Jazz! Carson City

Mile High Jazz
August is Jazz Month in Carson City

The summer sizzles as Mile High Jazz Band Association, Carson City, local businesses, and jazz lovers proudly continue the annual August jazz festival started in 2004. This year, performances will be held at multiple venues in Carson City, and will feature about 60 performances, and more than 100 musicians in over 20 bands. Main events are scheduled for August 19-21, with lead-in performances starting July 31. All events are free, except for a ticketed event at the Bliss Mansion on August 13. Visit milehighjazz.com/JCC_schedule_2011.htm to see the full performance schedule.

Outstanding regional and international jazz artists will perform at the Third Street Farmers Market, Comma Courtyard, Firkin & Fox, Sassafras, Brewery Arts Center, Carson Mall, Legislative Plaza and Capitol Amphitheater, and other Carson City venues.

Featured annual performers are the Reno Jazz Orchestra with Cami Thompson on August 21, and the Mile High Jazz Band. Other performers include (in alphabetical order) Back Forty Barbara Baxter, CeCe Gable, The Champagne Singers, Colin Ross, Discover Music (from the Reno Philharmonic), the Gents of Jive, George Hanepen Trio with Shanna Carlson, The Jazz Guys, the Johnny Hamlin Trio, Ken Davidson, Linda Merrell with Blue Jasmine, jam sessions with Marsh Brodeur and Motive, The Millennium Bugs, New World Jazz Project, Rocky Tatarelli & Judith Ames. Slow Djinn Fez, Statusphere, STRAZZ Youth Strings Jazz Ensemble, Two Plus quintet, and more!

Mile High Jazz will also present a jazz film mini-festival on August 4 (...But Then, She's Betty Carter), and August 25 (Mary Lou Williams: Music on My Mind); both films will be shown at Brewery Arts Center, 8pm. A jazz panel discussion (Jazz Greats Forum) will take place on August 18. A "guitar summit," presenting four outstanding local guitarists, will take place on August 11 and includes a raffle for a new guitar.

To learn more, volunteer, or be a sponsor for Jazz! Carson City, call 775-883-4154 or visit jazzcarsoncity.com/

[photo of Reno Jazz Orchestra and festival text from Mile High Jazz]

BAC: Women's Film Series

Brewery Arts Center
449 West King Street
Carson City

Celebrate films “By and About Women” at the BAC’s Friday Film Series. The five week series began in July and continues through August. Over the series you can enjoy a diverse line up of FREE films in BAC’s Performance Hall.

Thursday, August 4, 8pm
…But Then, She’s Betty Carter
A film by Michelle Parkerson
This lively film is an unforgettable portrait of legendary vocalist Betty Carter, one of the greatest living exponents of jazz. Uncompromised by commercialism throughout her long career, she has forged alternative criteria for success — including founding her own recording company and raising her two sons as a single parent. Parkerson’s special film captures Carter’s musical genius, her paradoxical relationship with the public and her fierce dedication to personal and artistic independence.

Friday, August 5, 8pm
Divorce Iranian Style
A film by Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini
England, 1998, 80 minutes, Color
Hilarious, tragic, stirring, this fly-on-the-wall look at several weeks in an Iranian divorce court provides a unique window into the intimate circumstances of Iranian women’s lives. Following Jamileh, whose husband beats her; Ziba, a 16-year-old trying to divorce her 38-year-old husband; and Maryam, who is desperately fighting to gain custody of her daughters, this deadpan chronicle showcases the strength, ingenuity, and guile with which they confront biased laws, a Kafaka-esque administrative system, and their husbands’ and families’ rage to gain divorces.

Friday, August 12, 8pm
Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go
A film by Kim Longinotto
UK, 2007, 100 minutes, Color
Harrowing at one moment and heartwarming the next, Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go is set at England’s Mulberry Bush School, founded by Barbara Dockar-Drysdale who developed unique methods for working with children suffering through severe emotional trauma.

Friday, August 19, 7:30pm
Short Video Contest Showing and Awards
and at 8pm Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business
A film by Helena Solberg and David Meyer
USA/Brazil, 1995, 92 minutes, Color, Subtitled
This fascinating film skillfully combines reenactments, interviews with confidants and commentators, and footage from her many films to tell the haunting story of 1940’s superstar Carmen Miranda. Charting Miranda’s transformation from famed Brazilian singer to Hollywood’s first Latina star to independent artist, award-winning Brazilian filmmaker Helena Solberg shows how Miranda’s saga exemplifies contradictions in the relationship between Latin America and the United States that persist today. At the convergence of sexual politics, cultural colonialism, and one woman’s life, this moving film powerfully explores the complex factors behind the image and life of the “Tutti-Frutti Woman,” Carmen Miranda.

Thursday, Aug 25, 8pm
Mary Lou Williams Music on My Mind
A film by Joanne Burke
Pioneering Black American composer-arranger-pianist Mary Lou Williams is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of jazz. In this authoritative film, lively interviews with Williams, Dizzy Gillepsie and Buddy Tate interweave the musical and personal elements of her dramatic life. At the height of her career, she dropped out of music to help drug-addicted musicians in Harlem, making a triumphant comeback fifteen years later. A spirited tribute to Williams’ indelible contribution to American culture, narrated by Roberta Flack.

