The Eastern Shore and southern Delaware’s only professional symphony orchestra opened its 2020-21 season Thursday night at the acoustically sublime Easton Church of God sanctuary in front of a live audience.

For that reason alone, it was an evening to celebrate. But the orchestra, led by maestro Julien Benichou and featuring violin soloist Kurt Nikkanen, gave us further cause to say hooray by delivering a splendid if slightly understated concert of classical masterpieces.

But more on the music later. First, in full disclosure, you are reading this review by a critic who was part of a larger at-home audience enjoying the concert streaming on TV or computer screens. As retirees, my wife and I are among millions of others who fall into the category of mature Americans who, while in good health, have what is euphemistically called “underlying conditions.”

Happily, the streaming of this concert—you can still see it through Oct. 1—came as close to being there as any I’ve seen in these pandemic times. Visually speaking, the camera work in certain respects offered at-home viewers a better seat than those attending in person. You can’t just get up and wander about a concert hall for an onstage closeup or climb to the balcony for an overhead glimpse. Nor can you see four angles at once as you can on a split-screen.

The live performance was only possible by limiting the number of MSO subscribers who could buy tickets and cooperated by wearing masks and scattering themselves for safe social distancing. The players were also masked–you can buy your own symphony orchestra mask, by the way–and they were also socially distanced, which mandated a smaller ensemble than usual. The 15 musicians, plus conductor Benichou, were spread out at least six feet apart, often more. Those conditions also dictated the type of program that could be performed live.

Which at last brings us, patient reader, to the music. Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D, Opus 61, is cause for celebration both in the performance and observation of Ludwig van’s 250th birthday this year. Because woodwind and brass instruments require much greater distancing—12 feet or more (no one can blow into them wearing a mask)—the violin soloist is accompanied by other strings in this arrangement. In a post-conference Q&A, Benichou conceded, “Some of the drama is missing without the brass, woodwinds, and tympani.”

Still, the genius behind this concerto is, in some ways, enhanced by a more modest presentation. There was no chance of diminishing the vigor of Nikkanen’s solo parts, expressing mixed lyrical emotions–from a tearful adagio of regrets to a vibrant rondo of cheerful recovery, ending in a joyfully repetitive theme. If you’re watching at home, you may want to dance–not recommended in a concert setting. Acknowledging the applause, Nikkanen took a bow, then said, “I’m smiling under the mask.”

Wrapped on either side of Beethoven were two pieces by Grieg—Erotik (Poeme Erotique) Opus 43, No. 5, and the Holberg Suite, Opus 40. The first piece, very short, serves as an appetizer to Beethoven’s 45-minute concerto. Written for piano, this string orchestra transcription brings to mind, as played here, feelings adrift in a dream of romantic remembrance.

Grieg’s suite, composed as a tribute to Danish author Ludvig Holberg, pays homage to the music of the early 18th century, evoking classical folk dances. With soloist Nikkanen slipping into the first violin concertmaster chair, the performance juxtaposes a storm-tossed athleticism—think downhill skiing—with a summer breeze after awakening from the seemingly perpetual Nordic winter of darkness.

We can hardly wait for the current darkness to lift.

The orchestra is getting the hang of performing several feet apart as required for now. In the post-concert Q&A, MSO violinist Celaya Kirchner explained the difficulty experienced in the recent makeup concert to last season’s postponed finale. “You can’t really hear the players in the rest of your section. It’s fun but scary.”

Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra’s live season-opening concert at the Easton Church of God Thursday evening, Sept. 24, streaming simultaneously on YouTube and midatlanticsymphony.org, which can be viewed free through Oct. 1.

Steve Parks is a retired arts critic and editor now living in Easton.

Unarmed Man. Written and directed by Harold Jackson III. A Chesapeake Film Festival feature streaming on its website beginning 9 a.m. Oct. 1 and running through midnight Oct. 4. A program of all 46 films can be found at chesapeakeffvirtual2020.com with tips on streaming directly to your home TV. Streaming is free; contributions encouraged.

