Thousands of children and parents know that the greeting song for Music Together, the early childhood program founded in Princeton with a small legacy from a more well-known song, Happy Birthday. For the brief local story behind the story about the “Happy Birthday” copyright, click here. For a more complete history of how Ken Guilmartin founded Music Together, click here. Meanwhile, keep on singing!
Category Archives: Dance and the other arts
Oh what a beautiful . . . duo: Allyson and Cardenas
I’ve never been a groupie but am learning to be one for Karrin Allyson, who sang and played a Steinway on September 20 at TCNJ. For those who had not seen her, it was an eye/ear popper.
Even for those of us who had been at last year’s benefit concert, Chansons pour le Congo, it was a revelation to have an additional voice on stage — Allyson’s plus the blues of Steve Cardenas’ bass guitar, cradling the tones between the notes in a heart-twanging response.
The brand new CD, Many a New Day, with Rodgers & Hammerstein tunes and Kenny Barron and John Pattitucci on bass, was similar to the concert but I’m sorry to say for those who weren’t there, the concert was way better. At least for me. Partly because you could see Allyson really ‘getting into it,’ standing slim and strong, sparkly bracelet on her wrist, shakin’ her shaker, red stiletto shoes tapping back and forth, crooning and belting in that Midwestern girl-next-door accent with the sexy under-breath. Or at the Steinway, inhabiting that piano, in control, red shoes planted wide, playing that piano like a cello, sole of one red shoe keeping the beat, into it.
For “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” on the CD, Allyson sets up the dawn version of a stride piano — delicate octaves like bird calls — and lights into the tune that recalls a cowboy riding past corn ‘as high as an elephants eye.‘ But this is no cowboy song. Oh no. And at the concert it was even more intimate, a sleepy-eyed aubade, S. O’Hara waking up on a beautiful morning after a beautiful night. And then Cardenas took that tune, caught it, and caressed those descending half-tones on ‘mor…n…ing,‘ a lover’s response.
What makes me a groupie — I want to hear it again on stage, because — good as Kenny Barron is on the piano — that song on the CD doesn’t evoke the heat of the live performance with Allyson playing as well as singing. I want to hear Cardenas and Allyson sing it again, live. Put me on the list!
Allyson will intro her album at Birdland, October 6-10. Kenny Barron’s show tours to McCarter on October 23. Allyson will be back in NYC in April at the Greene Space and Birdland.
Disclosure: I wrote some pro bono press releases for this concert, to benefit Congolese charities UFAR and FEBA
Dance and Sculpture: October 1 and 3 Out
A press release from Outlet Dance project that I am happy to distribute tells about dancers make site specific sculpture at Grounds for Sculpture on October 3. These sculptures will be featured, and I am hotlinking them here: Ex-halations by Linda Fleming, The Awakening by Seward Johnson, Force of Nature, 白 Shiro by Jae Ko, Passage (at left) by Kevin Lyles, The Couple by John Martini, The Oligarchs by Michelle Post, Bull 4 & Bull 5 by Peter Woytuk, and Allentown Council by Glenn Zweygardt. Advance congratulations to the choreographers and the sculptors.
The Outlet Dance Project is pleased to announce its upcoming 2-day festival at Grounds For Sculpture, now in its 11th year. Thursday, October 1st at 7:00pm is the Dance on Film portion, featuring films created by women choreographers and dance filmmakers from across the globe. Saturday, October 3rd at 2pm is the annual Day of Dance. This afternoon of live performance is a dynamic, family-friendly journey through Grounds For Sculpture. Come to experience dance and sculpture in a whole new way! Rain or Shine.
The Dance on Film Festival filmmakers include Marta Arjona with Anna Borràs, Maggie Bailey, Ilana Goldman, Sima Gonsai, Jasmine Hearn and Paul Kruse, Juliette Machado, Kyle Georgina Marsh and Ann Lupo, Chris Rogy, Jen Roit and Terence Nance, Amy Seiwert, Zornitsa Stoyanova, Wobbly Dance, and Jana G. Younes. These films come from locations as close as New Jersey to as far away as Spain, the U.K, Cambodia and Lebanon.
