2007-02 Vital Source Mag – February 2007
Allen Toussaint @ The Pabst Theater
By Blaine Schultz After an quick instrumental tune to warm up, Allen Toussaint ran through a medley of some of the hits he wrote and produced for other artists – just in case you didn’t know who he is. In 2006 Toussaint collaborated with Elvis Costello on a post-Katrina album and tour that refreshed the public’s memory that since the 1950s Toussaint has written and produced a swath of music that remains quintessentially New Orleans. “A Certain Girl,” “Mother In Law,” “Fortune Teller,” “Working in a Coalmine,” “Lipstick Traces,” “Brickyard Blues,” “What Do You Want the Girl to Do?,” “Yes We Can” and “Southern Nights.” While fire engines swarmed City Hall Saturday night at the Pabst Theater, Tousaint and his four-piece group moved seamlessly from regional hits to blink-and you-missed-it classical interludes to anecdotes introducing many of the tunes. In his double-breasted suit and Birkenstock shoes, Toussaint comes off as the personification of erudite and just plain cool. As a vocalist he’s laidback and funky. It’s easy to see him as living through vocalists like Lee Dorsey and Ernie K-Doe while settled into the studio life of a writer/producer/arranger. But this night’s rare performance proved he’s equally adept on stage. The audience could have used a dance floor. As a musician, Toussant’s piano playing is heir to the great Professor Longhair, and it is that rolling lefthand rhumba that anchors many of the tunes. But he also exhibits his genius in re-imagining Longhair’s rollicking “Tipitina” in a minor key as “Ascension Day” on the Costello collaboration, The River in Reverse. At the Pabst Toussaint alternated between the two. While he’s been covered by everyone from The Yardbirds to Devo to Warren Zevon (not to mention arranging horns for the Band), arguably Glen Campbell’s cover of “Southern Nights” is where most listener’s have come into contact with Toussaint’s music. He ended his set with long spoken introduction to the song, reminiscing of family trips out to the Louisiana countryside as a child to visit relatives, all the while playing variations on the tune’s melody. The band members listened with their heads bowed as if transported as well. It was one of the few moments all night the audience was still. Opener Pieta Brown played a short set of her folk and blues tunes accompanied by guitar guru Bo Ramsey. As the daughter of esteemed songwriter Greg Brown, Pieta is challenged to move away from the old man’s shadow – but she is well on her way. Her singing coupled with Ramsey’s filigrees created some hypnotic moments that took the listener into movies her lyrics created. Songs about escaping small-town life and characters with a “train in his head just looking for a track” suggest her career is moving in the right direction. VS
Feb 19th, 2007 by Vital Archives
Almost, Maine
By Russ Bickerstaff As temperatures climb after some of the coldest days of the year, the Boulevard Theatre opens a wintery romantic comedy set in frigid rural Maine. Almost, Maine is a series of short dialogues between eight pairs of people who all have different relationships with love. It’s a pleasant evening in the intimate space of the Boulevard that is well worth going out into the cold to enjoy. The stage is a deep blue decorated in white. A few evergreens inhabit the tiny space accompanying a huge snowman holding cards that state the title of each short. It’s an interesting effect coming in from the authentic cold of Bay View in February to arrive in the warmth of an artificial winter onstage in the fictional space known as Almost, Maine. It’s explained relatively early on that the name is used to identify a section of the state that never quite gained its own name. In the cold of rural America in the dark of winter, people struggle to make and keep romantic connections through the course of eight different stories. The opening bit also closes the show. Liz Mistele and Siddhartha Valicharlavenkata play stereotypical young lovers working out a geographical paradox of intimacy. It’s a somewhat clever bit that establishes Mistele as the woman who sets the stage in a variety of different costumes. It also establishes Valicharlavenkata as a pretty solid actor. He last showed up as a waiter in Boulevard’s production of Beyond Therapy this past August, but here he is given the center of the stage and takes to it pretty well. While it’s pretty safe to say that playwright John Cariani probably wasn’t imagining a deep Indian accent mixing in and amongst the locals in