Among other events, our Music-in-the-Mountains chorus is currently in the middle of the last four concerts of the summer season. Last Tuesday, ours and two other choirs in the area (200 voices all together!) sang in a program featuring mostly brand new music composed by local people. It was a blast! Many of the new pieces were written for percussion only--so cool and such a vast and interesting array of instruments--BUT there may have been a just few too many of those sorts of pieces in a row--nearly the entire first half of the concert, actually (hint to program guys). The third or fourth percussion composition starts to sound rather a lot like the prior ones. Tom reports that the final piece, though, a work by modern composer, John Cage--and also percussion-only--was quite different and wonderful. Alas, I missed it because I was already backstage getting ready for ours (which were terrific!).
Friday night, however, we went to the Fairgrounds for an outdoor concert featuring Bela Fleck, a fave musician of ours, along with a couple of other guys new to us, as a part of the M.I.M. summer concert series which has featured everything from mariachi music with Doc Severinsen (yes, that Doc Severinsen) to opera (Hungarian soprano, Veronica Kincses, who also happens to be mom of our artistic director/conductor, Gregory Vajda) and everything in between (like, for example, Kronos Quartet).
We have followed Mr. Fleck's career since he was the banjo player in our favorite bluegrass band in the '80s/90s--New Grass Revival. He's since taken his banjo and explored classical, African, blues, pop, jazz, country, and so many more musical traditions than I can name, in the process winning 13 grammies (in the most categories of any artist ever). The banjo! Classical music! Seriously! Plus, he gathers other astounding musicians around him. This time, they are master (I mean it!) stand-up bass player, Edgar Meyer and virtuoso (ditto!) tabla-guy, Zakir Hussein.
All the outdoor concerts at the fairgrounds, by the by, open early so patrons can bring picnics and eat beforehand. Which we do, of course. You can see Tom, here, hangin' with the crowd just before the music started. We like to sit close to the front.
Anyway, the orchestra started with a lovely piece, Dvorak's (imagine your own diacritical marks here) Carnival Overture. You would recognize it. Then, the orchestra and the trio performed a composition by Meyer called Triple Concerto--a great showcase for the three featured performers!
But the real fun was listening AND watching the guys perform sans orchestra in the second half of the program. Here's my review: AWESOME! Everything was amazing and we sat there in our sand chairs with our mouths hanging open the whole time. Say 'hello' to a new tabla fan! So many sounds (some like chimes!) and even musical tones! Hussein's hands moved so rapidly and evenly, I could barely comprehend how what he did was even physically possible!
Meyer could make the bass sing like a viola or growl like a tuba! And he threw in a Bach Partita for laughs! And, of course, there's Fleck--he's transformed the banjo from a tinny country-music plucking instrument into a multi-dimensional sound that can morph any kind of music into something new and cool! He's quick and light and his hands are a blur, all while the rest of his body looks like it's just chilling out at home with a mocha latte.
So. We were impressed. Rachel and Mike will be able to see/hear them at the Sierra Music Festival in Quincy (north of here) this next weekend. They'll love it (they've seen Fleck at other venues with other musicians, so they know). Check them out for yourselves--live (long "i")--if you can. Heard any brand new music lately? Treat yourself!
