Newspaper Page Text
ArTPEAt
Salsa, jazz artists add
spice to festival lineup
CHARLESTON, S.C.
From the blues to salsa to Brazil
ianrhythms, Spoleto Festival USA’s
1997 Wachovia Jazz series features
an eclectic mix of international jazz
musiciansincluding Claudia Villela,
the Gene Harris Quartet, Toots
Thielemans, Ahmad Jamal and
Eddie Palmieri. A part of the 17-
day artsfestival slated for May 23 to
June 8, Wachovia Jazz perfor
mances will take place at down
town Charleston venues, Middleton
Place Plantation and, for the first
time, Kiawah Island Resort.
“We are grateful to Wachovia for
its continued support of the
Festival’s jazz series,” stated
Spoleto Festival general director
Nigel Redden. “Thanks to our new
partnership with Kiawah Island
Resort and the Town of Kiawah, we
are now able to take Spoleto Festi
val USA to the communities of
Kiawah and Seabrook while pro
vidingjazz greats Toots Thielemans
and Eddie Palmieri with additional
Festival performances.” Wachovia
Jazz performances at the East
Beach Conference Centerat Kiawah
Island Resort include Thielemans
on May 30 and Palmieri on June 7.
Newcomer Claudia Villela and
her seven-piece ensemble kick off
the series with music steeped in the
rhythms and soul of Brazil, Satur
day, May 24, at 9p.m. at the Cistern
at the College of Charleston. A na
tive of Rio de Janeiro, Villela is a
classically trained composer who
draws from the Brazilian universe
of sounds—from the music of the
indigenous people to the Middle
East, Spain, Portugal, Africa and
America. “Villeladoesn’t just sing—
she actually dances with her voice
an top of Brazilian beats,” wrote
e San Francisco Examiner.
On the following evening, the
ne Harris Quartet brings the
ues to the Cistern at 9 p.m. Many
ns will remember the Three
unds, the seminal group that pia
t Gene Harris formed in 1956.
ow considered “one of the world’s
ost exciting blues-based pianist”
he London Times), Harris liter
ly was coaxed out of semi-retire
ent in the 1980stotourandrecord
the Concord Jazz label, garner
him France’s Grand Prix du
isque deJazz,a Grammy nomina-
Mayfest boasts impressive
mix of R&B
and gospel
; Foxie 103/100.9, Augusta Coca
'Cola, WJBF News Channel 6 and
#Richmond County Recreation
sand Parks Department bring you
’g e biggest free family event of
#the year: May Fest '97 at May
Park at 4th Street in Augusta,
fSaturday, May 17, starting at 12
Anoon.
¢ The event offers vending, a
EMayFest Playland, a mist ma
hine and picnic and barbecue
Topportunities for the entire fam
SUPER MARKETS
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tion, Japan’s Gold Disc, a Cash Box
Music Award and a place on
Billboard’s Jazz Chart. The Los
Angeles Times answered this rhe
torical question, “Isthere any pia
nist who can outdo Gene Harrisin
hitting and sustaining a blues
groove?” with emphatic response:
“No names come to mind.”
The second weekend of the fes
tival, the legendary Belgian musi
cian Toots Thielemans, who has
made jazz on his chromatic har
monica sound as if the art form
were created exclusively for his
instrument, brings his unique
sound to Kiawah at 8 p.m., Fri
day, May 30, and to the Cistern,
Saturday, May 31, at 9 p.m. A true
original, Thielemans has played
with an extraordinary range of
artist including Ella Fitzgerald
and Billy Joel and has enlivened
soundtracks from Midnight Cow-
ily.
May Fest also offers the Annual
free May Fest Concert; starring the
following National recording art
ists Zhane, Changing Faces, Ray
J, Danny Boy, Erica Yancey and
112 and local performing artist
Ceasar and more. It all happens
Saturday, May 17.
For vendingdetails call the Rich
mond County Recreations and
Parks Department at (706) 796-
5025.
Its Our Pleasure.
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With a career that spans four
decades and more than two dozen
significant recordings, pianist/
composer Ahmad Jamal is a con
tinually evolving, uncompromis
ing and uniquely original stylist
who is considered one of the jazz
world’s most influential pianists.
The late Miles Davis often cited
Jamal’s influences on his own
music, from the choice of reper
toire to musical interpretations
such as Jamal’s noted use of mu
sical “space” (silences) to the
subtleties of Jamal’s personal
phrasing of notes, chords and pas
sages. Known for his compositions
“But Not for Me” and “Poinci
ana,” Jamal brings hisunique style
to the Gaillard at 8 p.m. Friday,
June 6.
Dubbed the madman of Latin
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LAST YEAR'S MAYFEST had 30,000 in attendance.
Vendors may call (803) 796-5025 :
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“music, pianist Eddie Palmieriig
nores music boundaries, blend
ing jazz, classical and pop music
while staying rooted, as he says,
in Cuban music, which “provides
the fundamental from which I
never move.” London’s Time Out
called Palmieri’s music “a to
tally celebratory sound, bounc
ing, shuffling, weaving and
grooving along on a beat so mes
mericand soul-wrenchingly right
that you want it to go on for
ever.” For the Festival Finale,
sponsored by Wachovia, this
“master of salsa” (The New York
Times) will heat up Middleton
Place with his Latin jazz octet
before the dazzling fireworks dis
play on Sunday, June 8. Gates
open at 3 p.m. with the concert
. beginning at 8:30 p.m. Palmieri
also will perform at Kiawah Is
land Resort on June 7 at 8 p.m.
