BY BRETT CAMPBELL
Night Music/Dance Music
Celtic, classic and jazz gems.
A
lthough we’ve passed the winter
solstice, we have plenty more
evenings of early darkness in store.
So a program of nocturnal music seems ap-
propriate to this shadowy spell. On Friday,
Jan. 30, two superior singers, Maria Jette and
Sandy Naishtat, join James Paul and The
American Symphonia Chamber Orchestra at
the Shedd for some night music. The program
mixes popular favorites like Mozart’s oft-
played serenade “A Little Night Music,” and
Samuel Barber’s famous “Adagio.”
Catchy as they are, I could probably do
without hearing either of these warhorses
again, but then a new recording of the Mozart
by the English Concert revealed surprising
shades and nuances. And it was an OFAM
program a few years ago that showed me that
there was more muscle to Barber’s music
than the soggy throwback romanticism you
hear in too many performances. So I’m look-
ing forward to the program’s other pieces by
this great 20th century American composer:
his 1931 setting of Matthew Arnold’s “Dover
Beach,” and one of the most poignant vocal
works in American music: “Knoxville:
Summer of 1915,” Barber’s moving musical
evocation of the prose poem that begins
James Agee’s classic 1947 novel, A Death In
The Family.
The program also contains a couple of
lesser-known but worthy night gems: noc-
turnes by Dvorak and the Canadian composer
Colin McPhee, celebrated for his sojourn in
Bali that helped bring that island’s magnifi-
cently melodic music to the West. McPhee
based his “Nocturne” on a Balinese suling
(bamboo flute) melody, and it feels like a
mini flute concerto.
The Shedd is also the place to hear one of
the finest singers around, jazz-pop chanteuse
Diane Reeves, on Monday, Feb. 2. The two-
time Grammy laureate has pulled off the rare
trick of earning critical and commercial ap-
proval for her winning way with standards
and contemporary songs. This one’s highly
recommended for fans of both jazz and just
good singing.
Another way to cope with the long
nights is to dance them
away, and dancing will be
inevitable this Saturday,
Jan. 24, when three local
Zimbabwean marimba
bands — Zambuko,
Jenaguru,
and
Shamwari — join
Eugene Mbira Circle
for a night of spirited
dance music at Sam
Bond’s Garage. The
show
benefits
Kutsinhira Cultural
Arts Center, the ad-
mirable nonprofit or-
ganization that has
taught marimba classes,
brought
Zimbabwean
master musicians to Eugene
and held numerous benefits
for troubled Zimbabwe. These
interlocking rhythms and bub-
bling sounds combine to create
some of the most joyous, danceable
music on earth.
Dance is a big part of Leahy’s act,
22 JANUARY 22, 2004
too. The clan grew up on a farm in Ontario,
where their Irish-Canadian father introduced
them to Celtic fiddle and their Cape Breton-
born mother taught them high-step dancing
from her Scots heritage. Five of the sisters
and four of the brothers formed a music and
dance band that, in a few years, zoomed from
playing rural fairs to opening for the
Chieftains. Incorporating traditional French-
Canadian influences as well as vocals, key-
boards, and other instruments, the family
band quickly broadened its audience, becom-
ing one of Canada’s top pop acts and reaching
both the country and world music charts.
Eugene’s strong Celtic music community
will want to be at the Hult Center’s Silva
Concert Hall Wednesday, Jan. 28 to hear the
band’s fiddle-driven reels and other tradi-
tional Irish and Scots sounds, but Riverdance
fans and others will also appreciate their mel-
low pop-rock and high-energy dancing.
Two other recommended shows happen
on the 24th. Luna brings one of the
Northwest’s best progressive jazz combos,
Today’s Menu, led by the indefatigable per-
cussionist Dave Storrs. At their last Luna
show, the group cooked on originals as well
as standards like Wayne Shorter’s
“Footprints.” For a mellower entrée, catch
harpist David Helfand and friends at Cozmic
Pizza at 8 pm to celebrate the release of their
new CD, At the Edge of the Cornish Sea. Fans
of so-called New Age music will like
Helfand’s gentle, melodious sounds.
A pair of good shows on Wednesday, Jan.
28 as well: Fans of Medeski Martin & Wood
should give the Om Trio a try; they play in
MMW’s funk-jazz territory, leaning a bit more
toward jamband rock. That show’s at the
McDonald. And at Beall Hall, the Oregon
Wind Ensemble plays a free concert including
the haunting 20th century masterpiece
“Sensemaya” by the great Mexican composer
Silvestre Revueltas, “Fiesta del Pacifico” by
Roger Nixon (a dance movement that
employs Spanish-Mexican id-
ioms), and
more. ew
Leahy
performs
Wednesday
at the Hult.