I've talked many times about South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center. The county Commission has unnecessarily renamed it the Dennis C Moss Cultural Arts Center. Dennis Moss was a county Commissioner who reportedly had something important to do with the idea of putting SMDCAC where it is, and he termed out, and even though the county has a rule that nothing can be named for a county employee until five years after that employee retires or stops working for the county, the Commission is allowed to make exceptions. Moss, who is African American, was out of office for only two or three years, and working for someone else, when the county decided to honor him that way. He wasn't the only recently former county employee who is African American for whom the county has made that exception. I get it, but since Moss is relatively young, and still working, I would prefer the county Commission had stuck with its rules. And besides, Moss didn't lobby for this venue for his own benefit. Or pay for it with his own money. (And he was paid to be on the Commission.) SMDCAC is like the Sandrell Rivers Theater (NW 62nd St and 7th Ave) in that the county wanted to provide cultural venues where they hadn't existed before. (It's become painfully clear why they didn't exist in those places: not many people/patrons go there. These venues never get full, and are sometimes infuriatingly almost empty. It's as if there weren't cultural venues because no one was interested in culture in those spots. And by and large, they're still not.
SMDCAC is far from here. It's at 10950 SW 211 St. Traffic was terrible yesterday, and it took me two hours to get there. But it is the best venue I know, or have even known, anywhere. There are several reasons, including low ticket prices, unimaginably friendly staff, complete ease of getting, changing, or sometimes even cancelling, tickets (my usual companion decided to take a family trip this weekend, and my usual Sunday companion was going to have to work. So I cancelled my second ticket for all three nights, and put the values of them on account. But my Sunday companion can come after all, so I reinstated that ticket.), and free and abundant parking. It's a beautiful building, too. But the main reason that SMDCAC is the best venue in the world is their director, or impresario, Eric Fliss. (I'm on first name terms with many SMDCAC personnel, including Eric, his wife, Roberta, the box office crew, including the amazing Dora, Rico, and Alex, Eric's next-in-line, Nicole, and various of the other staff, including Tom and Melody.) Eric has an incomparable ear and eye for talent. The performers he chooses (sometimes, goes to NY and other places to scout them out) are spectacular. And he has local favorites, like Dimensions Dance Theater of Miami, who will knock your socks off, and who can perform there often.
I was at SMDCAC last night. I'll be there tonight. I'll be there tomorrow night. I'm not going next weekend, because I might go to my nephew's wedding in Tallahassee, if I feel like driving up there and back. But I'm at SMDCAC most weeks. Sometimes, as you see, it's nights in a row. On very rare occasion, I've been there for an afternoon show, and hung around and come back for an evening show. They just don't miss.
So, last night was B2wins. (Tonight is the Oscar Penas Quartet, and Sunday is tango.) It was a little unclear to me, in part because Eric wasn't there, so I couldn't ask more about it, but one of the women from Culture Shock Miami told me B2wins was a choice of both Eric and Culture Shock. Culture Shock, if things had to get any better, is an organization that provides $5 tickets for people aged 13 to 22, and another $5 ticket for their companion/parent, as if someone aged 18 to 22 needed to be chaperoned by their parent.
B2wins is short for Brazilian Twins. They're not identical, and both brothers play violin (they explained that their father was a violin maker, but he couldn't play violin, so they took lessons starting at age 11, so they could give their father feedback, from a player's perspective, about the instruments he built). One brother -- the more outspoken one -- also plays Brazilian ukulele and piano. And the show was spectacular. They're full of energy and enthusiasm, and they're excellent musicians. You can find them on youtube, and if you look up 2cellos (two European guys) and Black Violin (two African American guys who grew up in Liberty City, and one plays violin, and the other plays viola), you'll see the similarity. All of them totally engage the audience, and are high level talent.
The B2wins have a weird and interesting story, in that someone heard their CD or something, thought they were great, and invited them to move to Iowa to teach (and tour), which they did. They both looked sort of black, and if they are, they might be about the only black people in Iowa. And they're delightful, friendly, and unnecessarily grateful people. They did two sets, then came out after the show to greet their new fans. One of them gave me two items of "merch" because I told them how terrific they were, and how they had the same feel as 2cellos and Black Violin, and how I hoped they'd come back often. They were like SMDCAC in that they treated their audience like the audience was doing them a favor by being there, instead of the other way around.
So, to get back to the title of this post, I sort of have a simplistic mechanical understanding of how Eric and Culture Shock Miami find one amazing show after another -- that's their business, and it's their talent -- but it's not easy to explain how they never miss. Ever.
The very first show I attended at SMDCAC was Keb' Mo', who is a modern, but sort of old style, blues guitarist and singer. I don't remember how I found out about Keb' Mo' (Kevin Moore), but years ago, he had two shows in south Florida. One was in Stuart, and the other was at SMDCAC. The latter was closer, and cheaper, and that's how I got introduced. I've been deeply devoted ever since. I go to most of their shows.
No comments:
Post a Comment