JACKSON POLLOCK. NUMBER 3, 1949. HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, GIFT OF JOSEPH H. HIRSHHORN, 1972.
I
f you asked most Eugeneans which decade they feel
most nostalgic for, I bet a plurality would pick the
1960s. Despite, or probably because of, all its turbu-
lence, that period exploded with the kind of creativity
and open-mindedness we probably won’t see again in
our lifetimes. And what were the Swingin’ Sixties rebels
rebelling against? Why, the Frumpy Fifties, of course. You
know: Bermuda shorts, crewcuts, Pat Boone, the Cold War,
Jim Crow laws, McCarthyism. So at first blush, an Oregon
Festival of American Music dedicated to the music of the
1950s doesn’t seem like a promising match for Eugene.
But as always, pop culture stereotypes can be misleading.
For one thing, Country Fair aside, Eugene isn’t really a hippie
paradise, as our Chamber of Commerce mayor and milltown
heritage repeatedly demonstrate. For another, the ’60s saw its
fair share of conformity, conservatism, and crooners.
Remember who the president of the U.S. and governor of
California were in the latter part of the decade, and take a look
at the pop charts and TV shows of the period.
Likewise, 1950s America cultivated its own corners of
cool: San Francisco’s Beat poets and writers; New York’s
Abstract Expressionist painters; the still unsurpassed post-bop
jazz masters; the emergence of soul, rhythm & blues, and doo
wop music; the folk revival riding the mighty wind of the
Weavers and others; and, of course, the birth of that minor
cultural phenomenon called rock and roll. And the list goes
on. In fact, a pantheon of 1950s cultural colossi (from Miles
Davis to Jackson Pollock to Allen Ginsberg to Marlon Brando
to the original Sun Records artists to Tom Lehrer, Lenny
Bruce and Lord Buckley) might ultimately stand taller in his-
tory’s eventual estimation than the accumulated height of all
the ’60s stars.
Despite all its downsides (from the decline of contempo-
rary classical and “art” music to institutional racism to the
Korean War), enough cool stuff was happening in the 1950s
to make OFAM’s summer extravaganza — a dozen major
concerts, a fully staged musical, films, lectures, and more —
worth sampling.
50
FARE
’
S
OFAM pays tribute to the post-war decade.
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
12 JULY 29, 2004
O
f course, there’s no way to come close to
covering the musical richness of any
decade in 11 days, and given OFAM Music
Director Dick Hyman’s characteristic
predilection for the pallid pop of the peri-
od, this is hardly my ideal ’50s lineup, which would doubtless
contain more Mingus, Miles, Monk, and Memphis, not to
mention Art Blakey and Lenny Bruce and Clifford Brown,
John Cage and Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and
Ray Charles ….
Everyone will have a list of personal favorites, and
Hyman’s is certainly historically valid. OFAM vets will
appreciate the return of first-class musicians like trumpeter
Byron Stripling, guitarist Mike Denny, drummer Alan
Tarpinian, saxist Matt Shevitz, vocalist Lenanne Sylvester
and the rest, as well as figures from the period like guitarist Al
Caiola and percussionist Frank Capp.
I especially recommend this year’s free fare. Anyone
who’s heard jazz scholar Carl Woidek in his wonderful jazz
show on KLCC or in previous lectures knows to expect
informed insights, this time in free talks on cool jazz and hard
bop, and the birth of rock and roll. Another great local musi-
cian and musical authority, Steve Stone, will take us on a tour
of some of the San Francisco venues where the seeds of the
’60s were being sown. UO professors Janet Wasko and Daniel
Pope will provide some historical pop cultural context, and if
we can’t have the funniest songwriter ever, Tom Lehrer,
himself, it’ll be nice to hear an expert in his musical
hilarity.
The free movies this year are an especially compelling
crop, including among others one of the funniest comedies
(Some Like It Hot), tautest thrillers (Vertigo), and, just in time
to pay respects to Brando, On the Waterfront and its magnifi-
cent Leonard Bernstein score. Setting art and music in context
is what OFAM does best, and this summer’s festival will
encourage us to take a fresh look at a decade that’s worth
reconsidering and enjoying — even for the tie-dyed among
us.