Dave Read

A 2004 Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood, with Garrison Keillor

A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keillor, a delight to radio audiences since the first live broadcast July 6, 1974, has been a favorite on the Berkshire summer calendar since being added to the pre-opening week schedule at Tanglewood in 2000. The fifth local show, July 3, 2004, was an especially memorable one because it included an encore.

The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, for this show joined by Sam Bush (mandolin, fiddle) and Howard Levy (harmonica), was doing such a great job entertaining the departing audience of 10,570 that many simply stayed put. The prolonged ovation that followed their impromptu jam session brought Garrison Keillor back onstage, where he remarked on the rarity of encores in the world of radio and also mentioned that he would be having dinner in a few days with people who were with him on that first broadcast 30 years ago.

Then he took hold of the mic and led the audience in singing a beautiful Bahamian folk song, “I Bid You Goodnight,” which, rather than closing the session, only gave rise to another sing-along, “Amazing Grace.” The loquacious and oh-so-seasoned pro Keillor was so moved by his audience that he stood mute for the final chorus before offering an inaudible “thank you” and finally walking slowly off stage.

Highlights of the show included:

Inga Swearingen – It was the Californian’s 3rd appearance on APHC since May, and she simply stole the show with her beautiful, charming presence, radiant smile, and improbably varied vocal gifts that allow her to juxtapose husky textures with silky lightness;
humorist Calvin Trillin, whose “deadline poems,” rhythmic polemics on the Bush administration, were so apt they inspired us to take a subscription to The Nation, where they are published (and archived);
and, of course, the “News From Lake Wobegon,” wherein Keillor set off in praise of fresh strawberries and rhubarb and wandered into a meditation on the vagaries of true love and the stories that our mothers may or may not have to tell us!

Keillor also showed himself to be as fierce a patriot as he is a partisan and closed a riff on the primacy of individuals over groups with the image of Ray Charles and Ronald Reagan rafting the Mississippi in place of Jim and Huck Finn. Continuing the practice of including a Tanglewood-afilliated guest, we were introduced to the Existential Bass Quartet, comprising 30 year TMC faculty member Larry Wolfe and TMC students, who did a fun rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

GASB guitarist Pat Donaghue played a beautiful re-worked version of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Louis Collins” in honor of Hurt’s 111th birthday, and also led the band in a beautiful composition of his own, the “Tanglewood Waltz.”

Yo-Yo Ma’s Brazil at Tanglewood

August 3, 2003 Tanglewood concert review by Dave Read

The esteem for Yo Yo Ma is widespread, extending even to the climate gods, who transformed Tanglewood into a rain forest August 3 to accommodate the five Brazilian, one Cuban, and one British musician who collaborated with him in the Koussevitsky Music Shed for a concert billed as Yo Yo Ma’s Brazil: An Evening of Latin American Music.

The concert opened with Ma and his long-time pianist and fellow-musical traveler Kathryn Stott playing three songs: first by the contemporary Peruvian composer Antonio Mariano and then Brazilians Heitor Villa Lobos and Carmargo Mozart Guarnieri, each of whom came to Boston in the 1940s to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Sérgio and Odair Assad guitar duets

Ma doubled on mic as MC to introduce the first tunes and then the guitar duo Sérgio and Odair Assad who played an assortment of songs including compositions by Mariano, Villa Lobos, Bandolim, Jobim, Piazzolla, and one composed by Sérgio called Menino.

As Ma noted, the Assads are in the vanguard of the re-emergence of the popularity of the guitar duo, and their performance tonight showed why. The brothers play matching Millenium guitars (by Thomas Humphrey; Sérgio plays a cedar-top, Odair plays a spruce-top). Their harmonies are intricate and engaging, and they play such clear tones that at points it sounded like one was hearing a piano.

Sérgio introduced Menino by calling it “an innocent piece about a child,” and it evoked an image of a child’s day as it unfolded: busy and restful, with daydreams and excitements. Ma’s cello part served to create the frame within which the Assads painted their charming portrait of childhood. On their next piece, Bandolim’s Noites carlocas, Ma listened along with the rest of the audience as the brothers cut loose for some very impressive, very jazzy playing.

Yo Yo Ma introduces Nilson Matta, Rosa Passos

Next to come on stage, with Ma’s introductions, were: Nilson Matta, “to join me in playing a lower bass instrument,” Cyro Baptista, with 75 percussion instruments, lots of flair and humor, and Rosa Passos, “with a miraculous voice.” In various combinations, they closed out the first set with three pieces by Antonio Carlos Jobim (1925-1994), the man whose song The Girl From Ipanema brought global popularity to Bossa Nova in the early 1960s.

