Page 4
The Banner
February 3, 2000
Features
Hughes' "Ask Your Mama" a class act
By Kay Alton
Staff Writer
There is no need to ask your
mama about the “Langston
Hughes Project” concert
given Jan. 25 in the Lipinsky
Auditorium.
I was there, and I am teUing
you that it was a Solid two
hours of excellent music and
dialogue.
The Project began after the
death ofHughes in the 1960’s
and is centered around his
800-line poem “Ask Your
Mama.”
Hughes’ poem is dedicated
to Louis Armstrong, the be
loved jazz trumpeter who gave
us tunes to remember like “It’s
a Wonderftil World” and his
rendition of “When The
Saints Go Marching In.”
Armstrong’s music was up
beat, for the most part, and
made me want to sing and
sway in a toe-tapping way.
Hughes’ poem is very seri
ous, as is the subject matter.
He writes about struggles “in
the Negro quarter” of the
1960s for artistic and social
liberty in America and around
the world.
The complete title of the
performance is “The Langston
Hughes Project ‘Ask Your
Mama: Twelve Moods for
The musical cornerstone for
the ipoem is “Hesitation
Blues.” It often began the
musical jazz interlude be
PHOTO BY ANTHONY GRECO
John Wright read Langston Hughes’ poem, “Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods
for Jazz,” at a performance of jazz and poetry on Jan. 25.
tween moodsj
After each mood subject,
such as “Cultural Exchange,”
“Shades of Pigmeat,” “Ode to
Dinah,” “Gospel Cha Cha,”
and “Ask Your Mama,” the
musicians often followed with
a musical introduction of
“Shave and a haircut, fifteen
The sing-song beat was used
effectively after moods when
the author responded to a rhe
torical question like: “Will the
black wear off?” The response
is always: “Ask your Mama.”
Some recognizable songs
were played most effectively
using the trumpet of Ron
McCurdy as the musical voice
for the poem’s lament. He
masterfully played “The Battle
Hymn of the Republic” after
Mood 4: Ode to Dinah.
Every note was boldly loud
and punctuated the air of the
auditorium as a voice lament
ing about the end and disap
pointment of dreams in the
“Negro quarter.” McCurdy’s
control of the notes caused
my heart to wrench.
Vapor rising from the trum
pet valves during the perfor
mance made me realize that
the performance I effortlessly
enjoyed came from a lot of
this man’s physical labor and
disciplined talent.
Different moods were played
as the poem progressed.
Hughes wrote in Mood 3,
“Shades of Pigmeat,” music
so woeful and sad that
McCurdy’s flute wept with
an anguish I could feel.
Other melodies played were
not identifiable because the
author purposefully left
room for conversations in
jazz to occur spontaneously
between the instruments.
The improvisation was the
most entertaining part of the
musical performance to me.
It was fresh from the instru
ments and talent of four pro
fessional jazz musicians.
I mentioned McCurdy
played the trumpet and flute;
he also performed short solos
extemporaneously to punctu
ate John Wright’s excellent
reading of the poem.
Terry Burns used his bass to
present a beat that none other
could have done. He had a
feel for the energy and dy
namics around the different
eras projected.
When Wright read about
broken dreams and promises
unfulfilled. Burns’ solo un
derscored the dismay with an
improvisation melody where
I could fill in the humdrum
beat with my own words: “Oh
well. So what’s new. Another
glimmer bf hope extin
guished.”
“Horn of Plenty” and “Gos
pel Cha Cha” solos by pianist
Russell Hoffman put me right
on the main thoroughfare of
New York City and Havana
during the early 1960s when
many of Hughes’ contempo
raries were popular and up
wardly mobile. Hoffman used
no written music because it
came from within himself
Review
Drummer Philip Hey beat
and cajoled his instruments as
he manipulated jazz sounds
to organize the room to the
mood of the poem. Often he
used a military cadence to in
dicate the march of time and
global occurrences of the
events.
“Ride, Red, Ride” talked
about Leontyne. I thought he
meant Leontyne Price, the
very talented African-Ameri-
can opera singer from the
1960s. Whoever the star may
be, the issue is the demise of
the family in the “Negro quar
ter.”
Hughes’ poem discussed the
dissolution of family ties with
the arrival of the ubiquitous
welfare check. Wright finished
the mood with a description
of a woman felled in death by
a stray bullet.
Hey’s drumstick hit the snare
with an air-shattering beat,
causing me to jump out of the
chair. Honestly, it was so real
I dodged the bullet.
So absorbing was the perfor
mance that when he did it
again, I fell for it just as hard
and jumped twice as high.
Wfight began his reading
sharply at the scheduled show
time, which is what profes
sionals do. The four musi
cians filed on stage dressed in
subdued casual dress attire and
quietly took their positions.
Stage lighting was controlled
with minimal floodlights spill
ing over each performer in
hues of red and purple at the
right time.
ippreciated the fact that
this performance was done
well and professionally, and
did not welcome laser lights,
vulgar jiving, sloppy half
dress or any other glittering
compensations often used by
inferior musicians.
