Hendrix on Horns
With all the searing intensity of Jimi Hendrix himself, the World Saxophone Quartet pays blistering homage to this 60s guitar master in a night that’s pure Hendrix (sans flaming instruments) on Saturday, March 10, at 7 and 9:30 pm, in the Walker Art Center’s William and Nadine McGuire Theater. Hailed as "the most original and important group to emerge since Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane redefined group improvisation in the late 1950s" (New York Times), this venerable quartet features David Murray, Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett and Greg Osby, joined by the celebrated Jamaaladeen Tacuma (electric bass) and Lee Pearson (drums). They approach Hendrix’s music with both "reverence and a sense of adventure" (Jazz Times), qualifying this as an evening of unforgettable jazz.
The World Saxophone Quartet is one of the finest and most unusual small combos in jazz today. The Quartet began performing as a unit in 1976. Ed Jordan, head of Music at New Orleans Southern University, heard the saxophonists in their individual groups, and he hired them to do a show together.
"We liked it, and started doing gigs at other colleges," David Murray says. Since then, the group has recorded many albums together, including the critically acclaimed Plays Duke Ellington, which was voted one of the best albums of 1986 in the New York Times. Television appearances include two segments on VH-1’s New Visions program and an appearance on NBC’s Night Music. The WSQ, heralded for a repertoire that is exclusively theirs, has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan, where the ensemble enjoyed major success as part of the Live Under the Sky Festival.
Tickets to the World Saxophone Quartet Plays Hendrix are $28 ($24 Walker members) and are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling (612) 375-7600. The Walker Art Center’s Music Season is sponsored by Macy’s Gives. Additional support is provided by the William and Nadine McGuire Commissioning Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Walker Art Center programming is made possible by its Premier Partners: Best Buy, General Mills, Piper Jaffray, Target, Star Tribune and WCCO-TV.
Art of Peter Lupori
The art of Peter Lupori will be exhibited at St. Paul’s Monastery in Maplewood, Minn., from March 25 through May 5. Lupori, a well-known sculptor and teacher, uses wood, metal, stone, clay, ceramic and other media to communicate humanity’s strengths and vulnerabilities. In the "sacred art" genre, his work ranks as some of the best.
His commissioned works appear throughout the Twin Cities in hospitals, schools, churches, public buildings and private residences. He retired from the College of St. Catherine in 1992 as professor emeritus in art, after 45 years of teaching.
At age 88, he continues to teach and create and to see the world with fresh eyes. He is currently working on a bas-relief for a church in St. Paul and has other commissions waiting in the wings. For the past 15 years, he has taught hand-built ceramic sculpture every Saturday at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis.
Lupori says an artist’s talent is a gift from God and that the role of an artist is to give of himself and fulfill something that was asked of him. "When you feel good and are happy about what you’re doing," he says, "you’re on the right track."
The Center is also offering an opportunity to meditate on Lupori’s art on April 11, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Participants will be led to look deeply into his work and to perceive the movement and inspiration of the Divine.
Lupori’s art will be on display every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The exhibit and meditation are free. Both are part of the Benedictine Center’s "Arts & Spirituality" series designed to show how art sustains and expands the spiritual imagination. The next exhibit will include a juried show of young people’s spiritual interpretations of life.
For more information, go to www.stpaulsmonastery.org and follow the Benedictine Center link, or call (651) 777-7251 or e-mail [email protected]. The Benedictine Center, a ministry of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Paul’s Monastery, is located at 2675 Larpenteur Ave. E. in Maplewood.
Healing images
"Art from the Center: The art of Richard Bonk" – featuring his MandalArt Healing Images – will be on display through April 1 at the Phipps Galleries in Hudson, Wisc., with an artist reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, March 2. Phipps Galleries is located at 109 Locust St. in downtown Hudson.
Richard Bonk is an artist, counselor, educator, research coordinator and workshop facilitator. He has worked in various settings utilizing traditional counseling and consciousness expanding techniques, including meditation, yoga, hypnosis, flotation tank therapy, dream work, guided imagery, visual and literary arts to facilitate client and student awareness, learning, healing and growth.
His current art explorations have generated the MandalArt Healing Image process. As part of this technique, an "informational snapshot" is taken of a person or object. Original sources may be as varied as a sound or voice recording, e-mail, writing or text sample, photo, astrological chart, biofeedback or computer file, which is then transformed into raw data in the computer, then run through a series of art filters. The resultant image is a unique abstracted, aesthetic portrait of the "parent." Bonk has been commissioned to create custom images for individuals, organizations, hospitals, healing and education centers.
For more information on the Phipps exhibit, visit www.thephipps.org. For more information on the artist, visit www.richardbonk.com.