The whole ensemble but Odair played Jobim’s O Amor em Paz, which was a highlight of the evening, showcasing both the translucence and seductive wistfulness of Passos’ singing and Ma’s virtuosity which he demonstrated by following her first verse with a cello solo – in Portugese! – which echoed her phrasing note-for-note.

The set’s last song was introduced by Baptista, who is from Brazil’s rain forest: to some applause he said the song is called The Rains of March, – but wait, I forgot something – tonight it is called The Rains of August!. The highlight of his contribution on that piece was the delicious percussion he produced by rubbing his palms and wrists up and down against each other, looking something like a pizza tosser with limbs as pliable as dough.

virtuosity and charm of Paquito D’Rivera on display

The second set opened with Ma’s introduction of “the legendary Paquito D’Rivera,” who ambled onto the stage and displayed his Victor Borge-like playfulness before he displayed his virtuosic clarinet playing. The first five songs of the set had Paquito D’Rivera playing along with a variety of ensembles; the first and fifth were compositions of his, Preludio Y Merengue and Afro. The latter tune was something of a showcase for Baptista, who played a berimbau, an Afro-Brazilian instrument with which he produced haunting, ethereal sounds.

Before closing with two rousing full-ensemble pieces, Ma played a duet with his pianist Stott, Gismonti’s Bodas de Prata/Quatro Cantos, which was elegant and showed their affection for each other; and then Piazzolla’s Tango Suite with the Assads, which was dazzling and included all three musicians at times tapping out the rhythm on their instruments.

The encores turned out to look like a courting ritual between Rosa Passos and Paquito D’Rivera, as amid the spirited playing around them and with the audience dancing up to the foot of the stage, they couldn’t take their eyes off one another, and D’Rivera even suggested a way to a tryst when he segued into Take the A Train! That’s about when Passos, who had expressed her love for Mr. Ma several times already, declared, I love Paquito D’Rivera.

And off to the muddy parking lots of Tanglewood slogged a few thousand, not a few carrying crushes for Ms. Passos, and all full of gratitude to Yo Yo Ma for his brilliance as a musician, excellence as a talent scout, and overall generosity of spirit.

2003 A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood, with Garrison Keillor

July 1, 2003 Tanglewood concert review by Dave Read

For the fourth year in a row, the first Saturday of the Tanglewood season saw the Koussevitsky Music Shed become the capital of the public radio universe, as “A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keillor” closed their 2002-03 live performance season far away from their Minnesota home.

And for the 3rd time in 5 days (James Taylor-Tuesday, and Wynton Marsalis-Friday) the Tanglewood headliner had a special, personal connection with the venue, and although Keillors’ mayn’t be quite so profound as the others,’ he outdid them in his praise, laying on enough encomia to make a lesser venue blush, calling it “the Mecca, the Vatican, maybe the Cooperstown” of classical music.

(And they even created “A Tanglewood Lollapalooza” about their previous visits to the Berkshires on their website, which is probably the best of its kind.)

This show was just about as good as it gets; a seamless 2 hours of aural entertainment, with just the right mix of humor, comedy, pathos, several examples of musical virtuosity, all knit together by the pretty good singer and great monologist Keillor, who even exposed his really-nice-guy-ness by devoting the show’s closing minutes to a lovely farewell to 3 departing staff members.

(Funny how these things work, but the little tune that’s been looping in my mind for days now is the Irving Berlin song “What’ll I Do (When You Are Faraway And I Am Blue)?” that Keillor personalized for his departing friends.)

Hsing Ay Hsu performs on A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood June 2003.

The guest line-up was perfect, besides the Nilsson Quartet which augmented the “house band,” there was accordian wizzard Dan Newton, who created the “Norman Rockwell Polka” for the show (he did that by squeezing together 14 or 15 popular American melodies), the brilliant guitarist Leo Kottke, and Tanglewood Music Center fellow Hsing-Ay Hsu, a dazzling talent on the piano with oodles of star quality, too. (Leo Kotke – Photo by Anthony Pepitone, CC BY-SA 3.0.)

She even had a bit of a go -’round with the host, trying to get the audience to decide between Chopin and Debussy compositions, which Keillor nixed, saying “I choose the Chopin, this isn’t a democracy, we tried that, it didn’t work.”

And speaking of democracy, we found the show’s most profound moment to be the line from the Ketchup Advisory Board skit, “Ketchup has natural mellowing agents that help us to accept the fact that the big problem with democracy is that it depends so much on people like us.”

