Songbook Swan Song (5/18/15)

Not forever, just for this season. The May Songbook featured music of
Anna K. Jacobs, whose shows include POP! (an Andy Warhol murder mystery), and Harmony, Kansas (about farmers who get together to sing—and, oh, they’re gay). We heard two songs from POP! and one from Harmony.

Also on the bill were songs from musicals she’s currently writing, Echo and Teeth. Echo is a retelling of the Greek myth Narcissus (told from Echo’s perspective), and Teeth is based on the cult film about—gosh, how do I put this—vagina dentata (I’m NOT making this up, you know!).

The evening opened with Ms. Jacobs singing a sweet song called I’m Australian (she is). She provided both music and lyrics here, though she also writes with other lyricists from time to time. I Bring the Snacks (lyrics by Bill Nelson), from Harmony, followed, chronicling the perceived slight felt by one of the farmers when a new member brought snacks to the meeting, without having been filled in on snack hierarchy. It was a powerhouse song, performed by Bruce Warren, with
Adam Kaplan, Sam Heldt, and Aaron Phillips. Ms. Jacobs writes some fun music, including nice vocal harmonies—always a plus, in my book.

Five songs (music/lyrics by Ms. Jacobs) from Echo were next, sung strongly by Lauren Marcus, Britney Coleman, and Liz Lark Brown, as a trio and individually, as well. Objectify Me (lyrics by Jenny Stafford) was the powerhouse number in this set, with The Albemarle Sound as a nice mood piece. As might be expected, there were many echo (echo, echo) effects throughout. Maybe too many? Hard to tell without the full context of the show.

Six selections from Teeth followed, and all four of the guys from Harmony were joined by Kerri George as our erstwhile heroine, with Melody Madarasz,
Hana Slevin, and Christiana Cole adding vocal harmonies to the mix. Considering that the plot of the show is slightly odd, it only seemed right that some of the songs from it were, too. The songs captured a strong rockabilly feel. A couple of them seemed almost over the top to me, including Sweet Release and Girls Like You, but once again, I think they probably need to do so based on the over-the-top plot. The lyricist for Teeth is Michael R. Jackson.

The two songs from POP!, Up Your Ass, sung by Alyse Alan Louis, and Retrospective, sung by (and written for) Anthony Rapp (he, of Rent fame), were both performed very well. Controversy seems to abound in Ms. Jacobs’ works, here with lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman.

The last piece on the program was Breaking the Chain (lyrics by Mr. Nelson), a song commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League and performed for the first time at an event celebrating their centennial. It was a nice rousing way to end the concert as well as Songbook’s 24th season (I’ve only been attending for four or five years). All of the performers from the evening, including Ms. Jacobs, joined in the sendoff.

A big shout out to John Znidarsic, who produces the event, and to
Cheryl D. Raymond, from Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. And, oh yeah, I’ll be back for the start of the 25th season!

ConcertMeister

Non-Concert Fun (5/3/15)

Sunday, May 3, was a walking day for me. Long story short, I decided on a MetroCard-free weekend day, so I walked through Central Park from east to west to the Community Garden on West 89th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, for the final day of their 2015 Annual Tulip Festival. Here’s a link to their website: www.westsidecommunitygarden.org. On a calendar page posted at the garden gate, I also saw that they sponsor Sunday evening concerts at 6:00pm in June. I might try to check out one or two of those. The flowers were spectacular and included daffodils as well. I’m sure that there were other blooms on display, but the 12,000 (or so) tulips sort of overwhelmed everything else—in a good way, though.

 

My trek from east to west had taken me across the top of the Great Lawn, so on the way back I ventured north, using the bridle path to guide me from west to east. Since I had a little time to kill before my next adventure, I ate my modest home-packed bag lunch while sitting on a park bench near the North Meadow. Then I wandered farther north to another of my favorite spots, the Conservatory Gardens at Fifth Avenue and 105th Street. I was there two weeks ago, and their tulips were not in full bloom yet. They sure were on Sunday. The three linked gardens were all in beautiful condition; the crabapple-tree allées were in bloom, and all three fountains were functioning. I’ll skip next Sunday because I’m sure it will be very popular for Mother’s Day, but I’ll be sure to check back again in a few weeks.

 

My next stop was the meeting place for a Jane’s Walk of Lost and Found Murals of East Harlem. Jane’s Walks, which were new to me, are a series of walks informing on a wide range of subjects—they are led by citizens because “everyone is an expert on the places they live, work and play,” according to the Jane’s Walk website. They are named for Jane Jacobs, who was an urbanist and activist, and many walks took place in NYC and around the world on May 1, 2, and 3. I’m glad I was able to take part.

