| 22 November 2009
Carlos Guerra and Jennifer Kronenberg in Symphony in Three Movements. (Photo by Joe Gato)
For a season opener, Program I seemed a bit tame.
Friday’s performance at the Kravis Center, heralding the start of Miami City Ballet’s 24th year, was remarkably low-key: No sets, for one thing. And of course, in these lean times, again no orchestra.
And no new repertoire. Two ballets, from the midpoint of George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet career, announced a short, highly romantic and soloist-oriented Part I: Allegro Brillante (1956), which featured Jeanette Delgado and Rolando Sarabia; and Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux (1960) with Mary Carmen Catoya and Renato Penteado.
Two longer, more modern ballets – Paul Taylor’s Company B (1991) and Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements (1972) – corralled larger forces for more company-focused Parts II and III.
In Allegro, it was easy to notice Jeanette Delgado’s substantial development as a soloist just since last season. Her spirited work in Tchaikovsky’s long piano cadenza (from the Piano Concerto No. 3) was not only graceful but precise. She more than held the stage in an impassioned role that is practically nonstop. But the four couples of the corps struggled against the music, unable to match its fiery speed or drama. Toward the finale, they finally settled in as an ensemble – even rose to the occasion.
In the Tschaikovsky Pas, Renato Penteado showed a grace and consciousness of line that beautifully mirrored Mary Carmen Catoya. It was a visual reminder that his role is one made famous by artistic director Edward Villella. Well-matched in strength and depth, Catoya and Penteado convinced you to take in every lovely detail, even when Catoya missed a rhythmic mark (though Penteado never did).
Company B can be great fun, a retro romp of bobby-soxer skirts, Andrews Sisters’ pop tunes and swinging ‘40s social dances. Tico Tico soloist Alex Wong, and Daniel Baker as the Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy, burned up the floor with fine, high-stakes athletics and a great feel for jazz. Daniel Sarabia (Oh Johnny Oh Johnny) and Jeanette Delgado (Rum and Coke) ratcheted up the humor and sex appeal.
Soloists notwithstanding, Miami City Ballet seemed too inwardly focused in Company B. Too little energy flowed outward into the hall or even beyond the stage. And the ensemble’s pulse slowed despite the ballet’s upbeat tempos. Moments of beauty and the occasional picture-perfect snapshot could be enticing, but vanished in a flash. Even the Daddy-o coolness of Company B could be, well, lukewarm.
The only thing white-hot was Symphony in Three Movements. From the sizzling start to the spit-and-polish finish, all 32 dancers made you sit up and take full notice. The company’s enormous output of energy rose to levels more associated with past milestones or gala celebrations. This crackle of electricity made Symphony the evening’s game-changer.
Of course, there’s some history here. The company performed this ballet in January accompanied for the first time by the renowned Cleveland Orchestra. Still, it was surprising how far Friday’s performance of Symphony surpassed everything else on the program.
In Symphony, the dancers had something they wanted to say and spoke out with brilliant clarity. They were more than equal to the driving, spiky outbursts of the Stravinsky masterpiece, the ballet’s namesake. Of the three leading couples, Jennifer Kronenberg with Carlos Guerra and Tricia Albertson with Alex Wong were the intriguing characters woven throughout this plot-less ballet. But everyone – from the 10 demi-soloists to the corps of 16 ballerinas, made this ensemble piece tick like clockwork.
The Kravis audience, although responsive in the previous ballets, gave Symphony an extended ovation. You have to wonder, though: Given the regrettable loss of Marie Hale’s Ballet Florida, it’s surprising that Miami City Ballet, now the only game in town, didn’t attract a larger crowd of dance fans Friday night.
The Miami City Ballet presents this program again today at 1 p.m. at the Kravis Center. Tickets range from $19 to $169. Call 832-7469 or 1-800-572-8471 or visit www.kravis.org.
| 21 November 2009
Los Lobos tackles the Disney catalog in its latest release.
When I first learned that Los Lobos was about to put out an album of Disney songs, I was righteously indignant.
Such a misguided project could only be a sellout, at best, and, at worst, a complete collapse of creative drive. What in the world could the trailblazing East L.A. Chicano rockers have in common with Cliff Edwards, as Jiminy-freaking-Cricket, crooning When You Wish Upon a Star?!?
