CJI, Gibbes set special event

Proof of jazz music's great diversity of style is a unique performance scheduled for Oct. 17 at the Gibbes Museum of Art.

On that Sunday at 3 p.m., jazz diva Ann Caldwell will offer musical impressions of her reactions to and interpretations of a special exhibition on display in the venerable art house at 135 Meeting St.

It is called "Stacy Lynn Waddell: The Evidence of Things Unseen." The stunning pieces were made by Waddell, visiting artist in the department of art and art history at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

After looking at some of the images online, I had the pleasure of speaking with her by telephone a few weeks ago, and I found her to be engaging and very serious about her work.

To create the pieces, the emerging contemporary artist burned, singed and branded paper and fabric that explore differing perceptions of American history and culture. This is her first solo museum exhibition. She blends painting, drawing, sculpture, collage and installation with original innovation. The exhibition went on view Sept. 3 and is up until Dec. 5.

After announcing that the Gibbes would show Waddell's work, Marla Loftus,

museum relations director, and Dr. Karen Chandler, a principal in the Charleston Jazz Initiative, a C of C-based research project, put their heads together to produce Ann's program.

I caught up with Caldwell last week about the show and she said, "I am calling my presentation Singed, Burned, Branded, Buked and Scorned. The inspiration comes from Stacy Lynn Waddell's artistic technique and the Negro Spiritual."

The concert is spoken word and song.

She has written and will speak a libretto-like monologue related to the music she has chosen to sing. Her repertoire will include treatments of the spirituals "I Been Buked and I Been Scorned" and "Lord, How Come Me Here." Also on

the set list is Thelonious Monk's " 'Round Midnight," a haunting, angular jazz ballad that speaks to hopes and fears that come during solitude and isolation. She will sing Billie Holiday's searing social commentary "Strange Fruit," written by Abel Meeropol.

Then, there will be Paul Webster and Sonny Burke's "Black Coffee," a dirge devoted to a woman's unfulfilled pangs of love that was made famous by Sarah Vaughan.

Caldwell will sing a cappella in the Rotunda Gallery of the Gibbes, surrounded by Waddell's work.

It promises to be quite a beautiful and moving experience.

Caldwell is especially suited to this kind of rendering. She sings in every format from solo to fronting a 20-piece big band.

In terms of musical styles, she's equally adept at jazz, folk, pop and spirituals. Sometimes, I think Oct. 17 will be one of them, you can hear all the styles in her approach to material at any given time.

I would bet my last Joe Henderson recording that this will be much in evidence in the Rotunda. She has meticulously prepared her program but I'm sure, in true jazz tradition fashion, she will improvise, placing herself and the audience in the poignant presence of the moment she's sure to create.

Waddell's work is breathtaking. It's not blockbuster breathtaking. It doesn't knock you off your feet with a bang. It's a slow burn because it comes from a deep place in her conciousness.

She told me, "At the heart of what informs me is a sense of Americaness, teasing out my own version of 'American,' hoping to create an origin myth, stories about how the West was won, the first Thanksgiving, things like that. The images are about beauty as an ideal."

While this match was made in the offices of C of C and the Gibbes and not in heaven, it has artistic and spiritual overtones that make it promise truth, beauty and enlightenment.

Good art and good jazz strive to do that.

Tickets are $10 for museum members and students and $20 for nonmembers (museum admission is included in the ticket price). Tickets can be purchased at www.gibbesmuseum.org/events, at the Gibbes Museum Store, or by calling 722-2706, ext.22. Staff strongly recommends purchasing tickets in advance.

Divas to 'jazz' Cheraw

Some classical music divas are ready to get in touch with their jazz side. They're set to headline the South Carolina Jazz Festival on Oct. 16 in Cheraw, home to the great Dizzy Gillespie. The full festival runs Oct. 15-17.

The annual affair, an homage to Diz, is always in October, his birth month.

Charleston artists have performed there before. Pianist Tommy Gill and Leah Suarez's old band, Toca Toca, played the very first year, 2006.

One of the headliners this year is 3 Mo~La~Dic Divas + 1, an ensemble that comprises Latonya Wrenn, Marilyn Gross, Annette McKenzie Anderson and Gwendolyn Jenifer. The group will perform at the Theatre on the Green, also the site of a seven-foot statue of Dizzy.

Anderson, a native Charlestonian, leads the group. She lives in the Washington, D.C., area but has maintained strong ties to her hometown and state for years. She and her colleagues, for instance, have been performing in Piccolo Spoleto for the Philip Simmons Foundation, offering popular concerts that raise money for a good cause.

They've decided to turn their attention to jazz music, including Palmetto State jazz as represented by Dizzy's work.

The set list includes "Summertime," Stormy Weather," "A Night in Tunisia," "One Note Samba," "I Got It Bad" and "Set Down Servant," described by Anderson as "a Negro spiritual with a jazzy beat."

These women are strong singers with wide ranges and a depth of feeling that's sure to give attendees something like they've never heard before.

I'm sure Dizzy, a big fan of Charleston, would be proud.

Other Lowcountry acts working the festival include two string-led ensembles, the Nikolai Svishev Trio, which sometimes performs gypsy jazz, and the Roger Bellow Trio, jazz and swing standards. Both happen on Oct. 15.

For tickets and more information, call 843-537-8420 or visit www.scjazzfestival.com.

Jack McCray, author of "Charleston Jazz," can be reached at jackjmccray@aol.com.