July 2009
July 24, 2009Review: Irvin Mayfield Wins Orchestra Hall Crowd
Irvin Mayfield had them at hello. Three hellos, actually, calling for louder and louder responses from the audience, letting you know this wasn't going to be a sit-down, shut-up concert. Mayfield's quintet jammed its way through the premiere of Mayfield's beautiful new work at Orchestra Hall on Thursday evening, blending orchestral and jazz music, and signifying a new, more American era for the venerable ensemble. Mayfield arrived in the Twin Cities a year ago as something of an outsider—a young New Orleans native brought in by the Minnesota Orchestra to curate its new jazz series, expanding the musical and audience potential of the orchestra. The commissioned work, Passion, which he debuted on Thursday, was also part of the deal.... Read more » Posted on Friday, July 24, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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July 16, 2009New dance at the Ritz, Buster Keaton opens the Trylon
The Ritz Theater in northeast Minneapolis has been home to the Ballet of the Dolls for seveal years now, but ocassionally bring in some of their like-minded friends--troupes with a playful, similarly bohemian spirit. And this is one of those times: The Eclectic Edge Ensemble is performing this weekend only, July 17 to July 19, featuring a variety of jazz-dance incarnations, from rhythmic musings as Art Pepper plays to high camp. Meanwhile, cinema buffs are anticipating the opening of the new Trylon microcinema in... Read more » Posted on Thursday, July 16, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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July 10, 2009Bicycle Film Festival rolls through the weekend
The Bicycle Film Festival has to be one of the quirkiest genre-festivals in the country, and yet, in a place like the Twin Cities where bicycles are ubiquitous and beloved (the flat terrain helps, natch) it kind of makes sense. Whether it makes money, I'm not sure, but whatever Take-Up Productions seems to do lately turns mostly to gold. These guys have good instincts for what Twin Citians are curious to see and frankly no one has done more to get the local cinemaphile scene up and on the screen again mostly by not taking themselves too seriously. The Bicycle Film Festival, which broadly includes films from around the world, well, related to bikes--racing bikes, trick bikes, art bikes, you name it--just as the Tour de France gets... Read more » Posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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July 9, 2009Tickets going fast for Wilco, DMB, Atmosphere at 10,000 Lakes Festival
Outdoor rock festivals and camping have gone together since the Grateful Dead days, but something's changed in the last few years: No longer are we talking hippies and a few bead-sellers. The festivals, thriving on the laidback college culture marketed by Abercrombie & Fitch and given a green sheen by such eco-rockers as Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson, are big business nowadays. And that's hardly a bad thing. Witness what's happening with the 10,000 Lakes Festival, held July 22 to 25 in Detroit Lakes and one of the largest such shows in the country. The lineup has intriguingly diversified, even if the headliners remain jam-band stalwarts: The Dave Matthews Band and... Read more » Posted on Thursday, July 9, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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July 1, 2009Dylan revisited by bandmates in July 1 concert
In December 1974, Bob Dylan returned to Minnesota with a pile of tape from New York recordings and gathered local musicians to re-cut what would arguably become his most respected album to date, Blood on the Tracks. Tonight (July 1), many of the players associated with the local sessions, including Peter Ostroushko and Kevin Odegard (author of the book, A Simple Twist of Fate, about the recording) will regroup as a Dylan tribute band for an outdoor show at 7 p.m. at the fine Wolfe Park Amphitheater at 3700 Monterey Drive near Excelsior and Grand in St. Louis Park. Dan Israel and other like-minded acoustic artists, such as Peter Lang, will... Read more » Posted on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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