"Hey, Arts Funders! Look What's Happening Here!"

Everyone knows about the downturn in the economy and no one can deny it. One the other hand, if you never watched TV or read any news online or in newspapers or magazines, and all you ever did was attend Cleveland-area arts events, you might not suspect that there were any problems. Take the 2009 Cleveland International Film Festival, for instance. That event broke its own attendance records by a significant number: more than 66,500 availed themselves to the event, beating the previous record set in 2007 by about 14,000.

The Cleveland Orchestra's staged production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro sold out four performances in late March with ticket prices starting at $65 and going as high as $210. Even the relatively tiny organization Heights Arts is having one of its most successful exhibits and sales ever, with its sale of antique prints from Vixseboxse Art. It runs through April 18 at its gallery on Lee Road, just south of the Cedar Lee Theater.

And that's just the beginning.

Just in the past couple of weeks, I attended an array of musical events that in addition to illustrating the fact that people in this region apparently will support the arts despite economic woes, also demonstrate the variety of musical options available to us here, all the time.

I went to Nighttown in Cleveland Heights on March 26 to hear the Hot Club of Detroit, a young group that plays 1930s-style gypsy jazz. I took my time getting there because I figured (a) no one’s heard of this group, (b) the economy’s bad and, I’m told, no one’s going out anymore, and (c) the Film Festival is going on and anybody who is out must be there.

The correct answer turned out to be: (d) none of the above. Nighttown was standing-room-only. The place was packed with people who not only paid to hear the group, but were buying dinner and drinks.

The next Sunday, March 29, I went to the Film Festival and stood in a very long line for The Wrecking Crew, a tremendously entertaining and edifying documentary about a group of people who played the rhythm tracks for hundreds of hit records, mainly in the 1960s. It film had played the night before and this day it was being shown on two screens. Many people waiting in line to get in were talking about having seen Little Richard perform the night before at the Moondog Coronation Ball at the Q, another concert that was well-attended, while, again, the Film Festival was bringing in record crowds.

I wanted to stay for the Q&A with the film’s director afterward, but I had to get right over to the Natural History Museum, which was hosting one of the concerts in this year’s VIVA! and Gala Around Town series presented by the Cleveland Museum of Art. This one was a six-man French a cappella ensemble, Lo Còr de la Plana, singing in an obscure ancient language, Occitan. This concert also drew a large crowd (and tickets weren’t cheap). The audience seemed to enjoy the concert, though I left wondering if I’d just heard the same two notes – a root and a fifth – droning for the past 90 minutes.

I guess it was worth it for its historical value, so I had to view it as more of an educational experience.

The next night, Monday, I was at the Roots of American Music (ROAM) office/studio for its monthly Pickin’ Session, which is open to anyone who wants to play guitar (or whatever) and sing along with a bunch of other mostly non-professional musicians, just for the fun of it. ROAM’s main mission involves going into schools and (to simplify it) teach things like history through music, and music through things like history. But it also reaches out to other people in a variety if ways, of which the Pickin’ Session is one.

ROAM founder and director Kevin Richards usually plays along at these sessions. I’m in a band with Kevin – Long Road (I knew I could work that name in here) – so I usually show up a play bass. It’s not my main instrument, but, I mean, with 10 guitars... It’s a nice way to enjoy the feeling of playing in a group, if you don’t want to, or aren’t ready to, actually be in a group. So we played Eagles, Beatles, Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie, traditional Irish and any songs that anybody wanted (and remembered how) to play.

The next night, I stopped in at the Rock Hall’s preview party for its major Bruce Springsteen exhibit that was opening the following day. It’s a great exhibit and, luckily, I had already seen it at the media preview, because there was a huge crowd at the preview party – a Rock Hall employee told me unofficially that it was the largest crowd ever for a preview – thus a relatively long wait to view the exhibit, and I had to get to the Beachland Ballroom.

Raul Malo, the amazing former lead singer of the Mavericks, was playing at the Beachland. He and his band were terrific, though a little too loud for that size room – because what you really want to hear is Malo’s voice, which was more difficult to do than it should have been. The Beachland has a great sound, and the sound man working that night is one of the best around, so I’m sure the volume was where Malo wanted it to be. Maybe he never noticed how big (or small) the room was. The excellent local roots-rock band the Magpies opened for Malo and they were not too loud. Maybe if they become a little more famous, they’ll also get too loud.

Because I was playing music myself, I was not able to attend several other concerts that happened during that same week – the Rock Hall-related shows by 2009 inductees Wanda Jackson, Thursday, and Little Anthony and the Imperials, Friday, at the Agora, and the O'Jays and Dave Mason, Thursday, at CSU’s Wolstien Center. But I was lucky enough to attend the Rock Hall Inductions on Saturday night. By now you’ve read and heard all about that event, so there’s no need to rehash it. But a couple of thing about it did surprise me.

One was that it wasn’t really a music event. During the four-hour affair, music was performed every 30 minutes or so, for about 10 minutes, more or less. And because the inductees want to show what they’ve done, most of the ones who performed did medleys of three or four of their hits, meaning that, for the most part, you didn’t get to hear a whole song. But that was okay, because at least you got to hear the artists perform and you did hear some of their best-known songs. (Metallica did do a whole song. Run-DMC didn’t perform at all.)

The other thing that surprised me was how heartfelt and sincere all of the artists’ acceptance speeches were, and how articulate everyone was. Maybe that was just this particular group and some years this is not the case. But that was enjoyable. In fact, all of the members of Metallica’s speeches were so nice that it really made me wish I liked their music. In that regard, I was way in the minority at this event.

So, there’s all this arts stuff happening in Cleveland – and the above is just a sample. People will turn out in large numbers and spend money on what they think is important. And, at least in this region, that seems to be the arts. I hope potential arts funders have noticed.

From Cool Cleveland contributor David Budin popcyclesATsbcglobal.net
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