 

There are many murals in East Harlem, some of which I’ve seen while riding city buses. Some of the ones that were a focus of the walk were by James De La Vega while others were by Manny Vega. In East Harlem, a lot of the focus is on Puerto Rican themes, including independence for the island nation. Another narrowing focus for the murals that we saw on our walk was that more than a few of them are on the walls of Hope Community Inc. buildings—in fact, HCI is actively involved in the renovation and restoration of some of the most famous of the murals. Of special interest to me were the mosaics of Manny Vega. His materials are very expensive, so he has also devised a technique where he uses colored paper to act as mosaic tiles and then shellacs or varnishes them.

 

The walk itself was very informative, and our leader and her assistant played tag team in sharing information about the artists and the murals, themselves. The walk ended at the installation titled the Graffiti Hall of Fame at Park Avenue and East 106th Street. It’s impressive, even though quite a few newer ‘tags’ mar the overall design.

 

So I urge all of you to find out whether there will be Jane’s Walks in your community next May, and to take advantage of them, if you get the chance. Or better still, create your own. Tweeting and Facebooking were actively encouraged. It’s a big city/world out there, and finding the smaller microcosms can be a lot of fun.

 

ConcertMeister

 

Songbook (4/26/15)

Landon Braverman and Derek P. Hassler

As a reminder again, Songbook is a series of concerts by new, aspiring theater composers and lyricists. In this case, Landon Braverman composes and Derek P. Hassler is in charge of the lyrics, although from some of the patter on stage, they both have a hand in lyrics from time to time. Their partnership seems to be working very well. A couple of songs on Monday night were from their show Queen of the West and one was from a show they’re currently working on, set in Germany during World War II.

The opening number on Monday night was written as an opening number for the Chutzpah International Festival last year (I’m not making this up, you know!). Called That’s How You Know You’re Home, it’s about returning to the place you lived and grew up in. Sung by a quintet of very good performers (Sam Simahk, Bruce Landry, Catherine Ricafort, Janet Krupin, and Camille Eanga-Selenge), I liked it especially because it had honest-to-goodness vocal harmonies. Not For You, sung by Mr. Braverman, is a character in search of himself and seeing others who seem to have it all together, so maybe he should be like them. First a singing trout, then a wolf, and then his girlfriend all tell him that what they have is ‘not for you.’

Ms. Ricafort scored well with Thin Ice, a song that uses ‘beware of thin ice’ also as an example for a floundering/failing relationship. Due to illnesses of other scheduled performers, she learned the song on the Amtrak train that very day, on her way to NYC for the program. Brava, indeed! This was my second hearing of the song, as it was performed at a Holiday Songbook, where John Znidarsic, Songbook’s mastermind and our host for the evening, gets theater composers to write new holiday songs.

Other strong entries were You Gotta Be a Diva, from QotW and sung by Ms. Krupin, a real show piece about showing off, and That’s Life, a stand-alone song performed by Ms. Ricafort, a catalogue of all the things that can go wrong, and do, but that’s life. A good song with a slightly weak ending, though. So I Stay, also a stand-alone song, was about a troubled relationship where even though the character knows that he should run away, there’s just enough to hold on to, ‘so I stay.’ Mr. Landry was heard to good effect here.

Mr. Braverman filled in on vocals for scheduled performers who had to cancel. He performed, piano and vocals, Finally in Munich, a tale of the underground resistance during WWII, but set to a driving rock score. Of note here, when Mr. Braverman accompanied himself, the balance between piano and voice was better than when he accompanied the other singers. Even though everyone was using standing microphones, the piano was still overpowering at times. One Thing You Should Know was a rather humorous piece performed for laughs (and getting them) by
Mr. Simahk.

I particularly liked Is Anybody Listening. Listed as a quintet in the program, it ended up being a quartet, which worked out very well as it effectively became a double duet that included very nice vocal harmonies again. It was essentially a song wondering whether what we do as individuals gets through to others and then realizing that we also need to listen, too. Todd Olson, a pianist, accompanied this and a couple of the other songs on the program.

I liked the Braverman/Hassler team, even though I found their songs to be somewhat similar in terms of composition style—a slightly tinkling beginning before launching into the soft/hard rock or lightly country body of the song. Will they catch on? I’m not sure. They certainly surrounded themselves with some very good talent, most of whom already have a little bit of Broadway (or touring shows) experience. So they’re all on the right track. Alas, there’s only one more Songbook in this season’s series, and I hope to be there.