Just the title, “Unarmed Man,” pointed my mind in the direction of a white cop murdering an innocent man driving while black. We all make assumptions, I suppose, and I confess that mine have lately tilted toward considering black men who matter like the rest of us are too often victims of racist cops, sometimes under sketchy circumstances.

This film did not change my mind about racial profiling or how such assumptions by armed police officers can and too often do result in the death, in particular, of men of color. But each case should be considered as this meticulous examination of a true-story death-by-cop “incident” on it’s specific and nuanced circumstances. I purposefully avoided identifying the race of director Harold Jackson III before viewing “Unarmed Man.” So as a spoiler courtesy, I will not reveal his race here. The story stands on its merits.

The real-life police officer, Greg Yelich, is played here by Danny Gavigan as a man of conscience, though we have no way of discerning whether his troubled demeanor is over his concern for his own culpability in the death of an unarmed man or his fate as a suspect as a murderer. Likely it is both,

We barely meet the victim, Cordell Pierce, played by DeWayne Foote with just a line or two as he is depicted behind the wheel of a car that is pulled over for a minor infraction. He announces to Yelich that he has a legal gun in his possession, in the glove box of his car. Yelich says he saw him reach for something. The officer fired five shots into the suspect’s body, killing him as his girlfriend, Deena Rodgers (Tia Dae) and daughter, played by Peyton Reavis, are witnesses to Pierce’s violent death.

But the film hardly gives us a glance of the deadly violence that leads to intense interrogation of the cop by a police investigator, Aaron Williamson, played by a black man, Shaun Woodland. Williamson comes across as both fair minded and skeptical. He listens intently to the white cop’s account of the “incident,” betraying neither racial nor institutional bias toward his subject. Still, the humanity and innate biases of both men emerge in moments of stressful interchange between them.

I am not aware of the acts regarding Officer Yelich and the shooting death of Cordell Pierce other than what we see in the film. What comes across to me is a deeply disturbing and ultimately impenetrable question of guilt or innocence. Yelich says he sees the driver reaching “for something”–perhaps a gun that is, in fact, found in the glove box–as his partner stands at that side of the car. Both men’s lives may have been in jeopardy in that split second. Yet only the driving-while-black man lies dead in the end.

There is a charge against Yelich, the cop, and a trial and verdict I will not reveal here so as not to spoil the subtle lineup of “facts” that demarcate guilty and not guilty.

I came away from this film thinking, as many of us have over the last few months, of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and too many others. Eight-and-a-half minutes of knee on the neck. An unarmed woman shot to death in her own bed. This case was nothing like that. We can only come away with the conclusion that both black and blue lives matter. All lives matter. Yours and mine and everyone we have ever known and loved.

Steve Parks is a retired arts critic and columnist now living in Easton.

Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1917. His parents Jacob and Rosa Lee Lawrence divorced in 1924. Jacob and his two younger siblings grew up in Harlem with their mother. She enrolled him in the Utopia Children’s Center, an arts and crafts settlement house in Harlem, to keep him busy. He learned to use tempera paint, a water based medium, which he would continue to use throughout his career. As a child, he copied the rug patterns in his house: “people of my generation would decorate their homes in all sorts of colors…so you’d think in terms of Matisse.” When his mother lost her job, Lawrence dropped out of high school before his junior year and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, part of the New Deal, where he planted trees, drained swamps and built dams.

Returning to Harlem after his stint in the Corps, he enrolled in the Harlem Community Art Center, then under the leadership of African-American sculptor Augusta Savage. Impressed by Lawrence’s talent, Savage obtained a scholarship for him at the American Artists School and a paid job with the Works Progress Administration. Lawrence was able to continue making art, which he did at an astonishing rate. An important influence on his work was Professor Seifert, whom he met playing pool at the Harlem YMCA. Seifert had a large collection of books on African American history. He offered Lawrence the use of his books and encouraged him to go to the Schomburg Library in Harlem to read all he could about African and African American culture. He also took Lawrence to see the 1935 exhibition of African Art at the Museum of Modern Art.

