Category Archives: Music

Alvin Ailey II

Posted on by
Reply


Last night, Anne was still not feeling well, so I took her ticket and went with Joanie to see Alvin Ailey II perform at UMSL’s Touhill. The evening’s dance concert was preceded by a rock concert performed in the auditorium’s Terrace lobby. The rock concert was a tribute to Saint Louis’s own Chuck Berry. The tribute band What the Chuck! was led by Berry’s son and includes his grandsons.

Ailey II is the company’s JV squad or as Anne likes to call them the farm team. Even so, they are still quite professional and based on the size of the house, much respected in Saint Louis. They opened their show with a hat tip to Berry and Saint Louis in a continuation of the lobby’s concert with Berry Dreamin’, a dance that featured Chuck Berry’s music.

The second act’s dance, Down the Rabbit Hole continues choreographer Houston Thomas’s earlier work and expands on its themes of examining the relationship between humans and technology. Inspired by The Matrix films, this dance explores how technology weaves itself into the fabric of our life, transforming how we as humans interact and function. Set to a techno music score, this high-powered piece asks the question: Technological change—are we powering it or is it powering us?

The final act featured Revelations, Alvin Ailey’s signature work from 1960. Inspired by the spirituals of his youth, this work features traditional gospel music. This dance is divided into three sections.

The first section, “Pilgrim of Sorrow”, begins in total stillness. When the stage is illuminated, the earthy colors of the costumes appear as drab earthtones. Ailey’s intention was to portray people attempting to rise up from the ground. The motions of these dancers also add to this portrayal. This dance has arms reaching up, as people reach skyward as they rise.

The next dance section, “Take me to the Water”, is set to the spiritual “Wade in the Water”. Which was used by slaves as a euphonism for riverbank escapes. This dance portrays a baptism, symbolizing another pathway to freedom. Bolts of fabric were waved behind the dancers to represent the water.

The final section, “Move, Members, Move” celebrates the liberating power of gospel music. It is also the most positive and uplifting section. A rousing church service is enacted complete with Sunday hats, fans and stools. The entire cast appears onstage, conveying a huge celebration.

As with any good performance in town, at its finally, this Saint Louis audience rose like a herd of clapping seals and earned an encore for its trouble.

What the Chuck! in the Terrace Lobby at the Touhill

Ring of Fire

Posted on by
Reply
Photo by Jahanzeb Ahsan on Unsplash

Dinner and a show last night, but first Gyro. Amber Alert! Amber had some gossip, just days before the streets and parking lot outside the studio were the scene of a shootout and highspeed chase as two cars circled each other guns a blazing. Apparently, no one was hit and all that was left was a massed cop car callout. Her news and the workout she put us through were enough to lead us to dueling couch naps in the afternoon. We awoke in time for dinner and the show.

Anne had the cioppino, a seafood medley and I had the walleye. The theater was a madhouse. Two productions were being performed. There was the hot new show that is all sold out now and ours, Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire. Ring featured almost thirty of his songs strung together with the story of his life. The tunes were good. Afterwards, the cold front had arrived, driving the days record high temperatures down, down, down. Summer is over and winter is back.

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Posted on by
Reply
Tutankhamun’s Chariot

This morning, as I began working on today’s post, I started by first pawing through my extensive media archive, eighteen years’ worth. Below, I quickly found the lyrics from the old negro spiritual, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, inscribed upon a plank of rough-cut wood. It is from the STL Jazz Museum. That discovery and today beginning Black History month was all that it took.

Swing Low Sweet Chariot Lyrics

The Slammer painting pictured below, has always been one of my favorites and it is usually on display. I added the King Tut chariot picture, not that it is strictly biblical, but because it is a more arresting image than faded lyrics. And of course, the Soundcloud rendition of the song, to get this month swinging. 

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot by John McCrady, 1937

Ra-Ta-Tum-Tum-Tum

Posted on by
Reply
AI Little Dummer Boy

There is a game that I play at this time of year called the Little Dummer Boy Challenge. The object of this game is to not hear the Christmas song by the same name, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am honor bound to tell you that this year I lost. Over the last few seasons, I have been doing pretty well, but this year I failed hard. It is a stupid game. The song is really not that bad. True the little drummer boy is a mythical character inserted into a religious story of great significance, but so what. Anyway, there is always next year. I’ll just have to husband what hipster mojo that I can muster until then.