Echoes of Africa
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, February 10, 1996

As long as its funding continues, it looks like the National Council for the Traditional Arts will continue to put together educational and artistically satisfying touring productions. Their latest, Echoes of Africa, focuses on a variety of African American cultural expressions that trace their roots back to Africa. The program featured four acts that offered an anecdotal, rather than comprehensive, view of the subject.

Master of ceremonies Djimo Kouyate, a Griot originally from Senegal, who performed a long, hypnotic piece on the kora, a huge 21 string instrument with pleasing, harplike, tonalities. Frankie and Doug Quimby, who focus on the music of the islands just off the southeast coast of Georgia, gave the audience a quick tutorial in Gullah, the Creole dialect endemic to the islands, and performed several a capella pieces. Doug also did a virtuoso hambone performance, combining dance, chanting, and body percussion.

The second half began with an astounding performance by tap master (and National Heritage Fellow) LaVaughn Robinson, who managed to encapsulate the history of tap dancing in his spellbinding performance. One particularly vivid piece of pedal tradition came when he imitated Bill Bailey imitating Bill Robinson imitating one legged tap master Peg Leg Bates.

Acoustic blues duo guitarist John Cephas and harp player Phil Wiggins, played a rollicking set focused on the fingerpicked Piedmont style. Old and older styles blended when Kouyate brought out his kora and jammed with Cephas and Wiggins on "Special Rider Blues." To end the evening, the Quimbys led the entire troupe in an a capella rendition of a pair of old spirituals, "Amazing Grace" and "Amen." - Michael Parrish (St. Charles, IL)

Call June Tabor whatever you want (genius would be a good start), but make sure you include the word trouper. She and her backing musicians (Huw Warren, keys, and Mark Emmerson, violin and viola) arrived in the country at 4:30 p.m., hit the venue at 6, and were onstage at 8. Which, to them, was 4 a.m. Despite jet lag, travel weariness, and whatever else, they still managed to turn in a beautiful performance. The first half was mostly songs about love, "getting it, losing it, wanting it, and hating it" which illustrated just how far beyond "folk singer" Tabor has gone. Not that she ignored folk; it was quite the mainstay. But she can just as easily turn her hand to jazz and torch numbers, and make them all smoulder elegantly. Her voice continues to grow in stature, making her quite simply one of the world’s great singers. After a brief intermission (chance to scribble up a set list), it was back for songs from the gypsies, and other assorted goodies. Interestingly, she didn’t include a great deal from her most recent Against the Stream album, instead casting her musical net far and wide, wherever fancy took her.

Tabor’s also far less intense than she used to be, chatting amiably between numbers, cracking jokes, even smiling, something you’d never have expected from the Tabor of old. If this is maturity, it suits her well. - Chris Nickson (Seattle, WA)

Performance conditions were less than optimal as a cold Gulf Coast gale and rain lashed Skippers’ outdoor performance area. But the oysters on the half shell were abundant, ditto the potent Irish coffee, and the music for the so billed "Blues Guitar Summit" was what you might expect from this lineup: namely, right up there with breathing.

Eric von Schmidt and his trademark sunburst J 45 opened the evening with a straight ahead set that ranged from the lilting psychedelia gone folk blues of "Who Knocked the Brains Out of the Sky?" to a solid offering, "Foolish Pleasure," from his new CD Baby, Let Me Lay It On You. Performances of the elusive von Schmidt are unfortunately few and far between (these days he spends most of his time completing a series of paintings of legendary blues artists). His set was a rare "and welcome" opportunity to again see one of the leading lights of the 60s Cambridge folk blues scene back in action.

Roy Book Binder then faced down the storm to offer up a well wrought set of tastefully articulated blues arrangements. Over the years Book Binder has not strayed far from the stylings that have made him a favorite of his acoustic blues peers. This set was no exception, as Book Binder, despite the weather, rendered a superior collection of standards and blues derived originals.

Drawing heavily from his Self Portrait in Blues CD (the cover of which, incidentally, von Schmidt illustrated), Paul Geremia brought the evening to an impressive, if rather wet, close. With songs such as Charley Patton’s "Shake It and Break It," "Cocaine Princess" and "Gamblin’ Woman Blues" (Geremia originals), Geremia demonstrated a guitar mastery ranging from 12 string slide work à la Blind Willie McTell, to a fingerpicked proficiency that called Big Bill Broonzy to mind. Those who braved the weather for this impressive acoustic blues lineup will tell you it was indeed (to evoke the title of an old von Schmidt staple) "a mighty storm." And show. - Nick Crews (Rochester, NY)

The Jarrett Nature Center, located on a prairie nature preserve about 100 miles west of Chicago, has a number of advantages as a concert venue. It’s easy to find (just look for the steam towers of the adjacent Byron nuclear power plant), parking is abundant, the setting is exquisite, and it’s the only concert hall I can think of where one can ponder snakes, stuffed coyotes, and a display of historic barbed wire at the break. More importantly, the concert series, which occurs on the second Saturday of each month from October through May, features great sound and consistently top notch talent. Promoter Kelly Day has a genius for making performers and audience alike feel at home, which is probably undoubtedly one reason this series has prospered in this relatively rural setting. Carrie Newcomer was the first performer scheduled when the series began two years ago, and remains the biggest draw of each year’s lineup.

This year, Newcomer arrived with three fifths of her regular five piece band in tow: partner Robert Meitus on guitar, percussionist Jamie Lee, and guitar mandolin slide player Jason Wilbur. Newcomer was in an avuncular mood, holding forth on a variety of topics including first kiss stories, the emotional power of shopping for new dresses (she suggested substituting power tools for men), and erotic bakeries. Writer’s block seems to be no problem for Newcomer; fully a third of the songs she performed were written since her last album of new material was released last year. High points included "The Tracks You Leave," which was inspired by a visit to a Lakota Sundance ceremony, and "Amelia Almost 13," which Newcomer wrote for her soon to be teenaged daughter. Wilbur (who also performs with the rest of Newcomer’s band as the Raindogs) took a solid lead vocal on his own "Heaven." The evening closed with a soaring version of "Streamline," dedicated to the memory of Metius’ recently departed grandmother. Carrie Newcomer has long been an arresting live performer, and her Raindogs collaborators bring out the best in her material without overwhelming her with volume or extraneous hot licks.