Rockport Music brings jazz this fall with Tamir Hendelman, Regina Carter, Michael Feinstein, and much more 

This Fall, Rockport Music features the best in jazz, soul and the American Songbook featuring the Tamir Hendelman Trio, soul queen Bettye LaVette, jazz violinist Regina Carter in a program entitled Simply Ella, as well as the incomparable Michael Feinstein.

Michael Feinstein at the Palladium in Carmel, Ind., Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010. (Photo by AJ Mast)

Regina Carter

Tamir Hendelman

Friday, September 8, 8 PM
Tamir Hendelman Trio

With his hard-swinging approach and feather light touch, pianist Tamir Hendelman has emerged as one of the most intriguing jazz talents to arrive on the scene in quite some time. On top of his own trio outings as a leader, the Israeli-born artist is best known for his outstanding work with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.  With the CHJO, Tamir has recorded for John Pizzarelli, Gladys Knight and Diana Krall. He is the pianist/arranger on Jackie Ryan’s “You and the Night and the Music” and Janis Mann’s “A Perfect Time.” He is also featured on Natalie Cole’s “Still Unforgettable” and Barbara Streisand’s Love is the Answer.  Tickets:  $29, $24 

Sunday, September 17, 5 PM
Lizz Wright

A vocalist of uncommon talent and spirit who slides effortlessly between jazz, R&B, gospel, blues and folk, Lizz Wright has a smoky, supple voice that has beguiled fans and critics alike for over a decade.  Her most recent effort, 2015’s Freedom & Surrender, featured a set almost entirely made up of originals.  Tickets: $59, $55, $45

An Intimate Evening with Bettye LaVette
Featuring Alan Hill on Keyboards

A soul queen with a commanding voice and a hugely charismatic stage presence, Bettye LaVette comes to Rockport in the midst of a long-deserved career renaissance.  The Grammy-nominated singer was recently given the Blues Music Award for Soul Blues Female Singer of the Year. Tickets: $46, $40, $29

Sunday, October 8, 5 PM
Regina Carter: Simply Ella

The foremost jazz violinist of her generation and recipient of the prestigious “genius grant” from the MacARthur Foundation, Regina Carter is touring off her recent release, Ella: Accentuate the Positive, marking the 100th birthday of a musical legend. The program celebrates the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald – the source of Regina’s musical inspiration. Tickets: $55, $49, $39

Friday, October 20, 8 PM
Michael Feinstein

Over the last three decades, Michael Feinstein has brought the music of the Great American songbook to the world.  A five-time Grammy nominee, Feinstein has also received tremendous TV success with his Emmy nominated special Michael Feinstein-The Sinatra Legacy, the PBS series Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook, as well as hosting an acclaimed NPR series. Hailed as “the Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” Feinstein is one of the most important musical forces of our time. Tickets: $125, $105, $85

Saturday, December 2, 3 & 8 PM
Cape Ann Big Band Holiday

Enjoy the holidays with Cape Ann’s own 17-piece big band performing holiday favorites, old and new, infused with a bit of jazz, swing, and rock n’ roll.   Tickets:  $36, $29, $19

Sunday, December 3, 5 PM
An Evening with George Winston

One of the most successful and recognized solo pianists in the world, George Winston brings his remarkably enduring and highly imitated piano style to Rockport for the first time in a concert just in time for the holiday season.  This concert will feature George’s Winter Show, which will include melodic fall  and winter type songs, some of Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts pieces, pieces inspired  by the New Orleans piano & the stride piano traditions, and songs from his  upcoming albums.  Tickets: $52, $45, $38

Wednesday, February 7, 7 PM
Beantown Swing Orchestra

The 18-piece big band performs music of the swing era with its characteristic and infectious swing beat, as well as Sinatra classics. The Orchestra’s mission is to bring big band music back into the mainstream for future generations to enjoy. The orchestra features many young and notable vocalists, including American Idol finalists and other rising stars. The concert will include a local student quintet and vocalist in the program.  Tickets: $20, $15

NEW CONCERTS ADDED TO THIS SEASON

Friday, November 3, 7 PM
Rockport Folk Summit: Pickers & Fiddlers
Session Americana & Lonely Heartstring Band

Two of New England’s most celebrated roots music bands—Session Americana and the Lonely Heartstring Band–team up for a truly special night celebrating the great Americana tradition. These acclaimed bands will each perform a set before joining forces in an exciting hootenanny collaboration. Tickets: $26, $20

Saturday, November 18, 8 PM
Justin Townes Earle
Opening Act: Joshua Hedley

Justin Townes Earle has emerged as a genre-busting acclaimed singer-songwriter, infusing country, blues, folk and indie rock into his vintage Americana sound. The son of beloved country folk musician Steve Earle, Justin is touring off his newly released album Kids in the Street.  Tickets: $39, $35, $29

Sunday, March 4, 5 PM
Sweet Honey In The Rock

Globally renowned a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey In The Rock continues to cultivate, evolve and add memorable moments to their indelible legacy as activists and artists. They have stayed true to their mission to educate, entertain, and empower their audience and community through the dynamic vehicles of a cappella singing and American Sign Language interpretation. Tickets: $72, $66, $50

All concerts and events are held at Rockport Music’s stunning, seaside Shalin Liu Performance Center at 37 Main Street, Rockport, Massachusetts. Visit rockportmusic.org or call the Box Office at 978-546-7391 for more details on upcoming concerts.  Rockport Music is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The thirty-third Gloucester Schooner Festival begins tonight with the Mayor’s Reception at Maritime Gloucester.  The saturday Maritime host Gloucester Heritage Day from 10-4pm.  We’ll be doing deck tour on Adventure from 9-12, hope to see you there.  There is a lobster bake at Gloucester House, Concert on Stacy Boulevard, Boat Parade Of Light and Fireworks.  Then Sunday the best part Parade of Sail and Race.