Lawrence began his career with three series of works illustrating the lives of African American icons: “Toussaint L’Ouverture“ (1938) (41 images); “Harriet Tubman” (1938- 1939) (31 images); and “Frederick Douglas” (1939-1940) (40 images). The original “Toussaint L’Ouverture” series was created in 1938 with tempera on paper, but with age became fragile, and Lawrence recreated in the 1990’s fifteen of the original images in silkscreen. He recreated several images from many series in silkscreen in his later years

Raised as a slave on a plantation, Toussaint L’Ouverture had been educated and was literate. He was freed when he was given a position of trust as a carriage driver. He rose from there to become Commander-in-Chief of the Haitian army in service to the French. However he was aware of the horrendous living conditions of the black slave population, and led the slave revolt in 1800 against Napoleon Bonaparte’s occupying troops. He helped draw up Haiti’s democratic constitution. On August 29, 1793 Toussaint declared to the black population at St. Dominique, “Brothers and friends, I am Toussaint Louverture, perhaps my name has made itself known to you. I have undertaken vengeance. I want Liberty and Equality to reign in St. Dominque. I am working to make that happen. Unite yourselves to us, brothers and fight with us for the same cause. Your very humble and obedient servant, Toussaint Louverture”

“Deception, no. 13” (1997) (22’’x 34’’) (silkscreen) depicts the 1802 event when Toussaint was invited by French General Brunet to a parlay. It was a deception; Toussaint was captured and taken to Paris, where he died in prison in 1803. He is known as the “Father of Haiti.” Lawrence’s original title for the image of Toussaint from the 1938 series summed up his impressions of Toussaint and his achievements as “Statesman and military genius, esteemed by the Spaniards, feared by the English, dreaded by the French, hated by the planters, and revered by the blacks.”

Lawrence calls his style Dynamic Cubism. In “Deception” we see Toussaint attacked by five French soldiers, all with drawn swords. The colors are limited but effectively used. The black shapes of coats, boots, hats, chair, and wall panels surround and secure the edges and angle diagonally toward Toussaint. A brown floor panel in the center of the composition leads our eyes to the seated Toussaint. The remainder of the floor on which the soldiers stand is ochre in color, and it ends just behind Toussaint’s shoulders an effective contrast to the black and white uniforms of the soldiers. A dark green wall completes the room, and a small contrasting turquoise rectangle in the center of the wall effectively highlights Toussaint’s upper torso. By the position of his turned head we see the surprised look on his face. His is the only clearly seen face. Whether painted with brush and tempera or silkscreened, the of solid and simple, but elegant, shapes are easy to understand and highly effective.

Lawrence’s “Migration Series” (1940 to 41) (60 images) brought him to national prominence when it was exhibited in 1941 at the Downtown Gallery in Greenwich Village in New York City. Lawrence was the first African American to be represented by a New York gallery. The series was quickly purchased by the Philips Collection in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Fortune Magazine ran an issue with 26 illustrations from the series, and the series was also published in 1941 in a book funded by the Works Project Administration. Plate No. 1 of the series was named “During the World War there was a great migration north by southern Negroes” (1938); however in 1993, Lawrence changed the title to read “During World War I there was a great migration north by southern African Americans” (1993). In this image we again see Lawrence’s use of limited but effective colors. African American figures flood toward the three bright orange doorways labeled Chicago, New York, and St. Louis. The scattered use of orange shapes throughout the composition begin at the bottom and are strategically placed to lead the viewer’s eye to the three doorways.

