Putting The Polish On: Stivers Jazz Orchestra Takes On The Legacy Of Billy Strayhorn

On the culminating night of Cityfolk's upcoming weeklong celebration of Billy Strayhorn (April 18), two bands will be delivering his music. Terell Stafford, who has worked extensively at the arts magnet, will lead his quintet and the Stivers School for the Arts Jazz Orchestra will offer a big band perspective on the Dayton-born composer's rich musical palette. Thanks to Strayhorn's niece Alyce Claerbaut and Strayhorn Songs, Inc., the band has in their hands a set of complete scores brought to light over the past decade by musicologist Walter Van de Leur. In addition to better known works such as Isfahan from the celebrated Far East Suite, concertgoers will be able to hear some of the music that has been retrieved by Van de Leur and performed on record by the Dutch Jazz Orchestra.

At this point this music has rarely been performed outside of Holland, let alone by a high school band. But, as many here know, this is no ordinary high school jazz ensemble. Two-time winners of the Berklee School of Music high school competition, the Stivers Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of Claude Lucien Thomas, regularly tackles challenging music by the likes of Maria Schneider, Oliver Nelson and others. Combined with other Ellington/Strayhorn music that has been provided by the Temple University jazz program (headed by Stafford) by way of Jazz at Lincoln Center, this repertoire will give them another unique opportunity to shine.

Read more about how Cityfolk will be Celebrating Billy Strayhorn.

The Man who Inspired the Chieftains

Paddy Moloney and his band the Chieftains have correctly received a lot of credit for introducing traditional Irish music to much of the world. But what about the musician who inspired Moloney and first employed most of the Chieftains? That would be composer, musician and bandleader Seán Ó Riada (1931-1971), the single most influential individual in the revival of Irish folk music and someone who should be better known than he is.

Seán Ó Riada (born John Riedy in Cork City) was a composer specializing in avant-garde works when he abandoned his wife and son for a few years of drunken debauchery in France and Italy. His forgiving wife Ruth finally fetched him home to Ireland and his music changed once he was back on familiar ground.

By the late 1950s, Ó Riada was writing scores for plays and films in which he used traditional Irish folk tunes and “sean-nós” (“old style”) songs in orchestral settings, somewhat similar to what Ralph Vaughan Williams had done with English folk songs or Aaron Copland had done in this country.

His most acclaimed work in this area was the music for Mise Eire (I Am Ireland), a 1959 documentary film about the founding of the Irish Republic. The next year, Ó Riada recruited a group of folk musicians from around Dublin to play music in the play Song of the Anvil. The musicians, a foursome that included a young piper from Dublin named Paddy Moloney, practiced every week at Ó Riada’s house. The play was a success—especially the music—which led Ó Riada to his next big idea.

Between 1960 and 1969, Ó Riada led Ceoltóirí Cualann, a band that played traditional Irish songs and tunes arranged for piano, fiddle, flute, pipes, accordions, bodhrán, whistles, bones and harpsichord (which Ó Riada played trying to approximate the sound of the clarsach, an Irish harp). Ó Riada also played—and revived—the bodhrán, a hand-held drum that had almost slipped into extinction.

The roster of musicians in Ó Riada’s ensemble included such players as fiddlers Martin Fay, John Kelly and Seán Keane, flutist Michael Tubridy, bodhrán player Peadar Mercier, accordionist Sonny Brogan, and piper Paddy Moloney; Fay, Tubridy, Keane and Mercier would all end up with Moloney in the Chieftains.

Ceoltóirí Cualann was also a success, prompting Moloney to experiment with smaller ensembles—duos, trios, quartets and quintets—playing essentially the same repertoire. By 1962, those experiments had evolved into the Chieftains and the band recorded its first album. From then until 1969, when Ceoltóirí Cualann broke up, the personnel of the two bands overlapped.

Ceoltóirí Cualann recorded a handful of albums, including Ó Riada and O Riada Sa Gaiety, and also recorded the soundtrack for the film Playboy of the Western World. After the band broke up, Ó Riada turned to religious choral music, founding Cór Chúil Aodha, a male choir. Seán Ó Riada died in 1971 at the age of 40, from cirrhosis of the liver. He’s buried in Ballyvourney, County Cork.

YouTube Favorites: Mardi Gras

Tomorrow is Mardi Gras, a Louisiana celebration which precedes the start of Lent. Cajun music is a cornerstone of that celebration.

Mitch Reed and Michael Doucet
One of my favorite sounds in Cajun music is the twin fiddle. The subtle differences that two talented fiddlers create with a tune, and the way those variations weave around each other, sets my soul to singing. Here are two such fiddlers--Mitch Reed of Charivari and Michael Doucet of Beausoleil--from a performance in December, 2007.



Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys
This two-step by the Playboys kicks off with David Greely on fiddle. The band has been a regular at Festivals Acadiens for over 20 years now and never fail to please!


