E-Mail This Article to a Friend A Taste of History Blues, Jazz, a benefit for the Old South Meeting House, plus more

Celebrating "The Blues"

It was a celebration of a genre born in slavery, but here were a couple hundred of WGBH’s most well-heeled benefactors, members of the Ralph Lowell Society, whose membership "begins with an annual contribution of $1500," sitting at white-linen-covered cocktail tables in the ’GBH studios and chowing down on a thematically correct dinner of fried chicken, dirty rice, and cheese-grits souffle. "The Blues" is a big deal for ’GBH — a multimedia project years in the making whose components include a seven-part film series produced by Martin Scorsese, a 13-part radio documentary series, a 25-CD collection of CDs distributed by Columbia/Legacy, and a book edited by blues scholar (and Elvis Presley biographer) Peter Guralnick (Ted Drozdowski’s report on the films and the CDs is on page 13 of the Arts section).

So you could understand why ’GBH and the Lowell Society wanted to go all out. The Society and invited guests got the full treatment: in addition to the live blues band, there were presentations by the likes of ’GBH president Henry Becton Jr. and ’GBH television vice-president John Abbott hyping the coming season of shows like Prime Suspect (oohs and aahs for Helen Mirren on the video screen), The American Experience, Antiques Roadshow, Simply Ming, and Masterpiece Theatre (more oohs for Paul Newman in Our Town). And ’GBH radio VP Marito Rivera reminded everyone that the radio component of "The Blues" is just as ambitious. Whereas Scorsese chose seven directors (including himself) to explore the subject of the blues in any way they liked, the radio series (distributed nationally, it will begin on October 11 at 10 p.m. here in Boston on WGBH 89.7 FM) will explore the topic in a straightforward, comprehensive, chronological style.

But the highlight of the evening was a speech by Guralnick, who wrote the Scorsese film (titled, like Guralnick’s 1971 book, Feel like Going Home) and consulted on the project as a whole. He was at his soft-spoken, authoritative best, looking back to when he first heard blues as a high-school student — recordings of Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and others brought back from Newport by a friend. He said that he didn’t really know what hit him: "In part it was the directness of the music, the honesty of the expression." He struggled with comparisons with the poetry of William Carlos Williams and Gerard Manley Hopkins, but "I quickly realized that it didn’t need any comparisons — it stood entirely on its own."

Guralnick showed clips from some of the films, and he allowed that when he first heard Wim Wenders’s idea — to connect the lives of country-blues originator Skip James, gospel artist Blind Willie Johnson, and latter-day Chicago bluesman J.B. Lenoir, "it was the screwiest est idea I ever heard — but I didn’t tell him that." And yet the Wenders film became one of his favorites.

He also talked about his own experiences moving beyond recordings, "forcing myself out of the familiar," finding live shows in Cambridge and Roxbury, working as an usher at concerts ("I was the worst usher in the world"), becoming a journalist and writing about the music when few people did, experiencing the thrill of putting the names of his heroes on paper. He talked about the music as being "born in adversity and nurtured in pain"; he quoted James Baldwin’s description of the music’s spirit — the "capacity for facing and surviving disaster."

And he talked about the people — about Son House coming out of retirement to play a hootenanny at Cambridge’s Club 47 in 1964, about interviewing Skip James, "scared to death," but also realizing that "greatness such as this will not pass my way again."

— Jon Garelick

Jazz at Jordan

The jazz component of the Jordan Hall centennial celebration on the weekend of October 24-26 has snowballed — it seems that no New England Conservatory graduate was able to turn down his or her alma mater. Now NEC grad Cecil Taylor has joined a cast that already had Ran Blake, George Russell, Bob Brookmeyer, Allan Chase, and Dominique Eade plus alumni John Medeski, Luciana Souza, Ricky Ford, and Harvey Mason. Herb Pomeroy and Cart Atkins will act as conductors of the NEC Jazz Orchestra. Taylor and Medeski will perform solo, Souza will sing accompanied by bassist John Lockwood, Blake will perform his composition Tribeca with Eade and Ford, and Steve Lacy will perform his piece Baghdad with Chase, Ken Schaphorst, Brookmeyer, and Atkins. Other composers featured by the NEC Jazz Orchestra will be Billy Strayhorn and the late NEC faculty member Jaki Byard. Brookmeyer will conduct music by NEC faculty member Jimmy Giuffre and himself, and George Russell will conduct his classic "All About Rosie." The show starts Friday October 24 at 8 p.m., and from the look of things, it won’t end anytime soon. Jordan Hall is at 30 Gainsborough Street, and this is a free event, but a pass is required; call (617) 585-1151 for that or (617) 585-1122 for further information about the Jordan Hall centennial weekend. Or visit newenglandconservatory.edu/centennial.