Lawrence continued his career creating such series as “John Brown” (1941-1942) (32 images); “Harlem”(1942) (30 images); “War” (1946-47) (14 image), during his service in the US Coast Guard during WWII; “Struggle? History of the America People” (1953-55) (30 images); “Great Ideas of Western Man” (1958); “Hiroshima” (1983) (8 images); and “Genesis” (1989), based on his memory of Sunday sermons given by Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Sr. at the Abbyssinian Baptist Church in Haarlem. Lawrence drew subject matter from his life and experiences in Harlem, from his extensive reading of history, and from his deep interest in current events.

“Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.”(1958) (21’’ x17’’) (oil on fiberboard) is a work from the series “Great Ideas of Western Men”. The title of this piece is a quote from Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, VIII: 59. A very large male figure of indeterminate race sits on a rock and is surrounded by children who reach out to him and listen to him. On first seeing the piece, we see three large black cracks running through the figures and the rock. After very close observation we see the man is holding a small tree with a root ball, ready to be planted. The title of the work tells us humans need to exist together, and we either need to be taught how to live together or to learn how to be tolerant of each other. The three tree branches create an interesting enigma; first they are hard to distinguish, and second they cross in front of the three of the figures as if creating divisions between the people and cracking the rock.

Lawrence was invited to create a work for the 1976 American Bicentennial celebration. “Confrontation at the Bridge” (1976) (19.5’’ x 26’’) (silkscreen) described the March 7, 1965, march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on route from Selma to the Alabama state capital in Montgomery. Led by Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis, the marchers were protesting for equal voting rights. To represent the brutal police attack, Lawrence has substituted a viscously snarling dog. Six hundred protestors were turned back. Lawrence does not elect to show the famous leaders of the march; he depicts instead the frightened mass of African Americans exerting their first amendment right to peaceful protest. Later in 1965 the US Congress passed and President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

In 1976 Lawrence added to the “Great Ideas of Western Men” series a piece titled “In a free government, the security of civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other, in the multiplicity of sects.” a quote from James Madison’s Federalist Papers (1788). Lawrence’s works were carefully chosen to expose the viewer to vast set of images intended to be informative, educational, and thought provoking.

“Exploration” (1980) is a forty foot-long mural of porcelain and steel installed in the Blackburn Center at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The mural presents 12 consecutive images depicting the study of religion, political science, theater, law and agriculture, fine arts and philosophy, astronomy and music, medicine, math and history. Lawrence’s last commissioned public work “New York in Transit” (72 foot long, composed of Murano glass) was installed a few months after his death at the Times Square subway station.

Other Lawrence projects include children’s books containing his images. His first was Harriet and the Promised Land (1968), included in the list of that year’s best illustrated books by the New York Times and praised by the Boston Globe. Books John Brown and the Great Migration followed. He created a new series of work on eighteen Aesop’s Fables (1970) and another set of twenty-three Aesop’s Fables (1998). He was invited to participate in several community projects and received commissions from several private sources. Lawrence also taught at such prestigious institutions as Black Mountain College in North Carolina, The New School for Social Research in New York City, the Art Students League in New York City, the Pratt Institute in New York City, Brandeis University in Massachusetts, and the Skowhegan School in Maine. From 1971 until 1986, he taught at the University of Washington in Seattle.

After visiting Lawrence’s first exhibitions in 1938 at the Harlem YMCA, Charles Alston, one of his teachers wrote in an essay that Lawrence “has followed a course of development dictated by his own inner motivations…. Working in the very limited medium of flat tempera he achieved a richness and brilliance of color harmonies both remarkable and exciting…. Lawrence symbolizes more than anyone I know, the vitality, the seriousness and promise of a new and socially conscious generation of Negro artists.” Alston’s thoughts on Lawrence have proved accurate. Exhibitions of Lawrence’s art are numerous, and they continue to excite and enlighten us.

