Maestro Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic create "One Sweet Morning"

Alan Gilbert creates “One Sweet Morning” with Mezzo-Soprano Stephanie Blythe

1. Music Director Alan Gilbert in full flight at the helm of the New York Philharmonic

2. Mezzo-Soprano Stephanie Blythe

Story by Dwight Casimere

NEW YORK—It is rare that a living composer graces the stage of a classical music concert, but there, amidst the ovations following a performance of John Corigliano’s One Sweet Morning by Music Director Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, stood the composer, flanked by the maestro and the superlative mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe.

It was Alan Gilbert’s finest hour and an example of the New York Philharmonic at its best. It was also a collaboration of kindred spirits. Maestro Gilbert is the son of two Philharmonic members, his mother, in fact, still plays in the orchestra. Corigliano’s father, also named John, was concertmaster for more than two decades. Add to the mix the super human talents of Stephanie Blythe and you have the recipe for a performance that is literally out of this world.

Corigliano’s One Sweet Morning was originally commissioned by the Philharmonic to commemorate 9/11. Coming just weeks after the orchestra’s Concert for New York, performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, which was broadcast live on the PBS network, marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11, it served as a sort of bookend to the tragedy. Unlike the conclusion of the Mahler, the mood on this night was celebratory, with Corigliano lifting the hands and arms of Ms. Blythe and Mr. Gilbert like champion marathon runners at the finish line.

Essentially a musical setting for four poems, A Song on the End of the World, by the Polish poet Czeslaw written during the weary waning days of World War II, Patroclus from Homer’s The Iliad, which plunges the listeners into the vortex of the Trojan’s war against Troy, War South of the Great Wall, another reflection on war by the 8^th Century Chinese poet Li Po and the titled One Sweet Morning by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg. Ms. Blythe’s rich, mellow mezzo voice caressed each word and underscored it with dramatic import. At times, her resonance melded with that of the orchestra, creating a sensation that made her voice seem like another of the finely tuned instruments.

Samuel Barber’s Essay No. 1 for Orchestra began the program with a candid look at the young composer at work. The orchestra had played his Overture to The School for Scandal as part of its Opening Night concert, featuring Deborah Voigt and this too served as a type of musical chronicle of this great composer. This rhapsodic work was a true showcase for the orchestra with the burnished warmth of the lower strings in the opening movement setting the tone for a dazzling performance. There were some tricky technical hurdles to overcome in the course of this fast paced orchestral recitative, but Maestro Gilbert was able to infuse a soulful resonance into both its opening theme in the Andante sostenuto and concluding Largamente, while lending balance to the intricate Allegro molto in between. There were parts that sounded identical to Barber’s most famous piece, the Adagio for Strings. That, as Martha Stewart would say, is surely a good thing!

As exciting as the first two offerings on the program were, the orchestra and its conductor truly shone in the Symphony No. 7 in D minor by Antonin Dvorak. Maestro Gilbert and the orchestra executed an eloquent reading of this finely crafted work. Gilbert’s conducting was inspired, with careful attention to intricate detail and phrasing. The most elegant gesture came when he urged the orchestra to full crescendo in the final movement, and then motioned to the horns to deliver an intricate grace note that perfectly revealed the ‘inner voices’ of the composition. It was an exquisite moment and the perfect ending to a magnificent, if not varied, evening of great music.

The Last Rites of Joe May: A powerhouse performance by Dennis Farina opens 47th Chicago International Film Festival

THE LAST RITES OF JOE MAY: DENNIS FARINA BRINGS A PRIZEFIGHTER’S TITLE-WINNING PERFORMANCE HOME TO CHICAGO

Story and photos by Dwight Casimere

1. Dennis Farina (Joe May) with Dwight Casimere

2. Jamie Anne Allman is Jenny

3. Gary Cole is Lenny

4. Director Joe Maggio delivers Joe May's signature 'rap on the bar'

5. A scene from The Last Rites of Joe May/Courtesy Tribeca Films

CHICAGO—Dennis Farina has played everything from an Irish mob boss in You Kill Me to a police detective in NBC’s Law and Order, which wasn’t too much of a stretch, since he actually was simultaneously a Chicago cop during the early days of his acting career.