Dance for a Chicken: The Cajun Mardi Gras
And finally, for a more complete insight into what Mardi Gras is like in rural Louisiana, visit Folkstreams.net and watch Pat Mire's hour-long film Dance for a Chicken: The Cajun Mardi Gras.

Native American Hoop Dancing

When Dallas Chief Eagle and his daughter Jasmine Pickner join forces with Rhythm in Shoes March 5-6, Cityfolk will be hosting two World Champion hoop dancers. Hoop dancing is an ancient artistic tradition common to many tribes that has gained a new lease on life through the recent proliferation of dance competitions and regional pow-wows. Here’s a bit of information on the tradition to whet your curiosity. There are several great videos of hoop dancers online, as well as numerous resources for those looking to go deeper.

Nobody really knows when and where hoop dancing originated, but some scholars feel that the people of Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico were the first to do a dance in which the dancer moved through a hoop. Wherever it started, hoop dancing spread widely among Native Americans in the United States and the First Nations of Canada and has a central symbolic place and importance to Native people of many different tribes.

The hoop represents the circle of life, which has no beginning or end, as well as the endless cycles of day and night and summer and winter. In some tribes, hoop dances have a healing role to restore balance and harmony to the world; these dances are generally not performed outside of healing ceremonies or for outsiders. Those kinds of hoop dances that are performed or featured in competitions and at pow-wows are called intertribal dances.

The World Championship Hoop Dance Contest is held annually the first weekend of February at the Heard Museum of Native Culture and Arts in Phoenix, Arizona. The 2007 contest attracted 73 dancers, the most in the championship’s 19-year history, and more than 10,000 spectators from across the U.S. and Canada and as far afield as Europe and Asia. The dancers compete in five divisions: Senior, Adult, Teen, Youth and Tiny Tot. In 2007, the tiniest of the Tots was 11 months old.

Dancers in the southwestern U.S. tend to use fewer hoops and dance slower, while dancers from the northern U.S. and Canada dance faster and use more hoops. Modern dancers generally use more hoops than dancers did in the past. Dallas Chief Eagle, a member of the Rosebud Lakota (Sioux) Nation who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, was inspired in his youth by a dancer who used five hoops in his dances; Dallas uses as many as 27 in his signature dance, “Nurturing the Tree of Life.”

In addition to his performing, Dallas Chief Eagle is teaching and training future champions at the Hoop Dance Society he started on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Hoop dancing was once the exclusive province of adult men, but is now spread across the generations and practiced by both male and female dancers—thanks in large part to Dallas’ talented protégé, Jasmine Pickner, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux tribe who made history in 2001 when she broke the gender barrier and became the first female winner at the World Hoop Dance Championships.

Below, Dallas dances in Iowa with his daughter Star. Be sure to catch Dallas and Jasmine with Dayton's own Rhythm in Shoes in Dayton on March 5-6!

YouTube: Grammy Winner Edition

On February 8, several of Cityfolk's old friends were honored with Grammy awards. Here's the list of winners, with some videos to celebrate.

Best country instrumental performance

Cluster Pluck — Brad Paisley, James Burton, Vince Gill, John Jorgenson, Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Redd Volkaert & Steve Wariner

Best Bluegrass Album

Honoring The Fathers Of Bluegrass: Tribute To 1946 And 1947 — Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

Best Traditional Gospel Album

Down in New Orleans — The Blind Boys of Alabama

Best Regional Mexican Album

Amor, Dolor Y Lágrimas: Música Ranchera — Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano

Best Contemporary Blues Album

City That Care Forgot — Dr. John And The Lower 911

Best Hawaiian Music Album Vocal or Instrumental

'Ikena — Tia Carrere & Daniel Ho

Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album

Live At The 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival — BeauSoleil & Michael Doucet

Best Traditional World Music Album

Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu — Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Tim O'Brien's Top Ten Albums

When Grammy-winning Tim O'Brien—songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and engaging, charismatic performer—was here in mid-January, we asked him for his 10 favorite albums. Click through to hear samples (in most cases) of the music and stories that are inspiring O'Brien's creative genius these days.

1. Voices of Our Time: Five Decades of Studs Terkel Interviews (6 CDs - This could be #1 - #6)
2. Danny Barnes, Barn Yard Electronics
3. The Band, 1974 In DC (Bootleg)
4. Michael Hurley, Wolfways
5. Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile

6. Various Artists, Wells for Zoe: Water for Life

7. Shooby Taylor, The Human Horn
8. Various Artists, Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings
9. Willie Bryant And His Orchestra, Willie Bryant & His Orchestra
10. Nick Lowe, Party of One

Billy Strayhorn: Read All About Him

Cityfolk's weeklong celebration of jazz composer Billy Strayhorn is just two months away.

The Cityfolk website now has a place devoted to his legacy and the events taking place between April 11-18. In addition to learning about the concerts which frame the celebration, you can also find information on radio programs taking place prior to April 11 and a number of links which provide additional information on some of the free presentations taking place that week.