NOTE: The Mitchell Gallery, St John’s College in Annapolis is presenting free of charge an online exhibition of three of Lawrence’s series.
September 2 – October 6, 2020 -“Genesis” (1989) October 7 – November 1, 2020 – “Toussaint L’Ouverture” (1938, 1997) *******October 15, 2020: Online lecture “Toussaint L’Ouverture” series, FREE  November 18 – December 18, 2020 -“Hiroshima” (1983) *******November 18, 2020: Online lecture “Hiroshima “series, FREE.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

Ask people who have seen an exhibit there, and you’ll be told: Cade Gallery, at the Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), is a special place. Speak to gallery director Teddy Johnson, and you’ll easily get caught up in the excitement he feels about selecting the new and unique artwork that will be part of the museum. Lucky for him and Cade Gallery fans, he gets to do that seven times a year. The key to the success, says Johnson, is the gallery’s mission to making sure the exhibits are a part of a broader dialogue. “It is really satisfying to bring great art from the region and all over the country into the gallery and then to host a class there or to allow it to be the catalyst for new conversations.”

Encouraging dialogue was clearly planned when this past February Cade presented, “Grey Matter: A Response to Blackness,” curated by Thomas James from the Creative Alliance in Baltimore. The exhibit studied how blackness is perceived by America’s society throughout history, including the educational and law enforcement systems, as well as public policies. The artworks explored how these responses have affected those who identify or are classified as black.

Johnson hopes to continue having conversations with this month’s showcase, which centers around music, “Call Back: Artists Inspired by American Musical Traditions.” Each of the award-winning featured artist in this exhibit has been motivated by a variety of musical muses, including popular music, ballads, blues, jazz, and gospel. They were chosen because they offer a unique interpretation of converting music into their medium, and as their press release says: “Through their own particular vision, each artist pulls us into a conversation with American song.” 

The artists: 

Art and Margo Rosenbaum live and work in Athens, Georgia. Art is a painter, muralist, and illustrator, as well as a collector and performer of traditional American folk music. Margo has collaborated with her husband in documenting American traditional music through her painting and photography. Says Johnson, “The couple has been working in a similar field for a long time, but they’re capturing very different elements. One is translating music into the Southern kind of grand vision, and the other portrays intimate photographs of actual people in the moment of music creation.”

Michael Ananian is a portraiture artist and self-identified old-time music enthusiast and banjo player from North Carolina. “He’s been doing these large-scale paintings of people in a communal activity of playing music,” says Johnson. “We’ve got one very large painting of his, and then several small drawings of people just jamming to traditional music.”

Larry Winston Collins from Ohio will be showcasing his memorable woodcuts of jazz musicians from the immortal Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday to the more contemporary John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis.

Florida artist, Dean Mitchell, is known for his figurative watercolors. “Mitchell is a very successful and high selling artist. We’re lucky to have gotten his work here into the gallery because they’re exquisite as far as the craftsmanship,” says Johnson.

 

Baltimorean Katherine Fahey uses ‘storytelling machines,’ known as crankies. Being displayed almost as a sculpture element, her work features a large paper scroll on which there are shadow paper cutouts. As the scroll is unwound, Fahey either sings or tells you the story.

David Driskell, the legendary artist and distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, recently passed away from COVID. “He’s got a really beautiful painting in the show of a bass player that’s colorful and vibrant,” says Johnson. “We felt very fortunate to have the Driskell center lend us one of his pieces for the exhibit.” 

Besides the accomplished artists, this show is also somewhat unique. It has been a curated and gallery collaboration between Johnson and Matt Klos, both of whom teach at AACC. Klos also owns Exeter Gallery in Baltimore and, until last week, featured the same artist with different works. “The idea,” says Johnson, “was to give more play to the artists by having them represented in two places and also to build some buzz around the exhibit by having it in two locations.”