Ah, but that was before I actually put the disc in my CD player and, with fear and trembling, pushed “play.” I was immediately knocked out by the surging, highly syncopated Tex-Mex brio of Heigh Ho, sung in an unrestrained Spanish that made me laugh out loud with delight.
By the time I got to track number seven, The Ugly Bug Ball, with its down-and-dirty lead guitar and a vocal that – I swear – keens with loneliness and sexual frustration, I realized Los Lobos Goes Disney proves yet again that this is one of the great rock outfits of all time.
That’s not to say children can’t safely be exposed to these raucous and thoroughly reimagined versions of Disney classics. This is first and foremost a kids' record. But unlike most of its ilk, it’s also an album that grown-ups will find delivers increasing subtleties of pleasure with repeat listens. And if you’ve ever been stuck on a road trip with a vanload of children, that’s more than an artistic achievement. It’s a public service.
Disney-sm
Los Lobos pulls off this magic simply by not compromising musical integrity just because these are Disney songs. The band members – singer/guitarists David Hidalgo, Louie Perez and Cesar Rosas, plus singer/bassist Conrad Lozano and sax player Steve Berlin (and guest drummer Cougar Estrada) – take the same ruggedly eclectic approach that has gained them a cult following that includes Paul Simon and Elvis Costello.
Which is to say, they dismantle these Disney songs, cook off the treacle, and put them back together with Los Lobos’ trademark recipe of rockabilly, punk, blues, jazz, country, and several different strains of Latin music.
“We’re all really happy with it,” says Berlin. “The kids' record doesn’t sound like a kids' record. It just sounds like Los Lobos playing funky old songs, so I imagine over time, we’ll probably be integrating some of those songs into our set.”
Many bands do lose their creative drive over years – just give Wilco’s latest, Wilco (The Album) a listen – but, as this disc shows, Los Lobos still channels a ferocious energy. That’s remarkable for a group that got its start in 1974 as a bunch of high school friends trying to imitate their rock heroes. They played weddings, parties and restaurants. It was only when they started incorporating their parents’ music that they hit upon their unique signature sound.
Los Lobos had its breakout album in 1984 with Will the Wolf Survive?, produced by T-Bone Burnett. The band had its biggest success in 1987, with a cover of Richie Valens’ La Bamba, recorded for the biopic starring Lou Diamond Philips. But Los Lobos has toured and recorded steadily over the dedaces, producing several albums – By the Light of the Moon, Kiko, 2006’s The Town and the City – recognized today as masterpieces of Americana.
And that’s the sensibility they bring to Los Lobos Goes Disney, which would more accurately be called Disney Goes Los Lobos. Bella Notte, for example, from Lady and the Tramp, gets a thorough norteño workout, while The Bare Necessities, one of two songs from The Jungle Book, becomes a snappy zydeco two-step. I Will Go Sailing No More, from Toy Story, is a heartbreaking folk ballad, while Cruella De Vil sounds like Kurt Weill backed by a crack jazz-rock lounge band.
The frenetically happy Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah is slowed down to a lazy country-blues that Roger Miller would recognize in a heartbeat. Los Lobos Does Disney ends with a stirring instrumental medley-- a surf-music version of When You Wish Upon a Star that morphs into a Tex-Mex accordion take on It’s a Small, Small World (a song I’d hoped to never hear again in my lifetime, but here made more than tolerable.)
It’s worth nothing that Los Lobos Goes Disney not only confirms the inventiveness of this rock band. It also casts a fresh light on the brilliant songcraft of the writers Disney has tapped through the years, from Frank Churchill and Larry Morey to Randy Newman, Richard and Robert Sherman, Allie Wrubel and Ray Gilbert.
That these songs are elastic enough to hold their shape through the rough treatment Los Lobos puts them through is a testament to all concerned.
Chauncey Mabe is the former books editor of the Sun-Sentinel. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Visit him on Facebook.
For a free listen to Los Lobos Goes Disney – or any of the band’s album’s –visit http://www.loslobos.org/site.
| 20 November 2009
A pitcher by Ellen Bates.
