Browsing Category

Jamming

Bio, Jamming

Ojai Again

July 8, 2023
After a covid hiatus, the BRC craftsman and spouse journeyed last month to California to renew their attendance of the annual Ojai Music Festival. The 2023 invited Musical Director of this 77th annual Fest was banjoist Rhiannon Giddens. Known in the 5-string community as an eclectic folk musician, a focus of Ms. Giddens` artistry has been to give voice to the voiceless. With her praiseworthy agenda of humanism, she assembled a marvelous admixture of international musicians whose diverse instruments blended together per her prediction like “cousins talking” and sharing their heritages.
Pictured below in the Ojai community center, the banjoist/musical director had an afternoon city park performance moved indoors during the Fest because of briefly inclement weather. She was accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi on percussion.
A versatile musician, composer, and writer, Rhiannon plays violin (below center) amidst some instruments from foreign lands. She is currently authoring a series of children’s books. Her varied creative works have won a MacArthur Grant and two Grammy Awards.
Although initially known as a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops folk trio, Ms. Giddens has a seraphic opera-trained voice. She demonstrated her spell-binding vocal skills singing (below far right) with the Attacca String quartet. During this collaboration, a dog and a coyote had a barking dual in the ravine behind the outdoor stage. The performers and audience were undeterred.
Rhiannon`s voice also joined the chorus (below) in the performance of the Pulitzer Prize winning opera “Omar’s Journey” that she had co-authored with Michael Abels. The libretto chronicles the true story of a slave kidnapped in Africa and brought to America.
With a host of gifted international musicians at the Festival, Ms. Giddens sang in English, French and Italian. She was accompanied by her partner, the astonishingly powerful pianist Francesco Turrisi. Spanning several octaves, she sang ragtime, pop tunes, and arias.
After she rendered a particularly tender love song in Italian (below) that was woven with his keyboard underpinnings, Turrisi dabbed an eye and confessed softly in his microphone, “She made me cry.”
The Musical Director also sang in Japanese and Chinese during the festival further underscoring a world rich with overlapping musical traditions. With Giddens on the banjo and Wu Man playing the Chinese lute, the two musician demonstrated (below) that music is borderless.
Ojai proved again to be a multifaceted learning environment. As the township is an artists` community, the Music Fest coordinates yearly with an open house tour of artists` homes, so festival goers can visit the studios and galleries of local painters, sculptors, and artisans. This educational program is especially valued by the BRC spouse who is a painter.
The annual four day event was concluded with a rollicking evening jam session presented by the visiting international artists who again confirmed the communicative language and fellowship of music. For past postings on previous BRC visits to the Ojai Festival, enter “Ojai” in the homepage search engine.
In the spirit of the annual Ojai Fest, the BRC traveler revisited a familiar local jam session of Bluegrass pals to experience again with them the mutual joy of music and song.
A very special thanks is owed to the guitar craftsman (far left) who again graciously supplied a banjo for the visiting BRC musician to pick during the weekly Sunday afternoon jam at the nearby Oak View Community Center.
 From the BRC: We hope our readers and the good folks pictured above, had a restful Fourth of July holiday and enjoy a splendid summertime.
Bio, CD songs, Jamming

Springtime in the Ozarks & more

April 15, 2023

With March winds and April showers, our Spring season in the Heartland has been wet and blustery. Despite cool and rainy days, the neighborhood daffodils and tulips have bloomed, trees are leafing-out in the countryside, and turtles have re-surfaced in the lake behind the BRC workshop. This week, temperatures surprisingly crept up into the low 80’s, and our Wednesday afternoon jam session in a village nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks was convened at an outdoor pavilion in the township`s municipal park. Although a very breezy day, bluegrass pickers and singers cheerfully gathered as the sun spilled down around us. School kids merrily romped in the adjacent playground while fitness walkers paused to enjoy the music, dance with our clogger, and sing-along to familiar gospel tunes.

It looks likely that the pavilion and its lively greening environs will become our regular jam session venue for the months to come.

Between 2004 and 2006, the BRC craftsman wrote and recorded 4 solo CDs of original music. Three of the discs benefitted our local Children`s Hospital, and one disc was in support of Health Volunteers Overseas, a medical philanthropic international organization.
 
Three young sisters, all grandnieces of the BRC songsmith, provided back-up vocals for the author`s tunes.
 
The foursome was reunited recently in Chicago at a reception for the BRC founder`s eldest daughter who was having a book-launch celebration.

 

From the BRC: All good wishes to you for sunny days of music and song as summer draws nearer, and have a happy Earth Day on April 22nd.

BRC Activities, Jamming

Thanks & A Maxim

January 14, 2023

Not too long ago, the Gainor & Friends jammers surpassed the $29K milestone in donations to the local Children`s Hospital since the band’s inception in 1995. With our tenure at the Broadway Brewery since 2009, the generous patrons at the family-friendly brewpub have accounted for three-fourths of those monies with their faithful tipping at our weekly Sunday afternoon gigs.

