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The Signal, 3.2.12 & 3.3.12, Gathering of Waters, NOVO Festival, Tap Tribute, & Sam’s Stomach
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March 2nd & 3rd, 2012, on The Signal…
Novelist Bernice McFadden joins us to discuss her new book, “Gathering of Waters,” a story that mixes historical fact and magical realism in the town of Money, Mississippi.
We preview the 2012 NOVO Instrumental Music Festival with curator Mat Leffler Schulman and performers Mike Shank and Ruby Fulton.
Baltimore tap legends Buster Brown, Baby Laurence, and Hawk Hawkins may be gone, but their spirits live on. Modern tap dancer Quynn Johnson shows us how two toes plus two heels can equal infinite rhythms.
Plus: a Stoop story about a healthy appetite, from WYPR’s own Sam Gallant.
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Comments
Novo Festival
Listening to the piece about the Novo instrumental music festival was a very weird experience and was not produced with the uninformed listener in mind. The performers talked about how strange it is to perform music without vocalists, and I don't know what to make of that. When a student studies playing an instrument, she/he doesn't take piano or guitar or clarinet with the notion of becoming a back-up to a vocalist. We learn to perform on the instrument. Entire genres of music (symphonic, chamber) feature very little vocal elements. Others (jazz, bluegrass) are a mix of instrumental and vocal music while opera, of course, is a vocal genre. Rock and roll has historically been a vocal genre, as is rap. So initially, I felt like Rip van Winkle, having been asleep for a long time and wondering what had happened to instrumental music. But as the piece progressed, I realized that it is not I who was ill-informed. Your performers don't seem to know that instrumental music is as old as music itself; your producers and interviewer didn't seem to think any of us would notice. All in all, it was a rather shallow rendition.
_Brint