rural Maine, Valicharlavenkata has such an engaging presence that it seems natural. The introductory bit is followed by a short entitled, Her Heart. It’s a piece about a lost woman (Jan Nelson) and the stranger (Michael Weber) whose lawn on which she has pitched a tent. Weber puts in a solid performance here and later on in Where It Went – the programs most intense bit of drama. Cynthia L. Paplaczyk was originally cast as the woman in this piece, but had to drop out of the performance on Friday night of opening weekend. Jan Nelson was acting with a script, but she managed a compellingly heartfelt performance nonetheless. Nelson’s performance in The Story of Hope a little later on in the program is a bit more intense as she plays a woman attempting to confront a romance she turned away from years ago. Beth Monhollen also makes quite an impression in a couple of bits about friendship becoming something more intense, first with Valicharlavenkata in Seeing the Thing and then with Kirsten Mulvey in They Fell. Monhollen brings the same sweetness to the stage that she did in Boulevard’s production of Marion Bridge last month. Love that had been cast away is looked at from a completely different […]
Feb 19th, 2007 by Vital Archives
From the flood waters
By Jon M. Gilbertson Allen Toussaint is one of those legends whom not a lot of people know – by name, that is. They might, however, be familiar with songs he wrote: “Working In a Coalmine,” “Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette).” They have probably heard songs he produced: the original version of “Lady Marmalade,” Lee Dorsey’s “Ya Ya.” They even might have noted his piano playing: as a session man for Joe Cocker and Albert King, among others. He doesn’t seem to mind being a relatively anonymous individual. “It merely is my life’s vocation to be a producer,” he says in the mildest of tones. “I’ve been happy to do what I’ve been doing, by being so satisfied and so much in the comfort zone that I never thought much more about that. I don’t really regret or feel anything that should’ve happened didn’t happen thus far.” Nevertheless, Toussaint has recently experienced greater visibility, in substantial part because in the summer of 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded his home in New Orleans (the city of his birth in 1938) and washed him out of a lifetime of memories. He moved to New York City and began playing there – in fact, he still does a club residency there. In New York he encountered an acquaintance, Elvis Costello. Toussaint had worked with him just a little bit before, and on Costello’s 1989 album Spike had played lovely, dexterous piano during the ballad “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror.” Costello had an idea. “He told me he always wanted to do an Allen Toussaint songbook,” Toussaint says. “And with the timing as it was, we decided to see about bringing that to fruition. It was his brainchild.” Ah, but children do often surprise us in delightful ways, and so it was with The River in Reverse, the album that Costello and Toussaint released last spring. As fans of either would expect, each brought incredible musicians to the collaboration: Costello the Imposters, Toussaint the Crescent City Horns and guitarist Anthony Brown. And Costello delved well into the Toussaint songbook, narrowing his broad enthusiasm down to seven classics. Then Costello and Toussaint wrote five songs together, and as a further surprise, the new and the old material coalesced beautifully, as did the musicians. Costello, famously a first-rate singer with a third-rate voice, didn’t so much rise to the occasion as bound up to and vault over it. For Toussaint, The River in Reverse modified an old adage: when one door is submerged, another crests the surface. “I must say with the displacement of Katrina, working with Elvis has sort of launched a different career for me that’s still going on,” Toussaint says. “Touring is very much a part of my life now, and it’s quite a lesson to be there right with the people, because you can feel the pulse of them all, as opposed to being in the studio waiting for the red light to come on.” He says this pleasurably, as though the pulse is […]
Feb 15th, 2007 by Vital Archives
Honor Song