There can be no doubt these
men were at UNCA
real business. Their business
was jazz executed in a gentle
manly fashion with no dis
traction to cheapen the work
of Langston Hugh«
I enjoyed the visual artwork
and photographs of relevant
subjects which were projected
onto a large screen behind
the musicians. The
diums used simultaneously
helped me to understand the
erratic and staccato works of
Hughes’ poem.
It was not a “fun” perfor
mance. I felt heavy and bur
dened for the writer and his
subjects. It was two hours of
very intense words, music and
pictures.
After a very long concert,
Wright opened the floor for
comments and questions.
The mood was destroyed
when a young man yelled
out “You guys are bad
The comment was ignored
until McCurdy took the
crophone to explain his jazz
arrangements for the music.
When he finished, he ad
monished the comment by
saying: “Is that what they
teach you here at UNCA!”
As I said, this was a class
Asheville Gentlemen demonstrate history of jazz
By Melissa Starnes
staff Writer
and it was really fun, and they to work with a jazz group, and
learned something,” said Lloyd people like that,” he said.
Weinberg, adjunct professor in the From what the audience says af-
music department and director of terward about the concert, people
the community jazz band. “So they have considered learning about how
The UNCA music department will
present “A Musical History of Jazz
Styles” on Feb. 6 at 4 p.m. in
Lipinsky Auditorium. The Asheville
had a good time, and they learned
things they didn’t know about the
history of jazz.”
During the event. The Asheville
Gentlemen first talk about the dif-
Gentlemen, a group consisting of ferent forms of jazz, and then they
professional musicians, will play for play a musical selection from each
this event, which focuses on the
evolution of jazz music.
“We’ve done this for several years,
and what people always tell us after
we’ve done it is that they liked it.
Upcoming
type of jazz. The different kinds of
jazz include cool jazz, Latin jazz,
jazz-rock fusion. Dixieland funeral
music, ragtime, swing and the blues.
During the performance, they
“show what each person in the group
does individually,” said Weinberg.
For example, they will tell what the
piano player does, and how the
piano’s role fits into jazz music.
“We show them about the cre
ative process of how you get a song
the individual parts work together
to be the most interesting part of manities cultural
the event, according to Weinberg. 310 event.
Weinberg said he hopes that the
audience will not only appreciate
the different kinds of jazz music,
but will also understand it better.
“When they hear it in a movie, in
a TV show or in a commercial,
they’ll go, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s that
kind of jazz. I understand what
those players are doing when they
play,’” said Weinberg.
The Asheville community re
sponds very well to jazz events, ac
cording to Weinberg.
Usually, for concerts by the mu
sic department, there are more
people from the community at
tending than students.
However, “we would rather have
it be the other way,” said Weinberg.
“I am thinking this will be some
thing students really like.”
This event counts both for a hu-
an Arts
The Asheville Gentlemen formed
in 1987 for two basic reasons. The
first one is that through this con
cert, the group teaches people about
the history of American jazz in an
enjoyable way, acording to
Weinberg.
director of the Key Center for Ser
vice Learning, will play with the
UNCA Community Jazz Band at
the Valentine’s Day sock hop
Feb. 13.
The Asheville Gendemen group
includes four faculty members from
A donation of $5 is requested,
except for UNCA students.
The Asheville Gentlemen perform
“A Musical History of Jazz Styles”
about three or four times a year for
a variety of people.
The group changes the perfor
mance depending on the age group
of the audience. They have done
the event for elementary school
children, middle school students,
high school students, college stu
dents, and the elderly.
“Everybody likes it,” said
Weinberg. “It just seems to grasp
you no matter how old you are.”
The other reason is because all of UNCA and one faculty member
the members greatly enjoy playing from Mars Hill College. Weinberg,
“About half the time we play con
certs like this,” said Weinberg.
“We’ll do them sometimes in the
schools or sometimes we’ll do them
here at UNCA. The other half of
the time we play for people’s wed
ding receptions and dances.”
The group has also played in the
UNCA cafeteria and for Arts 310
classes. Some members played at
the swing dance held on campus
last December.
Weinberg and Dale Roberts, the
the leader of the group, plays the
saxophone and clarinet. Roberts
plays the cornet and fluegelhorn.
The other members include
Charles Holland, adji
sor in the music department; plays
the trombone and brass. Moc
Hubbard, another adjunct profes
sor in the music department, is the
piano player for the group. Paul
Babelay; the only group member
from Mars Hill College, teaches
percussion and plays the drums and
vibraphc
African-American poet Saul Williams
will give a reading of his poetry in the
Highsmith Center Lounge on Feb. 9
at 7 p.m. as part of UNCA’s Black
History Month celebrations. Williams
is the author of two books of poetry,
“She” and “The Seventh Octave.” He
also wrote the script for and per
formed in the Trimark Pictures film
“Slam,” which will be shown at 8 p.m.
on Feb. 8 in the Highsmith Lounge.
Both events are sponsored by Under
dog Productions and UNCA’s African-
American Student Association, and
are free to the public.,
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