According to Johnson, it ended up being a great partnership, with each bringing in artists they admired. “I had studied with Art Rosenbaum as a grad student and found his connection to music memorable,” says Johnson. “And Margo is a great painter as well, but the for this particular exhibit, I was super excited to have photographs that have been published in so many different, great books and also represented in different collections around the country.”

Klos brought in Michael Ananian and Larry Winston Collins with whom he had worked with for a short time. “From there,” says Johnson, “we started saying ‘how about this artist or that one?’ We were trying to represent a variety of different musical and visual mediums. So, we’ve got paintings, photography, the crankies (which have this tremendous three-dimensional form to it), printmaking, drawings, etc. And then also we were trying to think about how some of the artists might represent folk musicians or blues musicians, while others are representing jazz musicians and gospel musicians. We wanted to pay homage to the musical traditions out there.”

“Call Back: Artists Inspired by American Musical Traditions” is open by appointment. Masks are required, and thorough cleaning of all exposed areas that could become contaminated will be done between visits. Contact: tjjohnson9@aacc.edu to make an appointment.

If you miss this exhibit (and we hope you don’t), Cade features seven exhibits a year, with each exhibit focused by theme or medium. Recent shows included: 

• “AACC Sabbatical Exhibit: Dawn Bond and Lindsay McCulloch” 
• “Newsprint: The Medium that Launched Comics” – Curated by Warren Bernard
• “New Works: A Showcase of AACC Visual Arts Faculty”
• National Juried Show – ” Visualizing the Word” – Juried by Jon West-Bey
• “Summer Online Showcase: Works by AACC Adjunct Faculty” 
• Regional Curated Show – “Grey Matter: A Response to Blackness” – Curated by Thomas James

Upcoming exhibits:

October 2020: “A Showcase of AACC Visual Arts Faculty” 

November 2020: “National Juried Art Exhibition” 

The Cade Center for Fine Arts Gallery is on the western side of AACC’s Arnold campus, 101 College Parkway. Follow them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aaccvisualarts/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cadegalleryaacc/ to receive up-to-date information.

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

Slowly but surely, pedestrians and drivers in Talbot County are taking note of large signs and banners with the simple word of “Hopeful” displayed in color. That is the only message they receive as they walk or drive by. The term has no exclamation point or question mark, no website to check out, nor any other instructions. It is up to the observer to make of it as they will.

That, of course, was the intention of Maine artist Charlie Hewitt. Commissioned as a public art project of the Dock Street Foundation, his four large sign marques, and some thirty banners, are now scattered from the Oxford Ferry to the Farmers’ Market in Easton with that simple message.

Talbot County now has joined a dozen other communities where signs of Hopeful are now on display. Starting with Portland, Maine, and continuing with a New York City installation in a few weeks, this public art project has an extraordinary impact on its citizens, particularly during these dark days of COVID-19.

But as Charlie noted in our Spy interview with him from last weekend, there is more there than meets the eye. While being “hopeful” as a human condition is positively encouraged, it also means taking responsibility.

In the case of Talbot County, that means expressing that sense of hope by donating to Mid-Shore Community Foundation’s Emergency COVID-19 fund that supports local nonprofits operating in the realm of hunger, homelessness, and healthcare.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. To make donation to the Hopeful project please go here.

 

Although attending live concerts by the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is still months away due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a small chamber ensemble of orchestra musicians will be performing outdoors in the gardens of London Town on the South River over Labot Day weekend. No public tickets are available, however, as the audience is limited to 39 subscribers chosen by lottery.

This follows the cancellation of a dozen concerts at the end of last season and over the summer.

While there are no immediate plans for audiences to attend indoor concerts for the new season beginning Sept 26, you can subscribe to live streams of each performance at the Strathmore Music Center in North Bethesda, where the Annapolis orchestra will be playing most of its in 2020-21 season. Two 2021 concerts are from Maryland Hall in Annapolis. For $99, you can enjoy five performances in the Masterworks Series, plus Holiday Classics in December, from the comfort of the best seat in front of your widest-screen home TV.

