‘Out of the Box’ will deliver some good outdoor music
March 28, 2016
by Mike Holtzclaw
Contact Reporter
Now the WHRV-FM 89.5 radio personality is delivering an event for the spring. Shugrue has announced the “Out of the Box” festival, a free event featuring a half-dozen top-notch musical acts from around Hampton Roads, April 9 on the WHRO parking lot (5200 Hampton Boulevard in Norfolk).
The festival will feature performances by Feral Conservatives, Newport News blues singer Bobby “Blackhat” Walters, the always hot Anthony Rosano and the Conqueroos, popular beer band Esoteric Ramblers, Step Pets, and a solo performance by Last Bison front man Ben Hardesty. (He tells me he plans to do mostly Last Bison tunes, with perhaps a few “old country covers” mixed in.)
Shugrue will be doing his show live from the festival that day. As part of a tie-in with WHRV’s “The Scene,” local visual artists will be on hand to create works of art live during the broadcast. Food and drinks will be available from several top local food trucks.
Climbing the charts
Jae Sinnett’s album “Zero to 60” continues to climb the Jazz Week Charts and last week hit No. 3.
Sinnett — a drummer, composer and bandleader from Chesapeake — has hit No. 1 twice before, with “Listen” in 1996 and “Sinnett Hearings” in 2005. But he is quick to point out, those albums came out in a different era, when Jazz Week used a different formula to register airplay figures. Topping the charts is tougher now, but he hopes he can get there.
“Zero to 60,” released last year and named in honor of his impending 60th birthday, was a tremendous undertaking for Sinnett. He geared his compositions for the sound of a classic jazz ensemble, and he enlisted the talents of his longtime collaborator Allen Farnham on piano, and of two terrific New York players (saxophonist Ralph Bowen and bassist Hans Glawischnig).
Sinnett composed the songs, initially planning to play them live but not record them. He sent the songs to Bowen and Glawischnig, neither of whom he had played with before. Both agreed to play the shows, and both urged him to record this new material. The four musicians got together last September for a whirlwind schedule — three shows in Hampton Roads followed by two days in a Springfield recording studio.
The resulting CD is terrific. If you can sit still while listening to it, there’s something wrong with you.
Symphonies
The Ferguson Centers has a couple of really good symphony shows coming up.
JoAnn Falletta, in her 25th year as musical director of the Virginia Symphony, will conduct the orchestra’s performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony on Friday night at the Ferguson. The same program will be performed at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk on Saturday night and at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach on Sunday afternoon. For details and tickets, go to virginiasymphony.org.
April 10, the National Symphony Orchestra will play a 3 p.m. matinee at the Ferguson Center. The program features Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Nikolaj Znaider will conductor and Benjamin Grosvenor will play piano. The show is part of a five-year agreement between the symphony and the Ferguson.
For details, call 757-594-8752 or go online to fergusoncenter.org.
The Dutchman
The Virginia Opera closes out its season with Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman,” which opens at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk on April 8, 10 and 12 before moving on to Richmond and Northern Virginia.
Wayne Tiggs will perform the title role, and Francesca Zambello directs. When Zambello (artistic director of the Washington National Opera in D.C.) brought this production to the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, N.Y., a few years ago, the reviewer from Theater Life wrote: “Wagner’s ‘The Flying Dutchman’ has probably never been so sexy. During a fierce duet in the second act, the leads could barely keep their hands to themselves, and I marveled at how they were able to hit their high notes while practically ravaging each other. That kind of sensuality percolates beneath the action and finally explodes as the maiden Senta gives in to her obsession for the titular character.”
For tickets and information visit vaopera.org or call 866-673-7282.
Local appearance
Randy Blythe, lead singer for the Richmond metal band Lamb of God, will be at the Slover Library in Norfolk at 7 p.m. Saturday to talk about his memoir “Dark Days,” which describes the time he spent in a notorious Czech prison while awaiting trial in the death of a fan at a Prague concert.
Blythe, a Chesapeake native, told me last year that he was proud to say he wrote the book without the services of a co-author or ghost writer. He told me: “”Plenty of people have interesting stories that are worthy of being told — however, not everyone is a writer. I was confident I could write my book and craft some quality prose. I know good writing because of reading so much. I wanted my voice to come through in the book, and I can’t think of anyone qualified to ghost-write my story. No one else had been in that particular weird position that I was writing about. I didn’t have to ponder it at all.”
The Slover Library is located at 235 E Plume Street. For details, call 757-664-7323.
Release party
The North Carolina bluegrass band Town Mountain has a new CD coming out, and the quintet will be coming to the Taphouse in Hampton to mark its release.
The Asheville band, a popular act at the Taphouse, will play there April 5 to celebrate the release of its fifth album, “Southern Crescent.” The CD comes out this Friday.
Dirk Powell, a four-time Grammy winner and Appalachian music historian, produced the album at his Cypress House Studio in Louisiana. “Southern Crescent” is packed with melodic, up-tempo songs such as “Comin’ Back to You,” “Ain’t Gonna Worry Me,” and the rollicking title tune. But Town Mountain can also slow it down on slower numbers such as “House With No Windows.”
The Taphouse show starts at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7. Admission is $15, and the show is for ages 21 and up.
Country for kids
This year’s Country for Kids show at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton will feature Frankie Ballard and Eric Paslay on April 9.
The event is an annual charity show to benefit the Center for Child and Family Services in Hampton. Tickets are $25-$50 and can be purchased through Ticketmaster. For details, go online to countryforkids.com.
Shakespeare coming
Next month marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, and you can expect plenty of performances of The Bard’s great plays and poems.
At the College of William and Mary on April 23 (the anniversary of Shakespeare’s death), the folks from the Virginia Shakespeare Festival will attempt to read aloud all of his sonnets in a single day, starting at 10:30 a.m.
Old Dominion University is holding a full week of events between April 13-20. Google the phrase “Shakespeare: 400 Years After” to see a full schedule.
The Virginia Stage Company, in conjunction with the Virginia Arts Festival, will perform “The Tempest” April 16-17 at Chrysler Hall. It will feature the music of Sibelius — played by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by JoAnn Falletta, and sung by Virginia Symphony Chorus.
Look for further info on Shakespeare events in future Good Life and Ticket sections.
Holtzclaw can be reached by phone at 757-928-6479.
