Performance

Eve Barnett • July 11, 2013

While most know and love the nation’s capital for its politics and monuments, Washington, D.C., offers both locals and tourists a smorgasbord of festivals throughout the year. This month, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is now celebrating through July 7, and the Capital Fringe Festival runs July 11 through July 28.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2013

Every June, seemingly out-of-place structures emerge on the National Mall. These temporary canvas tents, juxtaposed against the surrounding majestic marble museums, are tempting to disregard. However, these structures, home to the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, deserve attention from Washingtonians and tourists alike.

Started in 1967, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival calls itself “the largest annual cultural event in the U.S. capital,” bringing over the years “more than 23,000 musicians, artists, performers, craftspeople, workers, cooks, storytellers, and others to the National Mall to demonstrate the skills, knowledge, and aesthetics that embody the creative vitality of community-based tradition.” The festival presents authentic performances, interactive booths and ethnic food stands to teach visitors about different cultures from around the world.

This year, the free festival includes three programs: “Hungarian Heritage,” “One World, Many Voices” and “The Will to Adorn.”
About 100 participants from Hungary, Romania and the U.S. are involved in the “Hungarian Heritage: Roots to Revival” section, engaging visitors in dances, games, crafts and styles that hail from Hungary. In its family-friendly booths, young visitors can test their balance walking on wooden stilts and get their hair braided in a traditional style. At the Hungarian Kitchen station, families can watch home-style cooking.

The Danubia Stage showcases Hungary’s vital dance tradition with hour-long performances. Among those excited about the festival, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said, “I think the Hungarian dancers are going to be fabulous. They are a great example of why the festival is so important. A visit to the festival is a way to learn about the rich cultures that exist around the world.”
The “One World, Many Voices: Endangered Languages and Cultural Heritage” section highlights the problem of worldwide language loss, raising awareness to the fact that up to half of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken today may disappear by the end of this century. Born from a long-term research project between the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution and UNESCO, the program offers workshops in Family Activities, teaching everything from Welsh words to Yiddish dancing along with engaging performances in Song and Story Circle by musicians and storytellers.

Perhaps the most prominent feature of this program, the Voices of the World tent showcases ensembles performing in their traditional languages. “The performance was definitely an accurate representation of not how they live today but, instead, their tradition,” said visitor Becky Perkins. Perkins came to the festival from New York specifically to watch a group from the Kalmykia region of Russia because she once studied there and wanted to support the group in the festival.

The festival’s third program is “The Will to Adorn: African American Diversity, Style and Identity,” based on research conducted by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. It highlights the many ways by which African American identities are expressed. In the Design Studio tent, visitors can look at distinctive types of African-American artwork, try on apparel and get their hair styled in traditional ways. At the Rock the Runway tent, visitors can watch fashion shows with specific, culturally significant articles of clothing and trends.

“The fashion shows tell how to evolve personal styles and incorporate what you already have into new trends,” said Amy Jalloh, a model from Fairfax, Va. Plus, from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., everyday, visitors can show off their own styles and participate in the fashion show.

At the Collaborative Research station, visitors can also create their own “sartorial autobiographies” and compare their styles to evolving African-American ones.

“Those values…that we select from history and choose to emphasize in the present” are significant in learning about and contrasting divergent heritages, said James Early, director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Early urged visitors to “make sure to see ‘The Will to Adorn’ to learn about the wide, deep, historical influence of imagination and creativity of African Americans … on how America sings, dances, speaks and thinks.”

In addition to enjoying the interactive activities and performances, no trip to the Folklife Festival could be complete without a sampling of the gourmet food stands. With five food stands, serving everything from Hungarian stew to Southern-style fried chicken, visitors should plan their visit around at least one meal and snack their way through all three programs.

“Good, family-friendly and reasonable” was how Kansas City tourist and mother-of-three Rachel Foote reviewed the food choices. “Delicious!” agreed Holly Torsilieri of New Jersey. And what could be a better than cooling off with a sweet, refreshing mango lassi while swaying along to native Hawaiian music in the Voices of the World tent?

Festival visitors should be sure to bring plenty of sunscreen and water because it can get extremely hot on the National Mall this time of year. Bottles can be refilled for free at three water stations. Visitors are also advised to bring some cash because some food stands do not accept credit cards. Credit cards can, however, be used to purchase the crafts displayed in the festival tents in the Marketplace.

Bearing all these tips in mind, visits to the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival are sure to be educational, provocative experiences – and prove these seemingly out-of-place tents to be worth your time.