Jazz at Scullers

Of course, there’s jazz at Scullers all the time, but this is a little different, a jazz reviewers’ listening panel, "Do You Hear What I Hear?", that’s being presented by the Boston/New England chapter of the Jazz Journalists Association (www.jazzhouse.org) this Monday, September 29. And if you’ve ever wondered what the critics would have to say about the releases they review if they didn’t know who the performers were, this is your event, since that’s exactly what the lucky (and brave) panelists will be doing. On the podium will be Fred Bouchard, Downbeat contributor for the past 30 years; Jon Garelick, our own Associate Arts Editor; Russ Gershon, founder and leader of the Either/Orchestra for 18 years and owner of Accurate Records, an independent label with almost 100 releases; Sherry Smith, host of the WATD show ’Round Midnight; and Jeff Turton, host of the Jazz Brunch on our own WFNX for the past 20 years. They will, we’re told, "comment on the selection’s performance, composition, and production and offer an inside look into how they form opinions about recordings."

This event is free; a cash bar will open for business at 6:30 p.m., and the panel will convene at 7. Scullers is in the Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road at the Mass Pike.

Old South Meeting House benefit

We remember, if only from reading Esther Forbes’s superb "children’s" novel Johnny Tremain, Samuel Adams saying something on the order of "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country" at the Old South Meeting House, but we don’t recall that he ever got to eat or drink there. You, however, can do both at "A Taste of History," an event to benefit Old South that will substitute for patriotic speeches (of which we already have too many these days) Samuel Adams beer from the Boston Beer Company (which reminds us that Samuel himself was a brewer of hearty robust ale as well as dissent) and a matching menu created by Gourmet Caterers, plus live music from pianist Jacqueline Schwab, who’s worked with Ken Burns. "A Taste of History" will take place at Old South on Wednesday October 15 from 6 to 8 p.m.; tickets are $50, or $40 for Old South members. The meeting house (not to be confused with the Old South church in Copley Square) is at 310 Washington Street downtown; it’s wheelchair accessible and close to the State Street (Blue Line), Government Center (Green) and Downtown Crossing (Red) MBTA stops. (After 4 p.m., you can also take advantage of validated parking for only $5 at 275 Washington Street/Pi Alley.) For tickets and information, call (617) 482-6439 or visit www.oldsouthmeetinghouse.org.

Those October 31 movies . . .

In our Fall Preview two weeks back, we noted the absence of Hollywood films opening October 31 and promised to let you know when something materialized for that week. The Human Stain has already had its American premiere in New York, but Miramax, perhaps looking for a less competitive opening slot, has pushed its general American release from September 26 back to October 31. Adapted by Nicholas Meyer from the novel by Philip Roth and directed by Robert Benton, the film is the story of an elderly New England Jewish classics professor who has an affair with a troubled young janitor, whereupon it comes out that he’s really African-American. Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman — accomplished actors but probably not the names you expected to see in these roles — play the professor and the janitor; the cast also includes Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, and Anna Deavere Smith.

Three other releases have also been announced for October 31. Die Mommy Die! stars Charles Busch, Francis Conroy, Natasha Lyonne, and Jason Priestley in a story of a screen diva whose movie-producer husband comes back from Europe, catches her in an affair with an out-of-work TV actor, and then suddenly dies (something about a poisoned suppository). Mark Rucker directs. The Disney animation Brother Bear finds a bear-hating Indian (Joaquin Phoenix) transformed into a bear. Hope Levy voices the "Valley Girl Bear"; Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker direct. And Fox is re-releasing Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror classic Alien, though we haven’t heard anything about a director’s cut. If this line-up holds, look for The Human Stain, for which Miramax has Oscar aspirations, to have a big commercial opening weekend.