Mittenfest: Junglefowl

INTERVIEW PREVIEW MUSIC

Junglefowl

Welcome to the Junglefowl.

See the rest of our Mittenfest coverage:
Overview of the festival with music samples
The Avatars interview
The Belle Isles interview
Blue Jeans interview

JUNGLEFOWL’s goal is to “redefine cock rock,” and the duo goes about achieving it with an extra fuzzy psychedelic blend of garage-rock and post-punk.

Comprised of married couple Melissa Coppola on drums and vocals and Stefan Carr on guitar, JUNGLEFOWL released its first EP, STRUT in 2015, and this year will play Mittenfest XI on New Year's Eve, just before the midnight champagne toast. Coppola and Carr have been playing music their whole lives and are both music teachers when they’re not blasting out JUNGLEFOWL tunes in their basement.

Pulp talked with the couple to get a feel for their sound and influences and to find out what’s next for the rock duo in 2017 after their year-ending Mittenfest show.

Jazz, Not Ethio Jazz: The Blue Nile & Louis Johnson Serve Up Ethiopian Food & Great Music

INTERVIEW MUSIC

Louis Johnson

Louis Johnson brings American ambiance to Ethiopian fare.

Ann Arbor is well known for its wide variety of ethnic restaurants. From South American, Caribbean, Asian and African cuisine of all stripes, the offerings are all high quality. But very few of these venues also feature any live music, much less classical or jazz.

So, when you think of jazz being played at an Ethiopian restaurant, your first thoughts might turn to the long-running Ethiopiques CD series that did so much to promote the Ethio-jazz style throughout the world.

But at Ann Arbor’s the Blue Nile restaurant, you won’t hear Ethio jazz, which was created by vibraphonist Mulatu Astatke and mixes traditional Ethiopian music with jazz, funk, and Latin rhythms.

Instead, every Friday and Saturday night, the restaurant on 221 E. Washington Street offers top-notch music courtesy of Louis Johnson and a small ensemble of rotating musicians who pull from the Great American Songbook, Brazilian music, the repertoires of Duke Ellington and Horace Silver, and many other jazz standards.

“I'm always trying to challenge the musicians to play something different, and they always rise to that challenge,” Johnson says. “I can't stump them.”

Jazz has been a staple at the Blue Nile going back to a time when saxophonist Doug Horn played there several years running prior to Johnson's current stint, which is going on five years.

Interview: Fred Thomas on his "Voiceover" video

PREVIEW MUSIC

Fred Thomas

Fred Thomas is hearing voices.

Fred Thomas doesn’t evoke regular feelings among his listeners. His smart, wordy songs have grabbed listeners’ emotions for two decades as a solo artist or in bands such as Saturday Looks Good to Me, City Center, and a slew of others.

Thomas is an Ann Arbor native, but over the last decade he's bounced between Portland, New York City, and everywhere in between. But we’ll always claim the prolific songwriter, whose music veers from urgent indie rock to recumbent soundscapes, as our own -- even if his current home is Montreal, Quebec.

He’s just too talented for us to let him go completely.

Thomas has a new album, Changer, coming out January 27. Two tunes have been released so far -- the stripped down and emotionally biting guitar song “Brickwall” and the electronic “Echolation” -- but for “Voiceover,” the third song released into the wild, Thomas made a video.

The clip features Thomas deadpanning his way through strumming a guitar as scenes of everyday activities -- fixing your hair, turning on a lamp, etc. -- are repeated over and over to hammer home that even the smallest moments contain moments of beauty even if everything in the greater world feels like it’s going to hell.

We’ll have a longer feature on Thomas closer to when Changer comes out, but we did a quick chat with him about the making of the “Voiceover” video:

Preview: Student Partnerships in Technology and Performing Arts Showcase

Professor Michael Gurevich is a facilitator.

As the assistant professor and chair of the Department of Performing Arts Technology at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance, it’s Gurevich’s job to help his students make connections between seemingly disparate things, be it computer music and improvisation or tap dancing and video games.

On December 13 at 7:30 pm, the public can watch some of these collaborations at the Student Partnerships in Technology and Performing Arts Showcase, the first event from an experimental pilot course Gurevich developed to bring together artists from the tech side (electronic musicians, coders, etc.) and the traditional arts (dancers, instrumentalists, etc.) Held in the state-of-the-art Chip Davis Technology Studio in the Earl V. Moore Building, the multimedia and performance showcase promises to be a head-twisting exploration of artistic intersections.