Capital Fringe Festival 2013

Although many may once have been ostracized to the “fringe,” the performances in the Capital Fringe Festival have recently taken center stage in the Washington theatre scene. This unique festival seems to have a show for everyone, whether a theater aficionado or an aspiring one.

The festival is a “great way to learn about the city and theater scene” and is, primarily, “about going to listen to stories and hanging out … and getting to meet new people,” said Capital Fringe Festival executive director Julianne Brienza.

Because the performances are between 70 and 90 minutes in length and relatively inexpensive, she added, the “fair-esque” atmosphere allows audience members to “go to multiple shows” and hear “a variety of stories.”

This year’s Capital Fringe Festival marks the eighth annual event. Created and organized by the D.C.-based nonprofit Capital Fringe, the idea comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. In the 1940s, Edinburgh locals decided to create the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a way to perform their unofficial shows that were, as one journalist described them, on the “fringe” compared to the approved ones being presented in the Edinburgh International Festival. The phenomenon has since spread, and fringe festivals like the one in D.C. now occur worldwide. For example, London, Singapore, Sydney and Prague also host similar festivals.

While they span the globe, the festivals share a common philosophy and mission. They give groups of different talents, genres, experience, and size opportunities to perform. Unlike most theater events, committees do not select the shows that will be in the festival. Rather, all groups are allowed, on a first-come first-serve basis, to participate. Accordingly, this welcoming environment encourages artists to take risks and experiment. It also serves as a “great gateway for young new artists,” said Ian Leahy, director of “Waiting for Orson.”

This year, 18 different venues across the city will host performances during the festival which describes itself as having “the purpose of infusing energy into performing arts in the Washington, D.C., region.” Capital Fringe considers its festival “the second largest, unjuried Fringe Festival in the United States” and has “premiered over 400 new works of contemporary performance.”

Recognizing that the wide choices of performance may feel overwhelming to potential theater-goers, Brienza recommended people go to Fort Fringe, the festival’s hub on New York Avenue, and choose shows based on “word-of-mouth advice.”

“People are always talking about the shows,” said Brienza, describing that audience members and artists alike congregate in Fort Fringe’s Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar. Take their advice and “be adventurous,” she said. There is also information about the shows online.

This year, the performances divide into four sections: comedy, drama, dance and physical theater and musical theater and opera. Brienza said the 2013 festival includes “a lot of shows dealing with veterans’ PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], classical pieces that have been updated and adapted, burlesque and dance.” With this rich variety of shows, the Capital Fringe Festival seems to have performances for everyone.

In addition, Capital Fringe posts on its Twitter account “CapitalFringe” when certain shows are half-sold and sold out.
Fringe-enthusiast and self-proclaimed “big theatre person,” Glenn Ihrig, agreed with Brienza’s recommendations. He has learned, after coming to all seven previous festivals and seeing around 14 shows each time, “to come and meet people in Baldacchino, learn what’s ‘best,’ and buy tickets on the spot.” To get the most out of the festival, he encouraged others to “go to two shows in the afternoon and two shows in the evening, taking a break for dinner and a beer in Baldacchino.”

Indeed, the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar seems to be the social centerpiece of the festival. Brynn Tucker, the writer and performer of “A Guide to Dancing Naked,” explained that Baldacchino creates “a great community feeling because, after every show, you can have a drink and connect with others in the theater community.” Plus, Baldacchino has free live music every night.

Perhaps we should all follow Irhig’s example and “let Fringe be [our] life for three weeks. It’s a good thing.”

This year’s festival includes the following 18 venues:

Caos on F (923 F St., NW)
Fort Fringe – Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar (607 New York Ave., NW)
Fort Fringe – Bedroom (612 L St., NW)
Fort Fringe – Redrum (612 L St., NW)
Fort Fringe – The Shop (607 New York Ave., NW)
GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square (3333 14th St., NW)
Gearbox (1021 7th St., NW, 3rd Floor)
Goethe Institut – Gallery (812 7th St., NW)
Goethe Institut – Main Stage (812 7th St., NW)
Jin Lounge (2017 14th St., NW)
Mount Vernon United Methodist Church – The Mountain (900 Massachusetts Ave., NW)
Source (1835 14th St., NW)
Studio Theatre – Stage 4 (1501 14th St., NW)
The Emergence Community Arts Collective – Studio 2 (733 Euclid St., NW)
The Gilbert C. Eastman Studio Theatre (800 Florida Ave., NE)
The Streets of Fringe (7th and New York Ave., NW)
Warehouse (645 New York Ave., NW)
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company – Melton Rehearsal Hall (641 D St., NW) [gallery ids="101375,153222,153214,153218" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler • July 9, 2013

Back in 2009, when the D.C. Jazz Festival was celebrating its fifth anniversary with a New Orleans-themed festival and the presence of the Marsalis clan, we had occasion to talk with festival director and founder Charlie Fishman for the first time.
Back then, and way before back then, when he first jotted down some notes on a jazz festival with friends, Fishman insisted that D.C. was “a jazz town” and that was why it had to have a jazz festival worthy of the name.