Art: Today and tomorrow, the Ceramic League of the Palm Beaches is holding its annual holiday sale and exhibit. On display will be affordable, handmade art that is ideal for gifts, including pottery, sculpture, fused glass and mixed media. The Ceramic League is a nonprofit artist group dedicated to the advancement of its members as well as promoting public interest in the appreciation of the ceramic arts. The sale runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Saturday, and artists will be present each day to chat with visitors. Admission is free. Craft Gallery is located at 5911 S. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. For more information, call (561) 762-8162.
A sculpture by Karen Windchild.
Meanwhile, an exhibition called Tropical Visions opens tonight from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Clay, Glass, Metal and Stone Gallery at 605 Lake Ave. in downtown Lake Worth. Some of the more than 20 artists include ceramists Amelia Costa and Karen Windchild, stained-glass artists Debra Gower and wildlife jewelry artist Karen McGovern. Regular gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. For information, call 561-588-8344 or visit the gallery's Website.
This installation by Kaput! was part of last year's 10x10 show. (Photo by Jacek Gancarz)
Saturday night, Kara Walter-Tomé, contemporary art curator and creator of Showtel, is staging the one-night 10X10 exhibition featuring 21 artists. On view from 6 to 10 p.m. at Lake Worth Storage at 4166 S. Military Trail in Lake Worth are multi-dimensional site-specific installations in 10 square feet or less. Last year, more than 600 people roamed through the storage facility to see the unusual installations by artists from Palm Beach County, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Gainesville. For more information, call (561) 670-9658. -- K. Deits
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious.
Film: There is substantial Oscar buzz about a film with the terribly unwieldy title, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire. It concerns an overweight, illiterate, pregnant teenager who gets an opportunity to turn her downbeat life around. Making her feature debut in the title role is actress Gabourey Sidibe, a true natural, and comedian Mo’Nique in a career-making performance as her abusive mother. At area theaters beginning Friday. -- H. Erstein
Theatre: The turnaround of the Caldwell Theatre -- at least artistically -- continues with David Mamet’s adaptation of Harley Granville-Barker’s 1905 drama, The Voysey Inheritance, about a wealthy Victorian family that learns that its money was acquired through a blatant Ponzi scheme. Bernie Madoff redux, anyone? Clive Cholerton gathers 12 of South Florida’s best actors in a rich, polished production led by Terry Hardcastle as the con man’s son who tries to make restitution, but comes to realize it is not as easy as it seems. A century-old play that is up to the minute and easy for the Caldwell audience to relate to. Tickets: $34-$55. Call: (561) 241-7432 or (877) 245-7432, for reservations. Through Sunday, Dec. 13. -- H. Erstein
A page of William Blake.
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Music: A new chamber music group debuts this Saturday afternoon at the Steinway Gallery in Boca Raton, which at least goes to show that the economy is no obstacle to artistic ambition. Vivre Musicale, which consists in part of three Lynn University students and two graduates of Florida State University, says its mission is to "provide young, up-and-coming musicians with a strong foothold in the classical music world" through diverse programming. Saturday's program will feature tenor Jorge Toro, one of the two co-founders of the group, in the Ten Blake Songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams, three songs from Schumann's Dichterliebe, and For nothing lesse than thee, a three-song cycle by the young American composer Zachary Wadsworth. Also on the program are a solo viola piece, Viola Soliloquy, by another young American, Martin Blessinger, and three of Max Bruch's Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano. Pianist Nastasa Stojonovska, oboist Evelyn Sedlack, clarinetist Berginald Rash (the other founder) and violist David Pedraza join Toro in this first concert, which begins at 4 p.m. A free-will offering of $5 is suggested. For more information, call 846-2524. – G. Stepanich
| 19 November 2009
Marya Grandy as Fanny Brice. (Photo by Andrew Kato)
The Maltz Jupiter Theatre opens its subscription season with a world premiere musical biography of Ziegfeld Follies comedy star, Fanny Brice. Of course, there already is a perfectly good show about Brice, 1964’s Funny Girl, but it is rarely revived, in part because of its elaborate production numbers and in part because of the hard-to-top original leading performer, Barbra Streisand.
Commissioned by the Maltz, writer-director David H. Bell (of last season’s Noises Off!) calls his musical Fanny Brice: The Real Funny Girl. That leads one to expect it to debunk the exaggerations or fabrications of the earlier show. Oddly enough, however, Bell’s musical sticks closely to the narrative of Funny Girl throughout his first act, without any differences of substance. The second act is mainly about Brice’s third marriage, to blowhard impresario and shorthand expert Billy Rose, but it only serves to underline the fact that she had no skill at choosing husbands.