Keillor’s disdain for George W. Bush came through loud and clear in the “Hobo” skit, which featured “Waco George,” but the swipe he took at journalists during the re-working of “Where have all the flowers gone” with guitarist Pat Donohue was more telling (” Are they having too much fun/ Embedded down in Washington,/ When will they look around/ And see what’s going down? “)

A treat available only to the Tanglewood audience was to see the great affection with which Keillor addressed Hsing-Ay Hsu, already seated at the piano, adding an un-heard element to the introduction that told of the Tanglewood Music Center and Boston University Tanglewood Institute being the true heart and soul of the globally-popular Tanglewood experience.

We ain’t picking no nits here, but there were 2 errors of fact that jumped right out at us: Norman Rockwell didn’t paint all his masterpieces in the Berkshires (see current Stockbridge exhibit: “Norman Rockwell’s Vermont Years”) and, despite the the Shed’s nonpareil acoustics, during his July 4, 1991 Tanglewood concert, Bob Dylan was largely unintelligible.

For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again at The Williamstown Theatre Festival

August 15, 2002 performance reviewed by Pat Nichols

A huge brick wall looms over the opening of For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again at The Williamstown Theatre Festival Mini Festival. Written by Canadian Playwright Michel Tremblay as a tribute to his mother who defined his eventual journey as a playwright, the play describes the effect of a loving mother on her son’s future.

Olympia Dukakis as Nana, whose hyperbole during conversations with her son ranges from almost true to over the top fabrication, marked his progression into adulthood. The play follows the two from the time he is ten until he is 20. At first he sits in his chair with his feet tucked up under him, a child caught in a transgression. As a thirteen year old he half lays in the chair, as a twenty year old he begins in earnest to separate from her but she is never far away.

A simple woman raising her family, cooking big Saturday night dinners for relatives who don’t appreciate them and catering to her husband’s needs, she represents a universality of women, who acted and thought behind the scenes.

The first scene centers on a policeman coming into her home and her immediate reaction to his presence is that it is an indication that someone died. She imagines the corpse, covered so she only sees one hand. She wonders how she can identify who it is.

Over the top, she describes her emotions, leaving her washing to speak with the officer and finding out her ten year old threw a piece of ice under a the wheel of a car. “Everyone was doing it,” only sends her on another verbal crusade.

Years later, the two discuss books and why she likes them and the son finds inconsistencies and flaws. Mothers know everything she claims in her own defense of her love of certain books. Dukakis does an awesome job of recreating Tremblay’s mother. She is on stage almost every minute voicing her take on family, on life, and what she believes in, with humor and determination.

Marco Barricelli grows in the role from the boyish ten year old to the 20 year old assimilating what his mother has reiterated over and over in their conversations. Nana admits she grows melodramatic but can’t help the irresistible flow of words that stream out of her mouth and consciousness.

As she grows ill near the end, she wonders how plays happen, where they come from, unaware she has created the nexus of a play by simply living her life. Nana wonders about an actress she admires but questions ‘does that actress imagine her audience out there watching her? Do they have an interest in that person—Nana? Do we exist for them? What is their connection? What is real?

She laments her son isn’t settled yet and blames herself. ”I let you dream too much, let you read books.” He counters “Everything I have I got from you, it is a strength.” Tremblay wanted to recreate his mother’s life, wanted a second chance to be with her again. The play enables the rest of us to share his good fortune in a warm and humorous way.

More info: 2013 Williamstown Theatre Festival schedule.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and White Oak Dance Project at Jacob’s Pillow

June 19, 2002 performance reviewed by Connell McGrath

The 70th season of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival opened with a performance by Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project that, in a mere ten seconds, displayed the high artistry of the evening’s star. 2014 Jacob’s Pillow schedule, Contact info. and links

The first piece was Largo (2001), by Lucinda Childs to Arcangelo Corellis’ Concerto Grossi Op. 6, danced solo by Baryshnikov. I saw instantly his genius and his mastery over his medium, and understood why he is so famous and revered. Largo is soft and lovely, with graceful balletic movements, and it couldnt have lasted longer than three minutes. It was a jewel of a piece, unassuming, simple, and profound.

White Oak demonstrated its range and eclecticism tonight in their subsequent pieces. Early Floating was second on the bill, an Erick Hawkins piece from 1961 to the music Five Curtains of Timbre by Lucia Dlugoszewski. The music was cacaphonous and the dance seemed primarily about structure and form, and how that can relate – or not – to intimacy. The forms of the piece hold up well after forty years, and they are peppered with small, intimate touches between the dancers. Emily Coates was outstanding in this piece.