By Milwaukee’s theatre season has been host to a higher than normal concentration of single-person shows, and some rather lofty figures have been conjured to the stage this season including Charles Dickens (James Ridge in Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s Dickens In America) and Harry S. Truman (Don Devona in Boulevard Theatre’s Give ‘em Hell Harry). Single-person autobiographical monologues can be really tricky to pull off, requiring the right actor matched up with the right historical figure animated by the right script in the right space. It’s a tall order. If it works, there’s an alchemy between actors, stage an audience that is among the most primal theatre experiences imaginable. If it doesn’t, it’s an audience trapped in a room with a single actor for a period of time no watch could accurately quantify. Thankfully, In Tandem Theatre has found a satisfying combination of the right elements with its production of Honor Song: The Dr. Rosa Minoka-Hill Story. In the cozy basement of the historic Brumder Mansion, Laurie Birmingham stars as Wisconsin’s first female Native American doctor. Only the second Native American ever to receive a medical degree, Dr. Rosa Minoka-Hill spent much of her time with the Oneida in northern Wisconsin in the first half of the 20th century. Birmingham cleverly delivers the thoughts and feelings of Minoka-Hill as carefully written by local playwright Carol O. Smart, Minoka-Hills granddaughter, who used to spend summers with her. The life of one of the country’s first female doctors has got to hold many more fascinating stories than could fill a single monologue. Smart’s composition here is well thought-out and well paced. The script has been evolving since it was first produced in 1993 in collaboration with Carroll College, and when Minoka-Hill speaks through Birmingham, one gets a sense of that journey peering out between Smart’s words. There are only a few dry stretches in the story, which covers the events of Minoka-Hill’s life played out steadily with no intermission. The historic Brumder mansion’s basement is an excellent space for this production. One has a sense of walking into history when entering a place contemporary to the real Minoka-Hill. The modest set amidst much grander trappings from the same era is a bit disorienting at first, but once Birmingham takes the stage the illusion begins to settle in. The audience loses itself in the story of the many difficulties of being a doctor for the poor and the impoverished in the rural Midwest from the perspective of a very, very compassionate woman. It’s a thoroughly engrossing, compellingly concise single-person drama. Actor and character mesh, with Birmingham dedicating more than enough of herself to the role to capture the audience’s attention for the entire length of the monologue. VS In Tandem Theatre’s production of Honor Song: The Dr. Rosa Minoka-Hill Story runs now through February 11 at the Brumder Mansion. Tickets can be purchased by calling In Tandem at 414-444-2316. Form more information, visit In Tandem Theatre online at www.intandemtheatre.com.
Feb 5th, 2007 by Vital Archives
Tartuffe
By Russ Bickerstaff Based on the original play by Molière, Kirke Mechem’s Tartuffe is one of the most successful contemporary American operas ever written. A competent realization of Molière’s classic tale, the Skylight Opera Theatre’s production closes this coming weekend. Set in ancient France, the story tells the tale of a wealthy man named Orgon (David Barron) who has befriended a man named Tartuffe (John Muriello) whom he believes to be a thoroughly pious man of God. His family tries its best to convince Orgon of his foolishness as he heaps wealth praise on Tartuffe and generally makes a colossal fool out of himself. It’s a long and twisting plot that lends itself well to modern opera. The excessive dramatics and overarching themes of deceit, love and such all work exceedingly well in opera. While some of the finer, more subtle moments in Molière’s brilliant comedy are lost in the adaptation, the story gains a certain emotional depth in song that isn’t explicit in dialogue alone. The Skylight cast deliver on some of the stronger moments Mechem has adapted for the opera. David Barron makes for a likeable Orgon. Alice Berneche is quite brilliant as his daughter Mariane. The scene between the two of them when he asks her to marry Tartuffe is one of the most memorable in the entire production. A lot of its strength rests quite squarely in the anxiety pouring out of Berneche as she directly faces the audience in not so subtle reaction to what her father is asking of her. Berneche’s voice is beautiful, but it’s the rest of her performance that beautifully rounds out a role that isn’t nearly as impressive in previous non-musical productions. Danielle Hermon Wood also puts in a memorable performance as Dorine, Orgon’s maid and Mariane’s friend who