Back in the day, the city and jazz were more a matter of history than what was actually happening—this was the city of Ellington and the Lincoln and Howard theaters of legend. The city had a jazz legacy, but not as much as much jazz being played in an organized, visible way than it might have.

It’s fair to say that the D.C. Jazz Festival, getting ready for its ninth festival—June 5 through June 16—and pretty much a permanent institution in the city’s cultural landscape has changed all that. The festival, growing, changing and spreading out, has become a force with a city-wide, countrywide and worldwide reputation.

“I think we’ve cemented our presence,” Fishman said. “We’ve added things and changed things every year, and I think we’ve had a big impact on the city, and the presence of jazz in the city. A lot of musical programs are adding jazz, the Atlas, the museums. It’s being played all over the city. We haven’t quite gotten to the point where the festival itself has become a year-round thing, but we’re getting there. I think right now we’re an energy bunny, an engine that’s driving things beyond the festival.”

If a jazz festival ever had the perfect guy to run it, it’s Fishman. He lives, breathes and bleeds jazz out of the pores of his being. He is a natural, given that he was the manager and producer for jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, a history which gives him the kind of feel and sense for and of jazz history more than most persons can muster today.

“Jazz is different today,” Fishman said. “It’s actually growing as a musical genre. It’s being played all over the world, with the result that the music is getting enriched, changed and influenced. There are more jazz musicians, really good ones, than ever before. Musically, this is the best educated generation of musicians we’ve ever seen.”

“I’ve tried to add a little something new every year,” Fishman said. “Last year, we had ‘Jazz Meets the Classics.’ This year, it’s ‘Jazz Meets the Latin Classics.’ “ This speaks to the critical presence of Paquito D’Rivera in the festival. He and the Panamerican Ensemble will perform at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater June 14.

“D’Rivera, a legend in the Latin-flavored jazz world, is co-artistic director of the festival and clarinetist, saxophonist, conductor and NEA jazz master,” Fishman said. “Paquito is priceless to us.”

A cornerstone and much buzzed-about event of the festival is the June 15, 3 p.m. concert by the Roots, the hugely popular and enduring group which will be at a new festival venue at the Kastles Stadium at the Wharf.

For the second year, a key venue and program of the festival will be “Jazz at the Hamilton Live.” The big, classy downtown club and restaurant will include performances by the likes of Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band, the Roy Hargrove Quintet, the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band, the Brubeck Brothers Quartet in a tribute to the late Dave Brubeck among others.

Other programs continue: the great “Jazz in the Hoods” series, which spreads out the gospel, if you will, of jazz to many of the neighborhoods in Washington, from Georgetown to Adams Morgan, from Petworth to Dupont Circle, from Capitol Hill to Mount Pleasant. Also back are programs like the Student Concerts and Meet the Artists Series, the Jazz ‘N Families Fun Days at the Phillips Collection, Jazz at the Howard Theatre and the Capitol Bop D.C. Jazz Loft Series.
In June, it’s jazz.

For a complete list of venues, events, performers, times, places , programs and locations, visit www.dcjazzfest.org.
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Georgetowner • July 3, 2013

               Randy Johnson is often described as a director, but this is something like calling a chef a cook. Creator isn’t too big a word to use for what Johnson does—conceiver, producer,  director, writer, and really big idea guy could go, too, along with artist.

               He’s the guy that’s responsible for bring the legendary blues-rock singer Janis Joplin—and an era—back to us in her most vivid incarnation in “One Night With Janis,” a kind of musical trek and blast of soulful resurrection that was a major highlight for Arena Stage last fall—so much so that it’s coming back June 21 and running through Aug.11 for a good chunk of the summer.

               “I feel like it’s a collaboration with Janis,” said Johnson, who’s worked with, or done productions and shows on the likes of Patsy Cline, Louis Prima and Keely Smith, Conway Twitty, and—yes—Mike Tyson—during a phone interview.  “In a way, of course, that’s exactly what it is because I’ve worked closely with her surviving siblings, her sister Laura and her brother Michael.”

