[click "Play" to hear Paul Hoffman's interview] Greensky Bluegrass is the world turned upside down. Winning the Telluride Bluegrass Festival band contest three years ago was a world-upside-down moment for...
Flashback: Telluride Bluegrass Festival 2000. Sugar Hill Records had several oldies but goodies in the lineup. John Cowan was appearing with his new group, Lonesome River Band. Also on the scene were Seldom Scene, Jesse Winchester and Sam Bush. With Nickel Creek, the label also featured strong Gen Zeta talent.
Nickel Creek proved that the youth brigade was not all about skin-flashing and razzmatazz. Two of the musical whiz kids in the new group were a brother and sister act, Sean Watkins (2/18/77), guitar, mandolin, and vocals, and Sara Watkins (6/8/81), fiddle and vocals. Sean and Sara are back in town 10 years later for their encore at the 36th annual Bluegrass Festival, June 18 – June 21. (Star fiddler Luke Bulla was also in town that year with Ricky Skaggs, another-wet-behind- the-ears superstar in the making.)
The Nugget Theatre in Telluride will show one movie, twice nightly Friday, June 12-Thursday, June 18. "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" plays at 6:00 pm and 8:30 pm each night. The movie is rated PG.The original "Night at the Museum" was...
Telluride Bluegrass, June 18-21
Telluride favorite, singer-songwriter Todd Snider, is returning to town for an encore after his sold-out show at the historic Sheridan Opera House, where the troubadour charmed the crowd with his barefoot brand of social satire and the way he managed to blow raspberries at our foibles without giving offense.This round, Todd is appearing on the Fred Shellman Stage at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.Turns out folk hero Woody Guthrie came from an extremely prosperous upper middle-class family: dad speculated in real estate and mom owned about 30 rental properties. Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in the Midwest in Hibbing, Minneapolis, and also had solid middle class underpinnings. His father Abe, ran a sort of successful electric-appliance shop. All the stories about the young Robert being orphaned, running away from home annually starting at age 10, performing in a carnival were attempts by Bob Dylan to become Dylan.
[click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Bill Frisell]
2009 Telluride Jazz Celebration, June 5-7
No doubt about it. Telluride Jazz Celebration impresario Paul Machado is really good at his job. His choice of Bill Frisell as the 2009 Guest of Honor was inspired, perfect for a time when the chips are down, when substance trumps style every day. Soft spoken – literally, I had to ask him to speak up more than once in our interview – and self-effacing and shy, Frisell is a man you might miss at a party; that is until he straps on his ax. Ax in hand, this "Clark Kent" quickly morphs into a Superman, arguably, quietly, the most brilliant and distinct voice to come down the pike in jazz guitar since Wes Montgomery, not coincidently one of Bill's idols. Ax in hand, the man is on fire. Bill claims performance is his drug of choice. It transforms him, allowing him to do things he would not do in real life. Performance brings out his inner Woody Allen.
[click "Play" button to hear Susan talk with Lizz Wright]
Chanteuse/songwriter Lizz Wright was only 25 when she first visited town, a guest of the 29th annual Telluride Jazz Celebration. At the time, the soulful young charmer was already brushing shoulders with song stylists such as Cassandra Wilson and Anita Baker, Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln. The buzz among critics was that stars such as Norah Jones and Diana Krall had better get a firm grip on their crowns: Lizz was waiting in the wings.
The sheer beauty and quiet serenity of the lady, the full-bodied texture and musky warmth of her gospel-trained contralto, the conversational way she phrased her lyrics, had the crowd eating out of her hand. This was no aural window dressing. Lizz was – and is – the real deal.
[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Paul Machado]
Paul Machado took over the helm of the Telluride Jazz Celebration in 1991 reconfiguring the event with aplomb and extending the venue to include local clubs and the Mountain Village. The depth and breadth of his stellar programming and the mountain setting add up to a musical weekend second to none in the world.
The Nugget Theatre in Telluride continues showing "Star Trek" this week and adds "Angels and Demons" nightly. Both programs are rated PG-13.
In "Angels and Demons" Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) must follow an arcane set of clues to prevent the destruction of the Vatican. This Dan Brown follow-on to "The Da Vinci Code" finds Langdon between religion and science, a dangerous place to be, it turns out.
See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews of both movies.
[click "Play" button to hear Ozomatli's Ulises Bella]
Telluride Jazz Celebration's impresario Paul Machado programs for cultural diversity, including everything from mainstream to mariachi. This year, booking one act alone, he could have covered all his bases.
Ozomatli plays a notorious mash of hip hop and salsa, dancehall and cumbia, samba and funk, merengue and comparsa, East L.A. r&b and New Orleans second line, Jamaican reggae, Indian raga and rock.
Ozomatli. The name comes from the Nahuatl word for the Aztec astrological symbol of the monkey, also a god of dance, fire, the new harvest – and music.
[click "Play" button to listen to Judy Kohin]
The Ah Haa School for the Arts in Telluride was founded in 1990 by professional book artist Daniel Tucker to provide the community with arts and crafts enrichment education – only art was just part of a larger vision.
