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Page 4 Portland Observer JULY 6,198 9
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ENTERTAINMENT
MT HOOD FESTIVALS NAMES
FOUR
GROUPS TO PLAY FESTIVALS
STAGE
Four bands have been named to play on the Festival Stage at the 1989 Mt.
Hood Festival of Jazz, giving jazz fans uninterrupted music during the
Saturday and Sunday days of the August 4-6 event. Paul Kreider, Festival
of Jazz Foundation President, made the announcement.
Each of the four groups signed to play the eighth annual Festival, led by
Don Alberts, Rob Thomas, Steve Chnstofferson and Jefferey Dawkins, has
established strong jazz and blues credits in the Pacific Northwest with
regional or national exposure.
The Don Alberts Quartet plays noon-l:00 p.m. Saturday, August 5,
followed at the dinner hour by the Rob Thomas Quartet. The Steve
Chnstofferson Quintet with Nancy King plays noon-1:00 p.m. Sunday,
August 6, followed at the dinner break by Back Porch Blues.
The Festival Stage is the performing area set up midway in the stadium.
It comes to life an hour prior to the start of the Festival and again at the dinner
hour both days. The stage has traditionally been set aside to expose the
crowd to the best in local jazz.
Alberts, who came to the Portland area after serving as house pianist at
a popular San Francisco jazz club, is a pianist/composer with a new
recording,’’Local Hero.” The LP has garnered positive reviews in Portland
and Seattle.
Rob Thomas leads a four-piece that plays major jazz clubs and regional
festivals, Thomas, a bass player of national stature, plays violin in this
quartet.
Christofferson is a pianist with a wide audience gained from several years
of club and festival engagements. He and vocalist Nancy King have worked
together on much of his jazz activity. She recently toured the East with
internationally-acclaimed Oregon.
Back Porch Blues, a quartet led by Jeffrey Dawkins, is a crowd-pleasing
acoustic blues band with a repertoire of classic blues tunes and a perform­
ance style that’s resulted in much positive response from performers and
critics alike.
All acts have been signed to the 1989 Festival, including the Friday Night
Event, August 4, spotlighting the Pointer Sisters in an 8:00 p.m. concert.
The Saturday, August 5, schedule: Festival Big Band, guitarist Kevin
Eubanks, Mel Brown Sextet, Yellowjackets, (dinner break), saxophonist
Frank Morgan, guitarist/harmonica player Toots Thielemans, saxophonist
Branford Marsalis and singer Lou Rawls.
The Sunday, August 6, schedule: Festival Vocal Ensemble, saxophonist
Paquito D'Rivera, trumpeter Red Rodney, guitarist Earl Klugh, (dinner
break), Monty Alexander’s Triple Treat, the Count Basie Orchestra and
singer Diane Schuur.
Sponsors of the Mt. Hood Festival of Jazz are the Gresham Area Chamber
of Commerce and M l Hood Community College Foundation. Corporate
sponsors are Maletis Beverage/Seagram’s Coolers, Portland Bottling/7 Up,
K1NK-FM 102, KGW-TV 8, G.I. Joe’s and Portland, Area Volvo Dealers.
Ticket information is available at the Festival office, 666-3810, and at
G.I. Joe’s Ticketmster box offices statewide.
COCA-COLA USA ANNOUNCES
“ SHOWTIME
AT THE APOLLO” SWEEPSTAKES
Five grand prize winners from around the country will have the opportu­
nity to get their act together and take it on the road through the Coca-Cola
classic ‘‘Showtime at the Apollo” Sweepstakes.
Each top prize winner will receive a trip to New York City for three days
and two nights, round-trip air transportation for two, hotel accommodations
and S200 spending money.
‘‘The Apollo is the single most important landmark to the achievement
of African-Americans in music in this country and abroad, “ said Chuck
Morrison, vice president, Black and Hispanic Consumer marketing, Coca-
Cola USA.
“ We are delighted to provide the opportunity for lucky consumers to
visit New York City and enjoy the Apollo, a place where audiences make the
stars and create the legends,” he said.