He must have felt like a prizefighter parading his title-winning belt before more than 1,200 adoring fans as he strode the Red Carpet into the Harris Theatre for Music and Dance at Millennium Park for the Chicago Premiere of his most recent film, The Last Rites of Joy May at the Opening Night of the 47^th Chicago International Film Festival along with his co-stars Jamie Anne Allman, Ian Barford, Gary Cole and Chelcie Rose, writer/director Joe Maggio and the film’s producers.

For Farina, this was a victory lap of sorts for a Chicago-born actor who fought, and won a decision to bring the film project to his home town and create what many are calling a career-defining character performance as the down-and-out hustler seeking redemption, Joe May. “It was originally set in New York,” Farina confided in the heady afterglow of the film’s premiere night. “I brought Joe Maggio, our writer/director here, and persuaded him to shoot it in Chicago.”

The Last Rites of Joe May has writer Nelson Algren written all over it, or scenes from the 1949 Nicholas Ray Film, Knock on Any Door, which starred Humphrey Bogart and was based on the best-selling first novel of the same name by African American author Willard Motley. It is an elegiac, atmospheric look at the underbelly of society, only so much more. This is living Hell!

“We have our wonderful cinematographer Jay Silver (Persona Au Gratin-2011, War Against the Weak (documentary), 2009) to thank for that,” said co-star Gary Cole, who played the part of Lenny, the two-bit mob boss who sets the defeated Joe May on a wild goose chase that accelerates his downward spiral. “You can almost smell the garbage in those back alleys and taste the raw meat of the packing houses. We wanted to show that this is no place to be. In fact, its downright dangerous!”

In addition to the Ivan Albright-like frames of Jay Silver's evocative cinematography, there's the seamless editing of Seth Anderson which provides the legato pacing that adds to the film's gravitas.

About his character, Joe May, Farina says his upbringing in Chicago and his experience as a Chicago cop had a great deal to do with the background information that informs his character.

“We shot the film around my old neighborhood,” Farina emphasized. “So I was familiar with some of those streets and back alleys. It was mostly shot around West Grand Avenue-on May Street, Racine. All the streets I grew up on. And those characters. The guys who sit in the taverns all day long and in the back rooms of local diners and make deals. They remind of people, not just from my police days; they’re people I ran across my whole life!”

Joe May is a low life hustler who comes out after months of confinement in the hospital due to a serious illness. He undergoes a Shawshank-like experience. Substitute the infirmary for prison. May gets a rude awakening when he finds that, in his absence, everything in his life has dramatically changed. Strangers now occupy his apartment. All of his belongings have been tossed into the trash and his car has been towed away and sold. Not exactly a heroes’ welcome.

All that is precious and dear in Joe May's life is seemingly destroyed, save for two things, which will later become key elements in the unfolding of the plot. His valued collection of old opera recordings of the great Enrico Caruso and Carlo Bergonzi singing the great operas of Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini were squirreled away in a closed by the new tenant of his apartment. "I thought you might want them," she says off-handedly. Touched, but still wounded, Joe exclaims, "A hell of a lot of good they are without my record player!" The records and a worn family photo he finds inside one of the record jackets are reminders of happier times. At night, their discovery evokes memories, sadness, and tears.

The other element is his rooftop pigeon coop, his haven away from the rigors of the mean streets. A neighbor has stolen his trained pigeons and the coop is a mess but, "just put some new grass in for them to nest and some feed and they'll come back home!" Slowly, and with great psychic pain, he begins to rebuild the shattered shards of his life.

May starts to get his footing when he’s invited back to his old quarters to share them with the new tenants, a single mother named Jenny, (“Rapp, like the music, she says smarmily”, his retort, “mine’s May, like the month.”), who has a world-weary 10 year old, Angelina, played by Meredith Droeger, a newbie who is the younger sister of actress Abigail Droeger. Jamie Anne Allman (Six Feet Under, The Practice. The Shield), is Jenny.

“I was really glad that the director just let me and the character just sit and live in the moment. There were whole scenes that could have been just edited and cut short, but Joe (Maggio) allowed that character to live in that moment and allowed the audience to really feel her emotion. The movie raised the whole issue of the battered wife and I think the film really allowed the audience to feel what its like to live that. It also talks about inter-generational living, which a lot of people are living with now, especially with this economy. There are lots of people who suddenly find an elderly relative on their doorstep with nowhere to go or a friend who just lost their job who has no place to live. I didn’t really think about that until I’d seen the film a couple of times, but those issues are really there as part of the sub-plot.”

