Katie Lee, 98

Katie Lee, Folk Singer Who Fought to Protect a Canyon, Dies at 98
by Richard Sandomir, The New York Times, November 10, 2017

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Tom Paley, 89

Tom Paley, Who Drove a Folk Revival With Banjo, Guitar and Voice, Dies at 89
by Bill Friskics-Warren, The New York Times, October 3, 2017

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Murray Lerner, 90

Murray Lerner, Who Filmed Music’s Biggest Stars, Dies at 90
by Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times, September 5, 2017

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Maggie Roche, 65

Maggie Roche, Who Led a Harmonic Trio of Singing Sisters, Dies at 65
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, January 21, 2017

Oscar Brand, 96

Oscar Brand, Folk Singer Whose Radio Show Twanged for Decades, Dies at 96
by Douglas Martin, The New York Times, October 1, 2016

Fred Hellerman, 89

Fred Hellerman, Last of the Weavers Folk Group, Dies at 89
by William Grimes, The New York Times, September 2, 2016

Upcoming US premieres for Carlos Saura's "Argentina"

Fans of Spanish director Carlos Saura's series of flamenco-related films should also enjoy Argentina (2015), a soulful love note to the music and dance of that nation. Shot in Buenos Aires, the sensuous documentary bears family resemblance to Saura's Flamenco Flamenco (2010) in its minimalistic yet dramatic setting, chiarascuro lighting and sunset coloration, intriguingly voyeuristic camera work, close-ups of expressive, lived-in faces and diverse array of excellent performers.

The 85-minute film samples everything from indigenous folk music to extraordinary ballads with an existential or political edge. There are songs about friendship and generosity, songs about the pain we humans cause our earth. "The only thing more important than God," one lyric tells us, "is that no one should spit blood so that another can live better."

The dancing follows a similar mixture--regional social dances, carnival dancing, contemporary choreography. It's all Argentina.

I was moved by so much in this film but especially the photo montage honoring the late, great singer Mercedes Sosa--a progressive artist known as "the voice of the voiceless"--who Saura positions as inspiration to a classroom of youngsters charmingly attentive to her "Todo cambia" ("Everything Changes"). Everything, she tells us, will change--except for the love she holds for her land and its people.

Eighty-five minutes can only give us a taste but, in that short time, Saura does his best to help us understand what Sosa loved with all her heart.

See the trailer here, and the US premiere screenings at New York's Lincoln Plaza Cinema (June 17) and LA's Laemmle Royal (July 1), presented by First Run Features.

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Dave Swarbrick, 75

Dave Swarbrick, British Folk Fiddler, Dies at 75
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, June 3, 2016

Bill Keith, 75

Bill Keith, Who Transformed Banjo Playing, Dies at 75
by Bill Friskics-Warren, The New York Times, October 26, 2015

Leon Bibb, 93

Leon Bibb, Actor, Folk Singer and Civil Rights Activist, Dies at 93
by William Grimes, The New York Times, October 26, 2015

Michelle Sui presents "Body of Song" at Dixon Place

Multidisciplinary artist Michelle Sui
composed and wrote lyrics for Body of Song.
(photo: Len Irish)

Performing for a small audience mainly consisting of your buddies offers a chance for a bit of insider fun. So I'm not sure if composer-vocalist Michelle Sui was speaking in earnest or having a little joke, last night at Dixon Place, when she made reference to doing "site-specific theater."

The site in question, for Songs of Body, was the Dixon Place lounge, squeezed between the famous bar--This pays the bills, folks! Drink up!--and the waiting area and box office for the theater downstairs. Dixon Place uses its lounge space for compact performances of all kinds, but they might as well erect subway poles for a couple of street dancers. That's about as much room as you get, and anyone heading from the front door to the restrooms or theater below distracts audience and performers alike.

I'm still trying to figure out if Songs of Body would just work better in a more suitable, less awkward venue. Or if Sui's singers should perform it while holding cocktails. Or if she needs to cook this work more thoroughly. Maybe all are true.

The work grew of out the artist's interest in polyphonic folk vocals of Georgia and the Balkans--"laughing songs, drinking songs, eating songs, traveling, wedding, healing, dancing--song as function." In these vocal traditions, "music becomes the medicine," Sui told her audience. "It has a life of its own."

Songs of Body is described as an exploration of  "sound as touch, voice as body and language in all its senseless disintegration and relocation." A quintet of white-clad women, including Sui, sing her lyrics--"You have dismembered all melody in my eyes...I will not remember," for example--re-configuring their orientation in space for each song and, on rare occasions, making fleeting, puzzling gestures. In the work's most body-centric moment, a singer cocks back in her chair, allowing her arms and legs to paw the air as if climbing invisible clouds. Otherwise, the women remain as stationary as dolls encased in their factory boxes.

