Marionettes and Punch & Judy

by Sara Cogswell, Curator of "About Face: The World of Puppets and Masks"

The material culture exhibition at the 2010 Cityfolk Festival, “About Face: The World of Puppets and Masks”, will present two puppeteers who both create and perform with marionettes: Jim Rose from Yellow Springs, and Jo McLaughlin from Dayton.

Marionettes can be made from various types of materials, from wood to foam. They range from simple construction to the most exquisite detail. Marionettes are worked from above stage by strings tied to a Control. The number of strings and where they are fixed depends on the movements to be made. There are usually head strings, shoulder strings, and others to arms and legs.

Jo McLaughlin has been an Ohio Arts Council Residency Artist since 1983. Her training has come from 35 years of exposure to outstanding artists in this discipline, national workshops, and her studies in Fine Arts at Miami University. She creates her own marionettes, as well as other types of puppets, using mixed media and “unexpected materials” for the faces and costumes. Her love is teaching and leading classes of all ages in building puppet characters and exploring the art of movement with music and narration using the traditions from Appalachia, folk tales, and Greek mythology. “Discovering the magic in finding the ‘alive-ness’ and the connection of ‘play’ between the audiences, the operator and the inanimate object is a special kind of theater.” Her goal is “to have participants discover the power and diversity of personal expression that takes people beyond the idea that puppets are only for children.”

Jim Rose almost literally had puppetry in his genes. He was born in 1933 to Rufus and Margo Rose, a famous family of professional puppeteers. His parents and their company toured the country from 1927 until 1942. Following their retirement from “the road”, they designed, built, lived, and performed in their own permanent marionette studio/theater/home in Waterford, Connecticut. Rose pursued studies in art and theater and received his BA from Antioch College in 1956, and his MFA from Yale University School of Drama in 1963. He has taught art or theater at every scholastic level, from kindergarten through post-college. He chaired the Theater Department at Antioch during most of his tenure there, and was Designer/Technical Director from 1965 until 1984. He has designed scenery and puppets for many television and film productions, has lectured extensively, led workshops, and appears at nationally known festivals.

Mr. Rose is especially noted for designing, constructing and manipulating marionettes of an artistically sophisticated and technically excellent quality. His area of expertise - and largest collection - is in creation and performance of marionettes for Shakespearian productions. He will be displaying a large portion of this collection, as well as demonstrating, and will be offering hands-on opportunities for the festival going audience to experience the operation of his marionettes.

Mr. Rose also has another specialty, that of Punch and Judy, which he also creates and performs. Rose will be performing, with his real wife Judy, doing a street performance of Punch and Judy.

Punchinello, or Punch, as we know him today, is a puppet with a fascinating history. As far as we know, he began life in Italy as a funny character called Polcinella. Italian puppets were based on a popular drama in which there were several clowns, or zanni, to keep the people laughing. Polcinella was a little man with a very hooked nose and chin, and a hunched back. He wore a ruffled coloar around his neck and had a pointed hat with a bell.

Punch was brought to England about 1660, and he soon became a popular character. Though he started out as a marionette, he is now a glove puppet. Everyone loved the puppet plays because the puppeteers used them to poke fun at the authorities. By 1825 Punch had a wife, Judy, and their puppet stories became firm favorites.

YouTube Spotlight: Dailey and Vincent

The red-hot band known as Dailey & Vincent is “the most celebrated new bluegrass act of the last few years” (New York Times). Formed in 2007 by the powerful vocal duet of Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent (longtime veterans of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder, respectively), the band hit the ground running, winning six awards at the 2008 International Bluegrass Music Awards, including the unprecedented and unlikely combo of Emerging Artist and Entertainer of the Year, the top honor. See them on Sunday, July 4 at the Cityfolk Festival.

