music
STANLEY CLARKE
PHOTO BY R AJ NAIK / COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Whirlwind
at The Shedd
THE SHEDD’S MUSICAL LINEUP FOR THE NEXT MONTH
FEATURES A MOSAIC OF ARTISTS
By Brett Campbell
W
hen Natalie MacMaster mar-
ried Donnell Leahy in 2002, they
became the Beyoncé and Jay-Z,
or June Carter and Johnny Cash,
of Canadian Celtic music.
Both are award-winning stars
in that admittedly niche musical
style — he’s from a legendary musical family, and she’s a
prize-winning Cape Breton-style fiddler and step dancer,
though they come from slightly different Canadian
branches of the vast Celtic music tree. Together, the
familial fiddle duo offer high-energy musical chemistry
that should enchant any fan of Celtic music.
The show, on Monday, Feb. 25, at The Shedd, and
Wednesday’s (Feb. 27) Shedd performance by Lúnasa
get us warmed up early for next month’s St. Paddy’s Day.
E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M
The all-star Irish quintet has reached the highest level of
the Celtic music world, selling a quarter million records of
vibrant Celtic instrumental folk music over the past two
decades, and they keep the tradition current by adding
original compositions and non traditional instrumentation
(bass and guitar) to the classic mix of flute, whistles,
uilleann pipes and fiddle.
The Shedd goes from Celtic to jazz on March 1, when
the legendary bassist Stanley Clarke returns, this
time bringing one of the music’s rising stars, keyboard-
ist Cameron Graves (who, like, Clarke has his own
showcase in this year’s PDX Jazz Festival), plus drum-
mer Shariq Tucker . Best known for his contributions
to ’70s fusion pioneers Return to Forever, Clarke has
ranged all over the field in various other projects, in-
cluding funk, post-bop and more. With Graves aboard,
expect even more contemporary sounds along with
jazz-rock classics.
One of The Shedd’s coolest recent projects is spon-
soring its own chamber orchestra, microphilharmonic .
On March 3, its co-director, Baroque violinist Alice
Blankenship , joins fellow historically informed special-
ists from Seattle Baroque Orchestra, the California Bay
Area’s renowned Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and
the University of Oregon to perform Baroque classics
on period instruments. The program includes not only
multi-violin concertos by well-known composers Georg
Philipp Telemann and Antonio Vivaldi, but also earlier
music by Biagio Marini and Orlande de Lassus.
If that’s not diverse enough for you, head back to
The Shedd March 6 to hear the famous voices of South
Africa’s multiple Grammy-winning choir Ladysmith
Black Mambazo sing Zulu music from across their four-
decade career, probably including cuts from their two
latest Grammy-nominated discs and their renowned
collaborations with Paul Simon. Beyond beautifully blended
voices, the group’s shows are filled with choreographed
dance steps, colorful costumes and enthusiasm for bridging
the divide between artists and audiences. This works
especially well in The Shedd’s intimate Jaqua Concert Hall.
And speaking of The Shedd, don’t forget its latest
fascinating historical revival/reinvigoration this weekend,
Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins,
which you can read about elsewhere in this issue.
At an even more intimate venue, Broadway House
Concerts brings a couple more fine PDX Jazz Festival
performers, singer Kendra Shank and guitarist John
Stowell , for a dinnertime show (bring potluck food and
beverage).
Even though only two musicians perform, they offer a
startling variety of sounds. Shank has been much praised
by New York jazz critics for her virtuosic versatility: jazz
originals, standards, world music, French songs, folk/pop
tunes, looping effects and more. Stowell might deploy any
number of guitars, from electric to steel string acoustic,
nylon acoustic,and fretless.
On March 2, Broadway House brings the Jack Radsliff
Quartet with UO prof Idit Shner on saxophone, bass-
ist Sean Peterson and drummer Ken Mastrogiovanni
backing the ace guitarist.
For a large-scale choral experience, bid farewell to
winter blues this Sunday afternoon at the Hult Center’s
Silva Concert Hall, when the Eugene Concert Choir ,
Eugene Concert Orchestra , soprano Danielle Tala-
mantes and baritone Kerry Wilkerson sing maybe the
most consoling and popular of all requiems, French com-
poser Gabriel Fauré's beauty. The concert also features
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s syrupy “Serenade to Music”
and one of Paul McCartney’s less famous songs: “Cel-
ebration,” the final section of one of his classical compo-
sitions, the 1997 orchestral tone poem “Standing Stone.”
Classical mavens often rightly dismiss the Fab One’s
forays into orchestral music, but the man can still
concoct a tune that will leave you humming on the way
out of the Hult lobby and into late winter’s chill. ■
F E B R U A R Y
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