The theme for the Masterworks Series is “Harmony in Nature.” Annapolis Symphony maestro Jose-Luis Novo says he “invites you to embrace and relive the transformational relationship of nature to humankind. We will discover breathtaking landscapes, idyllic corners, ominous storms, seasonal beauty, all through the incomparable world of highly evocative sounds as we showcase not only our exceptional orchestra but also a stellar line up of guest artists.”

These soloists include violinist Leticia Moreno, clarinetist Robert DiLutis, soprano Janice Chandler-Eteme, pianist Olga Kern and pipa player Wu Man.

The series begins with concerts anchored by Piazolla’s “The Four Seasons,” Sept. 26, followed by Brahms’ “Serenade” Oct. 24. After the Dec. 18 holiday concert, the masterworks resume in February with Copland’s “Billy the Kid,” Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto in March, concluding with Debussy’s “Le Mer” May 1.

The Spy talked to Symphony executive director Edgar Herrera from Mexico City about these changes for the Fall and his optimism that the Spring will bring live concerts back to the Chesapeake region soon.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about You can subscribe to the streaming series here .

When the world shuttered businesses and lives in March, it also hit the arts and entertainment world equally. Movie production halted, Broadway went dark, galleries closed their doors, live music venues went silent. Across the board, artists plunged into the riptide of the unemployed.

But creatives, by their very nature, are hard to keep down, and some have found ways to move forward by using online strategies. It may bring in a fraction of their pre-pandemic income, but it’s something that keeps the arts lifeline open to the community when sorely needed.

The Mainstay in Rock Hall is an excellent example of sustainability during hard times. Since 1997 when Charlie Byrd christened the venue with his jazz, The Mainstay has become a Maryland hub for international country and jazz artists. It is a significant economic and cultural engine for the Kent County area.

The pandemic hit just as they were planning the 25th Anniversary. The Board quickly organized to set up online presentations, and you will notice on their website and Facebook page that they offer a host of ongoing ticketed events. Also note that artists include online tip-jars to help underwrite their their shows.

Bets Durham, President of the Mainstay Board talked with Spy about what the Mainstay is up to online now and the future. Along with their music showcases, many of the streaming activities have included educational episodes to convey the rich history of music.

“Our streaming activities have also included educational episodes with Board Member Dave Robinson on Louis Armstrong and another on Traditional Jazz Styles. We will continue to offer afternoon educational sessions via our Facebook page as we head toward the end of the year,” Durham says.

Coming up: streamed live from The Mainstay Stage, on Friday 9/11 7PM will be Jeff Antoniuk and Helluvaband Band; Jeff will be joined by Max Murray on Bass, Frank Russo on drums, two of The Mainstay’s favorite artists, and John Lee on guitar. They will play from their new album, FLOW, and many of the jazz standards from their repertoire.

Also, during this time of BLM, John Thomas our Program Manager has been showcasing African-American artists in our streaming line-up, per the organization’s Statement on Racial Equity, as posted below.

This video is approximately seven minutes long. For more information about The Mainstay  please go here.

The Mainstay’s statement on racial equity:

As an organization dedicated to presenting the diverse music of our culture, we must take a moment at this time to acknowledge the contributions of African Americans to the cultural fabric of America. There is little music in the public eye that is not uniquely shaped by African American artists and their experiences.

Blues, which is at the root of all American music, is a direct product of the black experience in America.
Jazz, built upon the foundation of the blues was elevated by men such as Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis.

Folk and country music owe more than a little to the influence of artists like Leadbelly and Robert Johnson.

The attributed originator of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe claimed a black man, Arnold Shultz as his primary influence.

Anyone in the world today working as a professional jazz/pop/folk musician owes a debt to the work of Louis Armstrong.

These great Americans contributed immeasurable treasures to American culture, yet endured lifelong violence and indignities at the hands of law enforcement and other authority figures.