Gloria Naylor
A view from an admirer
By Janet Marie Walker
SPECIAL to Augusta Focus
The world of contemporary Afri
can-American literature arguably
is ruled by a triad of three women:
Toni Morrison, Alice Walker — and
Gloria Naylor.
If Morrison is the mother and
Walker the daughter, Naylor is the
Holy Spirit— that part of the triune
the least recognizable but perhaps
the most accessible to those seeking
knowledge and understanding.
Walker and Morrison are easily
identified by last names alone —
not so with Naylor. The Color
Purple won a Pulitzer Prize for
Walker; Beloved, the Nobel for
Morrison. Naylor’s renown comes
from The Women of Brewster Place
being made into a television moyie
by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios.
This is fortunate, because it thrust
Naylor’s name into the minds of
conscientiousreaders of serious fic
tion. Itisalso unfortunate, because
it made her famous for the novel
that least expresses
her genius.
But there lies the
connection between
herand the Spirit: ge
nius. Unlike that of
Walker or Morrison,
Yale graduate
Naylor’s geniusis ac
cessible to the aver
ageintelligentreader.
It doesn’t take a doc
torate in literature
and five readings to
gain an understand
ing of the plot, the
theme, thesymbolsin
a Naylor story — al
though five readings
of any Naylor work is
advisable simply for
the pleasure and in
tellectual challengeit
would provide. De
spitetheaccessibility,
there is a complexity
and depth to each of
her novels — depth,
but hardly the fear of
drowning in some showy display of
metaphysics, such as one gets with,
say, Walker’s The Temple of My
Familiar.
There is, however, a marked dif
ference between Naylor and the
Holy Ghost. I'm told if you invite
the latter into your life, it will stay
with you as long as you sincerely
want it to. Not so with Naylor. She
gave me ten minutes by phone, and
then added five more when she re
alized I was more than just a re
porter doing my job but actually
was an admirer of her work.
Naylor says she had been writing
since she was 12-years-old and her
mother gave her a diary “to put
[her] thoughts in.” Her profes
sional writing career beganin 1981,
when she penned Brewster Place.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich released
the work a year later — lightening
speed in the world of publishing.
Currently, Naylor says she’s work
ing on a sequel to her debut. The
Men of Brewster Place will recount
the original story from the perspec
tive of the male characters.
The novel will be a departure
from what Naylor usually does.
Strong women are often the cen
tral figures in her novels — in-,
deed, Sapphira Wade, a character
inMama Day, seems Jehovah-like
in her construction, and Mattie
Michael of Brewster Placeisacalm
AUGUSTA FOCUS' MAY 11,1997
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Gloria Naylor will be fea
tured at the Sand Hills Writ
ers Conference at Augusta
State University May 8-10.
pillar of strength for an entire com
munity of women. But Naylor
claims no bias against men as the
motivation for this pattern.
“I don’t consciously set out to
Unlike that of
Walker or
Morrison, Yale
graduate
Naylor’s genius
is accessible to
the average
intelligent
eader. It
doesn’t take a
doctorate in
literature and
five readings to
gain an under
standing of the
plot, the theme,
the symbols in a
Naylor story...
Hills in 1985 (Ticknor & Fields),
Mama Day in 1988 (Ticknor &
Fields), Bailey’s Case, 1992
(Harcourt Bruce Jovanovich), and
an edition, The Best Short Stories
by Black Writers, Vol. 11, in 1995
(Little, Brown & Co.)
A mastery of language marks
Naylor’s novels — a diction and
rhythm I identify as Nayloresque.
In Mama Day, a tomato “breaks”
beneath the teeth “like warm
flesh.” The novel, the writing of
which Naylor calls “a special expe
rience,” tells the tale of a revered
conjure woman who lives on an
island off the coast of Georgia and
South Carolina. The novel also is
a love story detailing the court
ship and marriage of a New York
architect and Mama Day’s outspo
ken niece. It weaves together the
supernatural and the ordinary, and
weds rural spirituality with urban
cynicism. InLinden Hills,amaca
bre work which highlights the bit
terness of success for residents.of
a Black middle-class neighbor
hood, different typefaces and dras
tic switches in voice signal chang
ing points of view. And inßailey’s
Case, Naylor draws interesting
background portraits of the char
acters who frequent a neighbor
hood case and hotel.
See NAYLOR, page 2B
1B
tell the stories of
theseindividual char
acters, but every
thing you write fil
ters through your
own experiences, and
Ihave known women
like the ones who live
on that street
[Brewster.] The au
thor also claims an
other source: the lit
erary muse, which
she says brings her
the stories she writes.
“I will get images in
my head of charac
ters who might be
doing something and
then I go in search of
the story behind that
image,” she explains.
Naylor has four
published * novels to
her credit and an an
thology of short sto
ries which she edited.
Brewster Place was
followed by Linden