Why Become a Friend of the Festival

Again and again we've asked you to become a Friend of the Festival, and hopefully you've stepped up and are proudly wearing your 2010 Festival pin. In case you're still on the fence, we're going to share some stories which we hope will remind you of your own memorable Cityfolk Festival experiences. The future of the Festival is in your hands!

Stace Darden of the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers shares this:

The Dayton Cityfolk Festival, July 4 and 5, 2008, was wonderful for us. We've sung at the festival in past years but that year was exceptional. The people received us well and the staff was top notch (especially Holly Underwood). We even met the Mayor (Rhine McLin) who loved what we brought to the festival.

We met so many wonderful people, and one person in particular that stuck out was named Bill. He and his wife were dressed in American Flag attire, and were brought to tears by our rendition of "America". We dedicated our last performance to him for his years of service and to the many soldiers that are sacrificing their lives to give us the freedoms that we have today.

We pray that this won't be our last time in Dayton and thank you Cityfolk for the love shared these past years.

YouTube Spotlight: Crazy Joe with Ricky Nye Inc

Led by Crazy Joe Tritschler, former lead guitarist for Deke Dickerson & the Eccofonics, Crazy Joe and the Mad River Outlaws is the Dayton area’s premier rockabilly-country-blues-surf band. Inspired by the guitar pyrotechnics of such players as Joe Maphis and Larry Collins, Tritschler has won acclaim for his “dazzling picking, sense of humor and eclectic approach to roots music” (Vintage Guitar). The Outlaws are joined for this performance by Cincinnati native Ricky Nye, an award-winning blues and boogie-woogie piano man and a Queen City Blues Festival regular. In addition to fronting his own bands, the Red Hots and the Swingin’ Mudbugs, Nye has worked with such blues artists as James Harman, Junior Watson and Darrell Nulisch.

Noah Crase, 1934-2010

Noah Crase, one of the most exciting bluegrass banjo players I’ve ever heard and a key architect of the southwestern Ohio bluegrass scene, died April 13 at the age of 75. Crase was one of the pioneering bluegrass banjo pickers in the Dayton area, and many younger pickers learned the music listening to him at bars like Tom’s Tavern, Little Mickey’s and the Mermaid.

Crase was born December 10, 1934, in Barwick, Kentucky (in Breathitt County), but his family joined the great northern migration of that era and moved to Middletown in 1949. Crase lived in later years in the Franklin-Springboro area, where he spent his career as a mail carrier working out of the Springboro post office.

Crase met Red Allen and Frank Wakefield at the Hilltop Inn in Franklin in the early 1950s, and he soon became deeply involved in the bluegrass world of the Cincinnati-Middletown-Dayton axis. He played and recorded with numerous people in those years in addition to Red and Frank, including Jimmy Martin, Carlos Brock, Dorsey Harvey, Dave Woolum and others. Crase left Ohio to play banjo with Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys in two separate stints in 1954-55 and 1956. Unfortunately, he never recorded with Monroe.

Some of Crase’s best music of the 1960s and 1970s came in the company of Paul “Moon” Mullins, fiddler and legendary DJ on WPFB in Middletown. Crase played with Mullins in the Valley Ramblers (which had a weekly TV show on Dayton’s WKEF-TV), the Nu-Grass Pickers and, beginning in 1973, the Boys from Indiana, which was originally known as Noah Crase, Paul Mullins and the Boys from Indiana.

The Boys from Indiana was a powerful, dynamic and highly entertaining band in the mid-1970s, and Crase was a big part of the band for the first couple of years, playing on the albums We Missed You in Church Last Sunday and the highly popular Atlanta is Burning. Crase more or less retired from playing in a band in 1976, though he periodically picked up his banjo in later years for occasional shows, including The Dayton Bluegrass Reunion, Cityfolk’s 1989 bluegrass concert extravaganza, where he joined Mullins, guitarist Don Warmuth and bass player Bobby Gilbert for a reunion of the Valley Ramblers.