One of the criticisms of the movie is that it moves too slowly. That there’s not enough action. “I think it’s a matter of taste,” Allman said. “”If their taste isn’t toward sitting with someone for a while in a situation, then they’re not going to like it at all. They’re going to want the film to move on and get to the next situation. It’s not going to be to their taste.

“In a lot of movies, there’s explosions and things that might get your attention. It’s all for the eye. But this film is more meat for the soul (pardon the pun!).” She was referring to a scene where Joe is given a 50lb leg of lamb to boost as a backhanded tribute from mob boss Lenny. Frustrated that he’s unable to sell the meat, he finally discards it to a stray alley dog. “I’ve seen the film twice,” Allman said,” and each time I say to myself ‘why didn’t he just take that meat home and put it in the freezer. I’m sure Jenny and her kid would have liked to eat it. That 50 pounds of meat could have lasted them for months!”

The relationship between Joe May and the little girl, Angelina, are cemented as the two fly trained pigeons from Joe’s rooftop coop. “Racing pigeons is just like life,” he counsels in the film. “You’re flyin’ high one minute, and down in the crapper the next.”

Farina explained the odd couple relationship between his character and the girl this way; “We wanted Joe to talk to the little girl, just as if she were another adult, another 65 year old, because he really doesn’t know any other way. But Angelina, like a lot of kids like her today, grows up to be old very early. The kid sleeps with a knife under her bed, after all. It’s really sad.”

The film is rife with symbolism and metaphor. In addition to the life-lesson symbolized by the pigeons, there’s scenes at the very beginning and at the very end where Joe ceremoniously shaves and dresses himself. They occur first, as he’s leaving the hospital, and again as he prepares for his final reckoning.

It’s a conceit that’s often used by directors to telegraph the denouement of the plot. It was used most eloquently in the 1986 Claude Berri film Jean de Florette, in which the character played by Yves Montand prepares to atone for his complicity in the events that led to the titled character of the film’s demise. It was used most recently in the 2008 American film drama Gran Torino, in which the Clint Eastwood character, Korean veteran Walt Kowalski, prepares to exact revenge against the gang bullies who have been pressuring his young Hmong neighbor, to whom he has entrusted his prized 1972 Ford Gran Torino.

There’s another ‘character’ in the Joe May film, which plays a pivotal, if not vital role- a rap of the knuckles on a mahogany tavern bar. “That knock on the bar was the director, Joe’s idea,” Farina explained. “I don’t want to give too much away about the film, but Joe said that was a thing his grandfather used to do. It meant that everything was ‘on the arm.’ Things were straight.”

Farina credits his old comrades at Steppenwolf Theatre with the success of the film. “It all really came together when Steppenwolf Films got involved. They brought a lot to the table with their people and their expertise. They let us borrow some of their actors and once they brought Gary (Cole) on board, it all coalesced.”

The Last Rites of Joe May is a film that demands your full attention. In fact, I recommend seeing it more than once, because there’s a lot that goes on that seems insignificant upon first viewing, that turns out to be vital to the plot’s development. The solitary piano in Lindsay Marcus’s sparse, but highly emotive score evokes the loneliness and isolation felt by Joe May. Even the opera arias selected for the film aren’t just there to impress. Sung mostly by the great Enrico Caruso, the words from Verdi’s Otello and Il Trovatore and Puccini’s La Boheme, tell the story concurrently with Silver’s stark images and Maggio’s poignant script. Case in point, the aria Ah Si Ben Mio, sung by Caruso in the opera Il Trovatore. It’s sung during the final scenes in which May prepares to face his destiny. It’s eerily reminiscent of the setup to the score-settling at the end of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, only the blood-letting here is on a much smaller scale.

Tribeca Film has acquired The Last Rites of Joe May for distribution in the U.S. and Canada. Produced in association with Chicago’s Steppenwolf Films, it will be released nationwide October 28 on Video On Demand. It opens theatrically in New York November 4 at Quad Cinema and in Chicago November 25^th at the Gene Siskel Film Center near State & Lake, across from the Chicago Theatre. I suggest ordering your tickets now and setting aside some time for discussion over dinner or cocktails afterward. This is a thought-provoking film that takes on a lot of hot-button issues such as battered women, homelessness, multi-generational living and the general disregard we have for our aging population. This is a film that will live in your conscience long after the final credits have rolled.