The G&F band had its very first performance years ago at the inaugural autumn Pumpkin Festival in the farming village of Hartsburg situated near the Missouri River. Harmony singer Tara is seen below (seated right) in an archival photo taken at the central Missouri agricultural festival during our initial sunny outdoor gig there.

Twenty-seven years later, Tara is seen below (far right front row) still providing harmony vocals with the G&F band recently on a Sunday afternoon at the Broadway Brewery. She performed for a dozen years with the G&F Singers on the pediatric ward of the Children`s Hospital and also on the psychiatric ward of the University Hospital during the Holiday Season. She is a 2013 inductee into the BRC Hall of Fame.

Being blessed with gifted singers and musicians, another one of the G&F band`s mirthful Latin mottos has been, “E bandito rehearsus unim dispersus ad infinitum.” This maxim roughly translates, “The band that rehearses together disperses forever.” We are thankful to all the performers who have generously shared their time and talents with us over these many years.

From the BRC: Keep on pickin’ and singing.

 

BRC Activities, Cell Perches & HVO, Jamming

A Jam Endures

December 17, 2022

About 40 years ago, a weekly jam session was inaugurated on Thursday evenings in the basement of local hardware store that was owned by an avid Bluegrass guitar/mandolin picker. Attendance at this soon popular year round musical get-together was by invitation only, and the included participants showed-up faithfully regardless of rain, ice, sleet, or snow. The musicians came from different walks of life and embraced diverse sociopolitical agendas,  but the respectful climate of the jam was friendly interaction and tolerant camaraderie. Because of the shared love of Bluegrass music, the meeting succeeded as a mini societal model of mutual acceptance. In the below photo, the gracious jam host Windell is standing (second row) far left. It was not unknown for Mitch Jayne, the bass player for the Dillards, to stop-by on occasion and enjoy the fun and music.

As many years past-by, and some members aged-out, relocated to another state, or passed away. The jam session endured for decades until host Windell sadly passed away earlier this year. Two of the jam regulars, however (blue shirts far left front row), have continued the rich  tradition of this special Thursday night picking session by convening it on an alternating week schedule between their two nearby homes. Participation is still by invitation only, and the jam session has survived the covid pandemic. To celebrate the continued success of the cheerful climate orginally cultivated by store owner Windell, the BRC founder (holding banjo) crafted the “Fiddlin` Bill Cell Perch” for his teammate Bill (blue plaid shirt) as a thank-you gesture signifying their successful partnership in sustaining this enduring jam tradition.

The sturdy red oak smartphone holder bears treble clef signatures, stars, fiddles, and guitars. The heavenly star-swooshes represent musicians who have passed away with the years, and the small mother of pearl stars represent the current active members. On the top of the center post is a slight larger star that represents a nonagenarian original jam session senior member (green vest front row center group photo) who still plays music with us regularly.

The underside of the cell perch is a signature location for a BRC inlay. A hand saw and claw hammer signify that the original site of the jam session was the basement of Windell`s hardware store.

Fiddlin` Bill received his cell perch at the weekly jam session with much gratitude and has stationed the desktop implement in his home recording studio as seen above. We are privileged to continue this weekly jam legacy.

Combining musicians from all three local jam sessions,  a recent festive Seasonal gig at the local brewpub was filled with Holiday sing-alongs enjoyed by the audience and performers alike. As usual, all tip money was donated to the nearby Children`s Hospital.

From the BRC: Happy Holidays to all BRC readers from all of us.

 

Jamming

Autumn Harp Tones

September 3, 2022

With the arrival of autumn, students have returned to the campus, and the average age of our university township has fallen to 21 years.  E-scooters traverse the leafy streets and sidewalks while the trees artfully repaint their foliage. The local music scene is slowly reviving itself. On a recent Sunday afternoon, a blues harmonica player (yellow T-shirt below) sat-in with the G&F jam band at the brewpub.

Bluegrass music is no stranger to harmonica players. Earl Taylor played the mouth harp with Flatt & Scruggs in the 1950-60s. Doc Watson not infrequently played a mouth organ, or so-called French harp, on a neck holder simultaneously while picking his guitar. Jimmie Fadden, drummer for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, is heard playing the harmonica throughout the ground-breaking 1972 “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” album.  Grammy Award winning and multi-instrumentalist Charlie McCoy is probably the most famous and recorded country harmonica player in Nashville.
When our guest musician above is not playing blues harmonica, he is a full-time oil-on-canvas painter whose impressive brushwork is exhibited at the Columbia Art League gallery on a regular basis.

Lastly, the BRC archives corroborate that the Harptone Manufacturing Corporation made instrument cases for C.F.  Martin Company guitars in the mid 1930`s.

From the BRC: Keep on keepin`  the blues away.