Northeast Wisconsin Music Review

Birch Creek Music Performance Center

Live Performances: Percussion & Steel Band

Egg Harbor , WI

July 11, 2007

Jazz in the Night

July 13, 2007

Comedy & Pops

The second week of Birch Creek’s Percussion and Steel Band Series proved one of the most rewarding in the institution’s thirty-two year history. While this session sweeps into its fold much more than jazz, its offerings in that category – even in a program entitled “Comedy & Pops” – are more than sufficient to justify inclusion under the above heading.

BC’s annual night of jazz has always been a pleasure, but as the faculty players stretch toward ever more meaningful artistry, the evening has now reached the point of being an event one simply cannot miss. This year’s offering, laid-back and full of eyebrow-raising solo work, was sheer nirvana, suavely paced and packed with enlivening tunes.

After a sharp pre-concert presentation by this year’s students, including such intriguing themes as “It Came from the Garage,” “Metric Lips” and “Mas Fuente” (louder!!) delivered with power and enthusiasm, the program began with a softly-plied version of “The More I See you,” led by vibraphonist Brad Stirtz. Stirtz, despite his not-too-many years, is a BC veteran whose tenure extends from the institution’s very beginnings to the present day. Here and elsewhere throughout the night, his playing was couched in elegance and ripe with passionate expression. Truly, he ranks with the best jazz mallet players of our time, soloing with consistent freshness and rock-solid technique. Wes Montgomery’s “D Natural Blues” made great vehicle for the players, led by Robert Chappell, whose work is so worldly in scope his adept jazz playing can be too easily overlooked. Not this night, though. His ability to construct piano solos that grow to mighty climaxes cannot be overestimated and his sense of swing never fails him. He is also an understanding colleague, feeding highly effective figures to others enabling them to reach higher in their own solo moments.

In “Libertango” by Astor Piazolla, steel pan virtuoso Liam Teague was once more astonishing in both his limning the lovely descending lines of the theme and improvising with lavish brilliance. Fast tempo or slow, he is a superior jazz improviser whose technical wizardry must be experienced live, if only to meet the seeing-is-believing test. His flashing hands move with such alacrity, the mind resists believing such velocity is possible on the steel pan. Drummer Jeff Stitely, another BC veteran (there are so few who are not), was electrifying in “Hub Tones” as were the rest of the ensemble. Stitely, a fixture in Chicago musical life, has continued to expand his percussion vocabulary to add even greater texture and intricacy to his work. A first-rate artist in all regards. Young bassist John Tate, who is appearing as a special performing artist, showed remarkable power with un-amplified acoustic bass as well as fleet fingers and immaculately astute figures both in supporting and solo mode. He has made himself a closely-integrated member of this tight ensemble. Percussionist Dane Richeson, whose lofty reputation is also global, added strongly to many of the night’s numbers, always with passion and intensity.

George Shearing’s way with his own “Lullaby of Broadway” was replicated by the players to begin the second half with the same easy tempo its creator took. The piano-vibes chording brought back many fond memories and the Birch Creek players infused their mellow solo work with newly-minted creativity. A lush, slow “The Nearness of You” was notable for, among other wonders, Liam Teague’s light filigree. “Linda Chicana,” a well-heated cha-cha, held appealing harmonic shifts while Nat Adderley’s funky “Work Song” was high in locomotion to conclude the evening’s grand tour.

No pretense here, just riveting performances by a close cadre of excellent jazz artists. Choice, all of it.

Two nights later, Birch Creek presented another of its annual tributes to musical dementia, its thoroughly wacked-out “Comedy & Pops.” This year, Robert Chappell and company outdid themselves, giving a howling audience a succession of high/low humor peppered here and there with some straight-ahead music. From a student skit imagining an audition for a new Tarzan (capped with a chest-beating rhythmic exercise) to the vaudeville theme, the slightly daffy “Dotty Dimples,” the flavor was established early. Breathing room came for the remainder of the first half with two transcriptions of Fritz Kreisler themes played with feathery beauty by Liam Teague, a sampling of Teague at open throttle (Paganinian perpetual motion), a reprise of “Lullaby of Birdland,” and Jeff Stitely in prime form coursing through “The Path.”

Madness returned in the second half with “Comic Relief” (amusing hand-clapping and stick-beating by a student troop), an interlude devoted to a complex two-marimba piece, “Viewfinder” (played expertly by Dane Richeson and Mike Truesdale), a multi-media spectacular, “Godzilla Eats Las Vegas” (indescribable), “Out to Pasture” (in which five faculty artists meandered about as cows, finally gathering together to sound – in rhythm – mooing devices, all the while gazing about with bovine insouciance). The finale was Spike Jones’s arrangement of “Deep Purple,” replete with pistol, cow bells, sirens and other miscellaneous sound devices and a screamingly funny vocal by Perry Coma (yes, that’s the spelling) in the person of Brad Stirtz. New standards were established in the esoteric realm of surreal vocalism. It, like the humor which passed before it (including a nutty assortment of jokes), was drop-dead funny. Next to Garrison Keillor’s night with the Fox Valley Symphony, this was the humor highpoint for the current millennium. (Erik Eriksson)