Crase will also be remembered for his original banjo tune “Noah’s Breakdown,” recorded in 1957 and released on the flip side of Dave Woolum’s Sage single “Old Age” (immortalized on the 1976 Rounder album Early Days of Bluegrass, Vol. 2) and the song “I Can’t Go On This Way,” recorded by the Traditional Grass.

I can’t say that I really knew Noah Crase, but I chatted with him several times over the years, at the old Living Arts Center in east Dayton and at bluegrass festivals where he was performing. He was always exceedingly gracious and friendly in those encounters, polite when I asked endless questions about the early days, modest when I gushed over his playing on old records. He also had the coolest sideburns in bluegrass.

Mexican Wrestling and Masked Musicians

The connection between masks and musicians has never been explored in much depth, but here are a few examples that make the connection explicit:

Mexican wrestling wasn’t on my cultural radar before I moved to California in 1994, but the first time I saw Mexican wrestling masks, I thought, what a great look for a band—kitsch and mystery combined. Then I saw Los Straitjackets at a festival. The surf guitar band wore suits and Mexican wrestling masks—a very sharp look—as they performed in the 100 degree heat. An hour or so after the band’s set, I found myself standing next to the band’s drummer in a concession stand line. I complimented him on his winged mask (he was still wearing it) and asked what it was like performing with your head encased in skintight lycra. He just looked at me and groaned. I mumbled something about suffering for your art and turned away.

Country singer Billy Walker, best known for the hits “Cross the Brazos at Waco” and “Charlie’s Shoes,” was working on the Big D Jamboree radio show in Dallas in the late 1940s and just beginning his recording career when his manager persuaded him to wear a Lone Ranger-style mask and perform as The Traveling Texan, the Masked Singer of Country Songs. The Lone Ranger had just started its long run on TV and this was, presumably, an attempt to cash in on the hit show’s popularity. Walker ditched the mask after a short while and went on to a career that included the Grand Ole Opry and the so-bad-it’s-good movie Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar.

Orion, however, had to keep his mask on, because he was supposed to be Elvis Presley, see, and people would just absolutely freak if the mask ever came off. Shortly after Presley died in 1977, Sun Records head Shelby Singleton put rockabilly singer Jimmy Ellis in a sequined mask, dubbed him Orion and floated a story that Elvis had faked his death so he could perform in seedy dives for short money. Apparently, a few people bought the scam as Orion had a few minor hits. He unmasked in 1980, but re-masked a few times before his death in 1998.

Though their efforts at concealment (or whatever) used greasepaint and makeup instead of masks, Alice Cooper, David Bowie and the lads of K.I.S.S. deserve a mention in this context. Other rock acts that have used masks at one time or another include Devo, the Residents, GWAR and the current champs, that lovable Slipknot, whose masks convey a charming horror movie/bondage vibe.

To the best of my knowledge, no bluegrass musicians have regularly performed wearing a mask, though it certainly sounds like something Frank Wakefield would have done back in the day.

And finally, a couple of record company stunts, separated by 40 years, where the mask is metaphorical rather than actual. In 1929, Paramount Records, an important early blues label, issued a 78 of “Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues” and “Mississippi Boweavil Blues” by the Masked Marvel. A postcard included with the record and an ad in the Chicago Defender invited purchasers to guess the identity of the singer; correct answers won a Paramount record. The record was by Charley Patton, often called the Father of the Delta Blues, but as this was only Patton’s second recording, it’s doubtful there were many correct guesses.

Exactly 40 years later, in 1969, a rock “supergroup” named the Masked Marauders appeared on the scene. The band supposedly included Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. An album was even released on the hip Reprise label. Turns out it was all an elaborate hoax perpetrated by Rolling Stone editor and rock critic Greil Marcus, who was meaning to mock such bands as Blind Faith and Crosby, Stills and Nash. But if it wasn’t Dylan, et al, on the album, who was it? The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band.

