers with such longevity, ease and unaffected precision are rarities, but Mr. Taketa is one who knows how to simmer.”
Michelle Gibson - to a multi-generational cross-section of New Orleans music - delves into the black church and the process of sacred communal gathering; she was the subject of a terrific New York Times feature by Brian Seibert. Joshua Manculich, one of the founders of local institutions I’ve heard great things about recently, WhirlWind Dance and The Well Center for Movement and Dance, works with the music of Norwegian jazz pianist Bugge Wesseltoft. Shaela Davis whose work I know a little with Abby Z and the New Utility promises a solo piece set to Dawn Penn’s dancehall classic “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No).” Zoey November’s piece trips several of my nerd levers at the same time, set to a gorgeous rescoring of one of my favorite Moondog songs, “Bird’s Lament,” by Katia Labque, David Chalmin, Massimo Pupillo/Raphael Seguinier and as the one piece of the program whose credits list a dramaturge.
Music
11/01/2024
Jazz Arts Group’s One Night Only: New Orleans Nights
Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E Broad St
November 1: 5:30 pm
Tickets starting at $200, and more info is at JAG’s site
The Jazz Arts Group - long known for both a robust education program and as the umbrella organization for our astonishing Columbus Jazz Orchestra (sometimes the rep’s not my thing, but the playing is always mindblowing) - has amped up their community engagement, including free smaller group and more workshoppy shows, and also enhanced their program of big name jazz touring acts (I still regret not being able to make Matt Wilson’s Good Trouble last month).
So it’s a pleasure to throw some shine on their annual gala that always looks spectacular - unfortunately for me, as in most years, this conflicts with a long-running party but I encourage anybody reading this who’s free to go. This year’s gala features special guest trombonist Wycliffe Gordon (Wynton Marsalis, Don Byron, Cyrus Chestnut) in a program of duets with CJO leader Byron Stripling.
Colin Gawel and the League Bowlers present Day Drinking For Democracy
Woodlands Tavern, 1200 W 3rd Ave
November 3: Doors at 3 pm
Free, donations for Matter News
Colin Gawel’s solo project The League Bowlers - I wrote a feature about the reissue of their lone record Some Balls for Columbus Underground several years ago - is a perfect outlet for his love of the history of rock and roll, stirring loose, raucous originals and covers both sing-along-obvious and damn-well-should-have-been. Their Sunday afternoon appearances at Woodlands Tavern are the ideal scenario for seeing them: get a little loose while the sun is still out and have enough time to sleep it off before the week’s responsibilities kick in.
This month’s iteration, Daydrinking for Democracy is more of an extravaganza than usual. Gawel’s more specifically targeted rock history projects - CT For Charity, the best Cheap Trick covers band in town, and Rock Candy (Montrose covers, I haven’t seen it yet but it’s hard to go wrong with these people and that material) - join his working band along with Marcy Mays (Scrawl, Night Family, the Damn Thing), Tom Krouse (Grassinine), and MC’ed by comedian and writer Travis Hoewischer. Collecting money for the great cause of Matter News. Come early, stay late.
Visual Art
All We Cannot Forget
Riffe Center Gallery, 77 S High St
October 29 through Jan 3, Opening Reception November 2, 2 pm to 4 pm
Free
The Riffe Gallery is one of our less-recognized gems, partly overlooked (especially by me) because its regular hours are all during the day-job workday. So their events on weekends/evenings are to be celebrated - the programs are always top notch.
I’m excited for the new exhibit All We Cannot Forget, curated by fiber artist and professor Char Norman, which mixes artists I’ve been a fan of for a long time, like photographer Tariq Tarey and Kari Gunter Seymour, and artists I know nothing about yet. Added incentive is music at the opening by Derek DiCenzo on bass and pianist Chris Brown.
Check out a Flickr gallery for the exhibit.
Literary/Music
Michael Smith, In with the In Crowd: Popular Jazz in 1960s Black America
Discussion and Book Signing
Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N High St
November 2: 11 am
Free; more info at the Wexner Site
I’m about a third of the way through OSU Professor Mike Smith’s riveting corrective to the standard jazz history narratives of the 1960s, In With the In Crowd. So far, I’ve already gone down a rabbit hole revisiting the work of Columbus native Nancy Wilson, and I’m trying to move beyond the easy signifier of “Soul Jazz” for this genre of popular black jazz rooted in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Phil Freeman, one of my music writing idols who also wrote a terrific book about Cecil Taylor this year, interviewed Mike Smith for his indispensable Stereogum column Ugly Beauty. If we weren’t heading to Cincinnati for concert tickets we’ve had for months, I’d be at this talk before heading to Woodlands.
I found this terrific playlist that seems inspired by the book (not mine; I started on one, but this did a much better job):