schemes to stop the wedding arrangements with Tartuffe and decisively rid the household of him. Dorine is often quite clearly the sharpest character onstage. Wood makes this intelligence seem organic and effortless. The title role of Tartuffe can be played in a million different ways. John Muriello plays it with intriguing texture. His long, disheveled hair and ragged clothing don’t just look shabby . . . the way Muriello carries himself, they actually look unhealthy. He’s playing a comic villain in a way that’s almost sympathetic. It makes for a surprising depth at the center of the production when Muriello finally appears on stage in the flesh well into the story. Lee Ernst takes the stage with the role in a couple of weeks with the Milwaukee Rep. It’ll be interesting to see what he’s going to do with the character. Production elements of Tartuffe are everything one would expect out of a big budget Skylight production. Costuming is lush without being overpowering. Lighting by Cynthia Stilllings provides the comfortable illusion of physical depth that is not actually present on stage. Van Santvoord’s set design adds considerably to the illusion of depth as well as scenic elements rotate to change settings. […]
Feb 4th, 2007 by Vital Archives
Cortney Tidwell
By Nikki Butgereit Cortney Tidwell’s Don’t Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up is an imaginative blend of subtle vocals and electronic sounds that is altogether unexpected from an artist touted for her relationship to the Nashville music scene. Echo effects enhance the delicate, breathy quality of Tidwell’s voice. On the album’s title track, she sounds like vintage Björk, with her combination of quiet enunciation and powerful yodels. Each song is layered with multiple instruments and vocal tracks, which lends an experimental feel to the record. Most songs meander along without verse or chorus, creating an emotional experience rather than something to which you can sing along. “Illegal” is a creative cacophony, with buzzing, whirring and crowd noise alongside keyboard beats and chords. Upbeat synthesizers and stronger vocals on “Missing Link” add another facet to the otherwise down-tempo album. This song is much more frenetic than the others and shows off Tidwell’s underlying versatility. Cortney Tidwell’s music is not pushy or jarring – each track sort of dissolves into the next. Headphones really highlight the intricate craftsmanship – in the car or on a home stereo, the music tends to create a mellow hum, and you can almost forget it’s on, save for the relaxing mood it elicits and the occasional abrupt upswing in volume and tempo. Tidwell has created an enjoyably mellow listening experience built on layers of experimental sound. Don’t Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up manages to be low-key and exciting all at once. VS
Feb 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Yeah, we’re five
By Jon Anne Willow + Mehrdad J. Dalamie From Mehrdad: February 2007 marks the beginning of the sixth year of VITAL Source. As I look back, I cannot help but wonder if we would have survived doing it any differently. By that I mean that all the ambition in the world would not have meant anything without all the sacrifices we made; running two businesses, virtually hundreds of hours a week; sleep deprivation, zero financial resources and so much uncharted territory could and would push any normal person out of the rat race in which we found ourselves. I’m not sure what other forces were behind us but a few are certain. The love and desire to be an alternate voice within Milwaukee’s established media brought us here in the first place. And more importantly, the desire by the public, you, to hear what we had to say has kept us going. I started VITAL, but the second year brought a fresh breath and perspective, an intelligence that transcended all that previous, and like rocket fuel propelled us forward: Jon Anne Willow, my partner in my madness, to whom everything is indebted. We are celebrating our fifth anniversary on February 24th and we’d like you to join us. It would not be possible without your support. Thank you, Mehrdad J Dalamie Co-Publisher Dear Readers, Mehrdad is too nice. He’s been the water all along, holding up the boat so it doesn’t sink. All the wind in the world doesn’t matter if you’re dry-docked, and VITAL would be if not for him. He does all manner of unglamorous, sometimes seemingly unrelated work at all hours of the day and night to make sure our little ship of enterprise sails; he is the unsung force behind our continued