In the video below, Pulp editor Christopher Porter interviewed Gurevich and asked him about the showcase -- which is free -- and how it all plays into the University of Michigan’s Third Century Initiative: "As U-M prepares to celebrate its bicentennial in 2017, the Third Century Initiative has been established to inspire innovative programs that enhance the student learning experience and develop creative approaches to the world’s greatest challenges."

Interview: Dr. Thomas Strode and Boychoir of Ann Arbor

PREVIEW MUSIC

Boychoir of Ann Arbor

A past edition of the Boychoir of Ann Arbor chilling in their vestments.

It’s a haunting sound when a group of boys’ voices in the treble range convene.

I’m not talking about performances by boychoirs, which feature the unchanged voices of prepubescent boys, who together make a sound so lovely and pure that the effect is haunting.

I’m talking about the start of boychoir practices and the scary sound created when a gaggle of rambunctious dudes with short attention spans and constant jokes get together to learn the craft of choir singing.

But for 30 years, the ever-patient Dr. Thomas Strode has led the Boychoir of Ann Arbor through innumerable practices, and his ability to keep cool and impart high-quality musical education to a rather wiggly and easily distracted audience is remarkable.

In the common area of Ann Arbor’s St. Paul Lutheran Church, where Strode is the director of music, he teaches boys musical theory and gives singing lessons using a quiet, measured tone of voice. Under Strode's gentle guidance, the boys' constant hum of silliness at the start of practice soon becomes a gloriously soothing sound when they begin to sing.

Strode instructs a prep choir, for newer singers, as well as the performing choir, which features more experienced vocalists and expands the treble boychoir model to also include an SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) choir, with the older boys and their changing voices providing the lower notes.

Dr. Strode really understands how to teach children, which is why Boychoir of Ann Arbor has thrived for three decades. And the kids really do learn to sing beautifully, as listeners will be able to hear at the “A Boychoir Christmas” concerts on December 9 and 10.

These annual shows are highlights for many holiday concertgoers -- but they will also be Strode’s final ones as the choir’s director. He’s retiring at the end of the boychoir’s season, which wraps on June 4 with the “Spring Finale” concert.

With this being Strode’s final Christmas concert, we asked the good doctor to give us a preview of what we will hear and why.

Preview | Interview: Singer Marlena Studer

PREVIEW MUSIC

Marlena Studer

Wine, woman, song: Marlena Studer is ready for the holidays.

Singer Marlena Studer has a particular affinity for the holidays that stretch from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve. The jazz and American popular-song stylist enjoys digging into the Christmas and wintertime chestnuts everyone knows, especially ones that evoke the love and camaraderie many people feel for their family and friends during this time of year.

Studer, as most people do, connects the holidays with memories; in her case, she recalls being taught how to sing by her mother. She remembers singing nursery rhymes and, later, tunes popularized by Andy Williams and Neil Diamond. “My mother taught me to sing when I was two years old,” she said. “She loved showing off her kids in front of the grandparents. We would stand up in front of them and sing songs and they would clap for us. I also danced and performed in theater in high school.”

Review: U of M's “First Crop” Chamber Jazz Ensembles Concert

REVIEW MUSIC

Chamber Jazz

Jazz always seems to be the music that surprises me the most, with its playful syncopation, the clashes created by a few extra notes added to familiar chords, and the sheer ingenuity that comes from improvisation. On Sunday, I had the chance to be surprised by students in the chamber-jazz ensembles from the University of Michigan’s SMTD Jazz department, playing their own compositions and standards, and I came away with that warm-and-fuzzy feeling of having seen something enjoyable and unique. Hosted in the beautiful Stamps Auditorium on North Campus, it was a great space for the music, and the casual atmosphere was incredibly welcoming. The performers were still warming up on stage when I walked through the door — a serendipitous experience for myself and the others who decided to show up a bit early.

Preview: Ron Brooks Trio+ Remembers CJQ & More

PREVIEW MUSIC

Rayse Biggs Ron Brooks at Ann Arbor's Water Hill Music Festival.

Rayse Biggs on trumpet. / Ron Brooks at Ann Arbor's Water Hill Music Festival.

Jazz bassist Ron Brooks has held many roles as bandleader and sideman. Among them are working with famed pianists Bob James and Stanley Cowell and serving as a founding member of the legendary Contemporary Jazz Quartet/Quintet (CJQ), the Latin jazz band Mixed Bag, and of course many versions of the Ron Brooks Trio. As the owner and operator of the late lamented Bird of Paradise nightclub, Brooks performed nearly every night in Ann Arbor for over four decades.

