To finish out February

a couple of notes:

1. The last two Tuesday concerts at Epiphany Church were quite dissimilar. Today, Mardi Gras, was the time for Mike Flaherty's Dixieland Direct, a piano-clarinet-percussion trio, whose music perhaps reverberated a little too much off the church walls. But their skills as musicians are not in question, and there was a lot of toe tapping and clapping. Their best songs were 'It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing", Louisiana Fair Tail and 'After You've Gone'. The best solo was pianist Bob Boguslaw (the official White House pianist) who played two contrasting rythms in his right and left hands during 'Bill Bailey'. They play for brunch every Sunday at the Market Inn in SW. It might be worth a try.

On the other hand, last week's had no instruments, and only voices, the Chantry Singers, and "Renaissance Music for English Castles and Cathedrals", 14 voices singing a half religious/half secular concert. Not my type of music, although the voices were very professional, and their opening song, Thomas Weelkes' "Hosanna to the son of David" was extraordinary. Each of the other pieces, to me, sounded like each of the other pieces. I must admit that when director David Taylor said: "when you think of madrigal, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?", I drew a total blank. (He was thinking of "fa la la la la" apparently). So maybe I am not a good judge.

2. Picking a book I never thought I would read, I read the Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini, written in the 15th century by the extraordinarily gifted gold and silversmith and sculptor (if you don't believe that he was gifted, look him up) and memoirist. Florentine by birth, spending his life in one or another part of what is now Italy and in France (working in part for the Pope, the King of France and Cosimo Medici), he was also somewhat of a ruffian, who got into scrape after scrape, many of which were the result, so he says, of professional jealousy. His memoirs are very boastful, and no one takes everything he says literally, but the combination of artistic and religious sensitivity, and utter brutality make for fascinating reading.

3. On Monday, I went to see mystery writer Martha Grimes speak at Politics and Prose. I have a couple of books by her, but have not read them. I did not know what to expect. I thought she was English, since her books are all set in England, but no, she is American and lives in Washington, to boot. I learned she has written, among other things, about 25 Richard Jury mysteries, that she writes every day about 4 hours, and that she doesn't know what is going to happen next until she writes. She is, I would guess, 65 or older, and she has a unique demeanor, talking in a husky voice, slowly, and with dramatic emphasis; she has a very good sense of humor, and is clearly a story teller. I would go and hear her speak again.

Tonight, I took one of her books, this one called Jerusalem Inn (not Jamaica Inn, as I accidently called it, as Michelle pointed out), and decided to read it. I read 75 pages, and then I stopped. It did not capture me. I will put it back on the shelf.