existence. So next time you run into him behind the bar at Bremen Café, shoveling the sidewalk or delivering copies of the magazine, see him as a man who understands what it means to do whatever it takes to make dreams come true. He is that man, and I am grateful to know him. And as he said, it’s our birthday this month. How cool is that? This year has marked the launch of our new website (complete with blogs and all the modern bells and whistles), an increase in circulation and distribution, growth in advertising sales and most importantly, a spike in something intangible – access and awareness within the community. You’re telling us about stories that need to be told, inviting us to your events, coming to ours, writing us letters, visiting our website, being our myspace “friends” and generally showing us that you like VITAL (really, really). And that’s incredibly cool. So this issue is full of presents for you in the form of puzzles and games. Dwellephant’s maze opens the section and Brian Jacobson did one called Silent Sentinels which is all photos of local statues where you guess where they are and what they represent. Some of them are […]
Feb 1st, 2007 by Jon Anne Willow
February 2007
By Erin Wolf February 6 The Apples in Stereo New Magnetic Wonder Simian/Redeye The Backyard Fire Vagabonds and Hooligans OIE/Redeye Bloc Party A Weekend in the City Dim Mak/Vice/Atlantic Fall Out Boy Infinity on High Island/Fueled By Ramen Patty Griffin Children Running Through ATO/RCA Rickie Lee Jones The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard New West Belinda Carlisle Voila Rykodisc The Dexateens Hardwire Healing Skybucket The End Elementary Relapse Sondre Lerche Phantom Punch Astralwerks Lonely, Dear Lonely, Noir Sub Pop Eleni Mandell Miracle of Five Zedtone Lee Ann Womack Finding My Way Back Home Mercury Nashville Mnemic Passenger Nuclear Blast Yoko Ono Yes, I’m a Witch Astralwerks Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls of the Soul Barsuk The Used Berth Reprise February 13 Anais Mitchell The Brightness Michael Chorney Young Dubliners With All Due Respect: The Irish Sessions 429/Savoy Label Group Seafood Paper Crown King Cooking Vinyl The Infamous Stringdusters Fork in the Road Sugar Hill Lucinda Williams West Lost Highway February 20 The Ataris Welcome the Night Isola Recordings/Sanctuary Jill Cunniff City Beach Streetwise Lullabies/The Militia Group Dolly Varden The Panic Bell Undertow Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone Temporary Residence Ltd. The Frames The Cost Anti-/Epitaph Fu Manchu We Must Obey Century Media Kittie Funeral for Yesterday Kiss of Infamy The Magic Numbers Those the Brokes Heavenly/Capitol Reel Big Fish and Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer Duet All Night Long ReIgnition The Nein Luxury Sonic Unyon Trans Am Sex Change Thrill Jockey Trouble Simple Mind Condition Escapi February 27 Dean & Britta Back Numbers Zoe/Rounder Dr. Dog We All Belong Park the Van Kaiser Chiefs Yours Truly, Angry Mob U.K.-Universal Jesse Malin Glitter in the Gutter Adeline/Warner
Feb 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Living the dream
By Amy Elliott + Photo by Kate Engeriser “Everybody knows about these people,” the boy mutters. “It’s been drummed into their heads about 15,000 times.” He is a young student with a simple assignment: write a two-page essay about an African-American hero. But he is plagued by a classical academic anxiety: hasn’t it all been said before? Crushed by the pressure of history against his attempts to think and work creatively, he resigns and hangs his head. And then he is visited by the spectre of Harriet Tubman leading a chorus of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” The boy’s encounter with the legendary abolitionist is only the first in a long parade of dreamers, leaders, thinkers and changers. This is We Are The Dream, the story of history revisited and myths refreshed. The performance is the work of the African-American Children’s Theater (AACT), a nonprofit organization that has been providing arts education and mounting productions in the community since 1989. This is the first year that AACT has been able to expand its activities to include a resident company of eight to fourteen-year-old actors with exceptional talent, drive and commitment. The company members focus on perfecting their stagecraft in major collaborative roles both on and off the stage. For We Are The Dream, the small company researched, wrote and directed the play together. “I learned about people I never heard of before,” says resident