EDITOR’S PICK: SISTERLY LOVE
You may want to sp/files/storyimages/this month’s Martin Luther King Jr. week/files/storyimages/also honoring another African-American legend, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, as the Brown-Forman Midnight Ramble Series presents “Shout, Sister, Shout! The Sister Rosetta Tharpe Tribute.” Musicians Marie Knight, the Holmes Brothers and Odetta will share the stage and sing the praises of one of gospel’s great singers (who died in 1973) in a show guaranteed to please churchgoers and sinners alike.
A little woman born with a big voice and guitar-pickin’ fingers, Tharpe accompanied her mother, a mandolin-playing evangelist, to performances and began singing gospel as a four-year-old. A manic and hypnotic guitar player with witty lyrics, she gained popularity in the ’30s, being one of only two gospel performers recorded on V-Discs, a government co-produced recording for overseas soldiers during World War II.
Tharpe was best known for mixing secular musical elements, such as jazz phrasing and blues guitar, with traditional gospel — at times alienating Christian fans while bringing spiritual music to mainstream audiences. She accompanied herself on guitar and her playing was just as mesmerizing and entertaining as her singing. In the 2001 film Amelie, the title character becomes transfixed with a frantic guitar-strumming gospel singer on television — the footage taken from a Tharpe performance.
In this month’s tribute, Knight, Tharpe’s former recording and touring partner, will help bring back the spirit of her career. Knight and Tharpe recorded blues songs together and Knight continued as a secular singer after the duo parted in the early ’50s. She’ll be joined by the funky Holmes Brothers, who will serve as her backing band as well as perform their own set to honor Tharpe. The trio formed in the ’60s, singing in a characteristic three-part harmony with a sound influenced by soul, gospel, R&B, blues and country. Their latest release, Simple Truths, has received recognition from new audiences.
Odetta, a leg/files/storyimages/in her own right, whose recordings include folk, blues and spirituals, spins tales of life in the South, where Tharpe spent her childhood. Odetta gained fame with her recordings of such spiritual classics as “Kumbaya,” “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and “Amazing Grace,” and at age 75 still claims worldwide popularity. She, Knight and the Holmes Brothers all performed on the 2003 album Shout, Sister, Shout! A Tribute to Rosetta Tharpe, which is the basis for this tour.
The concert will take place at the Brown Theatre on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $19.75-$37.75. Call the Kentucky Center box office at 584-7777 or visit www.kentuckycenter.org for more information. — Katie Brown
I SEE LONDON, I SEE FRANCE
January 3-28. Winner of five national critics’ awards for best play, Intimate Apparel stitches together the story of Esther, an African-American woman earning a living by sewing exquisite lingerie for wealthy socialites uptown and women of ill repute downtown. Her life takes an unexpected turn as she searches for love and companionship in ragtime-era New York City. $19-$50. Performance times vary. Actors Theatre, 316 West Main St., 584-1205; www.actorstheatre.org.
ROOTS-ROCK MISFITS
Jan. 11. Josh Lederman and Los Diablos return to Louisville with their hybrid form of Americana-rock, which combones Celtic cadence with klezmer sounds and a shot of zydeco-like vigor. Their hard-to-categorize sound falls between the Pogues and the Gourds and complements Lederman’s well-crafted songwriting. Louisville alt-country band Fire the Saddle will open. For more information on Los Diablos, visit www.coffeestainmusic.com. 9 p.m. Uncle Pleasant’s, 2126 S. Preston St. 634-4147, www.unclepleasants.com.
SMILLIE'S PICKS
by Thomson Smillie
Going Dutch
Dutch portrait painting I can take or leave: all those silly fat burghers with lace doilies round their necks accompanied by bland, self-satisfied wives. I recall the late great collector Wendell Cherry sitting beneath his Yo Picasso ruefully commenting that it was now impossible to buy a good Rembrandt self-portrait at any price. The rich have different problems from the rest of us, so I sympathized, but only to a point, never having appreciated why pundits place Rembrandt self-portraits up there with a fully matured Beethoven’s quartets and Shakespeare’s sonnets among the great expressions of the human spirit.
Dutch landscapes are another matter, and it is easy to enthuse about cool, quiet country scenes filtered through northern light. The Speed Museum has an exhibition of such works opening Jan. 10, and one with a tragically timely note in these post-tsunami, post-Katrina times. It is entitled “Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art” and depicts the ravages wrought upon landscapes by natural disasters, war and time. Many of the “greats” are represented — Rembrandt, Ruisdael, Wtewael and Cuyp — among 75 works gleaned from collections across the country. The exhibition runs until March 26. The museum is closed Mondays but has generous opening hours other days, with late hours until 8 p.m. on Thursday. The Dutch exhibition is a steal at $10 (free to Speed members) and the number to call is 634-2700.
Inner Chamber
One local arts organization that consistently hits the highest standards and is rarely lauded for it is the Louisville Chamber Music Society, perhaps because chamber music is the most rarified branch of the already endangered musical scene. Advance notice is needed, then, for an event coming in the earliest days of next month, Feb. 5 at 3 p.m. The artists are the Chicago Pro Musica, an ensemble collected from players of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — one of the world’s greatest — who have won a Grammy Award as best classical act. The Chicago Tribune has proclaimed them one of the finest ensembles on the American musical scene and the New York Times hailed their “precision, power and gleam.” Well worth a visit, and Comstock Hall at the University of Louisville has great sound for this size ensemble. While you have your calendar out, mark Sunday, March 5, same time and place, for a visit by the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet and April 23 for the Emerson String Quartet, currently regarded by many as the very best this wicked world has to offer.
Call 852-6907 or visit www.louisville.edu/music/chambermusicsociety.
Piano Jazz
Louisvillians often equate Southern Indiana with ultima Thule, believing that passports, snowshoes and vaccinations are required to cross the Kennedy and Sherman Minton bridges. This is a mistake, and especially in the case of the lovely Ogle Center on the Indiana University Southeast campus, which has better acoustics for concerts than the Kentucky Center. You might try an expedition, ski pole in hand, when the Louisville Orchestra next plays there. In the meantime, we happily note a pair of concerts coming up with a young pianist who is making a stir in the rarified world of fine jazz. His name is Michael Kaeshammer and his trio will be performing at 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28. The pianist is still in his mid-20s, is classically trained and has released a series of award-winning, critically acclaimed recordings. His last album, Strut, was nominated for the 2004 Juno Award in Contemporary Jazz. Tickets are available at the Ogle Center or through TicketMaster at (502) 361-3100.
Final Thought
All that talk about matters Dutch prompts a reminder that Holland, and not France or Germany, was the country with which the Brits most often fought wars — usually in the 17th and 18th centuries and always about trade. English English supplies many of our most finely honed insults, which is why we have derogatory phrases including “Dutch courage” (acquired through drink), “Dutch auction” (bidding down from a high) and “Dutch treat” (splitting the check).