Early Floating is a heady yet personal piece. It was at times intriguing, then hard to pay attention to. I could understand why a man in the row beside me snored softly five minutes in, though I did not feel inclined to sleep through it. This is not a criticism of the piece (or the snoring man) as much as its an indication of the complexity and challenge in the work. It may also have something to say about chronic sleep deprivation in our time.

The showcase piece of the evening was The Experts (2002), by Sarah Michelson with music by Mike Iverson, plus a video clip by Mike Taylor of a race car zooming across a track (Steve McQueen’s car from the movie Le Mans). This was a hard piece to like, but also a hard one to forget.

The Experts was commissioned by Baryshnikov. I wonder what the dancers thought when presented with this demanding, strange work. First order of business: you’ll have to dance on a stage covered with BUBBLE WRAP, so step lively (will they repace it before tomorrow’s show, or does that audience get less POP?). The company wore strange costumes with various wing motifs, and did quite a bit of wing movements, some restricted by bound hands.

My partner commented that she struggled through the beginning of it, but grew to like the characters and adjusted to the ungainly and anti-dance movements of it. The story, humor and tension of the piece eventually swept us up, and I kept wondering how if at all this piece was informed by 9/11 (which I have no doubt it was). Personally, I agonized for Miguel Anaya as he jiggled on the stage for minutes on end, and was glad to see him let loose his more traditional (and considerable) dance abilities in the subsequent piece.

In the end, the company returned to a formal, balletic Lucinda Childs piece called Chacony (2002) to various music by Benjamin Britten. This was a return to a more traditional and aesthetically beautiful dance form, and it was relaxing and easy to love. It was a gentle end to the evening, but posed a challenge to us and the Project. Overall, the evening was on the long side, and the two middle pieces were emotionally and intellectually demanding. Chacony was a fitting end as it returned to the mood of Largo, but it lulled us too much, and we couldnt fully express our appreciation for the evening after it.

What Im trying to say is that the wonderful White Oak Dance Project didnt get the standing ovation they so deserved. We had been put through an exquisite wringer by them, and failed to rise and show our love. Nonetheless, the sounds, visions, and movement of their their performance were a great and memorable beginning to the Jacob’s Pillow season.

Doc Watson at the Mahaiwe Theatre, Gt. Barrington, MA

March 30, 2002 performance; by Dave Read

Doc Watson set up shop on the stage of the Mahaiwe Theatre the night before Easter and delivered a generous dose of good music, wry humor, and tender insight to a sell-out audience. It was a bravura performance by the 79 year old Hall of Famer, memorable almost as much for his talking as for his nonpareil flat-picking and singing.

Doc Watson does more than give a performance; he becomes your companion along the way, stepping aside for a moment during a song to alert you to what’s coming up in the next verse. And although much of the between-tunes patter has been been said a thousand times, some of it comes across with a freshness and intimacy that makes you feel as if he’s sharing an insight with you for the first time. Doc’s bag tonight contained the expected range of songs from Jimmy Rodgers, Merle Haggard, Homer and Jethro, Flatt and Scruggs, et al, but he also brought along a few single doses from an unusual mix of sources: Tim Hardin, George Gershwin, and the Moody Blues.

Doc Watson and grandson Richard at the Mahaiwe Theatre, Gt. Barrington, March 30, 2002

His introduction to a fresh and heartfelt rendition of Hardin’s If I Were a Carpenter left off with the remark, “He must’ve really loved her.” Gershwin’s Summtime was given a jazzy reading and came just before Haggard’s Working Man Blues, which Doc introduced by talking about his blindness.

After averring that he had done work harder than “pickin this ole guitar,” he said that he had had “a persecution complex about my handicap for a long time,” but that he one day came to accept it – “the Lord said you need a handicap to calm you down.”

Doc’s introduction to the Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin was as sweet and poignant as “patter” gets; addressing the “young gals and young fellas” in the audience, he talked about feeling so much in love with someone “you can’t hardly breathe” and knowing circumstances will keep you apart.

Treating songs like he does, selecting ones whose meanings set them apart and taking care to see that his audience is ready to hear them, shows Doc Watson to be more than merely a guitar virtuoso. He’s a remarkable man, a pretty energetic one to boot: he played two full hour-long sets, joined for half of each set by his grandson Richard (Merle’s son) and Jack Lawrence, alternately. They each took turns on the lead in their duets with Doc, and Lawrence featured a few numbers from his own CDs.

The Beartown Mountain Ramblers warmed up the capacity audience with an entertaining sampler of traditional Bluegrass. True to the essence of the genre, their performance was marked by crisp, restrained, brief solos that blended together seamlessly. They were dressed like New England gentlemen, and somehow managed to project a feeling that a bit of slapstick was imminent.