               Mary Bridget Davies will be back to perform as Janis in a journey through her life that embraces her high spirits, without concentrating too much on the darker side of her life, especially her death from an accidental heroin overdose in 1970.

               “I think there are a lot of things out there about Janis that are not true,” Johnson said. “She did not commit suicide, for one thing.  I think she had a lot of pain in her life—that’s true enough—but she was also an incredibly talented, gifted young woman.  Who knows what she could have been had she lived? I think about that sometimes. I see her as a kind of inspiration for female singers, a kind of mentor by example in her terms of her music.”

               The show is more than a greatest-hit night, it’s an out-and-out revelry in the Joplin performance persona, backed up in a setting and by a band that resonates Haight Ashbury in the 1960s, the Fillmore and Avalon San Francisco rock palaces.  Joplin’s music is reflected in her roots, particularly African American blues, jazz and soul music, as embodied by singers like Billie Holiday, Big Mama Thornton and Aretha Franklin, all performed by the incomparable Sabrina Elayne Carten.

               It’s a celebration, almost a super-fans’ tribute, and Johnson is an unabashed admirer.  “When I was a kid, I loved to listen to Gershwin’s ‘Summertime,’ ” he said. “The voice I heard was Janis Joplin’s. I wanted to make sure we did justice to Janice by working closely with the family.  Michael and Lorna worked with me every step of the way.  Michael said to me on opening night that he thought he was back at the Monterey Pop concert.”

               Opening night last year at Arena was a spooky, exhilarating experience for this writer—sitting in front of me were the Joplin siblings—the brother clearly into it, the sister thoughtful and quiet, while Johnson sat nearby along with Arena Stage artistic director Molly Smith. The audience seemed transported by Davies and her performance, back to the days and night of “Piece of My Heart,” “Ball and Chain” and “Me and Bobby McGee.”. 

               “She had a natural gift,”  Johnson said of Joplin.  “She reveled in the love she got from audience, but she  was a pure singer—people sometimes forget that until you hear her go through all the highs and lows of “Ball and Chain.”  There’s nobody who can sing like that today.  The whole business has changed, how music is delivered and consumed,  YouTube, marketing, all of it.  I was too young to see her perform, but I think the experience with “One Night” comes pretty close.”

               Johnson, as a producer, creator, director, point of origin, is a one-of-a-kind guy.  “We’re not talking about traditional plays,” he said.  “Over time, I’ve come to see myself as a stage biographer.”

               In addition to “One Night With Janis,” he has staged, organized or imagined on a grand scale.  If there is a common vein that runs through his work, it’s a kind of intense effort to provide emotional punch, spectacle,  a live experience that’s meant to be unforgettable.  What he creates is a total package.

               Johnson was the original producer for “Always Patsy Cline,” a megahit on the life and times of the queen of the broken-heart country ballad who died in a plane crash.  The original show opened a two-year run in Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Old Opry. Johnson’s tastes run to the original as well as the popular: witness “The Wildest—The Music of Louis Prima and Keelly Smith,” which still tours internationally.  Smith to her fans was an underrated singer and song interpreter (“I Wish You Love”).

               Johnson co-conceived and directed the historic “Elvis the Concert,” a production which put Elvis (on video) together with his old band, singers and musical director in a virtual interactive concert at Radio City Music Hall.

               At the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 2012, Johnson directed and co-wrote “Mike Tyson—The Undisputed Truth,” starring the man himself.  “I think people misunderstand him,” Johnson said. “He’s charming, funny and a magnetic presence.”

               Molly Smith is a big fan of Johnson. “Randy Johnson is a true theater artist,” she has said, “What sets him apart from others is that he is that rare breed of visionary director writer truly in a league all his own.”

               “I love working with Molly and Arena Stage,” Johnson said. “I’m doing ‘Smokey Joe’s Café” for Arena in the upcoming season.”

               Meanwhile, there will be Mary Bridget Davies and Janis Joplin, wailing “take another little piece of my heart now, baby, if it makes you feel good.”

“One Night With Janis runs” through Aug. 11 at Arena Stage.

Rachel Scola • June 20, 2013

Nothing blows off steam like laughing so hard your stomach hurts and tears stream down your face. This season, the Warner Theatre has a great variety of comedians who are sure to keep you laughing all night long–maybe all summer long.

Seth Meyers: Most widely known for his head writer status at Saturday Night Live, Seth Meyers will take the stage June 21. Last month, it was announced Meyers will be taking over NBCs “Late Night” show next year. So, make sure to see his stand up, while he still has the time to tour. Tickets are $35.