My pictures from last year, can’t wait to see what great ones we all with get this year.  Charlene Delaney 

If you can look at this gorgeous photo and not find yourself singing, “Sailing” by Christopher Cross you are a stronger person than I am.

Thanks again to Paul and Betsey Horovitz for keeping me armed with wonderful photos of the Annisquam.

FORUM ON AVOIDING NUCLEAR WAR WITH NORTH KOREA

Foreign policy expert Rajan Menon, who specializes in Asia, will outline a scenario for an effective diplomatic approach to the confrontation between the U.S. and North Korea at a free Cape Ann Forum on Saturday, September 23, at 8 p.m. at Gloucester City Hall. The alternative, he warns, is a potential nuclear disaster that could claim thousands of lives, perhaps more.

Professor Menon argues that the coercive tactics President Trump has used to compel North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program have only caused its leader, Kim Jong-un, to up the ante. “By now,” says Menon, “this much ought to be clear: North Korea hasn’t been cowed into compliance by Washington’s warnings and military muscle flexing.”

Menon adds: “The more Pyongyang suspects that Washington’s real goal is regime change, the less likely it will be to relinquish its nuclear weapons for fear of suffering the fate of [Libyan leader] Muammar Gaddafi, who shut down his nuclear program only to be toppled in what began as a U.S and NATO humanitarian intervention to protect civilians but morphed quickly into a campaign to take him out.”

Under these circumstances, says Menon, if President Trump “acts on the assumption that North Korea will become reasonable only when faced with the certainty of war, there could be a conflagration on the Korean peninsula the likes of which would be almost unimaginable.”

Menon proposes a diplomatic approach based on reciprocity to de-escalate the confrontation and lower the temperature between the two sides while laying the groundwork for what he calls “a grand bargain that combines aid and political normalization in return for denuclearization and the pullback and reduction of troops on the Korean peninsula.”

Menon is the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of International Relations at the City College of New York, a Senior Research Fellow at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and a Global Ethics Fellow at the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affairs. He holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Illinois and has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants.

U.S. Army combat veteran Andrew J. Bacevich, a History and International Relations professor at Boston University and a two-time Cape Ann Forum speaker, calls Menon’s latest publication, The Conceit of Humanitarian Intervention, “an immensely admirable book—concise, lucid, and above all tough-minded. Proponents of humanitarian intervention will find Rajan Menon’s stinging critique discomfiting—which is precisely why it merits their considered attention.”

Menon’s other books include Ukraine in Conflict: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order (2015), and The End of Alliances (2007). His commentary has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, Newsweek, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Huffington Post, The Nation, and National Interest, among other major media.

This will be the 96th Cape Ann Forum since it was founded after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to explore the causes and consequences of major international issues and stimulate discussion on policies and programs to deal with them. Other forums this season will feature a former rebel commander on how South Sudan—midwifed into existence by the U.S. in 2011—has collapsed into ethnic civil war and what can be done to halt the carnage, and veteran NPR foreign correspondent Sarah Chayes on how and why systemic corruption threatens global security.

For more information, go to the Forum’s website at www.capeannforum.org.

Bill Farnsworth September 7, 8 & 9, 2017 10am-4pm “From the Field to the Studio” Students will experience one day painting plein air with two days in the studio. Every morning Bill will paint a step by step demo to share his experience of how to create a painting full of light. This workshop will give students a solid road to follow in their journey to better painting. www.billfarnsworth.com Register here www.nsarts.org

IMAGE ~ AUGUST 31, 2017 ~ 11PIRATES

Evelyn Dunphy Watercolor September 30, October 1 and 2, 2017 10am-4pm Exploration of Color! This workshop will be an exploration of color and how we may broaden our understanding of its use in bringing our concepts into reality. Each painting deserves its own palette. We want to understand what color can do, what it does sometimes without our conscious decision about it, and how by understanding some of the interactions between colors, we can use that power to make our paintings more alive, and especially, more unique. No one else will make the same decisions or mixtures that you do. We can all learn the same notes, but the song won’t be the same when I sing it as it will when you do.www.evelyndunphy.com Register here www.nsarts.org

IMAGE ~ AUGUST 31, 2017 ~ 11PIRATES

Charles Movalli Retrospective ~ North Shore Arts Association September, 17th through October, 28th Preview Reception September, 15th

AUGUST 31, 2017 ~ 11PIRATES

“Charles Movalli – The Versatile Brush” by Judith A. Curtis
“Artist, author, teacher and jurist, Charles Movalli relished his reputation as an avant-garde painter and a man of letters. Others viewed him as a bridge between traditionalism and the modernists, not only on Cape Ann and the North Shore, but across the country, and as far afield as Europe. Charles Movalli touched the lives of everyone who knew him; through his art, his vision, his writing . . .” This is a beautiful forty-four page, soft cover catalog in full color. “The Versatile Brush” first printing will be available exclusively through North Shore Arts Association for $25.Movalli Retrospective Special Events . . .
September 15 (5-7pm) Charles Movalli Retrospective Preview Party
September 23 (2-4pm) Gallery Walk with Dale Ratcliff Movalli
October 7 (2-4) Judith Curtis Presentation “Charles Movalli”
October 11 (7-8) Special “Movie Night” Charles Movalli Demonstrations
October 15 (2-4pm) Gallery Walk with Betty Lou Schlemm
October 22 (2-4pm) Gallery Walk with Ed and Sharon Carson & Larry and Marilyn Swift