[text and image from BAC]

August FWAC at the Bliss

FWAC • First Wednesday Arts Coffee
Bliss Mansion

608 Elizabeth Street*

Carson City

Wednesday, August 3, 4:30 - 6pm

CCAI invites you to attend our monthly gathering of artists and arts & culture enthusiasts. Join us this month for lemonade and conversation at the Bliss Mansion. CCAI encourages you to bring some of your new artworks to share.

Everyone is welcome. Specials thanks to FWAC's terrific host, Cyndy Brenneman.

* located at the corner of Robinson and Elizabeth Streets in Carson City's Historic District across the street from the Governor's Mansion.

[image from a Goggle search for lemonade]

Artown's Closing Night: Playing for Change

Artown
Wingfield Park
Reno

Sunday, July 31, 7:30pm

Artown's Closing Night has long been the exclamation point on an entire month of arts and culture. Join Artown on July 31 at 7:30pm in Wingfield Park to celebrate with Playing for Change. Sharing peace through music, Playing For Change is a global music collective bringing musicians from around the world together for an inspirational live performance based on the PBS show. For four years, Playing For Change traveled the world with a mobile recording studio in search of musical inspiration and sharing their recordings to unite people through music. Throughout the journey they created a family of more than 100 musicians from all walks of life that make up the Playing For Change Band. Merging genres from blues and chamber music to African choir and rock, musicians perform familiar songs in a new, collaborative style.

[image and text from Artown website]

Art in the BRIC I

CCAI at the BRIC
Business Resource and Innovation Center
108 E. Proctor Street * [map]
Carson City

Since last fall, the Capital City Arts Initiative [CCAI] has presented Art in the BRIC I, a group exhibition by northern artists in the City's Business Resource Innovation Center [BRIC]. The show includes work by Carol Brown, Galen Brown, Bryan Christiansen, Sue Coleman, Jim Eidel, Carole and William Hutchison, Eunkang Koh, Sharon Tetly, and Sharon Thompson.

The exhibition is free and the public is cordially invited to stop by the BRIC to see the show. The art works are spread throughout the first floor offices and conference rooms. The building is open to the public M - F, 8am - 5pm.

Artworks in the photo are prints by Sharon Tetly from her Soul Music series. The exhibition will continue through late August.

* located at the corner of E. Proctor and Plaza Streets in historic Carson City just north of City Hall.

Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival: Twelfth Night

Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival
Sand Harbor State Park at Lake Tahoe

This summer the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival presents Shakespeare's comic masterpiece, Twelfth Night, at Sand Harbor State Park. The exhilarating production features beautiful costumes, lavish sets, and one of the most talented professional acting companies in the West directed by Charles Fee.

Twelfth Night runs through August 21. For ticket information, visit LTSF at: www.laketahoeshakespeare.com

[image and text from Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival website]

Artown: Last Week of July Artown Events

Artown
continues throughout Reno. Link to Artown for events, schedules, photos.

Kelly Peyton, a mixed-media artist and University of Nevada Reno student, was selected by an Artown judging committee to create the artwork that represents the 16th annual festival. Her drawing, incorporating watercolor/drawing techniques, conveys the color and energy of Artown while representing its northern Nevada roots.

[poster image from Artown website]

Splendor in the Glass Continues at CCAI Courthouse Gallery

Splendor in the Glass
through September 9
at the
CCAI Courthouse Gallery [map]
885 East Musser Street
Carson City

The Capital City Arts Initiative's exhibition of Carole and William Hutchison’s XXL Variation III Kaleidoscope continues at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery through September 9. The exhibition is free and you're invited.

The Hutchison Studio’s XXL Variation III kaleidoscope has eight 28” diameter interchangeable wheels; the photo to the right shows William changing a wheel. The Hutchisons created the brilliantly colored wheels using a variety of glass techniques including stained, etching, foiled fused, blown tube glass, tack-fused glass, full flat fused glass, plus flower transparencies and glass jewels.

Want to Start a Radio Station?

WANT TO START A RADIO STATION?
CONFERENCE CALL:
Wednesday, July 20
12:00pm EST/9:00am PST

Click to RSVP for call-in number

A newly passed law is creating a one-time opportunity for community-based organizations to launch new radio stations in cities and towns across the United States.

Think about what your organization or community could do with its own radio station! Join us for a nation-wide conference call to learn more about how arts and culture groups can seize this opportunity.

[text, image from Art and Democracy Project press release]

Les Musiques: Women's Music Festival

Saint Mary's Art Center
55 North R Street
Virginia City

Sunday, July 24th
10am to 10pm

Bon Fete Event Planning presents...
Les Musiques
Women's Music Festival

The event will be held on the front lawn so bring your chairs, picnic blankets, and sunscreen.

Tickets: $25 in advance, $30 at the gate.
For tickets and information, call Nichole Whisman of Bon Fete Event Planning at 775-315-5168; bonfetereno@gmail.com

[image and text from St. Mary's Art Center press release]