David Hajdu, who comes to Dayton for a talk session with Detroit Free Press (and former Dayton Daily News) music writer Mark Stryker on April 15, has graciously provided a centerpiece essay on Strayhorn's life and music. The author of the acclaimed Strayhorn biography Lush Life, Hajdu teaches journalism at Columbia University, is the chief music critic for The New Republic and has contributed to The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and the Village Voice.

Learn more at www.cityfolk.org/celebratingstrayhorn

Here, enjoy Billy Strayhorn on piano with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra playing Strayhorn's composition "Take the A Train."

YouTube Favorites from Doug Smith

Bob Wills -- Sitting On Top Of the World
Bob Wills appeared in about a dozen B westerns and his band, or a stripped down version, was featured in all of them. This cut is from the early fifties, and features Junior Barnard on the lead guitar and the incredible stylings of Bobby Koefer on the Steel. Koefer was (and is!) a unique and powerful player, way ahead of his time.



Bob Wills -- Fiddlin' Man/Bob Wills Breakdown/Liberty
Wills was a first rate band leader and a darned good old time fiddler. Joe Holly is the left handed fiddler twinning with Bob.

Remembering Dr. King: We Were Black, Too

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Mavis Staples, one of the great voices of American music, appeared in concert January 14 at the University of California, Davis, just a few miles from where I live in Sacramento. Staples performed songs from her 2007 album, We'll Never Turn Back, a collection of songs associated with the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Backed by a trio fronted by guitarist Rick Holmstrom and two singers—one was her sister Yvonne—Staples rocked and inspired the audience of about 1,100 people.

Before her concert, Staples talked to an interviewer in front of an audience about the role of music in the Civil Rights movement; the involvement of her family group (the Staple Singers) in the movement; and her memories of Dr. Martin Luther King. Here are some of Staples’ comments.

On being asked why her family got involved in the movement: “We were black, too. We wanted injustice to be eradicated. We wanted to have our rights. We wanted to drink from a fountain that didn’t have a ‘for colored only’ sign. We were very much a part. We were proud to be a part of it. This was our plight.”

On how the Staple Singers started working with Dr. King: “We first met Dr. King in 1960 in Montgomery, Alabama. We were on the road and Pops took us to Dr. King’s church to hear him preach. Pops had heard him on the radio but none of the rest of us had. After we got back to the hotel, Pops called my sisters and me into his room and said, ‘Listen, y’all. I really like this man’s message. And I think that if he can preach it, we can sing it.’ That’s when we began writing freedom songs like ‘It’s A Long Walk to D.C.’ It wasn’t hard to write a freedom song. Just watch the news or read the paper—there were your lyrics. Dr. King’s favorite song of ours was ‘Why Am I Treated So Bad.’”

On what she remembers most about Dr. King: “I hold on to his laughter, the sound of his laughter. Whenever I saw him, it seemed like he was either looking serious or he was looking sad. But when I’d hear him laugh, I knew he was happy. Before a big meeting, the men would all stand around outside talking. When they’d laugh, Dr. King was always the loudest. He had a good laugh. And I’d think, ‘Good, Dr. King is happy today.’”

And finally, on her father’s name, Roebuck: “Pops was born into a big family. He was the 14th child. And they had run out of names by the time they got to number 13. So numbers 13 and 14 were named Sears and Roebuck…That Uncle Sears was crazy.”

Vintage Staple Singers-Why am I treated so bad
Uploaded by funnytoo

Review: Scotty Anderson: In Your Own Backyard

The Dayton debut of Scotty Anderson and his band Saturday night at Canal Street Tavern
offered an intimate view of a master player who generates two kinds of heat. Many of the guitar players in the audience who came with previous experience waited breathlessly for his full-on, high speed romps through tunes like "John Henry" and "Sweet Georgia Brown". And while it's certainly a thrill to see a guitarist with so much technique completely cutting loose, it's the ballads that show what stunning command he has. He polished up the snowy ambience of "Moonlight in Vermont" with rich chords, dropping in effects that would make Bill Frisell proud. Django Reinhardt's gorgeous "Nuages" was played with passionate restraint.

The sweep of American music the band plays gives everyone something to chew on; Johnny Cash, rhythm and blues, Ellington/Strayhorn, Merle Travis and early jazz are just some of the touchstones of a typical Scotty Anderson set. When he rang out the opening chords to Steely Dan's "Josie" just before unplugging, it was a sly wink and nod that you could only imagine where an expansive third set could lead.

YouTube Favorites from Doug Smith

Jerry Byrd -- Chickadee
Here is Jerry in a Hawaiian setting. He moved to Hawaii about 1970, after a long career playing and producing country music in the mainland. He was deeply interested in Hawaiian music from the start of his career in the late 1930’s, and was prominent in the Hawaiian music scene until his recent passing. I believe the National tricone that he is playing belonged to Pua Almeida, a great Hawaiian performer in the 40’s and 50’s.




HSGA Jam -- Kansas City Kitty
The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association (HSGA) sponsors an annual gathering of Hawaiian steel players in Joliet, Illinois. Here is a clip from a jam session there.