Jakayla Dills. “Everybody knows about Martin Luther King, but I never learned anything about Barbara Jordan.” Jakayla plays Jordan, a former Texas state senator and the first southern black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Jakayla also appears as writer and civil rights activist Mary Church, one of the first black women to earn a college degree. When she is not in front of the audience, she is behind the scenes, mastering the skills of stage manager. Mahdi Gransbury, who stars as the plagued schoolboy, doubles as the assistant director for the play. “We work within our group,” says Constance Clark, founder and executive director of AACT, who is helping Mahdi learn about technical theater in hopes that he will be able to take over light, sound and stage design soon. “Ultimately,” she says, “he plans to take over everything.” Mahdi smirks and deviously laces his fingers. AACT’s team spirit befits the group’s goals, which extend far beyond the desire to put on a good show. Theater is a discipline; it enhances confidence, sharpens listening skills, fosters active participation and encourages healthy expression. Before each rehearsal, the kids spend some time talking to each other, sharing their ideas and anxieties. Then they channel their energy into their craft. “Art expresses all your feelings,” says resident Ashante Alfred. “If you’re having a bad day, it just makes you feel happier.” Working through a play can be rigorous, but when the curtain falls, the children go home with a certain artistic wisdom better learned by practice than by books. Some of the actors find that the challenge […]
Feb 1st, 2007 by Amy Elliott
Paris Ortiz
By Blaine Schultz + Photo by Kate Engeriser Paris Ortiz’ fluid guitar sound has been integral to bands in Milwaukee from Psychedelicasi to Big Dumb Dick to his current group The Cocksmiths. If we believe the cliché that lead guitarists in heavy-leaning rock groups are typically as subtle as brontosauri, then Oritz is more like an archaeopteryx in the sky above – often less a focal point than an integrated part. With The Cocksmiths’ trio of guitars, sonic real estate is at a premium, which means listening is as important as playing. 1. What is the one piece of musical gear you find essential to your sound? My Marshall amplifier. It has such a distinctive, versatile sound. It gives me a solid, crunchy/dirty sound for my rhythms and a sweet, sustained tone for my leads. It has the most amazing feedback. I can hit a note, then stand in front of my amp and that note will sing out for as long as I stand there holding it. 2. What lessons have you learned, good or bad, that you apply to The Cocksmiths? Be true to yourself. Just go out there and play what’s inside of you. There was a point in my life where I had managers and labels telling me what to wear, how to move on stage and how long a song should be. Of course The Cocksmiths want a record deal but we don’t pay attention to who’s popular and who’s getting the most airplay. Everyone in this band has different influence from rockabilly, swing, hard rock and indie music. Yet, we all come to a common ground where no one feels cheated or like they’re playing something they don’t want to. 3. How does your heritage influence your music? I am Hispanic and Latin music is very rhythmic and percussive-oriented, but I don’t know if it’s heritage as much as environment. I grew up in a dominantly African-American neighborhood, so my early influences were Prince, Funkadelic and Hendrix. It really made me a very rhythmic player. As I got older I had friends from all walks of life. Those relationships introduced me to everything from Zeppelin to Ozzy to The Eagles. If I need to be bluesy with a country flair I can do that. I’ll have a reference and if I need to bring it and hammer out an aggressive wah-filled solo I can do that too. 4. If someone had never seen or heard The Cocksmiths, how would you describe the band? A huge wall of whiskey rock. Our bio states, “Picture if the Black Crowes and Soundgarden had a child and it was raised and beaten by Johnny Cash – that’s The Cocksmiths.” 5. Is there a solo (not necessarily guitar) that you never get tired of hearing? That’s a hard one. I would say any solo by Jimi Hendrix. They were passionate, bluesy aggressive solos that fit the song. He was the master. I always loved the solo from “Sultans of […]
Feb 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Puzzles and Games
By Puzzle Answers Page 1 Puzzle Answers Page 2 Puzzle Answers Page 3
Feb 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