Many of us have lived in comfort believing that those experiences are of a bygone era in our country, but current events reinforce that this is reality today. As an organization that supports arts, artists and all humans, we repudiate this violence toward our fellow citizens. In whatever way that we are able, we intend to speak out to support our fellow Americans who have had, and continue to have, their rights trampled upon.

Racial diversity is embedded in our musical past, including a rich history right here in Kent County. We pledge to honor this heritage by acting to engage our entire community with performances by and for all people. During the coming months we will strengthen our programming by adding classes illuminating the rich contributions of African American artists who have shaped the music we all love and we are seeking to join with others in celebrating diversity in all our programming.

The Mainstay welcomes ideas and comments from the community on how to better advance our actions for diversity in programming. The Mainstay Board of Directors.

One of Easton’s most popular live concert events of the year, the Monty Alexander Jazz Festival, won’t be happening this Labor Day weekend, as it has for the last decade. Instead, Coronavirus 19 has forced it to go virtual. The only good news is you can see these past concerts right now through the Chesapeake Music website and YouTube.

The gregarious festival namesake opens his video presentation with regrets that he can’t be here in person to perform his 11th annual set of concerts, opening his remarks with a brief ditty he called his “Easton Regretful Blues.” He went on to introduce his 2014 Live at Baloise Session in Switzerland, a 59-minute concert featuring a mini-festival of jazz standards and Alexander originals with a Caribbean flair.

Alexander opens, as is his custom, with himself on piano, riffing improvisationally on his “Hurricane come and gone,” sitting back occasionally to allow for sax and drum solos by members of his big band, Wayne Escoffery and Karl Wright, respectively. It’s followed by a raucous “King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown,” segueing into the Duke Ellington classic “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing” with Alexander picking the pace, first on melodica and then back to piano. The mood turns Delta bluesy with Vincent Ford’s “No Woman No Cry” as the title phrase is sung mournfully by Leon Duncan while strumming on electric bass.

Next Alexander welcomes his wife, vocalist Caterina Zapponi, to the stage for a pair of Italian standards that he accompanies softly on piano with Gerald Cannon on acoustic bass. The interlude is received politely by the Baloise audience, apparently more jazzed up for the band’s rowdier calypso and reggae-influenced selections. They get their wish with the finale, Alexander’s own high-energy “Regulator,” featuring solos by Escoffery and Wright, preceded by the Ahmad Jamal’s classic “Night mist blues.”

Alexander and his band rarely get into a rut in concert, moving all over the jazz repertoire in just under an hour. We’ll miss them this Labor Day. So enjoy them virtually.

You can make a full concert evening of it by opening with a shorter set by trumpeter and vocalist Bria Skonberg. She, too, expressed her regrets in introducing selections from sets at two Manhattan jazz clubs plus a torch-song video she released. In her remarks she said she’ll especially miss the crab cakes in Easton, “the best I’ve ever had in my life.”

Skongberg and her band play a few numbers at the Jazz Standard in New York and Dizzy’s Jazz at Lincoln Center nightclub. Most showed off her trumpet chops, playing songs associated with her hero Louis Armstrong. She often switches to vocals in mid-song and, of course, sings nothing like the late Louis. She saves her best vocal performance of this presentation for a soulful video directed by Jennifer LeBeau, “So Is the Day That I Write This Song,” making the most of her movie-stars look with a pouty delivery of a soulful love ballad.

Steve Parks is a retired New York journalist now living in Easton.

 

MONTY ALEXANDER AND HIS BIG BAND AT BALOISE SESSION

“My Roots to Jazz” recorded in 2014 in Switzerland

BRIA SKONBERG AND HER BAND

Recorded at Jazz Standard and Dizzy’s Coca-Cola nightclubs in New York City plus a recent studio video

Streaming free online at chesapeakemusic.org in lieu of the Monty Alexander Jazz Festival canceled due to COVID-19