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HOT WATER MUSIC: Boston’s prestigious jazz promoter, Water Music, has announced the spring half of its 30th season, which again brings the glow of some serious celebrity star power to the Hub. Wayne Shorter brings a quartet rounded out by Danilo PŽrez, John Patitucci, and Brian Blade to Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass Ave in Boston, on March 3. Former Berklee student Keith Jarrett brings his long-time trio — with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette — to Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave in Boston, on March 8. The Dave Brubeck Quartet splits a two-night stand between Boston and Cambridge, with a date on March 9 at Berklee and another on March 10 at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street in Harvard Square. Cassandra Wilson makes a visit to Symphony Hall on April 27. The Chick Corea New Trio hits Berklee on May 17; and the Dianne Reeves Quintet winds things down at Sanders on June 28. Meanwhile, the Regattabar has announced the full line-up for its annual three-month winter/spring festival, which includes the Charles Mingus Big Band on March 29 and 30; long runs by the McCoy Tyner Trio April 3 through 7 and the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine April 24 through 28; and the Dave Douglas New Quintet May 1 and 2. For tickets to all of the above, call (617) 876-7777.

DIRTY WATER: Just in time for Grammy season, the nominations are in for the local version of musical pomp and circumstance, the Boston Music Awards. As always, big sellers rule the roost: the leaders include Aerosmith, multi-platinum grunge-metal kings Staind (this must peeve the executors of the Springfield Music Awards, if such a body exists), and Godsmack. But some of our faves sneaked in there too — American Hi-Fi, Dropkick Murphys, Cracktorch, Scissorfight, Noelle, and Cave In, to name a few. The ever-expanding purview of eligibility has stretched just a little more: after they allowed Rob Zombie into the balloting a few years back on the argument that he grew up in Haverhill, this year we get the first mention of Rivers Cuomo, who several years ago spent some downtime at Harvard. (There was no mention of his band, who could have qualified as a Boston outfit thanks to Mikey Welsh’s brief tenure last year.) But will the stars show? Find out on April 11, when the awards show hits the Orpheum Theatre, One Hamilton Place. Tickets are $15 to $50; call (617) 931-2000.

NEXT WEEKEND:

Thunder rolls

By now, the story should be familiar: bluesman meets Devil, Devil purchases bluesman’s soul, bluesman accomplishes amazing feats of guitar wizardry. In the most famous version of the story, Robert Johnson sold his soul to Satan at the crossroads and, in exchange for making some of the most influential recordings in American music, died young — at the hands of, depending on who you believe, a jealous wife, a mistress’s jealous boyfriend, or Beelzebub himself. In Crossroads, a popular film adaptation of the story (with a dash of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" thrown in), Ralph Macchio sold his soul to the devil but won it back in a Ry Cooder–choreographed guitar duel. In Thunder Knocking on the Door — a relatively recent "bluesical" by Pulitzer-nominated playwright Keith Glover with music by Keb’ Mo’ and Anderson Edwards that opens next weekend at Trinity Rep — we get a few new twists.

Set in mid-’60s Alabama, the play concerns a metaphysical shapeshifter by the name of Marvell Thunder, a demi-man who has definitely been to the crossroads. He’s already taken one mystical guitar from a bluesman named Dregster Dupree, and he’s intent on winning another from Dregster’s blind daughter, who has the good fortune to be named Glory, in a Crossroads-style cutting contest. The stakes are high: if Thunder can’t best Glory, he’ll turn to stone. Then there’s the catch: Thunder and Glory fall in love.

Esteemed director and playwright Marion McClinton is at the helm of the Trinity production; in addition to having directed the last two August Wilson plays on Broadway and on their national tours, he’s directed Thunder at the Guthrie in Minneapolis, at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and at the Dallas Theater Center. "For me, the story hasn’t been told this way," he explains over the phone during a break in rehearsals. "The play is more of a mythical fable that takes the blues idiom, which Albert Murray says is the essence of the American character — it takes this and runs George Lucas through it, and Greek mythology through it, without violating the mythology of the blues itself. At heart, it’s a fable and a fairy tale. Some people think they’re gonna see knives and guns and people hurting each other, but that’s not what Keith intended. He wrote it with his daughter in mind. And I have a young son — we put this together for people of all ages."

McClinton and Glover have a warm history. "What brought me to this play was that I was excited by Keith. I’m a big fan of his work. I had directed a couple other pieces by him, Dancing on Moonlight and Coming of the Hurricane, and he’s also one of my best friends. We worked on Thunder together at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. We’d come together on so many things — as jazz fans, as blues fans — and to me the whole concept sounded great."

The Trinity guest cast includes Tony winner Chuck Cooper and Tony/Emmy winner Leslie Uggams. "They’ve put together a very talented cast; I’m very lucky. Today we rehearsed without the musicians — they practiced on their own while we practiced the book elements of the play. More so than a lot of musicals I’ve seen, the music is the life’s breath of this play. Also, something that some people miss is that the music gives a history of American music as influenced by the blues. You have some songs that are blues and other songs where you see the evolution of the blues, where you get the blues as its played out into the breadth of American music. There’s something for everybody. And after all, inside the blues is everything — fable, tragedy, victories. The essence of a people lives inside of this music. It can be whatever you need it to be."

Thunder Knocking on the Door runs February 15 through March 24 at Trinity Repertory Company, 201 Washington Street in Providence. Tickets are $28 to $42; call (401) 351-4242.

BY CARLY CARIOLI

 

Issue Date: February 7 - 14, 2002
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