Cassandra Wilson:an eclectic work of art in progress in Jazz at Lincoln Center

Cassandra Wilson in eclectic showcase of artistic genius at Jazz at Lincoln Center: Rose Theater

Story and backstage photos by Dwight Casimer

1. Cassandra Wilson with Dwight Casimere at the Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center

2. Cassandra Wilson demonstrates her phrasing technique

NEW YORK—An eclectic evening of jazz, roots music, gospel and hints of the mellower side of R & B delighted a packed Rose Theater as Cassandra Wilson, the GRAMMY ®-winning vocalist, songwriter and producer kicked off Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Visionary Voices series.

With an exceptional septet of equally innovative musicians, pianist Jon Cowherd, bassist Reginald Veal, drummer Herlin Riley, percussionist Lekan Babalola, harmonica virtuoso Gregoire Maret, and guitarist Marvin Sewell, Ms. Wilson led the audience on an exotic journey into the deepest heart and soul of American music. Her selections are not presented so much as individual songs, but as portraits upon which she layers a collage of vocal colors and textures, using the many facets of her magnificent voice as an instrument. Her use of phrasing elevates the lyrics to the level of poetry. To say that this was an inspired performance is an understatement.

The walls of the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, where Jazz at Lincoln Center is located, must have reverberated with the mellifluous sounds that she and her ensemble created. The Mississippi native freely navigates the rivers of the soul as she helms renditions of her own compositions and those of Stevie Wonder, Charley Patton and Miles Davis.

With her rich contralto voice, which is equal to any heard in Lincoln Center’s other venues, Wilson launched into an introspective journey that spanned the length and breadth of her impressive recording career; including selections from her landmark Blue Note albums released over the past 17 years.

Her soulful rendition of Patton’s Pony Blues was one of the timeless moments that brought her considerable talents into focus. The interplay between she and Gregoire Maret on his chromatic harmonica was among the most thrilling moments of the evening. The two raised the level of live jazz performance to that of high art.

Bassist Reginald Veal, with his resounding tones, proved equally proficient at providing a firm underpinning to the music’s progress and breaking loose with freely associated melodic lines. He showcased the flexibility of his instrument as well as his extraordinary talent.

Cassandra Wilson’s voice is like looking at a multi-faceted diamond. Each of the songs she presents reveals a different angle and color of her kaleidoscopic voice. She can change the meaning of a word with the slightest inflection of her voice and influence the harmonic tone of a melody with her phrasing and intonation. Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” also displayed her unique capability at becoming rhythmically at one with her band.

The original ballad “Until” was another of those moments when time and space seemed suspended in perfect equipoise. Her obbligato was mimicked by Gregoire Maret’s harmonic to perfection. She made no bones about who was in charge of things when she ordered the band to “Saddle Up My Pony.”

Her superior mike technique delivered an anguished moan on “Redbone.” Her later nod to jazz genius Miles Davis and his “Run The Voodoo Down” from his landmark album Bitches Brew provided a vehicle to meld the rhythmic power of her voice with that of her superb percussionists.

No Cassandra Wilson concert is complete without a rendition of St. James Infirmary and Ms. Wilson did not disappoint, delivering a version that gave extra punch to the lyrics (maybe she had headed down to the Wall Street protests before the show!) and then gave plenty of running room for Marvin Sewell’s blues guitar.

This was not a concert in the typical sense, but a retrospective of a brilliant career, curated by the artist herself, who is still a work in progress.

I have long been a fan of Cassandra Wilson and have spent many evenings intently listening to her CDs. My last experience of seeing her live was at the Chicago Jazz Festival several years ago. Unfortunately, a talkative companion ruined my evening. Fortunately, the superb acoustics and the unobstructed sightlines of the Rose Theater ensured an all-encompassing interface with this engaging artist, that more than made up for that lost experience.

