MUSIC
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE
The Shedd’s OFAM concludes with hits from the home front
W
hen the United States went to war in 1941, music was in the arsenal. After
Japan’s catastrophic sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the country needed
cheering up and troops needed cheering on. The nation’s pop culture
institutions were enlisted, going on tours and producing “V-discs” (records)
and shortwave broadcasts for deployed soldiers and music about coming
home and accentuating the positive for Americans.
With its usual thoughtful historical-
contextual curation, this summer’s
Oregon Festival of American Music
(OFAM) revives that World War II-
era music, film and theater, beginning
with last month’s On the Town and
continuing through this weekend with
concerts, screenings, talks and more at
The Shedd.
At a moment when our country
seems especially divided, this summer’s
festival provides a much needed
reminder of a time when Americans
pulled together more than ever before
— or since.
The afternoon concert on Thursday,
Aug. 11, brings the Emerald City Jazz
Kings, trumpet titan Tim Clarke and a
quintet of veteran Shedd vocalists for
a selection of standards like “As Time
Goes By” (“Play it, Sam!”), “Blues in
the Night” and “Moonlight Serenade.”
That night’s big band concert (with
SIRI VIK
a slew of singers including Siri Vik,
Ian Whitcomb and Shirley Andress) features music from concerts for troops based at
home and overseas, sponsored by the United Services Organization (USO), a coalition of
religious and secular charities.
The biggest USO star, singer-actor-comedian-hoofer Bob Hope, used one of those
tunes, “Thanks for the Memory,” as his theme song. It’s on the bill along with “The Man
I Love,” as well as other tunes unfamiliar to most listeners who didn’t hear them the first
time around.
To build morale, the military even issued the Army Hit Kit of Popular Songs (including
“A Wing and a Prayer,” “I’ll Be Seeing You,” “G.I. Jive,” “You Are My Sunshine,” “Star
Dust” and rarer gems), a songbook that’ll be distributed free to attendees at The Shedd the
afternoon of Friday Aug. 12 for a sing-along led by the institute’s Road Scholars.
Friday evening’s cabaret extravaganza recreates a February 1945 Armed Forces Radio
Service Command performance, a variety show that included a complete radio theater
production, Dick Tracy in B Flat, written by Meredith Willson (of The Music Man), jokes,
songs (“The Very Thought of You,” “Sentimental Journey,” etc.) and other artifacts of the
era. There’s a bar, both cabaret and balcony seating and an (optional) invitation to dress
up in period garb.
Saturday (Aug. 13) afternoon’s jazz concert with Clarke, guitar ace Howard Alden
and a rhythm section joining a quartet of top Shedd singers spotlights Johnny Mercer’s
immortal music (“That Old Black Magic,” “Skylark,” “Jeepers Creepers” and more). One
of America’s — and the 20th century’s — greatest songwriters, Mercer also headlined a
regular radio broadcast to the troops.
The concluding concert at 5 pm Saturday, Aug. 14, presents eight Shedd singers
crooning tunes by the era’s biggest hit-makers — Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters,
and including Mercer’s “Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy,” “Victory Polka,” “Accentuate the
Positive” and more, wrapping up a festival that recalls some of the only bright moments
of a dark time.
Visit theshedd.org for details.
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