Daniel Tosh: Daniel Tosh, host of Comedy Central’s Tosh.0, will do four shows at Warner — two a night on June 22 and 23. Tosh’s popularity and status has only been growing the past couple of years. While he is most well-known for poking fun of others on his show, his stand-up is definitely worth seeing. Tickets range from $60 to $75.

Tracy Morgan: After gaining popularity from “Saturday Night Live,” Morgan went on to star in Tina Fey’s NBC sitcom “30 Rock,” which just had its series finale. Morgan has often been in the news for political incorrectness but will no doubt put on a hilarious show. Tickets are $35 for the June 29 show.

Crimson Comedy Jam: Joe Torry will host this fun and memorable night full of Delta comics, as seen on BET and HBO. Keep in mind that no minors are allowed at this show. The July 13 performance has tickets ranging from $45 to $50.

Future: Tickets for both Russell Brand and John Oliver went on sale June 12, and be sure to mark your calendars for both of these English gentlemen. Brand is a comedian and actor, known for his role in the film, “Get Him to the Greek,” and his memoir, “My Booky Wook.” Oliver is best known for being a correspondent on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.” Oliver will be taking over as the show’s host for a few months, while Stewart works on another project–and also hosts a satirical podcast of his own.

Gary Tischler • June 17, 2013

When “Approaching Ali,” the one-hour opera having its world premiere at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater Saturday and Sunday, created under the auspices of the Washington National Opera’s new commissioning program for contemporary American opera, there’ll be a little pressure on everybody involved.

That would include WNO artistic director Francesca Zambello, composer D.J. Sparr, and librettist Mark Campbell and Davis Miller, as well as performers bass Soloman Howard, Aundie Marie Moore, baritone, young boy soprano Ethan McKelvain, Tim Augustin and Catherine Martin.

The opera is the story of a young boy in North Carolina in the early 1960s who overcomes the loss of his mother and the trauma of being bullied when he sees champion boxer Muhammad Ali on television. More than 20 years later as a middle-aged writer, he seeks out his boyhood hero in person at the home of Ali’s mother in Louisville.

The work will feature a 10-piece chamber orchestra, conducted by former Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Steven Jarvi.

But the Washington-raised Howard—who doubled as Joe in the critical and popular WNO production of

“Showboat”—has a particular challenge in performing, acting and singing the role of Ali. “As an African American who knows a little about struggling, I’ve always seen Muhammad Ali as a personal inspiration for me,” he said during a telephone interview. “He taught us what it’s like to fight, not just in the ring, but outside it, standing up for your personal beliefs and not backing down, no matter what the cost.

“When I was in high school [in Suitland, Md.], in an atmosphere of peers that couldn’t quite see an African American singer being interested in classical music, let alone opera, it sometimes got difficult,” he said in a deep, very deep bass voice that might give people pause about not showing respect. “People would say, why aren’t you singing gospel or blues or some such, or Barry White. But I was fortunate—I played football, too. So, I didn’t get that much trouble. I was fortunate to have people, teachers, mentors, who helped me fulfill my talent and my gift.”

“I grew up in D.C., and we had difficult times, but my parents kept things together,” Howard said. “I learned about strength from my mother Nellene Dickerson and my father Isaac Howard. You don’t always have the advantages other people did.”

As for the his part in the opera, it “was quite a challenge,” Howard said. “I believe in everything I do in opera that you have to learn to be the character, not just sing it correctly and with Ali, that was a serious responsibility and challenge for me. You have to do the man justice, you have to find him.

The new opera initiative “gives young singers, young artists a chance to do difficult and challenging work,” he said. “And this opera, we can hope, will broaden the audience. It’s a thoroughly American subject that ought to resonate for all Americans. It certainly did for me. The work spoke to me.”

The 32-year-old singer now is a rising part of the WNO, through its important Domingo—Cafritz Young Artist program.

The opera is based on Davis Miller’s book, “The Tao of Muhammad Ali.” His first published story, “My Dinner with Ali,” had the late David Halberstam praising it as one of the 20 best pieces of sports writing of the 20th century.

“Approaching Ali” will be performed at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater Saturday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 9, at 2 p.m.
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Gary Tischler •

I was a very young man when I first heard that immaculately clear, piercing and beautiful voice that belonged to Joan Baez singing folk songs I’d never heard before. It was the year of the folk singer in the music world, the protest singer, the emergence of the coffee house singers and folk festivals. In 1962, she was on the cover of Time Magazine, a thick painting depicting her strumming a guitar, long black hair, blue jeans and barefoot in a wicker chair of some sort.

