Last night's South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center concert was on my list. It's true I expected it to be terrific, but it was on my list the way they're all on my list. Because the ones that aren't what I might call terrific (more or less all of them are) are very, very good. It's a long, 28-mile, ride from here? Yeah, so? It's always worth it. Always.
At intermission, someone nearby called my name. It was John Holland, in the row behind me, and two seats over. Elena was with him. Delaney was not. Presumably, she's still too young for a late night out. And John said he knew several other people who had come to see/hear that show. He also wanted to know if the seat next to me was, in fact, not taken, because Tim Horner was much further back, and would love a closer seat. I hadn't paid attention to that seat, so I asked the woman on the other side of it, and no, it was not taken. Tim was welcome to it. I told John and Elena to let me know next time they want to go down there. We'll carpool. I'm there for most of their shows anyway.
I don't know how many times I've talked about SMDCAC, but it's been many. It's not near BP, but it's a beautiful venue, magnificently operated, with the friendliest staff on earth, low ticket prices, and free parking. The manager/impresario is Eric Fliss, and no one is remotely as good as he is at choosing talent. Last weekend, I was at a show that Eric said he'd been nursing for seven years. It was a bluegrass group, and their program last weekend was 1980s songs. There was a Bob Dylan, a Madonna, and many others. I asked the leader of the group how on earth he managed to bluegrassize a program without including the Allman Brothers. He corrected me, and told me the Allman Brothers as a formal group didn't have any output in the 1980s, although Gregg did.
Anyway, back to last night, I asked John, who plays guitar, if he had come down to SMDCAC to hear Bela Fleck play banjo. No, he said, he came to hear all of them. Zakir Hussain, whom many or most people consider the greatest living tabla player, Edgar Meyer, whose upright bass playing was magnificent, and a guy who is not familiar to me, who played a collection of wooden Indian (South Asian) flutes.
Not that it mattered much who played last night. THEY'RE ALL GREAT!! You're depriving yourself if you don't go there. And if you need one more incentive, the more often you go, the even cheaper are the tickets. They have packages, whereby if you buy tickets to X number of shows (dance, and other categories), the price you pay for your already low priced tickets gets lower.
PS: Fernando doesn't live in BP. He's a percussionist, who is particularly interested in Indian percussion, especially tabla, and I know him from an Indian classical music organization of which I'm a part. But he was there, definitely to see Zakir Hussain.
PPS: Next weekend is the last show for this regular season. It's a kids'/family show, so I won't be there. But very soon, they're coming out with their summer schedule. Do yourselves a favor. smdcac.org. 786-573-5300. If you call them, you'll probably talk to Dora, Rico, or Alex. Tell them I said to take good care of you.
It occurs to me I should say how I first found out about the existence of SMDCAC. It was probably more than 10 years ago, and I somehow became aware that Keb Mo', a favorite modern, but old school, blues performer of mine, was coming to south Florida. The further venue was called, I think, the Lyric Theater or something up in Stuart, but Keb Mo' was also coming to SMDCAC, which was unknown to me. SMDCAC, as far as it is from here, was much closer than Stuart, and the ticket price was lower. It was only after I got there, fell in love with the place, and started to go back for more (not quite everything, but certainly most things), that I realized the "value" of free and easy parking, and started to get to know the staff. I'm down there more or less every week, sometimes Friday night and Saturday night, and occasionally Sunday afternoon.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice room, and the drive really isn't that bad since it's mostly freeway driving. I was genuinely surprised at the number of people I knew (most of whom live in North Dade) at the show. There was also a very large Indian contingent, which I can attribute to the popularity of the Zakir, but I was still surprised. Also some deadheads of course since Bela has "the curse" (what Jerry Garcia called the effect of having played with the grateful dead).
ReplyDeleteJohn,
DeleteIf your drive was mostly freeway, then you took 836 to the turnpike. That's less time, but more miles. I try to preserve range, so I take I-95 and US 1.
That room was more full than it almost ever is, for that concert. Loads of people, for a variety of reasons, were eager. I knew Hussain was playing, but it didn't occur to me to wear a kurta. I sort of regretted that I didn't. I met Hussain some years ago, and he said he liked my "shirt." That was my fancier kurta. He looks notably thinner than last time I saw him. I hope he's OK. His playing (and he's a master of that scat-like Indian vocalizing) was as fantastic as it always is.
A funny side story is that before the concert, some guy who was there to see and hear it asked me, for some reason, if Victor Wooten would be there. I told him I had seen Victor's brother (Roy: "Futureman") at a concert there several years ago. Was Victor ever part of Fleck's ensemble? Roy was definitely one of the "Flecktones."
I thought it was a spectacular ensemble this time. I thought Fleck said the CD of this show would be on sale, and I imagined he and the group would be in the lobby. They weren't, and the CD was overpriced, so I didn't get one.