2012 Rite of Summer Music Festival (9/3/2012)

Kudos to the artistic directors for this second annual series. I stumbled on the inaugural season on Governors Island last year, and I’m pleased to report that I attended all three concerts this summer season. I didn’t necessarily embrace all of the music I heard but at least I expanded my aural horizons. This included the Labor Day Monday concert—Todd Reynolds and Friends. Those friends were Mathias Kunzli, drums/percussion; Michael O’Brian (sp? his name was not in the program), bass; Johnny Rodgers, glass/electronics/mandolin(?); Jordan Tice, guitar; and of course, Mr. Reynolds, violin.

I guess the overall description would be bluegrass/newgrass/electronics/eclectic. I wish I could claim ownership of newgrass but it was unashamedly stolen from Mr. Tice’s bio.
Mr. Tice and Mr. Rodgers were also the bulk of our composers for the one-hour concert. I caught the 1:00 p.m. performance but didn’t feel compelled to stick around for the 3:00 p.m. rendition.

Well, what  can I say? Bluegrass/newgrass pretty much sums it up. The percussionist had a nice variety of instruments at his disposal. Mr. Rodgers and his tuned wine glasses (per bio—not seen) had some of the more interesting sounds. He also included electronics, in that he would lay out a glass-tune phrase, then you were suddenly aware that it was looping. He’d add keyboard and/or vocals, and then they were looping as well, at rhythmically interesting intervals. I’m not a huge electronics fan, but this was very effective.

Some of the bluegrass/newgrass was also effective, though I preferred the bluegrass. Some of the other was a bit too New Age–ish for my taste. That said, the eight pieces I heard were relatively varied, the performances were uniformly good, and I’m glad I went. The musical offerings might have been a bit too experimental for some, as I saw more than a few folks leave during the set. Maybe they were just headed to other excitements on Governors Island. Maybe. I don’t think so.

ConcertMeister