BARBARA BAREFIELD
Fresh
off his showcase concert last spring at the inaugural Art X Detroit festival,
2010 Kresge artist fellow Spencer Barefield has convened a unique string
quartet -- guitar, violin, viola, bass -- to perform music that lives in the
gray zone between traditional and experimental jazz and classical music.
The
stalwart Detroit composer and guitarist calls the group the Barefield Super
String Quartet, and the occasion is a special Summer Soiree fund-raiser for the
Imagination Station, a nonprofit that is transforming two blighted houses
facing the Michigan Central Station in the Corktown neighborhood. The concert
will be in the shell of one of the burned-out houses, dressed up with tables,
chairs, tents, food and drink.
The
group will tackle arrangements of Barefield's stylistically flexible
compositions that mix written material and improvisation along with other music
that could come from jazz and classical composers as diverse as John Coltrane,
Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Enrique Granados and Manuel de
Falla.
The
ensemble is largely a family affair with Barefield joined by his daughter,
violinist Jannina (Barefield) Norpoth, along with her husband, bassist
John-Paul Norpoth. The violist is John Madison.
The
refreshments will include locally produced organic food and drink from the Pink
Flamingo, Brother Nature Farms, McClure's Pickles and Valentine Vodka.
3
p.m. Sunday, 2230 Fourteenth, Detroit. $10-$50. facethestation.com.
The Detroit Jazz Festival is just around the corner on Labor Day weekend, but
there are a couple of appetizers on deck Friday. The festival's 2011
artist-in-residence, drummer Jeff (Tain) Watts, is teaming up with another 2010
Kresge fellow, choreographer Haleem Ar-Rasheed.
The
combination of Watts, a dynamic drummer who plays like a herd of thundering
horses, and Ar-Rasheed, whose break dance collective, Hardcore Detroit, exudes
charisma, promises to explore the links between jazz rhythm and contemporary
dance.7 and 8:30 p.m. Friday, Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward,
Detroit. 313-833-7900. dia.org. Free with museum admission: $4-$8.
Meanwhile, festival organizers are inaugurating a new partnership with the Edsel
& Eleanor Ford House. The Johnny Trudell Orchestra, led by the veteran
Detroit trumpeter with an A-to-Z résumé, will be performing outdoors on the
grounds adjacent to Lake St. Clair. The band will dive into the sounds of the
swing era, a fitting program given that the Fords once hosted parties in which
celebrities of the day like Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra were the
entertainment.
7:30
p.m. Friday (grounds open at 6 p.m. for picnicking), 1100 Lake Shore, Grosse
Pointe Shores. 313-884-4222. jazzfordhouse.eventbrite.com. $12-$20 general
admission (lawn); $25 reserved seating, parking and shuttle.
The late Sun Ra was one of a kind -- a pianist, composer, arranger,
bandleader and mystic who took his Afro-centric and intergalactic
space-traveler identity seriously. Beneath the outer-space vibe and regalia was
an aesthetic that ran the gamut from Ellington to early hard bop to the far
side of the avant-garde. Led by the intrepid drummer RJ Spangler, the Planet D
Nonet presents its third annual Sun Ra Tribute with guest trombonist Vincent
Chandler.
9
p.m. Saturday, 3rd Bar, 701 W. Forest, Detroit.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment