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Culture

[click "Play" button to hear Ozomatli's Ulises Bella]

OZObyJonCoulthard268 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.

03 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to listen to Judy Kohin]

Daniel_Judy_bw 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.

Out of the gate, Daniel saw Ah Haa as a "beacon of light" in our community, a place that both inspires and unifies. From Day One, the school's current director, Tracee Hennigar, has had her eyes firmly fixed on that prize: building a community center with a capital "C."
03 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to listen to Susan's conversation with Daniel Tucker]

Daniel_new On Thursday, June 4, 5 – 7 p.m., Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts celebrates its founder, naming its new gallery at the old Depot after the visionary Daniel Tucker.

Daniel is intuitive and a book artist, whose work is assured a place in history. The company he founded with partner Claire Owen in 1975, Turtle Island Press, has titles in the collections of major museums/ institutions including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art; The New York Public Library; The Library of Congress; The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany; and London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

02 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Christian Scott]

996418782_l At the 33rd annual Telluride Jazz Celebration, audiences get to come face to face with the future of the genre: young trumpeter Christian Scott. The past is a given.

At the turn of the 20th century, jazz  – or "jass" – referred to the kind of music created by obscure black musicians and played in brothels. The word itself was slang for making love.

At early light, jazz was simply a synthesis of Western harmonic language and forms combined with the rhythms and melodic inflections of Africa. In the 60s, the genre waxed emotional, screaming, moaning and piercing the ear with atonality. The 70s was schizophrenic: The decade witnessed a revival, a return to traditional concepts like Big Band. Newness came from a fusion with rock and the modal themes and drone effects of Eastern religion. In the 80s, the jazz train gained speed with a stronger emphasis on Afro-Latino sounds, especially Brazilian. And so on..

02 June, 2009 /

[Click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Jimmy Herring]

Telluride Jazz, May 5-7. Sideman out front: Jimmy Herring

L_e6755d8529ba3cd6cb3ad15886d5e16f He has been the legend behind the legends, a musician's musician, but the 33rd annual Telluride Jazz Celebration, June 5 - June 7, will set the record straight. After three decades as a sideman, guitarist Jimmy Herring is finally getting exactly what he deserves: center stage.

Fusion guitarists that claim the middle ground generally skew one way or the other: former Telluride Jazz Celebration headliner John Scofield, for example, has deep roots in jazz,  and Carlos Santana is a rocker at heart. Jimmy is a rarity: he stakes his claim where jazz harmonies and rhythmic concepts and the edgy power of classic rock come together, improvising with an intensity that underlines his roots.

Jimmy's formidable chops have been used to great advantage by outfits ranging from Widespread Panic to the Dead, Phil Lesh and Friends (a Dead offshoot), Project Z, the Allman Brothers, Col. Bruce Hampton's Aquarium Rescue Unit, Jazz is Dead and others.

31 May, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Valerie Madonia] Sunday, May 31, 3 p.m., at the Michael D. Palm Theatre, the Telluride Dance Academy holds its annual dance recital showcasing the talent of tots (age 3+) to...

30 May, 2009 /

IMGP0408 IMGP0411 Red letter days under blue skies. Our life in Telluride.

The morning of May 27 started out with a hike out our back door, crack of 7:30 am, our dog Gina running ahead, breaking through the crust of frost. You heard me.

We divided to conquer the middle of the day: Clint rafting on the Uncompaghre with TASP and me holding down the fort, posting and podcasting, which has nothing to do with fishing.

In the evening we joined locals at the Ah Haa School Depot Building, where the winners of the Telluride Writers Guild's annual Write Here Contest were on the boards, strutting their stuff. Writers Guild director Amy Cannon beamed as she introduced the winners.

28 May, 2009 /

At the Nugget Theatre in Telluride, the movie for the week of May 29-June 4 is "Star Trek." The movie is showing twice each night at 6:00 and 8:30 pm., and is rated PG-13.This prequel takes us back to a time before Kirk was...

28 May, 2009 /

Thursday evening, 7 p.m., Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library, enjoy a recap of the Mudd Butts' April trip to Wondo Genet, Ethiopia.  Local trip participants and staffers Wendy Brooks and Luke Brown host a narrated slide show of the trip, and play excerpts from the...

27 May, 2009 /