Anna Netrebko lends dramatic thrills to Met Premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena

Anna Netrebko’s lends dramatic thrills to Met Premiere of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere

Photos by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

1.Anna Netrebko as Anna Bolena

2. Anna Netrebko and Ildar Abdrazakov as Anna Bolena and Henry VIII

NEW YORK—Russian soprano Anna Netrebko was luminous in the Met Premiere performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. The opera recounts the final tragic days of Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, who is sent before the headsman’s axe, in his murderous palace intrigue to wed a new queen. Even those who are closest to her, betray her. As the doomed innocent, Ms. Netrebko gives a towering performance in the title role, which many are comparing to the legendary 1957 performance by Maria Callas at La Scala.

The opera, which opened the Met’s 128^th season, was transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House to large screens on Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza and to Times Square in New York. The opera will also be transmitted Live in HD to more than 1,500 movie theatres in 46 countries around the world Saturday, October 15 at 12:55pm Eastern Time/11:55am Central.

Directed by David McVicar, the production featured stark sets designed by Robert Jones and opulent costumes by Jenny Tiramani that evoked the period and also heightened and underscored the dramatic import of the opera with a bold use of color. Tiramani is the former head costume designer at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London and based costume ideas on portraits by Henry VIII’s court painter.

Lighting by Paule Constable was an integral part of the success of this searing production. It is no surprise that Constable also won a Tony for her work on the Tony Award-winning play War Horse, in performances next door to the Met at the Beaumont Theatre.

Conductor Marco Armiliato set the tone for this somber portrait of tragedy from the opening strains of the overture. Donizetti’s fluid score sparkled with sharp tempos and bright melodic figures from the first violins to elongated, thundering lines from the bass and percussion. Woodwinds and brass were especially strong in setting out the opera’s main themes.

Ms. Netrebko is flanked by a stellar cast, which matches her superlative vocalese note for note and plays off of her exceptional acting skills. Especially strong are the performances of Stephen Costello as Anna’s first love, Lord Percy and mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford as her devoted page, the musician Mark Smeaton. Her singing in the first scene is magical. The scene between Anna and her turncoat lady-in-waiting Giovanna, Jane Seymour, sung by fellow Russian, mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova is one of the richest moments of the evening.

Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov is deliciously despicable as the vainglorious Enrico, Henry VIII, King of England. His is a towering presence, with a commanding voices that booms to the rafters.

The Second Act is all virtuoso Netrebko in full flight. She pulls out all the stops in a tour de force performance in which she excels as both singer and actress. Rarely has such power been unleashed on any stage. I had to see her twice to ensure that I was witnessing what I perceived to be one of the finest performances ever on the Met stage.

Anna Bolena is one of the defining roles of dramatic and Bel Canto opera. For Anna Netrebko it is the vehicle that will make her one of the enduring stars of the modern opera universe.

Deborah Voigt is stunning Salome in New York Philharmonic Opening Night concert

Deborah Voigt is stunning Salome in NY Philharmonic opener

by Dwight Casimere

Photo: Chris Lee-New York Philharmonic

NEW YORK—The patina of a late summer rain dampening the plaza near the Dancing Waters of Lincoln Center Plaza, making the patrons rushing inside Avery Fisher Hall look like subjects in a painting by Caillebotte, did little to dampen the enthusiasm over what was to transpire inside. It was the start of the 2011-2012 New York Philharmonic season, with super-soprano Deborah Voigt making an appearance across the plaza from her usual home at the Met to lend a bit of opera glamour and prestige to the start of Maestro Alan Glbert’s third season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in a program to include her singing Samuel Barber’s and the final scene from Strauss’s Salome.

Ms. Voigt looked stunning as she swept onstage in her regal blue gown and launched into the angular strains of Samuel Barber's Andromache's Farewell without so much as a nod to the thunderous applause that greeted her. A knowing smile crept across her face as she looked toward the podium. It was all clicking. This was to be a performance for the ages, made even more indelible by the live PBS broadcast and subsequent internet streaming webcast that would continue through the week. Hard on the heels of Gilbert and the New York Phil’s performance of Mahler’s Second in the Concert for New York, commemorating the tragedy of 9/11, this was also to be the maestro and the orchestra’s finest hour. With the world’s attention riveted on the Avery Fisher stage and one of the world’s finest orchestras and the music world’s leading vocalist just beneath his baton, Maestro Gilbert had asserted himself as one of classical music’s finest conductors. The orchestra could not have sounded better and been more in synch with its conductor and soloist.

