Shannon
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Re: Music Is Art Artical
« Reply #1 on: Sep 26th, 2008, 11:51am » |
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I was just coming to post this. Thanks for posting  Here's the article if you don't feel like clicking the link......
Jeff Miers' Sound Check: Albright-Knox realizes importance of music in the world of art
BY JEFF MIERS - News Pop Music Critic
Updated: 09/26/08 10:42 AM
OK, so it rained, steadily, all day long, and there was no way to escape it. Still, a sense of victory hung in the air, and no amount of precipitation could wash it away. This year’s Music Is Art Festival was a victory for Goo Goo Dolls bassist and festival founder Robby Takac. But it was a victory for all of us, too.
Why? Well, if you’re the sort who finds irony delicious, you’ll want to take a big bite out of this one.
Takac’s Music Is Art festival was chased out of Allentown by the folks behind the Allentown Art Festival, with which MIA ran concurrently for its first few years. The general reason for this had something to do with Takac’s music-based gathering somehow sullying the image of Allentown’s yearly fried dough-fest as a serious art happening.
When Takac and MIA landed at the Albright-Knox — one of the most revered fine art establishments not just in our neighborhood, but in the country — well, that had to feel like a brand of street justice. Good enough for Louis Grachos and company? Good enough for me.
Takac has said of Grachos, Albright-Knox Art Gallery director, that “We’re lucky to have him,” and if we look at the past five years of activity at the gallery, that seems like a no-brainer. Understanding that art needs to be inclusive, not wholly exclusive; that it should be part of the surrounding social and cultural fabric; and that a truly enlightened view of art will not exclude the aspects of it that happen to be the purview of popular culture — these all form the recipe for a vibrant, integrated community of the arts.
Grachos, without wanting to paint too hyperbolic a portrait of the man, has done us proud. He has had help, of course. Rockin’ at the Knox, which takes place this weekend, has been presented in association with Buffalo’s Fun Time for the past four years — but Grachos holds the veto power, as well as the passion to make something happen, or not.
Let’s look back, and trace the evolution of Rockin’, as just one example of what has been happening at the gallery.
What started as an annual fundraiser featuring a local band or two inside the gallery, and a chance for patrons to let their hair down a bit, has developed into one of the most anticipated attractions of the concert year in Buffalo. Add to that the integration factors — on Saturday, for example, Rockin’ will feature the art of the late and much-lamented Buffalo bohemian Renaissance man Mark Freeland in the Collector’s Gallery — that serve to underscore the idea of art-as-experience, be it via a palette of oil paints, a multimedia presentation or a vigorously plucked electric guitar.
Since 2005, Rockin’ has developed from a laid-back party into a full-blown concert experience. We’ve been treated to performances from Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Blondie, Elvis Costello and Feist, as well as a carefully chosen and smartly presented lineup of some of the finest (and most interesting) local bands and artists extant. Walking around these events, bumping into a revered musician here, a gathering of top-notch NHL players there, and a local politician grooving to a decidedly underground, neo-psychedelic local band over yonder, one couldn’t help but feel that, for this day at least, Toronto’s got nothing on us, culture-wise.
Equally exciting has been the consistent excellence of, and the rather brave, thoughtful booking behind, the yearly Art of Jazz series, presented for the past few years by Hunt Real Estate, in conjunction with the gallery and producer Bruce Eaton. This year’s program, which kicks off on Oct. 18 with the Cindy Blackman Quartet(!), is the 10th Art of Jazz sojourn. In the past, we’ve been treated to the likes of Bill Frisell, Randy Weston, the Bad Plus Trio, Claudia Acuna, James Blood Ulmer and the Campbell Brothers.
“Diverse” doesn’t even begin to cover it. By the way, in case you’re of the opinion that this is somehow an elitist type of thing with a small audience, all of these shows have been sellouts.
Between fall and spring this time around, we’ll be able to share space and time with some truly brilliant jazz musicians at the gallery, including Miles Davis alumnus Dave Liebman and his group, Tony Williams and Art Blakey veteran Mulgrew Miller, and the inimitable Dr. Lonnie Smith. We’re luckier than we might realize. Come the summer, jazz continues on the lawn, as part of the annual Buffalo News Jazz series.
Lest we forget, Willie Nile offered an already legendary one-man acoustic show inside the gallery, when the Buffaloborn songwriter par excellence played most of his then-new “Streets of New York” album for us in an acoustically pristine and aesthetically pleasing setting.
On Saturday, when the B- 52s arrive to headline this year’s Rockin’ at the Knox, why not take a moment to revel in the fact that we’ve got a world-class art museum willing to present world-class concerts right here in our own front yard? I, for one, consider it a matter of civic pride to do so.•
This year’s Rockin’ at the Knox will feature the B-52s, Metric, Robby Takac’s Amungus, Ben Lee, Besnyo, the Tiny Masters of Today, the Pillagers and the Other Side Jazz Trio. It begins at 5 p. m. Saturday. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
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