The score consists of existing songs from Brice’s time, either numbers that she sang or could have. Surely the fact that they are almost all in the public domain cannot be a coincidence.
The best thing about the production is Marya Grandy, who sings well and clowns even better. She gets to show off the latter skill on a dance spoof called Becky Is Back in the Ballet, in which she cavorts deftly. The rest of the underpopulated cast numbers only three, another decision that seems more about keeping costs down than artistic vision.
In any event, this Fanny Brice show leaves one wanting to see Grandy in the real Funny Girl.
FANNY BRICE: THE REAL FUNNY GIRL, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Through Nov. 24. Tickets: $36-$52. Call: (561) 575-2223 or (800) 445-1666.
Terry Hardcastle and Peter Haig in The Voysey Inheritance.
As odd as it sounds, the main reason the Caldwell Theatre chose to produce British playwright Harley Granville-Barker’s 1905 drama The Voysey Inheritance is its topicality. Yes, there is Victorian stiffness to its style, but you would have to have avoided all news media over the past 18 months not to think of Palm Beach-based financial flim-flam man Bernie Madoff as you watch this tale of the Voysey family’s investment business, built on a Ponzi scheme.
It collapses on Edward Voysey (Terry Hardcastle), the conscientious son of the scam’s architect. When he brings the discrepancies in the ledger books to his father’s attention, the old man not only acknowledges it, but tries to convince Edward to play along. After Voysey dies, Edward announces to the rest of the family how their wealth was made, but they shrug off any share of responsibility.
The script that Caldwell artistic director Clive Cholerton has chosen is a streamlined adaptation by David Mamet, who has staked much of his career on the machinations of con men. Sticking to the formal verbal style of the period, his characters speak in complete, articulate sentences, rather than the conversational fragments for which he is known. That has a way of making the situation seem less urgent, diminishing the emotional stakes, turning the play into too much of a cerebral exercise, though still intriguing.
Like Madoff’s victims, Cholerton threw financial caution to the wind in selecting a play that calls for 12 actors, but at least he was able to attract some of South Florida’s best. In addition to Hardcastle as priggish Edward, standouts in the not-a-weak-link company include Peter Haig as pragmatic, wily Mr. Voysey, Jim Ballard as Edward’s hotheaded, militaristic brother Booth and Dennis Creaghan as a longtime client who learns his holdings have disappeared.
THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE, Caldwell Theatre Co., 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Through Sunday, Dec. 13. Tickets: $34-$55. Call: (561) 241-7432 or (877) 245-7432.
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While we wait for Julie Taymor’s Spider-Man musical to arrive or implode on Broadway and its budget spirals past $50 million, head to Naked Stage’s postage stamp-sized stage on the Barry University campus, where it is premiering Macon City: A Comic Book Play, in a surprisingly involving production that looks like it costs about $1.17.
If you want to be reminded that the best theater can be distilled down to “a plank and a passion,” the Pelican Theatre in Miami Shores is where you want to be.
The script is by Miami’s Marco Ramirez, a young emerging playwright with a fixation on graphic novels, currently enrolled in the dramatic writing program at Juilliard. He knows the vocabulary of the comics -- probably learned firsthand as a youngster -- and he blends it with classic mythology of good-versus-evil.
The story in the sketchy, 55-minute-short evening feels cobbled together from any superhero crime-fighter lore you would care to name. It’s something about a once flourishing urban landscape now under the thumb of corrupt politicians and mere bad guys. But this is anything but a plot-driven exercise.
Like graphic novels, Ramirez writes dialogue in capital letters, where subtlety is not a consideration. But he has able collaborators in set designer Antonio Amadeo and especially director Jon Manzelli, who transform his skeletal words into dazzling images. The effect is like a trailer for a summer movie that you are drawn to see.
As usual, the villains have the best roles, as Hugh Murphy and Alan Darnay demonstrates. The former is dealt two parts, that crooked mayor and an out-of-control killer whose face resembles the mayor’s, thanks to a deft skin graft. The latter is a standard issue mad scientist, elevated to rock star.
