Eugene weekly., May 18, 2017, Page 28, Image 28

FAR
OUT FAR EAST PSYCH ROCK
Kikagaku Moyo, a Japanese psych-rock band, is returning to Eugene to promote
their new release. It’s called Stone Garden EP. It’s out now and it was recorded in Prague.
As if this doesn’t sound awesome enough already, a statement from the band says the
Stone Garden EP “was influenced by the raw and seemingly endless jams of psychedelic
pioneers. The freeform songs that emerged from those sessions were refined over
several months at the band’s home in Tokyo, where each song was sculpted into an
uncommon form.” So come join me as I throw up a peace sign while giving out a slow
and spacey “righteous, dude.” Dialing up the cool quotient on this show even further,
Kikagaku Moyo invited Eugene’s own psych-rock powerhouse Snow White to join them
on stage alongside Sugar Candy Mountain 10 pm Saturday, May 20, at Hi-Fi Lounge;
$10 advance, $12 door, 21-plus. — Will Kennedy
MUSIC
WILLIAM DONGOIS
EARLY
MUSICKING
From Baroque
to Broadway
T
he academy and the arts don’t always mix well.
Entombing arts in the ivory tower can lead to
insularity, esotericism and disregard of popular
appeal. But at its best, the academy can enrich
the arts with its depth of knowledge, benefiting
audiences with previously undiscovered repertoire and
styles of interpretation.
Case in point: the University of Oregon’s annual Mu-
sicking Conference, which runs May 23-27.
Not only does this conference reach scholars all over
the world, but its performances also entertain hundreds of
Eugeneans with free concerts informed by ever-increasing
research into how centuries-old music was actually per-
formed when it was written. The performances benefit
from that authenticity.
Highlights include a historically informed performance
Wednesday, May 24, of one of the great early Baroque
masterpieces, Claudio Monteverdi’s Selva morale et spiri-
tuale, at Central Lutheran Church, 1857 Potter Street. On
Saturday, May 27, the church hosts a much rarer Italian
Baroque gem: Giovanni Bononcini’s oratorio La Maddale-
na a’ piedi di Cristo on period instruments. Performances
of a more intimate nature happen over the lunch hour May
24 (Renaissance Wind Band), May 25 (Renaissance lute)
and May 26 (early Italian keyboard music) at the univer-
sity’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.
Then there’s an afternoon medieval poetry and mu-
sic event featuring Portland Baroque Orchestra cellist
Joanna Blendulf and Portland early music singer Aaron
Cain May 26 at the UO’s Collier House, which also hosts a
concert the previous evening featuring William Dongois,
one of the world’s most-respected cornetto (a Baroque
woodwind instrument) players. It’s a chance to do some
musical time-traveling with the best possible tour guides.
As a kind of Musicking appetizer, check out later Ba-
roque music with Grand Cru Baroque playing music by
J. S. Bach, C. P. E. Bach (a superb composer in his own
right, unfortunately overshadowed by his immortal dad’s
legacy), French Baroque master Jean-Marie Leclair and
more May 21 at First United Methodist Church, 1376 Ol-
ive Street. The band features the always-engaging Blendulf
along with leader and flute and recorder master Kim Pine-
da, plus Eugene’s own keyboard whiz Julia Brown and Se-
attle Baroque guitar/lute specialist August Denhard.
And if that’s not enough to sate your craving for the beau-
ties of Baroque music, don’t worry: The Oregon Bach Festi-
val — another fruitful combination of education and enter-
tainment, academics and the arts — is just around the corner.
For musical time-traveling to more-recent eras, there’s
the Eugene Symphonic Band’s Pops Concert May 21 at
First Baptist Church, 3550 Fox Meadow Road, which sports
tunes by Benny Goodman, Gershwin, Sousa and more.
Hear even more American classics in the Emerald City
Jazz Kings' May 18 and 21 shows at The Shedd, featur-
ing music by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. Who
dat? Merely the composers of Singin’ in the Rain’s bounti-
ful score, excerpts from which these concerts will feature
along with the team’s other Hollywood Broadway hits of
the 1930s and ’40s.
And speaking of Broadway, Soromundi Lesbian Chorus
sings hits from several decades of Broadway music, from
“The Pajama Game” to “Fun Home,” this Saturday, May
20, at the Hult’s Soreng Theater. — Brett Campbell
NEARER THE HEART
Singer-songwriter Holly Near has spent 45 years singing for political change
F
olk activist-musician Holly Near is a seasoned
singer-songwriter whose recipe is impossible to
pin down. Her honeylike yet raspy vocals cry out
against oppression, while her tender demeanor
draws in crowds who crave a church geared towards
a soul, not a deity. After 45 years of performing her highly
politicized songs, Near has found herself — on stages, in
her audience, and in her own personal struggles with and
against waves of oppression.
“People from the audience have often said coming to
one of my concerts is like going to church, except there is
no religion, no historic icons or spiritual tradition,” Near
says. “There is something holy about people gathering to-
gether with their best intentions right out front, their hearts
wide open.”
Think You Don’t Own Me by Leslie Gore meets a Pacific
Northwest women’s festival. At first listen, her songs open
with a hymnal’s ambience: Her vocals are rich, stretched to
emotional lengths, and her lyrics expand into stories thick
with catharsis and prose — as well as, at times, some comi-
cal relief.
Near’s journey as a melodic messenger was less de-
fined in her early career; her path remained self-crafted and
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May 18, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
geared towards her version of success. After growing up
in Potter Valley, California, with musically and politically
inclined parents, Near found herself en route to a career in
acting, although singing was her calling.
“I thought of myself more as a singer,” she says. “I kept
getting acting jobs where I did not sing. I got paid, and I
needed to make a living. My first substantial payment for
a film job was the start-up money for my record company,
Redwood Records.” In 1972, independent record compa-
nies were seldom owned, run and operated by women,
placing Near among the first women to create what is now
referred to as “indie” music.
For 20 years, she shared her record company and re-
sources with fellow artists showing a passion for change and
political activism. As her community and audience grew, her
songs hung heavy with a call for feminism, anti-racism, tol-
erance and action. Near has produced 26 albums of her own,
each littered with her gospel-like anthems for equality.
Near is well aware that a lifetime spent creating and
sharing activist music may never result in wealth, fame or
mainstream attention. Lyrics that preach about the deaths of
African-Americans and women’s rights are seldom heard on
the radio, even if Beyoncé is belting them out. “I feel bad for
people who don’t know that a group like Sweet Honey in the
Rock even exists,” Near says. “Sometimes I think it is harder
on the general population not to have access to us than it is
for us not to have access to them.”
Near continues to weave her powerful music for the
audience that shows up time and time again to share her
message of change.
“I think sometimes people take what they hear at one
of my concerts and use it to go back into their jobs or fami-
lies — in that I mean, the concert helps them improve their
activism. I love that part. The songs are healing. The music
is entertaining. The evening is meant to refuel.”
Come recharge with Holly Near along with Jorah
LeFleur 7:30 pm Friday, May 19, at Unity of the Valley.
Tickets are $25 in advance, $28 at the door, and the show is
a benefit for Womenspace. — Kelsey Anne Rankin