Gilbert and the orchestra sparkled from the outset. After the customary season-opening Star Spangled Banner, the orchestra tore into Samuel Barber's Overture to "The School for Scandal." Their later Overture to Wagner's Tannhauser showed the flawless power of the brass section's unified playing. It was thunderous to behold.

Strauss's Dance of the Seven Veils set the stage for the vocal fireworks that were to follow.

Ms. Voigt’s ability to shift gears (and gowns) to rise to the dramatic occasion of Salome's final mad scene was nothing short of astounding. She scaled the heights of Strauss’s challenging vocal peaks with ease and reached its dramatic crescendo without overplaying her hand. It was a measured performance with just the right amount of tension leading up to the final moment of complete madness, when she kisses the mouth of the severed head of John The Baptist. Her expression and the resonance of her voice convey the horror of the moment, without taking it over the top. It was hair-raising and brought the audience to its feet. The performance was broadcast live on the PBS network and streamed on the New York Philharmonic's website at www.nyphil.org.

Roman Polanski's explosive Carnage Opens New York Film Festival

NEW YORK—The 49th New York Film Festival opens tomorrow with the Roman Polanski’s Carnage. The Sony Pictures Classics release is a searing commentary on the social civilities of our time, where savage emotionalism lies just beneath the surface of the banal conventions and verbal platitudes that pass for daily human interactions.

Based on Yasmina Reza’s Tony Award-winning play “God of Carnage,” the film stars Jodie Foster (Academy Award, Best Actress, Silence of the Lambs, The Accused), Kate Winslet (Academy Award, Best Actress. The Reader), Christoph Waltz (Academy Award, Best Supporting Actor, Inglorious Bastards), and John C. Reilly (nominated, Academy Award, Best Supporting Actor, Chicago).

All of the action in this parlor drama takes place in the living room (and bathroom) of the Brooklyn apartment of the Foster and Reilly characters where the Waltz and Winslet characters have come to hash out a dispute between their two 11 year old sons, which resulted in one of the boys receiving two broken teeth and a gashed lip.

The film starts out civilly enough, with the two sets of parents haggling over a carefully worded document, presumably for medical insurance purposes, detailing the events of the supposed assault “following a verbal dispute, Zachary Cowen, armed with a stick. No, that’s a bit too much, let’s just say carrying a stick!), proceed to sit down over coffee and discuss the matter. There’s an undercurrent of hostility between the two couples that starts to percolate to the surface from the outside. Polanski, a master at pacing, allows the animosity to grow by incremental degrees, with his superb cast providing just the right sense of timing and pacing, until it erupts into over-the-top hostility that practically jumps off of the screen.

Polanski is a master at portraying mounting tension and drama in a confined space (The Pianist, Knife in the Water). He’s also good at portraying the venality that underlies the pc veneer that permeates society. His handling of the mounting tension that finally erupts in Carnage borders on social anarchy.

Winslet is superb as the upper class, restrained one, who starts to become unglued at the outset. She suddenly takes ill after eating the Foster character’s Apple and Peach cobbler (a treackly sweet concoction in which the secret ingredient is revealed to be graham cracker crumbs) and barfs all over her husband and the Foster character’s prized tabletop art book. (There is no buying another one. Its out of print!). Her regurgitating is perhaps symbolic of the ugliness that lurks inside the characters, who all start to get more animated and ugly as the evening progresses from coffee and dessert to a bottle of the Reilly character’s prized single malt scotch. We learn that his wife, the strong-willed, opinionated Foster character, is a borderline alcoholic, with a nasty temper, when fueled by strong drink.

There are no surprises in Carnage, especially for those who saw the play. The treat is how Polanski and his stellar cast handle the all-too-familiar subject matter. The film shows the ugly underbelly of human nature, but in Polanski’s skilled hands, deliciously so. Opening Night of the 49th New York Film Festival Friday, September 30 at Alice Tulley Hall, Lincoln Center.
Upcoming attractions include Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn, a bio pic centering around the production of Marilyn Monroe’s 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl, the Mexican action/thriller Miss Bala, which portrays the societal toll on the little people affected by the Mexican drug cartel reign of terror, a contender for Best International Film and Melancholia, an evocative psychological thriller with sci-fi overtones, starring Kirsten Dunst in a haunting portrayal of mounting mental illness. For more information on the New York Film Festival, visit www.filmlinc.com.

