Weekend Cultural Highlights, Feb 19-21, 2010

Submitted by Seth Rogovoy on February 18, 2010 - 12:29pm

 

By Seth Rogovoy
 
 
 
I have fond memories of the first time I saw McCoy Tyner perform, approximately 22 years ago at the old Iron Horse Café in Northampton. The concert sticks out in my mind for two reasons: It was the first time I attended a jazz concert with such an icon of renown, and it was the very first time I reviewed live jazz as a professional music critic.
 
 
 
So you’ll forgive me if I have a sentimental spot in my heart for McCoy Tyner. But Tyner doesn’t need sentiment. His reputation precedes him and his music stands on its own. A seminal figure in modern jazz, Tyner was the piano player on John Coltrane’s early groundbreaking recordings, including his version of “My Favorite Things” and the album A Love Supreme. On his own, Tyner has been at the cutting edge of jazz since the late 1960s, and is probably the most influential and creative jazz pianists, influencing the likes of Chick Corea, Marcus Roberts, and pretty much everyone who has sat down at a piano and played jazz since 1965.
 
 
 
Sunday night at 7, Tyner brings his trio, featuring bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Eric Gravatt , to the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington.
 
 
Tickets and information, see http://www.mahaiwe.org or call 413.528.0100.
 
 
 
Jazz expert Tom Reney of WFCR's "Jazz à la Mode" will give a pre-concert talk about Tyner's style, influence, and place in jazz history, with special emphasis on his work with Coltrane, at 5pm at Castle Street Café. Tickets for the talk and dinner are $35. Call Castle Street Café for reservations at 413.528.5244.
 
 
 
Also at the Mahaiwe this weekend, the Close Encounters With Music series presents the Avalon String Quartet on Saturday at 6, in a program called A Night of Quartets, featuring works by Beethoven, Arensky, and Prokofiev, all drawing upon Russian folk music.
 
 
 
The Avalon String Quartet has been hailed as “one of the most exciting young string quartets in America. Formed in 1995 at the nearby Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Norfolk, Conn., the Quartet came to the fore after participating in Isaac Stern's Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall in 1997, subsequently appearing in the Stern Chamber Music Encounters in Jerusalem, and making a Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall in 2000. The quartet is now in residence at Northern Illinois University, a position formerly occupied by the venerated Vermeer Quartet.
 
 
 
The Opus 59 No. 2 Razumovsky Quartet represents the pinnacle of Beethoven’s quartet writing, revolutionary in character and symphonic in reach. Arensky’s arresting work is for two cellos, and Prokofiev’s Quartet No. 2 bears his infatuation with folk instruments.
Cellist and Close Encounters artistic director Yehuda Hanani will accompany the Quartet in the Arensky.
 
 
 
Tickets, $35 or $25 for adults and $10 for students, are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413-528-0100, through Close Encounters With Music at 800-843-0778 or by emailing cewmusic@aol.com. Please visit our website at http://www.cewm.org
 
 
 
 
 
On Saturday night, food and photography is on the menu at Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield. The "Dish & Dine" series pairs local food with local artists. The food will be catered by Mission and the Market, served on dinnerware by Mary Anne Davis, and the subject of the evening’s event will be Jason Houston, a documentary photography specializing in social and environmental issues across the country and around the world.
 
 
Houston has photographed the small family farms throughout the Berkshire region for over a decade, and traveled to over a dozen countries documenting community-based conservation in the developing world. His environmental portraits, landscapes, and elemental details focus the viewer on the global issues and processes that define how we live on this planet. Houston is a frequent contributor to Berkshire Living Magazine and serves as the photo editor of Orion Magazine.
 
 
Saturday, February 20th, 6:30-9pm
$35, limit 40 guests. BYOB.
Reservations: 413.442.1622 or info@ferringallery.com
 
 
 
ONVIEW: JASON HOUSTON
Family of Mine @ Ferrin Gallery, 437 North Street
Food, Farm, Market @ The Market, 391 North Street
 
 
 
 
Next Thursday, Ensemble East performs in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall on the Williams College campus at 8. The group is a chamber music ensemble from New York featuring Japanese instruments: koto, a thirteen stringed instrument with moveable bridges; shamisen, a three stringed instrument; and shakuhachi, a type of Japanese bamboo flute. The group has toured throughout the US, South America and the Caribbean, and each individual member has a distinguished international performing and recording career. Ensemble East performs the classical music of Japan's Edo period, as well as modern and contemporary ensemble music for Japanese instruments.
 
 
The concert is free and open to the public. General admission tickets will be available when the house opens at 7:30 p.m.
concert hotline: 413-597-3146
 
 
 
 
Michael Bellar and the AS-IS Ensemble will bring their high energy alt-jazz to Pittsfield Brew Works this Saturday at 8. The group specializes in interactive improvisational eclectic, alt-jazz sounds and covers artists ranging from Ben Folds to Led Zeppelin to Willie Nelson.
 
413.997.3506

 

 

 

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