This year’s live performances are choreographed by Belle Alvarez, Zakiya Atkinson, Heidi Cruz-Austin, Melissa Chisena, Taylor Donofrio, Caitlin Dutton, Monica Gonzalez, Heather Harrington, Emma Kimball, Cleo Mack, Boroka Nagy, Hilary Pierce, Donna Salgado, Svea Schneider, Meredith Stapleton, and Ayana Wildgoose. Four of the selected choreographers have been commissioned by Grounds For Sculpture and The Outlet Dance Project, which has been funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts to create new work in dialogue with this season’s one-of-a-kind installation, Force of Nature, 白 Shiro, by Jae Ko.
Dissident Al Wei Wei, sculptor of the unusual zodiac bestiary in front of Robertson Hall, has been allowed to leave China and live in London, as this New York Times article explains.
Many a New Day Will Shine — to benefit Congolese charities: Karrin Allyson
Now is the perfect time, says jazz artist Karrin Allyson, to revisit the Rodgers & Hammerstein songbook. Listen to her new album, Many A New Day, click her for a preview video.
See Allyson in person at a benefit concert “Chansons pour le Congo III” at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), . The concert, which benefits two Congo-based charities, will be Sunday, September 20, at 3 p.m. at the Mildred & Ernest E. Mayo Concert Hall, 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing.
“These songs are innocent yet wise, hopeful yet nobody’s fool, calling us ever forward to be decent human beings,” says Allyson, who features Kenny Barron and John Patitucci on “Many a New Day” on the Motema label. “Sadly, the song ‘You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught,’ from ‘South Pacific’ (a musical that was written with the intention to fight racism) still resonates all too well today.”
The event is presented by the College of New Jersey, Women and Gender Studies Program, Women in Learning and Leadership and Office of the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences. Allyson will be accompanied by bass guitarist Ed Howard. A reception to meet the artists will follow the performance.
Tickets (available online here) are $70 for adults, $50 for seniors, and $30 for students, with a discount for TCNJ students. Sponsorships range from Patron at $240, including three tickets. to Karrin’s Circle for $1,000 with six tickets. For information call 609-688-9979.
This will be the third concert that Allyson, a four-time Grammy nominee, has given to benefit the two charities. Founded by an ecumenical group of Congolese women, Woman, Cradle of Abundance (FEBA) supports a sewing school for girls, medical care for women and children living with HIV/AIDS, counseling for survivors of rape and forced prostitution, and school fees for orphans .
UFAR, founded by PUMC member Dr. Daniel Shungu, is an African-inspired, Lawrenceville-based nonprofit charitable organization that aims, in partnership with other organizations, to eradicate onchocerciasis, a major public health problem in the Kasongo region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Women of the Congo have amazing strength,” says Allyson, “and I only want to help with their goals of a safe and healthy society, freed from diseases like AIDS and riverblindness, and to help the world see that they are FIRST class citizens.”
‘Baby Doll’ awakens
Susannah Hoffman unfolds before your eyes from child to woman, onstage at McCarter in Baby Doll, by Tennessee Williams in the Emily Mann version. At the dress rehearsal the mesmerizing happened ‘between the lines.’
In this article, you can see the trailer to the original film, starring Carroll Baker and Eli Wallach.
As Bruce Chadwick’s blog review describes, There is a scene in the play when baby doll, barefoot and in her slip, walks up the stairs, back to the audience very slowly, body shifting to the right, the left, the right, the left, her bottom slowly undulating. I was amazed that the Princeton fire department was not called to put out the blaze from the heat Hoffman generated as she slithered up those stairs.
Writers who see the dress rehearsal aren’t supposed to review a play, but Chadwick’s review — comparing Hoffman to Carroll Baker — did it for me, in more ways than one
On buttons: 12 Pretty Ladies — and the Princeton tiger
Getting ready for the New Jersey State Button Society show on Saturday, I’m putting together a tray of “a dozen pretty ladies,” and one of them is a button with the head of Sarah Bernhardt (pictured), another of St. Cecelia. Another category that’s fun is “buttons representing New Jersey — sports, famous people, harness racing, and the shore etc, The only famous person from my collection that I could put on that tray is — Lafayette. I did find one showing harness racing, and one with a Princeton tiger.