Jon Hendricks, Jimmy Heath dynasties give royal opening for Jazz at Lincoln Center

Photos courtesy Jazz at Lincoln Center

-Jon Hendricks in performance

-Scattin' with daughter Aria

-With Annie Ross

New York—Opening Night of Jazz at Lincoln Center Concerts featured a galaxy of jazz stars in An Evening with two NEA Jazz Masters, Jimmy Heath and his Big Band and celebrating his 85^th birthday, preceded by Jon Hendricks, accompanied by the Andy Farber Octet and featuring a vocalese ensemble that included his daughters Aria and Michelle Hendricks and featuring the likes of jazz diva Dianne Reeves and vocal jazz genius Bobby McFerrin. The aggregate star power of the night brought out no less than the super nova of vocalists from all corners of the music spectrum, including opera legend Jessye Norman.

From the outset, Hendricks, who is 90 years old, an his supporting cast set the Rose Theatre on fire with their vocal pyrotechnics. The opening, Horace Silver’s Come on Home, was a tour de force for the elder Hendricks, who proudly showcased the vocal prowess of his pride.

Hendricks then talked of his time spent in Brazil and his collaborations with composing legends there, which sequed nicely into Every Time They Play This Song (E Preciso Perdoar), a composition co-written by Hendricks with Carlos Coqueijo Costa and Alcivando Luz. Hendricks ‘played’ a drum stick, while whistling an improvised melody, which made an almost ethereal sound. It was truly magical!

After that brief excursion far south of the border, it was back to jazz terra firma and Hendrick’s familiar Everhybody’s Boppin’. At 90, Hendricks voice may show a slight waver here and there around the edges, but the jazz fire still burns in his belly and he moves with the animated enthusiasm that has marked his career these 70 years. In his bright purple suit, he was a whirling dervish of jazz energy, at times setting the pace for the younger musicians on stage. He’s the Jack LaLane of jazz!

The entire vocal ensemble rocked It’;s Sand, Man, recalling Hendricks early Lambert, Hendricks & Ross days.

Dianne Reeves then strolled casually onstage to an avalanche of applause, but she demurred, preferring to let the spotlight focus firmly on the dynamo in front of her. She then proceeded to give one of the finest scat performances this side of “Sassy” Sarah on “Social Call,” the jazz standard written by Gigi Gryce, to which Hendricks adapted lyrics. Reeves sang it with a sense of intense joy mixed with reverence that made hers one of the standout performances of the evening.

Enter Bobby McFerrin to really set it off, with the two taking turns as a vocalese “instrumenta”l soloists, McFerrin a high pitched trumpet of sorts and Hendricks a tenor saxman with “Scattin’ on the Corner, which showed off their contrasting sthyles to tremendous advantage.

Count Basie & Jon Hendricks are the Red Beans & Rice of jazz and the entire ensemble came together to put the first set into the jazz stratosphere.

You would think it almost impossible to follow Hendricks & Co. with anything that would excite as much enthusiasm from an audience, but that certainly was not the case when 85 year old Jimmy Heath strode on stage in his blazing white jacket to lead his Big Band through the paces of his rhythmically complex compositions.

His collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Dorham, Benny Golson and John Coltrane, dating from the earliest days of his first big band in 1947, are the stuff of legend. He continues to curate new musicians for his band and cultivates them like rare musical orchids until the blossom into soio artists in their own right. Bassist David Wong is a shining example of that approach. He was hired to replace Jimmy’s brother, the legendary Percy Heath, when he died in 2005. Alto sax player Antonio Hart became his alter ego among the horn players. Pianist Jeb “General” Patton is the musical heart and pulse of Jimmy Heath’s tight-knight ensemble.

His loving tribute to his brother, Percy, Big “P” and the jazz standard Gingerbread Boy, popularized by Miles Davis and Dexter Gordon, was written, Heath said, in honor of his son who died last year at the age of 46, showed off the band at its best. Soloists reeled off line after line of inventive improvisation, which is the essence of modern jazz. Heath’s driving rhythms and sparkling melodies are what make jazz the life force that it is around the world. If I don’t see another jazz concert this year, I can now say that I heard one of the best of all time at JALC.

Cassandra Wilson brings her Grammy-winning vocal chops which meld urban jazz with her Mississippi blues heritage to the Rose Theatre September 30 to October 1. For more information, visit www.jalc.org.