YouTube Spotlight: Vishten

Cityfolk has often brought you Canadian Celtic music from Quebec, Cape Breton and Ottawa, and now we're venturing to a new part of the country: Prince Edward Island. From this island on the eastern edge of Canada, Vishten plays “Celtic music, but with a difference”—the traditional music of the French Acadians. Vishten has performed at music festivals in Canada, the U.S., Scotland, France and elsewhere, captivating international audiences and earning such critical raves as “a near perfect ensemble” (La Petit Douchynois, France) with its unique mix of vocals sung in French, traditional fiddle and accordion tunes, driving foot percussion, step dancing and multi-instrumental flexibility.

Eric Alexander - The Big Sound

If you've been lucky enough to see jazz tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander at any of his previous Cityfolk-sponsored performances (with the all-star band One For All, in the quartet of pianist Michael Weiss or with the late Hammond B-3 organist Hank Marr) you likely haven't forgotten the sound. It's big, round and beautiful.

Describing in print the sound of a horn player is tough. It's easier to pick an identifiable influence. Alexander often gets compared with crowd pleasers like Eddie Harris and Stanley Turrentine, or supreme improvisers like Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, frequently with a musician who falls between the latter pair, the great Dexter Gordon or with regularity, his mentor and friend George Coleman.

While giants Coleman and Rollins still walk the earth, many of the music's cornerstone influences are long gone. Now in his early 40s, Alexander's own sound has now become an identifiable part of the jazz landscape. When he joins forces with the fine Cincinnati pianist Steve Schmidt and his trio on April 17 at Gilly's you will be in close proximity to one of the music's most creative saxophonists. Expect gorgeous music from the Great American Songbook, a trove of jazz standards along with original music from Alexander and Schmidt.

For further insight, here's an interview with Eric, done with Jason Crane for The Jazz Session at the tail end of 2009.

Kevin Whitehead reviews Eric Alexander's CD It's All In The Game for NPR's Fresh Air.

YouTube Spotlight: Los Texmaniacs

Last week we announced the Friday night lineup of the 2010 Cityfolk Festival, and today we're starting a weekly video spotlight on the performers you will see on stage.

One of those groups is Grammy-winning Los Texmaniacs. Based in San Antonio, Texas, Los Texmaniacs are champions of the traditional accordion-led dance music of south Texas known as conjunto tejano. Inspired by the powerful conjunto-rock fusion of the Texas Tornadoes, renowned bajo sexto player Max Baca formed the band to play “hip music with the conjunto elements.”

Lunasa Brings "New Day" to Dayton

Renowned instrumental quintet Lúnasa, hailed as “the hottest Irish acoustic group on the planet” (Irish Voice), returns to Dayton for a concert Friday, April 9 at the Victoria Theatre. Their newest album, Lá Nua (Irish for "new day"), will be released on April 6. It contains 10 tune sets with a load of new original tunes by Crawford and Vallely as well as traditional tunes from Ireland, Brittany and the Galician region of Spain and will surely be the centerpiece of their concert.

The response was immediate and enthusiastic when Lúnasa made its debut in 1997. The Irish Echo called Lúnasa “the best Irish traditional instrumental band on the planet.” Folk Roots magazine called the band an “Irish music dream team,” while the Washington Post credited the band for hauling traditional Irish music into the new century: “Lúnasa manages to marry jazz-rock bass lines and an expanded harmonic sensibility to an older rural music…determined to drag Irish folk music kicking and screaming into the 21st century.”

Lúnasa is one of the hardest working bands in Celtic music. In just the last couple of years, the band has performed in Ireland, England, Scotland, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and the U.S. Previous tours have taken the quintet to Australia, Israel, Japan, Germany, Italy, and most of the rest of Europe. The band plays regularly at Festival Kan-Al-Loar in the Brittany region of France and at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, Scotland. See them close to home, in the wonderful acoustic space of the Victoria Theatre.