Brooks’ performance schedule since the Bird closed its doors in 2004 has been reduced to select gigs. He spends his daytime hours as a mediator for a Jackson, MI dispute resolution center - as he has most of his adult life. But jazz fans who know him as "The Mayor" will have an opportunity to hear both the Brooks trio and a recreation of CJQ in a single performance at the Kerrytown Concert House. This is a repeat of an historic show at the recent Detroit Jazz Festival (DJF) in tribute to CJQ and DJF’s founding father, pianist/composer Kenn Cox. It will also feature the music of Brooks’ partner, Eddie Russ, along with Larry Nozero in Mixed Bag.

Beyond CJQ, Brooks is the founder and President Emeritus of the Southeastern Michigan Jazz Association. He's worked with arts and philanthropic organizations including The Jazz Alliance of Michigan (JAM). He's been one of the most prominent African-American business persons in Washtenaw County. And he's a prolific performer in his own right, backing many major jazz performers coming through town.

Some of those artists have been Tommy Flanagan, Frank Morgan, Diana Krall, David “Fathead” Newman, Shirley Horn, Kenny Burrell, Mark Murphy, Betty Carter, Sonny Stitt; and countless others, including the greater contingent of Detroit jazz players. Brooks also has the distinction of playing with the legendary Eric Dolphy prior to his untimely death in the early 1960s.

The 2016 Brooks 3 + 2 combo will include saxophonist/flutist Vincent Bowens and trumpeter Rayse Biggs, two of the more prominent Detroit based musicians. With the passing of Leon Henderson (brother of the renowned saxophonist Joe Henderson) and the iconic trumpeter Charles Moore from the CJQ, Bowens and Biggs are two of Detroit’s more capable interpreters of contemporary regional jazz.

Kenn Cox's parts will be taken by pianist Gary Schunk, while drummer Djallo Djakate Kieta has the unenviable duty of taking over for two CJQ drummers who played side-by-side - the late Bud Spangler and West Coast transplant Danny Spencer. They will play material from the recently reissued Blue Note album Introducing Kenn Cox And The Contemporary Jazz Quintet, the landmark recording that stands alongside the Miles Davis epic Bitches Brew as one of the pivotal bridge recordings between the modern acoustic mainstream and jazz rock fusion movements.

In a recent interview, Brooks remembers all the places he played over six decades - most of which are long gone. They include Mackinac Jack's; the original Canterbury House, when it was on Maynard Street; the Loma Linda; the Del Rio; The Towne Bar; Mr. Flood's Party; the Old Town Tavern; the Golden Falcon; Schwaben Hall; and the People's Ballroom. He also recalls the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival at Otis Spann Memorial field next to Huron High School where he played with the CJQ+.

Ron Brooks trio, 1967

Ron Brooks Trio at the Canterbury House, 1967. / Visit Oldnews.aadl.org for more photos and articles of Ron Brooks and his trio over the years.

Brooks also played The Earle; the top floor Sandalwood Lounge with Mixed Bag every Sunday night; the lobby of the Ann Arbor Inn; of course The Bird; as well as more recently, The Raven's Club and Bigalora on Washtenaw Avenue.

Brooks recalls the origin of "The Mayor" moniker, bestowed upon him by the late Marcus Belgrave. “When there was the political challenge or coup of getting a liquor license,” Brooks reminisces, “during a time when they were based on the repopulation of Ann Arbor and only seven new licenses came up, I was one of several people to apply. Larry Hunter was helpful on the City Council - he was a good guy - and I was the last to get a license as there were no other minorities who had them. Marcus made a comment like, ‘Well, you're like The Mayor,’ and it stuck."

Brooks addressed why now is the right time to bring the music of Cox and Russ to the forefront. “Stanley Cowell from Toledo and Danny Spencer were my roommates,” said Brooks, “Pianists Mike Lang or Dr. Tim Tomke, drummers Bob ‘Cleve’ Pozar and Bob Elliott were there in the early days, too. We were trying to find places to demonstrate what the music was and how valuable it would be in the community. Bob James left Ann Arbor after we won the Notre Dame Intercollegiate Jazz Festival, followed by the forming of CJQ.”

Fast forwarding some fifty years later, Brooks added, “I was approached by the Detroit Jazz Festival as a surviving member of CJQ, so we put it together and pulled out a few of Kenny's old tunes and I thought it was a good idea to keep the band going if I could.