Her singing, the look, the whole aura and story affected a lot of people deeply, myself included—it got me into Dylan, Sonny and Terry, Pete Seeger, the blues and folk music, the protest songs that we never sang in the Midwest or in the army.

Baez will performing at Wolf Trap, as part of a tour with the Indigo Girls at Wolf Trap Wednesday, June 12, singing some of those songs, and maybe songs from her last album, “The Day After Tomorrow.” If notes on Baez’s website give any hint of what else: songs like “Jerusalem,” “Susanne,” “Diamonds and Rust,” “It’s All Over, Baby Blue,” “God Is God” or, quite possibly, even “We Shall Overcome,” depending on the audience and its mood.

“Hello, it’s Joan,” Baez says when she calls. For a minute,I didn’t know quite what to say except thank you. I hadn’t expected this voice, because all I remembered really was the voice that sang so incredibly, or the stories and the facts and the biography, but this voice was conversational, a phone call from the here and now, not the past.

For the past seven years or so, Baez had been living in Riverside, Calif., with her mother, whom people called “Big Joan,” and who had just passed away April 20 at the age of 100. I offered my condolences. “I have to tell you a funny story,” Baez said. “We had planned a big 100th birthday party for her. At first, she didn’t want to have anything to do with that, she didn’t want a party, but then she relented, We had around 100 people over, and it was fine, and then we asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She stood there, and she said, ‘I want to drop dead.’ And you know, a week later, she passed away. It was the right time. I think is what she meant, and we were all there for her.”

Her mother was Scottish and her father, Albert Baez, a physicist and inventor, was born in Mexico. Her sister Mimi Farina was also a noted folk/protest singer and activist; she died of cancer in 2001.

You think about loss in a conversation like this, but it wasn’t like that. Baez—simply by being who she’s been for more than 50 years of singing and speaking out and being in places and lending her name and time to causes and walking with Martin Luther King, Jr., and that voice and that body of work—can bring an aura to any conversation, it could be a too-serious kind of talk that leaves out the person.

But her conversational voice is warm, and her singing voice, for that matter, has changed. “It’s time, that does that,” she says. “I occupy the middle ground, my voice, it’s an instrument, you have to take care of it, and I’m sure there are people who expect the old voice, and you can’t do that as much any more. “ Listening to some online offerings—“Diamonds and Rust” comes to mind but also the much, much later “The Day After Tomorrow,” a Steve Earl-produced album from 2008—the voice is richer and a little more diverse in its travels. It’s an older voice, but not like the old voice.

Baez finds a lot of comfort and pleasure in touring—her son Gabriel plays with her on the tour, and the rest are friends to some degree or another. “It’s like being with family, a road trip, it’s just warm and good,” she says. They’ve here, they’ve been in Colorado and Kansas and move on to New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York.

She knows her iconic status, but it’s the whole package and persona that’s the icon—the activist, her travels to the Middle East, Africa, singing at the side of Nelson Mandela, going to the suffering places and speaking and singing truth to power.

Her look has changed, the hair is short and grayer, but the image of the new girl on the block in music remains, as does the almost wounding effect of the voice.

“You know, most of the time audiences are good,” she said. “They’re people that know the music, the songs, they’ll get into it or respond, they’ll sing along. And every now and then, you get nothing, and you think, ‘Oh, boy, we’ve got our work cut out for this.’ You get all kinds of people—my generation, sure, and it gets a little nostalgic then, but also young people, and I think people who care.”

Her kind of music—the kind that seem to be about what’s going on in our daily and worldly life, isn’t much in evidence among contemporary singers, although performers today are quick to raise money and sing for causes, but their music lags behind. There are, in short, few if any passionate singer-citizens like Joan Baez around, and there is still only one Bob Dylan.

“Sure, he still does that, but then, he’s always done it,” she said of Dylan, the pied piper of the here and now, the heart within, the cool attitude without.

Baez expressed some disappointment with President Barack Obama, whom she endorsed in his first run. “I think, I don’t know, I thought he had the potential to create a movement, and that hasn’t happened,” she said.

She frets about the times and their dangers. “Maybe these are times when you savor every little thing and make them into the things that matter.”

Her voice over the phone still rings true and clear as spring water. It’s the woman who said in a PBS special about her that “social justice is the core of her true life, looming larger than music.” “It’s Joan”: Joan Baez.