The show is Saturday, September 12, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Union Fire Company in Titusville, New Jersey. The Union Fire Company, is at 1396 River Road (at the intersection of Route 29 and Park Lake Avenue in Titusville), opposite the Delaware River and D&R Canal State Park (with easy access to the canal park), a half mile north of Washington Crossing State Park in Hopewell Township, and some five miles south of Lambertville and New Hope, PA. There is plenty of free parking. Admission is $2 for adults, free for juniors to age 17. For questions about the show or the club, email me or see http://newjerseystatebuttonsociety.org.
Visitors may vote for their favorite entries in each of the competitions, including the Pretty Ladies category that asks for 12 buttons with pictures of women. Buttons showing various aspects of New Jersey — sports, famous people, harness racing, and the shore — will also be on display.
Dealers from all over the East Coast sell vintage, antique, and modern buttons, and the activities also include educational displays and a button raffle. At 1:30 p.m. on September 12, Annie Frazier, former president of the National Button Society, will give a competition and judging workshop. .
Sometimes competitions are strictly judged, but for this show it’s “popular vote.” Every attendee gets to vote. It will be fun! Look for me in the kitchen serving coffee….
Solo Handbells — A Musician’s Dance
Fewer than a dozen solo handbell artists using four octave handbells concertize in the Eastern United States. To watch a soloist is to watch a musician dance.
This rare kind of concert will be held on Sunday, June 7, at 4 p.m., at Princeton United Methodist Church, located at Nassau and Vandeventer (609-924-2613). PUMC’s music director, Hyosang Park performs. Hyosang (left) and pianist Akiko Hosaki comprise Duo Grazioso, and they attract wide renown.
Hyosang directs the PUMC handbell choir, which plays for worship on second Sundays. Four ringers from that choir == Anna Gillette, Alex Farkas, Robert Scheffler, and Bill Gardner — will contribute to the June 7th program.
So come and bring your friends and those who love handbells! This concert is free, and the freewill offering will benefit the Ministry Fund.
P
Bakelite at the Button Show 5/9
Hundreds of thousands of clothing buttons, plain and fancy, will be for sale and on display at the New Jersey State Button Society Show and Competition on Saturday, May 9, 9 to 4 p.m. one of the first plastics made from synthetic components. Competition trays will be on view from noon to 3 p.m., and Jennifer Lackovick will give a talk at 1:30 p.m. on Bakelite, one of the first plastics made from synthetic components. At left, a button made of Bakelite,
I’m a member of the New Jersey State Button Society and the National Button Society. We share an interest in studying, collecting, and preserving clothing buttons, both old and new. If you have any interest in antique, vintage, or modern buttons, try to join us on Saturday. A dozen dealers will be there (as shown below). You can poke through assortments of inexpensive buttons for crafts or find that one fancy button you need for an outfit — or compare the precious buttons in your grandma’s jar with those on display.
The Union Fire Company & Rescue Squad building is located at 1396 River Road (Route 29), Titusville, NJ 08560, at the intersection of Route 29 and Park Lake Avenue, opposite the Delaware River and D&R Canal State Park (with easy access to the canal park), a half mile north of Washington Crossing State Park in Hopewell Township, and some five miles south of Lambertville and New Hope, PA. Free parking. For questions, email Sara Mulford (pictured on right) at slmulford@verizon.net or 856-275-6945
Here’s another Bak
elite button to whet your appetite!
Gritty Details: the Gala Scene
For all of us who might be planning fund-raising events, this article in the 4-18-15 New York Times has insights.
“The events that work best are the ones that offer people an insider’s view of the organization or the people it serves.”
Not as effective, “those focused too much on honoring people within the organization…misses an opportunity to increase the number of people who know about the cause.”
In other words, buy a table and fill it with folks who might be donors.
Princeton Comment 