Coca-Cola is the exclusive soft drink sponsor of the Apollo theater.
While in New York, winners will attend a taping of “ Amateur Night” or
“ It’s Showtime at the Apollo,” at the world famous Apollo theater, located
in the historic Harlem district
Secondary prizes for sweepstakes winners include Olympus camcorders,
Sanyo portable CD/cassettes and radios and Seiko CD players.
To enter, contestants fill out entry blanks located at Coca-Cola classic
displays in local stores or place their name, address, age and telephone
number on a 3 x 5 index card and mail to “ Showtime at the Apollo”
Sweepstakes, P.O. Box 51966, Knoxville, TN 37950.
All entries must be received by August 1,1989. No purchase is necessary
to enter the contesL
JAZZY FM 89.1
B K C A iu m y
C LU N E
c c c c c ir
by Garland Lee Thompson
ACTRESS/SINGER,
BRENDA PHILLIPS
WINS HER FIRST
“ W ILLIES” AWARD
As Black actress and singer, Brenda
Phillips, who just won a Willamette
Week “ W illie” award ( Monday,
June 26, 1989), told me backstage
opening night of her lastest stage
production, ‘ ‘Long Time Since Yes-
terday” (now playing at the IFCC
Theatre (June 23 - July 16), “ I have
been nominated several times for the
Portland Willamette W eek’s annual
“ W illies” award, b u ll never expect
to win one.
The reason she gave for her feel­
ings is based on the fact that in the
eleven years of the presentation of
the Willies awards, only one Black
actor has ever won one, Rick Jones,
and no Black woman had ever won
one, to her knowledge. It is further
noted that in the Willies nomination
and selection process, no Blacks or
minorities are represented on the com­
mittee responsible for the awards (Ju­
lie Bookman of the Vancouver, Wash­
ington, Columbian, Bob Hicks of the
Oregonian, Bob Jackson of Oregon
Public Broadcasting, Dennis Koga
of Willamette Week, Frank Nelson
of Linfield College, Helene Nelson
O f the McMinnville News-Register,
Jonathan Nicholas of the Oregonian,
Pauline Peotter of Portland State
University, Roger Porter o f Reed
College, Sharon Whitney of KBOO-
FM, and Bob Sitton of the W illam­
ette Week. Note: There are two
Black weekly newspapers in the City
of Portland, but the Willamette Week
has gone out of the State of Oregon
and City O f Portland to choose
members of the award selection com­
mittee, which is very interesting. This
writer at the Portland Observer was
approached by Bob Sitton a year ago,
but nothing came of it since)
AN INTERESTIN G ASPECT:
“ T H E C O LO R ED M USEUM ”
Another interesting aspect of this
11th Annual Willies awards presen­
tation and regarding Ms. Phillips (who
won this year as the Best Actress in a
Musical for this 1988-89 Portland
area theatre season), is that she was
nominated for her performance in
the IFCC hit production of “ The
Colored Museum.”
In “ The Colored M useum,” in
which she was excellent, she had,
however, only one short solo song in
the opening scene or “ exhibit,” and
one ensemble singing number in the
entire show! Phillips, who is enjoy­
ing one of her longest continous hit
theatre seasons (1988-89), carried
much greater and more difficult sing­
ing assignments in two other earlier
shows in the current season. First,
she appeared in the musical revue,
“ A....My Name is Alice,” at the
Portland Repertory and last summer
’88, she “ blew the audience aw ay”
with her big blues singing solos and
duets, as “ Mamie,” in the summer
’88 theatre production and Oregon
premiere of Langston Hughes’ clas­
sic Black musical, “ Simply Heav­
enly,” at Portland State University.
