The Semester is Over

     Nan's grades are posted and the complaining has started; so it must be the end of the semester.  A busy one it has been.  The last week was no exception.  Nan's course this semester was based upon the Civil War.  The students were to write a formal academic paper based upon their research and then convert it into a public history format.  Public history ranges from movies to websites to performance to exhibits.  Many of the students opted for performance and I was recruited to provide both body and voice.  I got to play William Lloyd Garrison, Robert E. Lee, several other generals,  a confederate prison guard, and, in an ode to color-blind casting, Frederick Douglas.  Some of the projects will be on a class web-site.  I'll provide the link when it becomes available.  Some of the projects are tremendous.
     Socially we were busy as well.  It's been a big band month for us.  The Broad Street Cafe in Durham has a Sunday night jazz series and we went with our friend Michael to see the North Carolina Big Band.  I was surprised that they were able to get 20 musicians on the small stage.  They played a lot of old standards and it was a nice evening.  We then went with our friends Jeff and Jane to the small town of Saxapahaw to the Haw River Ballroom for a night of dancing to the sounds of the North Carolina Revelers, another 20 piece big band. They too did the standards with some vocals.  It was fun to dance to live music, although I wished they had added some cha-chas or rhumbas.  The Music Hall is a busy music venue.  It's an old mill that has been renovated into a great place to party.
     The last big band we saw (actually I saw as Nan went with friends to the Carolina Theater to see Four Bitchin' Babes) was the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble.  Hollenbeck is a drummer and Eastman grad whose jazz stylings are anything but standard. He was joined by vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Kate McGarry.  His soon to be released albums uses "pop" songs of the past generations as a base, but are certainly not performed as standards.  He played some of his own work as well.  His work "Blessing", based on the Irish Blessing was particularly noteworthy.   The singers were often used to augment the instrumentation, mirroring lines of melody heard in the various instrumental sections.  The last few number could be categorized as very progressive with a number of  section which I can only describe as cacophonous.  But it was interesting  and I truly respected the artistic vision and talent of the musicians.   I afraid however that I'll always be partial to a good melody line that I can follow all the way through a song.
      The Duke Music Department was busy the first week of December.  They offered three concerts, of which we made two of them. The first is the Duke Chorales annual holiday concert held in Duke Chapel.  We went with Jeff and Jane and spent a large portion of the time looking for parking.  The Chapel was jammed and we had to sit in the back. Between having trouble hearing and an abundance of crying infants, I think we can skip this next year.
      The Duke jazz ensemble usually features a guest artist.  Their December concert guest was drummer Alvin Atkinson, who is a US Jazz Ambassador and is from the Durham area.  He currently teaches as the Lincoln Center Jazz Academy in NYC.  He played with the ensemble on all their numbers and was featured with the Duke Jazz Ambassadors.  It was a very enjoyable concert.
      One of my first dates with Nan was to see Keb Mo at the Troy Music Hall.  So when I saw he was going to be appearing at the Carolina Theater I couldn't resist.  When we saw him at the Music Hall, he performed with a band.  A second time we saw him was at the Egg in Albany and that was also with a band.  He was solo this trip and he was great.  Almost a two hour set, which featured some of our favorite songs.  It was just a fun night.
       All our nights weren't tied up with music and dance.  We went to see Disney on Ice over in Raleigh with some kids.  It was fun.  Mickey and Minnie were there with Donald and Goofy, but most of the night involved a retelling of  Brave, The Little Mermaid, Tangled, and Beauty and the Beast.  The kids loved it and that was enough to make us smile.
       The only Duke sporting event I went to was the women's basketball game against U of California.  It was more competitive than the other games I've attended, but we still won handily  
77 to 63.
       Well be heading north soon for Christmas.  I'll be reporting in from there.