Interlude - May 27
May 27, 2021
More local livestreams, Box Office boss, Hancock Dance returns and more
Welcome back to Interlude, your weekly roundup of all sorts of stuff that is beautiful and good.
Announcing the 2021-2022 Live at the Center season!
The past year or so has been tough for live music, but we would suggest that one bright spot has been Live at the Center, our free livestream series featuring top Indiana-based artists playing original music in an endless range of styles. Based on the feedback, music fans have been grateful to watch fine local bands from the comfort of home, and the performers have appreciated the opportunity for a paying gig with a potentially national audience resulting in a professionally produced concert video they can use to further their careers.
LATC has featured a whopping 14 artists since its launch in October. Season 1 continues this coming Wednesday, June 2, with classical pianist Joshua Thompson, and closes out Saturday, June 19, with funk-rock band Audiodacity. (Thompson, who specializes in works by composers of African heritage, discusses the gig in this interview with Carmel Monthly magazine.)
But here’s the news: Live at the Center has been renewed for Season 2! With a dozen more local and regional artists performing from July through June 2022! And thanks to an improving public health scenario, we can now offer the option to watch the shows live and in person, for a token fee of only $5. View the 2021-2022 schedule here – it’s hot off the presses and pretty great.
Off to the races with a Hoosier classic
Alt text: Jim Nabors smiles with an outstretched hand and holds a microphone in front of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
As the holiday weekend approaches, our Hoosier neighbors are busy preparing for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing – the Indianapolis 500! Our friends at the Great American Songbook Foundation want to remind you that those drivers can’t start their engines without a musical introduction to the tune of “(Back Home Again in) Indiana.”
Though many remember this tune sung for many years by the great Jim Nabors, “Indiana” had a life of its own as a jazz standard long before its racing days, as it eventually became a performance staple for Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman and was recorded by Nat King Cole and Count Basie, among many others.
On Memorial Day weekend, we invite Hoosiers and non-Hoosiers alike to “dream about the moonlight on the Wabash” – and sing along to this timely (and timeless) Songbook standard! Listen to Jim Nabors’ farewell performance of “Indiana” at the 2014 Indy 500.
The return of live dance at the Center
Photo Credit: Lydia Moody Pictured: Olivia Payton
Like another sign of spring, the Center’s resident Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre is celebrating its return to live-audience performances at the Tarkington with a new production featuring highlights from its extensive repertoire. LIVE!, which runs June 3-5, features some of GHDT’s most endearing and lighthearted pieces, selected especially for these return performances. Get your Gregory Hancock tickets here, or learn more at www.gregoryhancockdancetheatre.org.
For the inside scoop from Mr. Hancock and the dancers, read about the show in this interview with Current.
This week in performing arts history
May 23: On this date in 1934, Robert Moog, pioneer of the analog synthesizer, was born in New York City. He built his first electronic instrument, a theremin, at age 14 and created the MiniMoog, “the first compact, easy-to-use synthesizer,” in 1970.
May 25: On this date in 1950, violinist Robby Steinhardt was born in Chicago. In 1973, he joined the rock band Kansas, becoming the co-lead vocalist. The group’s 1970s hits “Carry On Wayward Son” and “Dust in the Wind” remain FM rock staples. Kansas performed at the Palladium in August 2013.
May 26: On this date in 1926, jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader Miles Davis was born in Alton, Illinois. Over six decades, from 1945 until his death in 1991, he helped to shape the course of jazz and became one of the most important musical figures of his generation.
May 28: On the date in 1944, “Empress of Soul” Gladys Knight was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Best known for her work with the group Gladys Knight & the Pips, whose hits include the 1973 No.1 single “Midnight Train to Georgia,” she is a seven-time Grammy winner who also had No. 1s in gospel, R&B and adult contemporary music. Knight performed at the Palladium in October 2014 and November 2019.
May 29: On this date in 1942, Bing Crosby recorded Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” the world's best-selling single with an estimated 100 million copies sold. He recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers in just 18 minutes. Crosby recorded an estimated 2,600 songs in his lifetime and became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape.
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