Bach to the future

Many people often ask how we select and invite artists to come to Purdue, and I’ll spend some more time writing about that during the course of the coming year. But there is a particular set of relationships in place that have opened the door for our engagement with Calmus, the five-voice a cappella ensemble from Leipzig, Germany, that I thought I’d share with you. By the way, a cappella, literally means “in the way or manner of the church,” that is, the voice without accompaniment (as in early Gregorian chant). Today this Italian expression simply refers to unaccompanied vocal music, regardless of style, as indeed there is an astonishingly diverse landscape of “voice-only” music out there. (But I digress…)

So, back to Calmus. They are the 2009 winner of the Concert Artist Guild (CAG) International Competition, held annually in NYC. Purdue Convocations has a four decade-long history of presenting competition-winning artists from CAG, so shortly after I became Director of Convocations back in `99, I agreed that we’d begin offering a Performance Prize to one of their winners. Convocations remains among a noted group of presenting organizations who do just this (and we also have a relationship with the Van Cliburn piano competition now, as well!). So, through CAG I came into contact with Calmus, but this group has a terrific history and musicality that is meritorious enough on its own to suggest that they have a worthy place on our season.

Calmus hails from Leipzig, Germany, the city famously known as the place where Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) spent the final twenty seven years of his prolific life. In fact, the original five singers of Calmus all met in the St. Thomas Boys’ Choir (where Bach served as Capellmeister). This great tradition notwithstanding, it was with the addition of a female singer in 2001 that the format for Calmus’ current success was established. Calmus clearly radiates their mastery and internalization of Bach’s influence, as they are especially skilled in his masterworks. Yet Bach had a profound musical and intellectual curiosity, and Calmus does, as well. Calmus reaches even further back to early music that predates Bach and yet they are finding inspiration by developing creative arrangements of today’s popular music, too.

So, knowing that we could bring Calmus, hear their sensitive and informed performances of an especially wide range of vocal music (including Bach) here in a community where vocal music is valued in our local Bach Chorale, the Purdue Glee Club, and so many more settings, I couldn’t resist Calmus. Singers know that, as a small ensemble with only one voice singing each part, each singer has both an important and clearly heard role within the ensemble. The skill and talent required to do this artfully is immense, and the good news is that Calmus has demonstrated that they can deliver this in spades throughout their career.

And the last bit to note here is that, thanks to our friends at the St. Thomas Aquinas Center, we’re able to host Calmus in a space where the acoustics will favor the resonant harmonies and radiance of the human voice.

Word Play (Here's to The Cos!)

I'm not going to go out on a limb here and proclaim to be an expert on rap or the beginnings of the musical use of words and wordshapes in various musical forms (say, scat singing...) or anything like that as their are plenty of experts out there in the field who cover that in depth. BUT what I can say with pure delight in advance of Bill Cosby's upcoming performance with us (Sept 24) is that, back in the day, when I'd hear "Hikky Burr" (performed with Quincy Jones), I'd find myself transported into a very hip and happy place. Between Quincy's funky blues groove and Cosby's uninhibited vocal play, it's 4 minutes of 70s bliss. It may be a long time since you've hikky-bu-bu-bumped into this, so I just felt the need to share! "Woo-Lawd! Hikky Burr!..."

Hank Jones, Consummate Jazz Pianist 1918-2010

There's been quite a lot of media coverage in the few days about extraordinary jazz pianist and superb human being, Hank Jones, with his passing on Sunday (May 16). All of us here in the Purdue Convocations family cannot but take a moment to stop and reflect on Hank and his incredible contributions to jazz, to music, and to humanity.

Purdue audiences will recall Hank Jones here in Loeb Playhouse back on March 28, 1997, as part of a killer show called the Detroit Jazz Allstars. I remember this show especially well because it was my first jazz concert here at Purdue as a newly-minted Convocations employee. The lineup featured Jones along with Marcus Belgrave (trumpet), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Frank Foster (sax), plus a rhythm section. It was clearly an evening spent in the presence of a tastemaker. As is often the case with elegant leadership (in aesthetics or otherwise), he didn't make it his businesses to steal the show with flash, but he gave everyone else the spotlight. When it was was his turn to solo, the sensibility in the room telescoped back down to minimalist perfection with Jones making each note count. It's hard to say whether each note was consciously or intuitively chosen--most likely it was both. But the effect was as if a 'sculptor of sound' shaped the world around us. He possessed a harmonic and rhythmic curiousity that evidenced his intellectual curiosity, and he could carve the most beautifully rendered, coherent, and emotionally complex phrases spontaneously. And he certainly did that night. I recall going home, digging through my jazz collection in vain hoping that I had something--anything--with Hank on it...

I called Don Seybold, former Assoc. Dir. of Convocations, who was the founder of the jazz programming here at Convocations, and is all around instigator of jazz for the good of humanity, to check in on his thoughts about Hank. He told me this story from the Detroit Jazz Allstars night:

As was my tradition, I would introduce the band, and I remember very clearly what I said about Hank because right after the show, he came back and told me how much he appreciated what I said, which was: "When you listen to Hank play, it's not so much that he's playing the keys, but more that he's lifting them up and drawing the music up and out of the piano." He'd had lots of introductions in his career, but apparently that one really meant a lot to him, which is, of course, why I remember that exchange with him to this day. He was the consummate elegant and eloquent gentleman.

(Of course, jazz fans in the area also know that Don Seybold also has a terrific jazz radio show, Inside Jazz, on Sunday nights on WBAA-AM 920, 9p-midnight. He's told me that he will do a Hank Jones tribute show later in the summer, so tune in to his broadcasts for details.)

The Jones legacy is strong here at Purdue. Hank's late brother, drummer Elvin Jones, played at Purdue in 1993. And this season, a band created in 1966 by their brother, the multitalented composer, arranger, and bandleader Thad Jones, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra holds sway this coming January 2011.

Thanks, Hank. We'll miss you. And we'll try our darnedest to incorporate refinement, thoughtful understatement, and subtlety into a world that needs it.

Jazz radio update: Don Seybold will host a Hank Jones tribute program on Inside Jazz on Sunday, August 1, 2010, on WBAA-AM 920, 9p-midnight. Be sure to tune in!

Chaconne Klaverenga honored by Indiana House of Representatives

Local audiences were undoubtedly thrilled to have the opportunity to hear local guitar prodigy Chaconne Klaverenga on our season this past year (March 2010). And it's clear that in short order, we'll drop the "local guitar prodigy" label in exchange for increasingly greater accomplishments as her career continues to unfold.

On Wednesday, however, another honor came from an unexpected place. Her father sent this to me:

"Today Chaconne was surprised by State Representative Sheila Klinker with a framed certificate stating (quote) "now, therefore, be it resolved that the Indiana House of Representatives does hereby congratulate and honor Chaconne Klaverenga celebrating her many accomplishments in the world of classical guitar with best wishes for future success and many thanks for her contributions to the Indiana art community" from the State of Indiana, Indiana General Assembly. We thought you might want to share in our excitement! It was a total surprise."

And, for once, here's a political issue with which we can all have unanimous, bipartisan agreement! Congrats, Chaconne, on this nice accolade (not to mention, an incredible diplomatic accomplishment).

Additional thanks certainly go to Rep. Sheila Klinker for her efforts on this, along with her stalwart belief in the role that arts & culture play in making our community.

(In photo above, L-R: Julia Klaverenga, Rep. Sheila Klinker, Chaconne, Jim Klaverenga. photo provided by Jim Klaverenga)