“It’s about time. The charts are sprinkled all around - [longtime RB3 drummer] George Davidson had some, [Mixed Bag percussionist] Dave Koether had some from Eddie, and the music was accessible. Barbara Cox [Kenny's widow] was very cooperative. Vincent and Rayse were aware and into it, so I was encouraged to commemorate Kenny's and Eddie's music.

“The experiences I've had were wonderful for me,” concluded Brooks. “I owe so much to music - my life and my success - to the advent of being around and exposed to these musicians who helped in my personal growth. I miss the people the most, but the quality of the music especially at The Bird was so high. What flashes in my mind was the night we had Dizzy Gillespie in town and there were two or three hundred people off the street looking through the window at his trumpet bent up in the air. That vision comes back to me often."


Michael G. Nastos is known as a veteran radio broadcaster, local, national and international music journalist, and event promoter/producer. He is a former music director and current super sub on 88.3 WCBN-FM Ann Arbor, founding member of SEMJA, the Southeastern Michigan Jazz Association, Board of Directors member of the Michigan Jazz Festival, votes in the annual Detroit Music Awards and Down Beat Magazine, NPR Music and El Intruso Critics Polls, and writes monthly for Hot House Magazine in New York City.


The Ron Brooks 3 + 2 play The Kerrytown Concert House, 415 N. Fourth Avenue this Friday, November 18 at 8 pm. For more information call (734) 769-2999 or visit http://kerrytownconcerthouse.com. They also appear at Schoolcraft College in Livonia for a SEMJA benefit at 3 pm on Sunday, November 20.

Preview: Mary Gauthier at Green Wood Coffee House Saturday

PREVIEW MUSIC

Mary Gauthier

Mary Gauthier is hoping for Mercy Now / Photo by Jack Spencer.

Singer and songwriter Mary Gauthier will appear at the Green Wood Coffee House Saturday, playing songs from a "...heavyweight catalog she's built out of unflinching introspection and Southern Gothic-shaded storytelling.” (NPR).

Gauthier didn't begin her songwriting career until she was 35, but her backstory makes for some moving material. Born in New Orleans to a mother she never knew and left in St Vincent's Women and Infants Asylum, Gauthier was adopted at age 1, ran away from home at age 15, and spent the next several years in drug rehabilitation, halfway houses, and her 18th birthday in a jail cell. She later studied philosophy at Louisiana State University and ran a Cajun restaurant in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood for 11 years.

Gauthier's repertoire Saturday will likely include the timely "Mercy Now" from her 2005 album of the same name, a song that resonates in our current political climate:

"My church and my country could use a little mercy now
As they sink into a poisoned pit it's going to take forever to climb out
They carry the weight of the faithful who follow them down
I love my church and country, they could use some mercy now..."

Her latest album, Trouble & Love, has garnered praise from Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and Fresh Air.


Amy Cantú is a Production Librarian at the Ann Arbor District Library.


Mary Gauthier will appear Saturday, November 12 at 8:00 pm at the Greenwood Coffee House, 1001 Green Rd., Ann Arbor.

Preview: Guitarist Tackles Motian's Music & More

PREVIEW MUSIC

Carl Michel and Paul Motian

Local jazz guitarist Carl Michel // Late drummer and composer Paul Motian.

The late drummer Paul Motian was an icon not only among his fellow percussionists, but as a composer in his own right. With credits ranging from the great pianist Bill Evans’ trio and the legendary Keith Jarrett led mid-70s small ensemble, Motian became important in many ways as a mentor and unique presence in modern jazz.

Ann Arbor-based jazz guitarist Carl Michel has recognized the contributions of Paul Motian to the extent he has re-created a complete repertoire of his music. Michel also has his own substantial set list of original music and interpretations of standards, including his favorite compositions written by Chick Corea and Antonio Carlos Jobim - plenty of material to present at his live performances.

In the interim of his research and recording of Motian’s music, he has recently discovered a blog of Cindy McGuirl, Paul Motian’s niece, who is self publishing a book of his compositions. Her blog is titled “Uncle Paul’s Jazz Closet” that has podcasts of radio shows that she curates featuring her uncle’s music. She is publishing a first volume, and if there is enough interest, there will be a follow-up compendium.

Carl Michel started playing electric guitar, switching from cornet, inspired by 1960s rock and blues guitarists. A student at the West Bank School Of Music in Minneapolis, then the Berklee College Of Music, Michel moved to Austin, Texas with his brother, percussionist Robert "Booka" Michel, and became a co-founder of the Creative Opportunity Orchestra, with the innovative lead vocalist Tina Marsh. In 1983, he lived Madison, Wisconsin for a decade, settled in Detroit and then Ann Arbor, where he teaches at the Ann Arbor Music Center, and formed the Carl Michel Group, performing in the Metro Detroit area since 1995.

