Meister-Lite x Two

Shakespeare in the Park (9/1/18) and Sugar Hill Music Festival (9/8/18)

Yes, more Shakespeare in Bryant Park via The Drilling Company (known for their Shakespeare in the Parking Lot performances that I’ve never attended). I’m not making this up, you know. This was Mac—the Scottish play. I had never actually seen this, so was very entertained. Some of the plot was a bit convoluted (hello! Shakespeare tragedy) but I got the gist of it. Cool casting of a guy as one of the witches. Minimal sets, though costuming was pretty good. And a good mix of Equity and non-Equity actors there (hey, some of us non-Equity actors did good work before we finally got an Equity contract).

Bubbling cauldron? Check. Bloody hands? Check. Death and ghosts? Check. Worthwhile endeavor, and I’m glad I did it.

2018
When Sugar Hill Was Sweet (9/8/18)

Alas, less successful. I went last year and enjoyed it. Sort of. It was a combo of entertainment and history—the Harlem struggle and the rather Communist leanings of the fighters there, in the ’50s and ’60s. I don’t have a problem with that; I just prefer good music without the politics. This year, there was more of the politics. ’Nuff said. On to the music. The Regina Carter (violin)/Xavier Davis (piano) duo played some darned good stuff. When I Grow Too Old to Dream was cool, with a few riffs (English Country Gardens and Eleanor Rigby) thrown in for good measure. Higher Ground, by Stevie Wonder followed, but I did not recognize the tune. An arrangement of the Hoagy Carmichael tune Judy followed. An Ella Fitzgerald song/tune followed but I didn’t get the name (no printed program). Also not announced was the final song that sounded like a classic ‘good-bye’ piece.

A reading by MaryLouise Patterson followed that was OK but just.

The Uptown Brass Quintet was next and they had a nice mix of tunes—fanfare from Rocky; A Closer Walk with Thee (sort of a N’Orleans dirge that then bumps up to up tempo); then The Junkman Rag by C. Lucky Roberts (all announced from the stage and me frantically writing in the afternoon drizzle); then W.C. Handy’s appropriately plodding St. Louis Blues. Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’ followed; William Grant Still’s El Marigate was next (music written for a puppet show in South America—I’m still not making this up, you know!); and then Tom Turpin’s The Harlem Rag. The educational aspect was great. The execution, not so much. Take the A Train and one other song were the obligatory encores.

The deteriorating weather and length of the afternoon led me to leave then, before hearing Sugar Hill Quartet with TC the 3rd and Firey String Sistas! Maybe next year. Maybe not, though.

ConcertMeister