It’s the singer, not the song or is it? After all, it is the melody that lingers, the words that capture the undefinable. Songs are mercurial things, each having a mystery path — so far from the iPod or radio dial — that evades the fan. But next weekend, at various locations across the Island, the Martha’s Vineyard Songwriters Festival brings a dozen of the nation’s best songwriters together to celebrate songs, stories and each other.
Enjoy an evening of contemporary chamber jazz in Vineyard Haven on Sunday, with a new jazz ensemble consisting of professional musicians from West Tisbury and Chilmark: Eric Johnson on electric and nylon-string guitar, Tauras Biskis on percussion, and Boaz Kirschenbaum on fretless bass guitar.
The concert is on August 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven. The program will feature the music of Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius.
Grab a slice of Haydn next week with your packets of roast beef, ham and swiss. Don’t see the connective tissue there? Well, that’s because one never really knows what will be uncovered when pulling back the curtain on our neighbors’ lives.
This Saturday, Sept. 4, Cindy Kallet and Grey Larsen will perform at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven. The two have spent much of the past five years collaborating together. Cindy is a songwriter, singer, guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist. Grey plays the Irish flute and tin whistle, concertina, fiddle, piano and harmonium. As composers each has contributed much to the tapestry of contemporary folk and world music as it flourishes in America today.
It’s quiet out there, at night on the Island this time of year. In town there are a few signs of life. But on the back streets, after the sun goes down and the winter chill takes over, mostly it’s just smoke from a woodstove or a startled rabbit or nothing at all. But looks can be deceiving.
Growing up, Grace Potter always had a strong taste for celebrity. She remembers wishing she’d some day just morph into Ariel, of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. When it started to look as if coronation was out of the question, she embarked on another path to fame, joining up with some college buddies to form the band Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.
Ulali, the Native American a cappella singing group. has performed nearly everywhere: the Smithsonian’s Folkways 50th Anniversary Gala at Carnegie Hall, Woodstock 94, the Hollywood Bowl, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Madison Square Garden, even the Olympics. They have traversed the world too. From Fiji to New Caledonia; Portugal to Brazil.
And on Wednesday, August 25, at 5:30 p.m. they play the Aquinnah Cultural Center.
Combine your love of literature and music by spending the evening with vocalist Stephanie Miele as she sings Broadway ballads inspired by children’s literature.
Yes, there are quite a few.
Richard Rogers, Oscar Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Kern and Lerner and Loewe have all whetted their creative fires by igniting the child within.
Examples include C’est Moi from Camelot, Many a New Day from Oklahoma, and Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man of Mine from Showboat.
On Sept. 12 Nectar’s will host a Wintertide Coffeehouse Reunion Concert featuring popular New York singer-songwriter Dayna Kurtz and Island artists Jemima James, Dan Waters, Kim Hilliard and Kevin Keady.
Wintertide was a mainstay on the Vineyard for many years, and was recognized by Billboard as one of the top performing arts centers in the nation. It also provided entertainment for teens when there were no other options on the Island.