Gary Tischler •

When you see that the Brubeck Brothers Quartet is playing as a big part of the Jazz at the Hamilton Live series as the D.C. Jazz Festival nears its end Friday night, you don’t necessarily think of Dan Brubeck on drums, or Chris Brubeck on bass and trombone, or their compatriots Mike DeMicco on guitar and Chuck Lamb on piano.

You think about what they’re doing which is a concert called “A Tribute to Dave Brubeck,” and you think about that guy who isn’t there but surely is. That would be Chris and Dan’s father and dad, mentor and influence, Dave Brubeck, the jazz composer and player and one of the most original American musicians and jazz players ever in a field stuffed to full glory with originals.

“It’s about my dad, sure. It’s a tribute, sure, but it’s about all of us—our memories, the influence and the love, so yeah, there’s a lot going on,” said Chris Brubeck, something of an iconoclast and multitasker and multi-talented guy who can seamlessly float in and out of rock and roll, pop, jazz, and classical music in his composing and playing, and talking. He is also the man behind and in front of the group, Triple Play, which delves into rock and blues and some straight ahead jazz, as jazz people would have it.

In “Chris Brubeck’s Triple Play Live at Arthur Zankel Music Center with Joel Brown and Peter Madcat Ruth,” a concert album recorded in 2011, you can hear the son’s eclectic tastes and his roaring, soaring trombone on such songs as “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” a bluesy ripper by Hambone Willie Newburn or Chris’s “Mighty Mrs. Hippy” and Fat’s Waller’s “Black and Blue.” Wonders of wonders, though, you can hear dad, Dave Brubeck, making a guest appearance on “St. Louis Blues” and his trademark Paul Desmond number “Take Five,” so that you get a sense of father and son merging, not for the first time, but for the last time. It’s the last known recorded performance by Dave Brubeck, coincidentally.

Coincidentally, it’s also Father’s Day two days after the concert at the Hamilton. Brubeck senior was a lifetime achievement honoree at the D.C. Jazz Festival.

“You know almost all of us, all the sons, are or were in the business at one time or another, and we played with him many times over the years,” Chris Brubeck said. “We, and I know I did, learned a lot from him, and one of the things was to respect, enjoy and play all kinds of music.”

That’s very evident if you check out YouTube and find a kind of shared talk between Chris and his father on the occasion of collaborating on writing a symphonic composition on a PBS documentary on the great American photographer Ansel Adams. “Yeah, that’s something, isn’t, it?” Chris said. “I saw a lot of similarities between dad and Adams. They were American types, they grew up in somewhat the same kind of area, big mountains, big stretches of land. Dad was taking classical musical lessons when grandpa decided to be a rancher. So, dad instead was something of a cowboy, but he played on weekends in a band.”

This is not the place to go into a biography of the grand master that Dave Brubeck was. This is about a family, two families, the kind of life lived by Brubeck, which was not a life you could call typically a jazz life. The jazz legends lived large and lived dramatically— Bird, the Duke, Ella, Billie, Miles, Dizzy, Bud Powell and so on, lives lived on the edges of disaster. That wasn’t Brubeck. As much as he traveled and played, he was always a phone call, a thought, a voice or a possible distance away from his source and reason.

“There’s sometimes this idea that dad wasn’t, I don’t know, really jazz enough, that he was too intellectual or something which isn’t true at all,” Brubeck said. “He was a giant, but he lived his own life. He revered all these men and women—witness ‘The Duke,’ which he wrote and he loved playing with people. He was a collaborationist. He felt that classical music and jazz were all part of the same stream, that you could find things in both that led you to the other. I think I got that from him.”

The young Brubeck lived a bit of the rock-and-roll life in California. Chris had his own group(s). That’s still there, but he played and travelled with his father.

“It’s still hard to believe he’s not here,” he said. “I mean, it just happened last December. I was traveling. We didn’t know that he was in trouble. I heard about it, while I was away. Everybody, all of miss him not being here.”

Fathers and sons on a Friday night in Washington, jazz all around. For sure, you can hear it—that familiar lead in to “Take Five,” like musical hipsters sauntering down the streets. That’s when you will expect to see him and know that he’ll be there anyway. Old music legends may die, but their music never fades away—especially, when you have his two boys giving and playing a tribute to the old man.

Gary Tischler •

The D.C. Jazz Festival is roaring to a big close this weekend, with some big concerts still remaining on tap, including the Roots in Southwest.

Here’s a look at some of what’s left:

Friday, June 14

Jazz Meets the Latin Classics—The Paquito D’Rivera Pan Americana Ensemble explores the classical sounds from Latin Americfa in “Jazz Meets The Latin Classics” at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater at 7:30 p.m. D’Rivera, the festival’s co-artistic director and NEA Jazz Masters leads an all-star ensemble with guests Brenda Feliciano, and Berta Rojas exploring Piazzolla, Lecuona, Rodrigo, Villa Lobos, and D’Rivera’s own works.