No, Macon City is not for the Eugene O’Neill crowd, but if you want to see something with brawn that attracts that South Florida Holy Grail -- a young, eager audience -- check out what Naked Stage is up to.
MACON CITY: A COMIC BOOK PLAY, Barry University Pelican Theatre, 11300 N.E. 2nd Ave., Miami Shores. Through Nov. 29. Tickets: $25. Call; (866) 811-4111.
| 17 November 2009
Saxophone legend Tom Scott.
Veteran saxophonist Tom Scott has what amounts to a nice problem when he puts together set lists for his concerts. With 29 solo albums and more than 500 recording sessions, plus a vast array of compositions for TV and film, he has way more than enough material to choose from.
"I have most of it on my computer, so it's pretty easy to run down the list," he said before his appearance Monday night at the Harriet Himmel Theater in West Palm Beach. "Sometimes it's whatever appeals to me at that time, and there are certain things that always seem to work really well. And with [pianist] Shelly Berg, it's easy. He already knows every tune ever written, and in every key."
Berg is the dean of the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, and he was joined in Scott's quartet by bassist and Frost instructor Chuck Bergeron (a veteran of the Buddy Rich and Woody Herman orchestras) and drummer Clayton Cameron, whose masterful brushwork has enhanced several Tony Bennett recordings.
Cameron used drumsticks, however, during the surprising opening take on Cole Porter's Love for Sale. Scott's arrangement of the jazz standard featured a funky New Orleans flavor through the drummer's marching snare, plus Berg's animated flourishes and the first of several stellar acoustic bass solos by Bergeron. Cameron switched to brushes for the Michel Legrand ballad His Eyes, Her Eyes, from the film The Thomas Crown Affair, and his accents proved the perfect complement to Scott's stately alto playing.
Scott said he was channeling his late friend, fellow saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., on his lone original of the evening. Got to Get Closer to You is an as-yet-unrecorded piece that showed the bandleader's more contemporary side, with Bergeron on electric bass to accentuate its mid-tempo, Philadelphia-inspired funk feel.
The first set closed with Scott playing tenor sax on Sugar, the signature composition of another late saxophonist, Stanley Turrentine. Berg resembled Thelonious Monk through his spiked chords and left-of-center solo runs; Bergeron worked the upper register of his acoustic bass, and Cameron displayed swinging soloing ability with brushes on the highlight of the evening's first 40 minutes.
Like many jazz concerts, this one leaned toward a formulaic order of sax and piano solos, then bass and drum breaks, but Scott found ways to overcome that predictability and make the second set stronger than the first. His arrangement of the standard The Night Has a Thousand Eyes offered his tenor prowess, heady ensemble interplay and Latin undertones, and led to the show's overall highlights.
Scott's latest CD is the 2008 effort Cannon Re-Loaded -- A Tribute To Cannonball Adderley (Concord), a tribute to one of his primary saxophone influences. Its closing track is the standard Stars Fell on Alabama, a staple of the Adderley catalog, and Scott found ways to improve upon even his recorded version. Berg's intro led to one of the saxophonist's best alto solos of the set, which in turn inspired the pianist. Incapable of sitting still, Berg alternately bounced, grimaced and smiled during his break as he stated and enhanced the ballad's melody.
Even better was pianist Victor Feldman's The Chant, also an Adderley favorite. Scott's arrangement featured early bombast through dramatic stops and starts, which were interspersed by Bergeron's bass runs. Cameron effortlessly switched between drumsticks and brushes to accommodate the solos by his bandmates, then traded breaks with Scott and Berg before playing an extended solo of his own near the tune's coda.
The encore was another favorite standard of Adderley's that appears on Scott's most recent release. I Should Care showcased the influence of Oscar Peterson on Berg, the flexibility of the standout rhythm section, and the ability of Scott to both swing and sing through his alto sax.
Bill Meredith has written frequently about popular music and jazz, including for Jazziz and Jazz Times magazines.
Pianist Ted Howe presents an evening of music by Duke Ellington in the next concert on the Jazz Arts Music Society series, set for 8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 14, at the Harriet Himmel Theater, CityPlace, West Palm Beach. Tickets: $35. Call 877-722-2820 or visit www.jamsociety.org.
