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Alverno Presents 2007-08 Artists Global Union | Stefon Harris | Spanish Harlem Orchestra |
Global Union is back for 2007! After receiving incredible reviews and loads of thanks and praise from the community, we've decided to bring this FREE festival of world music and culture back to Milwaukee's beautiful Humboldt Park in Bay View this September. TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS! Artists from Africa, Central Europe, Latin America, East Asia and the Middle East will travel from the far ends of the globe to Milwaukee for a two-day blow-out party that embraces individual expression and global commonality.
Stefon knocked it out of the park when he performed with his quintet during our 05/06 season. And as terrific as that was, his new project raises the music to a completely new level. Take “one of the most important young artists in jazz” (Los Angeles Times). Have him re-imagine the late suites of the great Duke Ellington. Then have him compose his own work in response. Finally, have it all performed by an ace hand-picked nine person ensemble. All this, plus passionate artistry, energetic stage presence and astonishing virtuosity, and you get the must-see Stefon Harris and African Tarantellas … Dances With Duke.
Ever heard of Paula West? Until only a short while ago, I hadn’t either. But when I first heard her sing – smart, sultry, smoky, with an uncanny and unerring sense of rhythm, and a taste for songwriters that ranges from Gershwin to Dylan – I wondered how I could have missed out on such a terrific artist. I started asking the jazz-heads if they knew her work (and if they did, why they were keeping mum), only to discover that Paula West, for reasons that defy rational understanding, is one of the great secrets of contemporary jazz. Remember where you were when you first heard Ella? Come to the Pitman on November 17, and you’ll have stories to tell the grandchildren. (She’s that good.)
“The Klezmatics aren’t just the best band in the klezmer vanguard … they rank among the best bands on the planet.” (Time Out New York). Blending klezmer with aching shtetl melodies, raucous Latin stomps, wild jazz riffs and provocative Arabic, African, American and Balkan rhythms, the Klezmatics don’t so much cross genres as blast through them completely. But their two latest CDs -- Wonder Wheel (winner of the 2007 Grammy for World Music) and Happy Joyous Hanukkah – set the ol’ klezmameter on warp speed by composing new songs to previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics. Imagine what Billy Bragg and Wilco did with their two volumes of Mermaid Avenue, but with a stunning klezlocity that will leave you breathlessly klezmazmerized.
 Gretchen Parlato Duo and Esperanza Spalding Trio 2/16/08 (Sat.), 8 p.m., $28 www.gretchenparlato.com www.berklee.edu/profiles/spalding.html We’ve had our eye on Gretchen for some time now. Ever since she won the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition, and ever since we’ve heard her sing a few amazing numbers at Joe’s Pub, we’ve been thinking about the best way to introduce this important young artist to Milwaukee. And then we heard Esperanza Spalding. Widely hailed as a child prodigy on the double bass within months when she first cradled the instrument, and now one of the youngest teachers at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music (a distinction previously held by Pat Metheny), this rapidly became one of those ideas that are too good to pass up. And that is – An evening with two, twenty-something women who have the cognoscenti buzzing and are each on the cusp of their own brilliant careers. Gretchen will do a set, Esperanza will do a set, and then they’ll close the evening by joining forces in a pull-out-all-the-stops jam. One of the things about witnessing history is you don’t know that’s what you’re doing until it’s all over. That said, we’re pretty confident that these artists in this pairing are something you’re not going to want to miss.
“[Karole] Armitage presents the dancers as molten steel cooling into stunning shapes.” (The Village Voice). Look at her influences -- the only dancer to have performed with both George Balanchine AND Merce Cunningham. The only choreographer to have made work for both Rudolf Nureyev AND Mikhail Baryshnikov. (Oh, and Madonna. And Michael Jackson.) Renowned for her collaborations with important contemporary artists, like Brice Marden, David Salle and Jeff Koons. But all of this would only be so much buzz and fol de rol were it not for the stunning originality and beauty of her work. Now entering into her third decade of choreography, it’s almost as if we were waiting for the 21st Century to begin so that her unique vision of ballet technique wedded to the modernist vocabulary would be understood and experienced as the source of intense pleasure that it is.
Ska-punk chansons under the big top? What else could something called Babylon Circus sound like? But even that doesn’t begin to capture the exhilarating spectacle, more infatuating than rock, more rocking than the circus. When we saw the ten young men from Lyon, France perform at their U.S. debut this past January, it was one of those rare moments where we really didn’t want the show to end.
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