Susana Baca—at the Howard Theatre, 8 p.m.

Lee Konitz with the Brad Linde Expanded Ensemble—at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 8 p.m.

The Brubeck Brothers Quartet: Tribute to Dave Brubeck, 8:30 p.m., Hamilton Live

Pharoah Sanders—Legendary player at the Bohemian Caverns, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.

Saturday , June 15

The Roots—The great contemporary group fusing hip hop, jazz and blues at the Kastles Stadium at the Wharf; doors open at 3 p.m.

The Karriem Riggins Quartet, the DC Jazz Loft Series Blowout Show, at D.C. Jazz Loft Pop-Up Hall, 7:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m.

The Brass-A-Holics, GoGo Brass Funk Band, 8:30 p.m. Hamilton Live.

Sunday June 16

John McLaughlin, Howard Theatre, 8 p.m.

Gary Tischler • June 6, 2013

Virtuoso and legendary drummer Roy Haynes and his Fountain of Youth Band kicks off the 15th D.C. Jazz Festival June 5 in fitting fashion at the Hamilton, one of the festivals main venues with its Jazz at the Hamilton Live series.

It’s a big night in more ways than one: Haynes is a walking, drumming honorary member of the history of jazz and fittingly will be given the 2013 DCJF Lifetime Achievement Award.

Roy Owen Haynes has had a lasting impact on jazz—he came out of the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston to become one of the most recorded drummers in the history of jazz. He’s had a career that lasted more than 60 years even bridging the gap to the rock-and-roll generation, including Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stone, the Allman Brothers Band and Page McConnell. If you want to check out just where Haynes belongs in the parade of jazz, you might want to get a musical biography CD set, called “A Life in Time—The Roy Haynes Story,” released in 2007. On it are musical highlights from the life, time and music of Haynes, with recordings that feature Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny as well as Haynes’s own Hip Ensemble and Fountain of Youth Quartet.

Better yet, check out You Tube, always a treasure trove of jazz music, including one in which Haynes and the great saxophonist Sonny Rollins talk over old jazz times or a jam session with Haynes and Chick Corea. Even better still, there’s a video called “Blue ‘n Boogie” and one featuring Stan Getz, Gary Burton, Steve Swallow and Haynes as well as a Terri Lyne Carrington Tribute to Haynes. Carrington, by the by, will be performing “Money Jungle Provocative in Blue” June 8 at the Hamilton as part of the festival.

Opening on Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., for Haynes is Nasar Abadey and Supernova.

Another jazz fest highlight on Wednesday is Marc Cary, performing “Solo Piano: A Tribute to Abbey Lincoln” at the Bohemian Caverns on U Street.

On tap for June 6, Pianist Allyn Johnson, called by many the “Dean of D.C. Jazz,” will be at the Phillips Collection at 5 p.m.; Trumpeter Nicholas Payton XXX will be at Hamilton Live at 7:30 p.m. and Lonnie Liston Smith will perform at Bohemian Caverns at 8 and 10 p.m.

Jordan Hellmuth • June 3, 2013

The ninth annual D.C. Jazz Festival is dancing its way back to the District this June with more than 125 shows across the city. Jazz will take over the city June 5 through June 16.

D.C. is still very much a “jazz town,” as it was when festival director and founder Charlie Fishman decided D.C. was just the place for a jazz festival in 2004. Nine years later, jazz is as alive as ever in D.C. This year’s encompassing concept, “Jazz Meets the Latin Classics,” highlights the Latin flavor of the classic roots of D.C. jazz.

Jazz at the Hamilton Live returns for a second year for D.C. Jazz with live jazz nightly throughout the festival. Events D.C. presents the “Jazz in the ‘Hoods” program, stretched jazz from corner to corner of the District, featuring Jazz at the Howard Theatre and the CapitolBop D.C. Jazz Loft Series. The Loft Series will wrap up with the all-night Blowout Show at D.C. Jazz Loft Pop-Up Hall on June 15.

The D.C. jazz world is buzzing about the Roots, which will conclude the D.C. Jazz Festival June 15 with a show at a new jazz fest venue, Kastles Stadium at the Wharf.

Keep a lookout for D.C. Jazz Festival tickets on Facebook and Twitter giveaways from The Georgetowner.

Visit www.dcjazzfest.org for a complete list of show times, locations, and ticket information.