He has received two Emmy awards in Music Composition and Arrangement based on his work during the 16-part documentary series about 1930s-2000s pioneering female journalist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer Doris O’Donnell Beaufait titled “Cleveland.” His music is featured on film soundtracks "The Fourteenth Victim - Eliot Ness & The Torso Murders,” and “Dusk & Shadow - The Mystery Of Beverly Potts.” He has five recordings as a leader that explores contemporary jazz stylings with either a straight ahead or funky side. The 1998 Carl Michel Group and 2000 Carl Michel Group + CDs received across the board critical review acclaim and nationwide radio airplay.

Those initial CDs are a source of pride for the guitarist in that he received much unexpected praise and attention. “I do want to mention my vinyl LP from the 1980s when I was living in Madison called Food Of Love. That was a trio record. I thought it was more adventurous. When you get your first recording out, it is a sense of accomplishment. It made Cadence Magazine’s Editors Picks. When I moved to Detroit and got to know some people, did some more writing and got to know (drummer) Gerald Cleaver, (bassist) Tim Flood and (saxophonist) Michael Graye, Alex Trajano did the recording, Then I wanted to do a larger ensemble for the Group + and had a good core. So in came (saxophonist) Andrew Bishop, (trumpeter) Paul Finkbeiner and (pianist) Ellen Rowe, and did more extensive writing with more orchestration and arrangement.”

The Creative Opportunity Orchestra led him to believe his arrangements were another valuable aspect of his talent, thus his involvement with film scores. “For ‘Cleveland,’ I had a vision of the Ken Burns documentaries, and I thought I needed more music that related to the period, and I thought more of that time period. There are some elements of darkness like her covering the Sam Shepherd story, and then Doris O’Donnell’s traveling with the Cleveland Indians, unheard of for a woman at that time. And there were stories of women working in factories during World War II. There were many things to think about, but I was given free reign. I was given the synopsis of the series and I wrote themes and sent MIDI files for editing. Some of it was quartet and others were solo piano.”

As far as his connection to Paul Motian’s music, it goes back to his early interest in jazz. I got information from record stores - the first record I had was a Wes Montgomery or Milt Jackson album, then Ralph Towner and Gary Burton. I liked the ECM label and the sound. I fell into John Abercrombie and Pat Metheny pretty hard, but I found a promo copy of Dance by Paul Motian on ECM, which at first I didn’t get it but I loved the spacious sound, and there was no other drummer so unique. Then it was his project Rambler with electric guitarist Bill Frisell and got reacquainted with Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet and Quintet. But it was Paul’s Live In Tokyo that really turned the light on and I realized so much in his music - elements of Thelonious Monk, Eastern European music and Ornette Coleman coming together in his writing and it hit a peak.”

“I tried to get in touch with him, wrote to the record label - his music is not in The Real Book - and he graciously sent me 10-12 copies of his music. I got together with some people and went through this music ten years ago, There’s a lot of depth and you see how the writing is becoming stronger. Then he was not touring, only playing in New York and I went to the Village Vanguard to hear him, Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano. It was religious and mesmerizing. Then he passed away in 2011. Through the internet I was able to meet others who were interested in his music, had copies and was able to exchange music with them. I wrote his music administrator to see if I could get more, was able to, and did the recording project of which I’m proud of.”

As multi-faceted a musician as Carl Michel is, we listeners and his students are benefactors of his vision and broad experience. On the surface as laid back and less interested in image, Carl Michel is a major figure in the Ann Arbor jazz scene we all should pay closer attention to.


Michael G. Nastos is known as a veteran radio broadcaster, local, national and international music journalist, and event promoter/producer. He is a former music director and current super sub on 88.3 WCBN-FM Ann Arbor, founding member of SEMJA, the Southeastern Michigan Jazz Association, Board of Directors member of the Michigan Jazz Festival, votes in the annual Detroit Music Awards and Down Beat Magazine, NPR Music and El Intruso Critics Polls, and writes monthly for Hot House Magazine in New York City.


Carl Michel & Friends with bassist Keith Malinowski and woodwindist Paul VornHagen play The Old Town Tavern, 122 W. Liberty, Wednesday, November 16 at 8 pm. For more information call (734) 662-9291 or visit online at http://oldtownaa.com.