Sui erased expression of the flesh, leaving only traces to discover, contradicting the "body" part of this equation. (Sort of. I do see singing, itself, as an art of the body.) However, it does set off the voices really well because you cling to them for information. Sui's voice sounds like power constricted, reining in a mature fullness that she will let you notice and admire...from a distance. Meghan Hourigan is surprisingly jazzy in timing but like an abstract painting of a horn playing itself. A brief duet between Sui and Tayi Sanusi carries--solely because of Sanusi--an inviting lushness that makes up for the spare and shrill tone of much of the composition.

Unlike the songs that inspired Sui, Songs of Body's function is hard to discern. Its medicine remains elusive.

Closed. For information on Sui's multifaceted projects, visit her site here. For information on all events at Dixon Place, click here.

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Ronnie Gilbert, 88

Ronnie Gilbert, Folk Singer for the Weavers, Dies at 88
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, June 6, 2015

Will Holt, 86

Will Holt, Who Wrote ‘Lemon Tree’ and for the Musical Stage, Dies at 86
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, June 4, 2015

Jean Ritchie, 92

Jean Ritchie, Lyrical Voice of Appalachia, Dies at 92
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, June 2, 2015

Guy Carawan, 87

Guy Carawan Dies at 87; Taught a Generation to Overcome, in Song
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, May 7, 2015

John Renbourn, 70

John Renbourn, Eclectic Guitarist Who Founded the Pentangle, Dies at 70
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, March 27, 2015

Jean Redpath, 77

Jean Redpath, Prolific Scottish Folk Singer, Dies at 77
by Douglas Martin, The New York Times, August 22, 2014

Mavis Staples knows how to celebrate 75 years!

Mavis Staples: Newport Folk 2014 (audio 1:24:57)

from NPR Music

Upholding Estonia's revolution in song

Estonia’s Revolutionary Spirit, Embodied in Music
by Rebecca Schmid, The New York Times, July 10, 2014

BAM welcomes roots musicians Carolina Chocolate Drops and Twyla Tharp

The Carolina Chocolate Drops
L to r: Hubby Jenkins, Rhiannon Giddens,
Rowan Corbett and Malcolm Parson
(photo by Michael Wilson)

The Carolina Chocolate Drops (reviewed by me here in March 2012) brought their acclaimed, rollicking rhythms to the BAM Gilman Opera House for one special evening including the world premiere of a duet choreographed by Twyla Tharp. In the spirited couplings and variations of Cornbread Duet, a contemporary ballet set to several of the Black fiddle-and-banjo band's songs, Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild of New York City Ballet infused fluid, lighter-than-air, speedy technique with accents of jazz, square dance, social dance and joyful sass. Embedded in the lavish, two-hour-plus program, this segment aptly reflected not only the historic cultural blend (the Black and Celtic lineage of the 19th to early 20th Century American South) that the Drops honor in their music but also the qualities that give American performance widespread, enduring appeal and influence. The ballet stars were dressed by Norma Kamali in bold, horizontal layers of black and white, and while I'd like to believe none of us need the possible subliminal message in those adjoined colors, there it is.

Tiler Peck
(photo courtesy of the artist)

Robert Fairchild
(photo courtesy of the artist)

From Tharp's Cornbread Duet
(photo by Rahav Segev)

By now, I'd imagine, smart Tharp fans would also be hip to the Drops. But if any turned up last night just for Tharp and the NYCB principals, never having encountered the band, they were probably won over by Rhiannon Giddens' ebullient personality and valiant singing and the band's rousing performance. Welcome to what the rest of us have been loving for some time now, Grammy-winners for their 2010 Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig.

Certainly, the Drops warmly welcome you, too, with a set list ranging across revival church music, some soul-seeking Odetta blues, Joe Thompson fiddle tunes, Hank Williams's "Please Don't Let Me Love You"--this last delivered with Giddens's near-yodeling voice bending notes before kicking everything into high, trotting speed. Fan faves like "Country Girl" (written by Giddens and her sister) and the countrified version of Blu Cantrell's "Hit 'Em Up Style" were given fresh, full-on performances. The only problem was that Giddens got to slip off her shoes and stomp and twirl, while the audience had to sit still watching from the theater's "Line 'Em Up Sardine Style" rows.

As Giddens noted, with typical generosity, two former members of the band have split off into solo careers--the charismatic Don Flemons, a founding member, and cellist Leyla McCalla, who appeared with the band on tour and on their Grammy-nominated Leaving Eden (2012). Flemons and McCalla are out there doing their thing and spreading the goodness, and if you miss them, you can support their new moves by checking up on Flemons here and McCalla here.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for Giddens's own solo album, which she's working on for the band's label, Nonesuch Records.

For more Spring events at BAM, click here.