The Shedd Institute and the Oregon Festival of American Muusic

So back to our adventure.  We were in Eugene for a series of performances, lectures, and workshops at a place called The Shedd Institute.  Back in 1991, a couple (Ginerva and Jim Ralph) decided that Eugene needed an organization devoted to the performing arts.  They managed to raise enough money to buy what had been the First Baptist Church (and a school associated with it) and renovate the sanctuary into a theater.  And in 1991, their first series of events premiered--the Oregon Festival of American Music, now a two week series of performances, lectures, and other events.

We were there for the second week of the festival, and attended 7 concerts from Tuesday, August 7 to Saturday the 11th.  This year's festival (with the overall title of "In the Hands of the Muses") focused on jazz and show tunes from the 1920s into the 1950s (one place I part company with them is their belief that American popular music--and American jazz--after 1960 is not so wonderful.  While the performances involved a large number of musicians and singers, there was a "working band" on hand for most of the concerts we saw.  None of them are household names; all of them were excellent (I'll mention a few in a moment).  There were about 6 principal singers, again not national stars but also generally excellent.

We were particularly taken with the band.  For three of the shows, it was led by Byron Stripling (a trumpet player (http://byronstripling.com/), with a pianist [Bobby Floyd--not the baseball player (https://www.facebook.com/Bobby-Floyd-137839862960332/)]; guitarist Howard Alden (http://howardalden.com/ha6/); upright bassist Tom Wakeling (http://www.tomwakeling.com/); drummer Chuck Redd (also vibes; http://www.chuckredd.com/); sax and clarinet player Jesse Cloninger (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEhERD4qIL08kDJCjHPvJzA); and trumpeter Tony Glausi (https://www.tonyglausi.com/--the kid--he's 24).

Glausi led one of the workshops/lectures, talking about (and playing clips of) rap/hip-hop music.  A fair number of the people in attendance--we, at 70, were among the younger people in the crowd--found it difficult to listen to.  I personally thought it was interesting, and that some of the music was pretty good.  Not my sort of thing (bop, cool jazz, 1960s rock, and folk being more my general listening range).  But useful.

All the musicians I linked to above were excellent and all of them are working professionals, making their living mostly by playing or teaching. 

It was a good week of very interesting stuff.  If you decide to spend some time in Oregon in the first half of August, a stop at the Shedd would be well worth your time.