She was not nominated for, nor
were these two shows were nomi­
nated for recognition awards, despite
the fact that these shows were both
Public Service Announcement
June 26. 1989
Attention: Public Service Director/Calendar Coordinator
Subject FREE LUNCHTIME CONCERTS FEATURING OREGON’S
FINEST JAZZ MUSICIANS AT THE E.M. WAITE MEMORIAL FOUN­
TAIN. (West end of the Capitol Building, Salem)
CONTACT: Eric Fishman, Metreopolitan Events 232-7820
Cathy Millar, Cellular One
243-3333
musicals in the correct sense and not
just a comedy satire with some music
and one solo number featuring noted
jazz singer, Shirley Nanette, as a
“ take o f f ’ on the late Black singing
star, Josephine Baker. Shirley Nan­
ette didn’t get any “ play” either, by
the “ W illies” people (She’s only
been one of the leading female jazz
vocalist for the past several years in
Portland).
So, the question that comes up is:
Did Brenda Phillips really receive
this year’s Willies award for her rather
limited singing duties in “ The Col­
ored Museum” (in which she was
excellent), or was this year’s award
given for her “ accumulated and
combined series of performances in
a hold range and body of works over
the entire season or perhaps, her years
of exciting performances in the local
theatre scene? And since the Black
director, A1 Jamison, and the IFCC
production of “ The Colored M u­
seum,” was also nominated for W il­
lies awards, was it “ time to finally
recognize, at least one Black Theatre
piece with a W illies in Portland?”
AN UNMISTAKABLY
SUCCESSFUL SEASON
Yes, perhaps, after such an un­
mistakably successful season that has
gone from “ Simply Heavenly,”
“ Zooman and the Sign” (the Store­
front Theatre at the Winningstad
Theatre), “ The Colored Museum”
(the IFCC Theatre to the Winning­
stad space) and to the current run­
ning of Black woman playwright,
P.J. Gibson’s play? “ Let the church
say am en,” and like the title of that
play, produced by the PassinArts
Theatre Company, it’s been a “ Long
Time Since Yesterday,” and the
coming of the Willies and ‘ * the com ­
ing of the glory” to Northeast Port­
land! “ Let the church say, am en”
again and write
on!
JU ST FO R TH E RECORD
Just for the record, “ Hicksville-
Sitton Town,” the Black Theatre
movement in New York developed
its own Black Theatre Recognition
awards, “ the AUDELCO” award,
in the seventies, and it continues today
in 1989, when ‘ ‘ the downtown’ ’ New
York Village Voice newspaper’s Obies
awards, finally recognized a Black
Theatre ‘ ‘ uptown, ’ ’ above West 96th
Street in Harlem, the Frank Silvera
W riters’ Workshop.
As the founder of that Black and
woman’s playwrights’ theatre in 1973,
which has won AUDELCO awards
every year since 1976 to 1985, it was
just as interesting to myself, for the
Frank Silvera W riters’ Workshop to
finally win, after sixteen years, a
special 1989 Obie and $500.00 cash
award “ for continuous service to
develop new emerging playwrights
and their craft” (how nice and neat).
T H E JA C K IE ROBINSON O F
PORTLAND TH EA TRE
Howsomever, “ congrats” to “ the
Jackie Robinson” of Portland area
theatre, Ms. Brenda Phillips, and the
Black Theatre o f Portland, Oregon,
for it greatest season to date. Write
on, to all of us in the coming 1989-90
and the conclusion of the decade and
beginning of the nineties! (Note: It is
rumored that another “ Black” ac­
tress may have won a little Willies
award, but she maybe ‘ ‘passing,” so
only “ her hairdresser” and her
momma knows for sure. But the
shadow do! Write on
ANO OTHER NAME BRANOS
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WHOLESALE & RETAIL
HUNDREDS OF WIGS
MT HOOD COMMUNITY COLLEGE
T H E DENNIS SPRIN GER BAND
July 12 Noon-l:30pm
Everyone is invited to attend this open-air, lunchtime concert.
BRING YOUR LUNCHES AND JOIN THE FUN! The Capitol Jazz
series is sponsored by C ellular One.
JOIN THE TEAM
MRS C ’S WIGS
BETTY CABINf
PROPRIETOR
OPEN AIR JAZZ AT CAPITOL BLDG TO
FEATURE
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For more information: Toll Free calling within W ashington,
1-800-362-5972. Outside Washington 1-800-426-5996.