| Savannah Music Festival: Reviews
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Guster
Wed. Apr. 4th
The Hitmen $1 PBR Daniel Hope takes the stage before his performance Sunday
Daniel Hope with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
A review in the daily paper informed us that Savannah Music Festival Associate Artistic Director and virtuoso violinist Daniel Hope ran out of gas while soloing in Sunday’s Festival finale, the daunting Brahms Violin Concerto in D Major. The critic went on to speculate that Hope’s allegedly empty tank was a result of playing a concert pretty much every day during the Festival -- i.e., what Daniel Hope does just about every day of the year, every year, that is, play a concert. This is only a problem for him in Savannah, apparently. Who knew? As for this reviewer, I was sitting no more than 12 feet away from Hope during his performance with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and can tell you there was no shortage of power and passion in his playing, the caliber of which has rarely been seen in local classical music circles, ante-SSO or post. One can quibble all day about the Lucas Theatre’s acoustics, but the truth is that one can only bow a violin so loud. Certainly Hope has a light, fluid and sensitive bowhand, moreso than most. Frankly, it’s one of the aspects of his playing I admire most, and one that sets him apart. Should we really expect him to change his style to compensate for lessthan-perfect acoustics? Acoustics aside, at some point live music always comes down to two things: Feeling, and the notes themselves. On Sunday Daniel Hope was in short supply of neither, masterfully and delicately hitting all the challenging double-stops in this piece, sweetly working his way high up the E string, wringing every last romantic aspect out of this quintessentially romantic concerto. I’m more of a baroque man personally, but I’d guess Brahms himself would have been proud. -- Jim Morekis
Thurs. Apr. 5th
Bottles & Cans
www.savannahblues.net
Never A Cover
Jim Reed
Jessica Ozment
Jim Morekis
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1/2 off wells & Dom. Draft for the ladies Fri. Apr. 6th
Bottles & Cans $5 Jager Bombs $2 Cuervos Sat. Apr. 7th
The Hitmen $2 Dom. Draft 'til 10 Mon. Apr. 9th
The Hitmen Tues. Apr. 10th
Open Mic w/ The Hitmen
Come & Jam!
Happy Hour Daily 5PM–9PM Mon-Fri 5pm-3am Sat 3pm-3am 206 W St. Julian St.
232-7002
Connect Savannah Apr. 04th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com
This show at the Lucas wound up being a little over two-thirds full, but by the mood inside that room, you’d have sworn it was oversold and beyond capacity. Guster’s members are all in their mid-thirties, but you’d have thought they were teen heartthrobs the way this crowd of high schoolers, college kids and young adults were acting. Pressed against the stage, they screamed and stomped their feet for Guster’s acoustic encore at the lip of the Lucas stage encores, brazenly held camWycliffe Gordon, Peplowski and Alden perera phones and taboo camformed a couple of horn and guitar duos that corders aloft, and one daring soul even stage found them synching up for a series of notedove before being summarily escorted from for-note runs that left the sold-out crowd as the premises (when’s the last time you heard breathless as the red-faced clariof that happening at the netist. -- Jim Reed SMF?). It was touching to see ‘Le Jazz Hot’ with John a young girl climb onstage Jorgenson Quintet afterward to grab one of I’d heard the hype about John the bandmembers’ setlists Jorgenson before, but never havas a souvenir, and it further ing seen him perform, I dismissed reinforced what I know to it. “Guitars and jazz just aren’t a be the case: that there is good fit” has usually been my dean under served market of fault position. young people in our area Color me wrong! Playing sick who are desperate for the runs up and down the neck of chance to see all-ages shows his acoustic like he was grating by well-known rock and cheese, Jorgenson put on a display pop bands at a reasonable of fretwork fireworks that had the price. -- Jim Reed Orleans Hall crowd both rapt with Geno Delafose attention and raucous in enjoyIt’s a shame Orleans Hall ment. When he dialed it back won’t be available for the for some incredibly delicate, Savannah Music Festival harmonic-heavy solo work, the in future years. Audiences contrast with his usual full-tilt have really responded to assault made the soft stuff all the venue’s rare combinathe more effective. Geno Delafose, Challenged by the nearly equal background, sings while tion of open spaciousness and club-like collegialmastery of Stephan Dudash on five the crowd dances ity. Case in point were the string viola -- the two men clearly three sets Saturday night by keying off each other the whole Zydeco performer Geno Delafose. As with performance -- Jorgenson whipped his band most all Orleans Hall Festival performances, through a number of fast, lively yet evocathe place was packed and the crowd most aptive Gypsy jazz standards, with a decidedly preciative -- enjoying the music and dancing, French leaning. yet relaxed and comfortable. While the music At one point, he even paid homage to itself wasn’t gypsy jazz what I anticigreat Django pated -- more Reinhardt of an emphasis by using only on recognizetwo fingers of able party tunes his left hand than the au-- emulating thentic South Reinhardt’s Louisiana childhood Creole reperinjury which toire I expected nonethe-- the crowd less seemed didn’t mind at to limit all, enjoying him not at every accorall. -- Jim dion note and Morekis slap of the snare drum. -- Sonja John Jorgenson, left, with Stephan Dudash at right Wallen
Jim Morekis
Vibes