April 8, 2005
Big band, percussion concerts enliven Spring Fest weekend
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Matching the lively mood of Purdue's annual Spring Fest weekend, Purdue Bands will offer "A Tribute to Buddy Rich," featuring the American Music Review big band and singers on Friday, April 15, and "Tear It Up!" a concert of innovative and classical percussion on Sunday, April 17.
The tribute to Buddy Rich, the famed jazz drummer, is set for 8 p.m. April 15 in the Long Center, 111 N. Sixth St., Lafayette, while "Tear It Up!" is set for 2:30 p.m. April 17 in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. Admission to both concerts is free, and no tickets are needed.
Tunes the Buddy Rich Orchestra put their signature on, like "Dancing Me," and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," will highlight an evening of big band music planned by the American Music Review for April 15.
Rich's musical talents and caustic humor made him a favorite guest on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show." Before forming his own big band, Rich performed with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Tommy Dorsey and Louis Armstrong.
"Buddy was known for his remarkable speed and dexterity on the drums," says American Music Review director Bill Kisinger. "He came from a vaudeville family and was a Type A, in-your-face performer."
The concert gives Purdue drummer Dan Putz, a senior management major from St. Charles, Ill., a showcase and also features Chicago musician Mark Maegdlin, whose personality matches the concert.
"Mark Maegdlin is a crazy, off-the-wall kind of guy, and his jazz organ playing fits Buddy Rich tunes to a T," Kisinger says.
Beyond the Buddy Rich tunes, the concert samples "great songs from the American Songbook by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, and others," Kisinger says. The show also will feature a trio of dancers to Jerry Lee Lewis' hit "Great Balls of Fire" and a jazz scat piece the Swingle Singers made famous, called "Bourree for Bach."
Cincinnati senior Matt Janszen, who recently won Purdue's Sudler Prize as its top senior in the arts, will premiere an original composition, "Seven Hills," that was inspired by his hometown.
At the Sunday, April 17, "Tear It Up" percussion concert, another original work will be presented when Purdue's percussion specialist Pamela Nave unveils her off-beat composition titled "Stuff from Dead Storage," featuring trash cans, brooms, basketballs and other paraphernalia found in Purdue's storage facilities.
Looking for something innovative to challenge her musicians, Nave pulled all the unusual "instruments" her percussionists have used over the past five years out of storage and worked them all into one piece.
"It's a really cool, weird combination of stuff that works out well," says Nave, who layers the rhythms and textures produced by brooms, trash cans and other items into music.
"'Stuff from Dead Storage' is totally scripted like a play and has a little acting in it," Nave says. "I staged the piece with Loeb Playhouse in mind because I know exactly where the floor sounds good when you bang on it."
Participation in the piece stretches beyond the musicians on the stage to the audience, which will be instructed to stomp and clap during the piece's finale.
Showing off the musicians' more serious side, the percussion ensemble will present a transcription of Mussorgsky's orchestral classic, "Night on Bald Mountain," in which the violin's role is picked up by marimbas.
Anna Kuhn, a senior mechanical engineering major from Santa Rosa, Calif., will be featured as marimba soloist on Michael Burritt's contemporary work "Shadow Dancers."
"The metric modulation in the piece creates a feeling of uneasiness, edginess and changing shapes that's a good visualization of what a shadow looks like," Nave says.
The Purdue Drumline's portion of the concert will be highlighted by Brian Mason's "Tortuga," a piece that musically portrays the adventures of pirates. Snare drummer Don Wismer, a senior management major from Roanoke, Ind., will dress as Capt. Jack Sparrow from "The Pirates of the Caribbean" to lead the piece.
Sources: Kathy Matter, Purdue Bands public relations director, (765) 496-6785, kcmatter@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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